surranndie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
surranndie) wrote2009-01-10 02:49 pm
surranndie) wrote2009-01-10 02:49 pm
Tin Man fic: Wallpaper of Broadway - Chapter 5
Title: Wallpaper of Broadway
Characters/Pairings: Glitch/Cain, everyone else in the series.
Rating: R for implied adult situations
Summary: What if Cain, DG, and Raw had first encountered Glitch working as a bartender in the Mystic Man's club? This story is an AU that parallels the series using this scenario.
Notes: This could not have been completed without the awesome beta work by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kseda. Whenever I shouted “LINE!” – she came through and I love her endlessly for it!
Chapter 5 – Ralph and Lorraine’s Cabin
Glitch was quiet as the growing group of travelers trudged their way through the woods and Cain found that he missed the sound of Glitch’s voice. Somehow it had become a constant on their seemingly unending tour of the O.Z. Since Tutor had shown them the poster with all four of their faces on it, all of them had become apprehensive. Cain had the uneasy feeling of being watched and he suspected the same was true of everyone else.
Letting Raw, DG and Tutor pull a little further ahead, Cain slowed to match Glitch’s listless pace. He bumped his shoulder against Glitch’s lightly, eliciting a tiny smile. “What’s on your mind?”
“A whole lot of empty space,” Glitch gave a mirthless chuckle. He jerked his chin up sharply. “What do you make of this Toto guy? I don’t like that he knew who we all were, even me.”
Cain sighed. “I don’t trust him, that’s for sure,” he answered quietly. He saw Raw turn and shoot them a look. Ignoring it, Cain continued. “It makes sense he’d know about DG, if it’s true that he was her and Azkadellia’s teacher growing up. I’ve been with her almost since she got here and Zero knows I got out of the suit. Raw was in the Tower with DG.”
“But – wait,” Glitch frowned deeply, scratching behind his ear. “As far as they know, Zero killed you when he shot you out the window. And how do they know Raw got out with DG? And there’s no reason for them to expect me to be alive – they left me for the mobats back on the Island! How would they have even gotten those posters made, especially with me on them? It doesn’t make any sense!”
“All very good questions,” Cain could feel a headache coming on and he rubbed his temple. “Which just leads us to the question of why Toto here even has one on him in the first place.”
“That...is also a very good question,” Glitch narrowed his eyes, studying their newest addition.
With so many things unanswered weighing on their minds, the two men fell quiet once again. Though their thoughts were unsettling, the silence between them was comfortable.
~~
“So? Longcoats get cold, too. Trust me, I’ve shared a bed with enough of them,” Glitch cut a hand indistinctly through the air.
Cain flinched at the reminder of what Glitch had once been but chose to let it go for now. “The smoke is blue.” With that, he led the way toward the cabin they had spotted in the distance, with its recognizable signal.
Thankful for tradition and the fact that the code words had remained unchanged in the decade he had been imprisoned, Cain breathed a sigh of relief when the cabin’s owner lowered his rifle, introducing himself as Ralph and his wife as Lorraine. He stepped aside to allow entrance to the five strangers.
Sticking close to Glitch, who was drawing looks of suspicion (no doubt due to the zipper alone, never mind the assortment of other decorations he carried on his body), Cain gratefully accepted a seat at the long table taking up a majority of the cabin’s main room. Introductions were made, food was served by Lorraine and hot coffee was produced. After they’d finished their small but extremely welcome meal, the conversation began in earnest.
“What word is there from the north?” Ralph began, hunching over his steaming mug, his worn fingers tracing the rim.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Cain replied with a frustrated grimace.
“Well, rumor has it there’s been a bit increase in labor up in the Black Mountains, the mining towns are growing like mad,” Ralph told them.
Cain glanced over at Raw and then Glitch, both of whom gave him blank looks in return. He turned back to Ralph. “What are they mining?”
“Moritanium.”
“What’s that?” Cain wrinkled his nose, covering it with a deep swallow of coffee.
“Moritanium. Big M, little t, number 216 on the Ozian periodic table,” Glitch shocked them all by speaking up for the first time since before they’d eaten.
Cain’s head snapped around and he gaped at his friend. “What’d you just say?”
“Glitch, this is very important,” DG cut in urgently. “What’s it used for?”
Glitch’s eyes were glazed, lost somewhere none of them could follow. “Other than it’s strength, Moritanium is known for its ability to conduct magical energies.”
“How do you know all this?” Cain was halfway on his feet, flustered and astonished at what he was hearing. Hell, Glitch is some kind of genius scientist, he thought insanely.
Shaken from his memory, Glitch looked up at Cain. “I – don’t know.”
“Word is Azkadellia’s building some kind of huge machine in that tower of hers,” Ralph volunteered helpfully.
“If she gets the emerald, she can use it however she wants,” DG pointed out.
Cain’s hands clenched at his sides. “So it’s a weapon.”
“No, it’s a Sun Seeder,” Glitch corrected hastily, then blinked in confusion.
DG was the quickest to ask. “What’s a Sun Seeder?”
Glitch’s mouth moved silently for a moment, then he reached up to pull at his chains. “I don’t remember.” He struggled with his own mind, his face falling. “I don’t remember.”
“We don’t have time for this,” DG declared coldly, standing. “Raw?”
Glitch looked up and Cain could see the first hint of fear in his eyes. Kneeling next to Glitch’s chair, he spoke softly. “Raw’s a Viewer, remember? He can do what he did back on the island, look into your mind and try to find what you can’t get to. Are you okay with that?”
A defeated shrug was Glitch’s answer. “If I’m the only one who knows, we don’t really have much choice. After all, there must be a reason Mystic Man sent me with you.”
“Right,” Cain forced an encouraging smile and stood, one hand squeezing Glitch’s shoulder. “Come on.”
Reluctantly, Glitch stood as well and allowed Cain to lead him over to the chair closest to the fireplace mantle. He watched with apprehension as Raw took a deep, calming breath and turned to face Glitch. “I’m not so sure about this,” Glitch said shakily.
“It won’t hurt, I promise,” Cain said reassuringly, standing nearby with DG. He watched as Raw’s hands went to Glitch’s head, first gathering the loose chains and settling them together neatly down the back.
“It’s not that,” Glitch fidgeted, leaning forward slightly only to be caught back again by Raw, who firmed his hold. “I’m talking about Fluffy here diving into my cranium. It’s an invasion of my privacy and all.”
“Focus, Glitch,” Cain said softly, hoping to calm the increasingly nervous man.
Glitch sighed and closed his eyes, his brow crinkling when Raw shifted to lay one big hand over the top of his zipper and the other lifted to touch the mirror. Both of them jerked sharply, Glitch gasping and tightening his hold on the armrests of the chair.
The image was too blurry for Cain to make out at first. It was an apparently random collection of flashes, of memories from any number of places and times. He realized what they were seeing was most likely how Glitch saw the world – time and location had little meaning and every moment was a constant tussle against his own mind. That Glitch managed to remain so coherent and competent was all the more astonishing in light of this new understanding of his worldview.
There was a flash of Glitch running through a wooded area, his hair shorter, standing up in tangled clumps and spikes. This was replaced by another, far more disturbing memory of a red and blue tinted platform, Glitch among a few others dancing seductively for an uninterested crowd. Cain’s breath caught in his throat, horrified but unable to look away. He knew now why Glitch had been so averse to letting them into his mind – who knows what would be revealed?
But Raw regained control of the flow of memories, searching out the information they needed. A golden haze settled over the scene and a younger, more clean-cut version of Glitch appeared, wringing his hands nervously in front of his face. Cain had seen this man before – it was the man from the portrait. Even the jacket was the same.
As they watched, Glitch knelt next to a woman in a garden seat, his hand resting intimately on the chair’s arm. When the woman turned, Cain recognized her as the Queen, though the paleness of her hair and face told him this was after she had saved DG’s life. They spoke in soft, urgent tones of fallen brigades, loyal generals defecting and Glitch pleaded with her. Told her he had destroyed the plans for his Sun Seeder.
“She’ll come after you, Ambrose,” she said, grasping his arm tightly. Her voice, her face, betrayed her fear for him. The Queen herself feared for this man’s life – this man who’s proper name they had all just heard. Ambrose.
Then Azkadellia was there, her men taking Ambrose away and the colors changed again. Cain pulled his gaze from the mirror and glanced down, stunned to see how badly Glitch was shaking. He wanted to stop this, to step up and pull Glitch from this pain but he knew they had to see it out. For all of their sakes.
Back in the mirror, there was a bright white light then everything was a sickly pale blue. Ambrose’s face was full of terror as he pleaded for his life, begging them not to take his brain, until he, too, faded into black.
It was Glitch’s sharp cry that broke the silence, Raw’s hand pulling away and leaving them all shocked and appalled at what they had just witnessed.
“What? What is it? Was my machine so bad?” Glitch sounded so lost and unsure of himself, unlike the Glitch they knew, that it broke Cain’s heart. He couldn’t get his feet to move so it was DG who stepped forward to embrace Glitch, giving him the comfort and reassurance that Cain so badly wanted to himself.
“No, but whatever it is, you sure sacrificed a lot to keep it from Azkadellia,” Cain finally managed. It must have been the right thing to say, because Glitch closed his eyes and slumped in relief.
“I’m sure it’s not the biggest sacrifice made in the name of science,” Glitch joked weakly, but brought his hands up to hold onto DG’s arm for support.
As Cain watched from the side, Glitch stood and was escorted out of the room by a silent, soothing Raw.
Cain turned to follow but something on a nearby table caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up, his heart racing at the familiar feel of it in his hand. “Where did you get this?” he asked Ralph.
“A Captain from the lowlands came through a few months ago, he and his mother live just on the other side of the crack in the O.Z, under a white elm,” Ralph replied. “Their names are – “
“Jeb,” Cain interrupted. “And Adora.”
But for the first time since he was released from the tin suit, Cain had mixed feelings about what he would do if he did, indeed, find his lost wife. He loved her, he always would. But in his mind, she would always be that woman in the film loop, frozen ten annuals ago.
Somehow, unexpectedly, someone new had become so deeply embedded in his life, in such a short time, that it threw everything into chaos.
Glitch had been at his side since Central City, saving his life, talking endlessly and filling in all the holes missing in Cain’s shattered heart. He couldn’t imagine going on, after everything they’d been through and after all of this was over, without Glitch still beside him.
~~
End Chapter 5
On to Chapter 6
Characters/Pairings: Glitch/Cain, everyone else in the series.
Rating: R for implied adult situations
Summary: What if Cain, DG, and Raw had first encountered Glitch working as a bartender in the Mystic Man's club? This story is an AU that parallels the series using this scenario.
Notes: This could not have been completed without the awesome beta work by
kseda. Whenever I shouted “LINE!” – she came through and I love her endlessly for it!Chapter 5 – Ralph and Lorraine’s Cabin
Glitch was quiet as the growing group of travelers trudged their way through the woods and Cain found that he missed the sound of Glitch’s voice. Somehow it had become a constant on their seemingly unending tour of the O.Z. Since Tutor had shown them the poster with all four of their faces on it, all of them had become apprehensive. Cain had the uneasy feeling of being watched and he suspected the same was true of everyone else.
Letting Raw, DG and Tutor pull a little further ahead, Cain slowed to match Glitch’s listless pace. He bumped his shoulder against Glitch’s lightly, eliciting a tiny smile. “What’s on your mind?”
“A whole lot of empty space,” Glitch gave a mirthless chuckle. He jerked his chin up sharply. “What do you make of this Toto guy? I don’t like that he knew who we all were, even me.”
Cain sighed. “I don’t trust him, that’s for sure,” he answered quietly. He saw Raw turn and shoot them a look. Ignoring it, Cain continued. “It makes sense he’d know about DG, if it’s true that he was her and Azkadellia’s teacher growing up. I’ve been with her almost since she got here and Zero knows I got out of the suit. Raw was in the Tower with DG.”
“But – wait,” Glitch frowned deeply, scratching behind his ear. “As far as they know, Zero killed you when he shot you out the window. And how do they know Raw got out with DG? And there’s no reason for them to expect me to be alive – they left me for the mobats back on the Island! How would they have even gotten those posters made, especially with me on them? It doesn’t make any sense!”
“All very good questions,” Cain could feel a headache coming on and he rubbed his temple. “Which just leads us to the question of why Toto here even has one on him in the first place.”
“That...is also a very good question,” Glitch narrowed his eyes, studying their newest addition.
With so many things unanswered weighing on their minds, the two men fell quiet once again. Though their thoughts were unsettling, the silence between them was comfortable.
~~
“So? Longcoats get cold, too. Trust me, I’ve shared a bed with enough of them,” Glitch cut a hand indistinctly through the air.
Cain flinched at the reminder of what Glitch had once been but chose to let it go for now. “The smoke is blue.” With that, he led the way toward the cabin they had spotted in the distance, with its recognizable signal.
Thankful for tradition and the fact that the code words had remained unchanged in the decade he had been imprisoned, Cain breathed a sigh of relief when the cabin’s owner lowered his rifle, introducing himself as Ralph and his wife as Lorraine. He stepped aside to allow entrance to the five strangers.
Sticking close to Glitch, who was drawing looks of suspicion (no doubt due to the zipper alone, never mind the assortment of other decorations he carried on his body), Cain gratefully accepted a seat at the long table taking up a majority of the cabin’s main room. Introductions were made, food was served by Lorraine and hot coffee was produced. After they’d finished their small but extremely welcome meal, the conversation began in earnest.
“What word is there from the north?” Ralph began, hunching over his steaming mug, his worn fingers tracing the rim.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Cain replied with a frustrated grimace.
“Well, rumor has it there’s been a bit increase in labor up in the Black Mountains, the mining towns are growing like mad,” Ralph told them.
Cain glanced over at Raw and then Glitch, both of whom gave him blank looks in return. He turned back to Ralph. “What are they mining?”
“Moritanium.”
“What’s that?” Cain wrinkled his nose, covering it with a deep swallow of coffee.
“Moritanium. Big M, little t, number 216 on the Ozian periodic table,” Glitch shocked them all by speaking up for the first time since before they’d eaten.
Cain’s head snapped around and he gaped at his friend. “What’d you just say?”
“Glitch, this is very important,” DG cut in urgently. “What’s it used for?”
Glitch’s eyes were glazed, lost somewhere none of them could follow. “Other than it’s strength, Moritanium is known for its ability to conduct magical energies.”
“How do you know all this?” Cain was halfway on his feet, flustered and astonished at what he was hearing. Hell, Glitch is some kind of genius scientist, he thought insanely.
Shaken from his memory, Glitch looked up at Cain. “I – don’t know.”
“Word is Azkadellia’s building some kind of huge machine in that tower of hers,” Ralph volunteered helpfully.
“If she gets the emerald, she can use it however she wants,” DG pointed out.
Cain’s hands clenched at his sides. “So it’s a weapon.”
“No, it’s a Sun Seeder,” Glitch corrected hastily, then blinked in confusion.
DG was the quickest to ask. “What’s a Sun Seeder?”
Glitch’s mouth moved silently for a moment, then he reached up to pull at his chains. “I don’t remember.” He struggled with his own mind, his face falling. “I don’t remember.”
“We don’t have time for this,” DG declared coldly, standing. “Raw?”
Glitch looked up and Cain could see the first hint of fear in his eyes. Kneeling next to Glitch’s chair, he spoke softly. “Raw’s a Viewer, remember? He can do what he did back on the island, look into your mind and try to find what you can’t get to. Are you okay with that?”
A defeated shrug was Glitch’s answer. “If I’m the only one who knows, we don’t really have much choice. After all, there must be a reason Mystic Man sent me with you.”
“Right,” Cain forced an encouraging smile and stood, one hand squeezing Glitch’s shoulder. “Come on.”
Reluctantly, Glitch stood as well and allowed Cain to lead him over to the chair closest to the fireplace mantle. He watched with apprehension as Raw took a deep, calming breath and turned to face Glitch. “I’m not so sure about this,” Glitch said shakily.
“It won’t hurt, I promise,” Cain said reassuringly, standing nearby with DG. He watched as Raw’s hands went to Glitch’s head, first gathering the loose chains and settling them together neatly down the back.
“It’s not that,” Glitch fidgeted, leaning forward slightly only to be caught back again by Raw, who firmed his hold. “I’m talking about Fluffy here diving into my cranium. It’s an invasion of my privacy and all.”
“Focus, Glitch,” Cain said softly, hoping to calm the increasingly nervous man.
Glitch sighed and closed his eyes, his brow crinkling when Raw shifted to lay one big hand over the top of his zipper and the other lifted to touch the mirror. Both of them jerked sharply, Glitch gasping and tightening his hold on the armrests of the chair.
The image was too blurry for Cain to make out at first. It was an apparently random collection of flashes, of memories from any number of places and times. He realized what they were seeing was most likely how Glitch saw the world – time and location had little meaning and every moment was a constant tussle against his own mind. That Glitch managed to remain so coherent and competent was all the more astonishing in light of this new understanding of his worldview.
There was a flash of Glitch running through a wooded area, his hair shorter, standing up in tangled clumps and spikes. This was replaced by another, far more disturbing memory of a red and blue tinted platform, Glitch among a few others dancing seductively for an uninterested crowd. Cain’s breath caught in his throat, horrified but unable to look away. He knew now why Glitch had been so averse to letting them into his mind – who knows what would be revealed?
But Raw regained control of the flow of memories, searching out the information they needed. A golden haze settled over the scene and a younger, more clean-cut version of Glitch appeared, wringing his hands nervously in front of his face. Cain had seen this man before – it was the man from the portrait. Even the jacket was the same.
As they watched, Glitch knelt next to a woman in a garden seat, his hand resting intimately on the chair’s arm. When the woman turned, Cain recognized her as the Queen, though the paleness of her hair and face told him this was after she had saved DG’s life. They spoke in soft, urgent tones of fallen brigades, loyal generals defecting and Glitch pleaded with her. Told her he had destroyed the plans for his Sun Seeder.
“She’ll come after you, Ambrose,” she said, grasping his arm tightly. Her voice, her face, betrayed her fear for him. The Queen herself feared for this man’s life – this man who’s proper name they had all just heard. Ambrose.
Then Azkadellia was there, her men taking Ambrose away and the colors changed again. Cain pulled his gaze from the mirror and glanced down, stunned to see how badly Glitch was shaking. He wanted to stop this, to step up and pull Glitch from this pain but he knew they had to see it out. For all of their sakes.
Back in the mirror, there was a bright white light then everything was a sickly pale blue. Ambrose’s face was full of terror as he pleaded for his life, begging them not to take his brain, until he, too, faded into black.
It was Glitch’s sharp cry that broke the silence, Raw’s hand pulling away and leaving them all shocked and appalled at what they had just witnessed.
“What? What is it? Was my machine so bad?” Glitch sounded so lost and unsure of himself, unlike the Glitch they knew, that it broke Cain’s heart. He couldn’t get his feet to move so it was DG who stepped forward to embrace Glitch, giving him the comfort and reassurance that Cain so badly wanted to himself.
“No, but whatever it is, you sure sacrificed a lot to keep it from Azkadellia,” Cain finally managed. It must have been the right thing to say, because Glitch closed his eyes and slumped in relief.
“I’m sure it’s not the biggest sacrifice made in the name of science,” Glitch joked weakly, but brought his hands up to hold onto DG’s arm for support.
As Cain watched from the side, Glitch stood and was escorted out of the room by a silent, soothing Raw.
Cain turned to follow but something on a nearby table caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up, his heart racing at the familiar feel of it in his hand. “Where did you get this?” he asked Ralph.
“A Captain from the lowlands came through a few months ago, he and his mother live just on the other side of the crack in the O.Z, under a white elm,” Ralph replied. “Their names are – “
“Jeb,” Cain interrupted. “And Adora.”
But for the first time since he was released from the tin suit, Cain had mixed feelings about what he would do if he did, indeed, find his lost wife. He loved her, he always would. But in his mind, she would always be that woman in the film loop, frozen ten annuals ago.
Somehow, unexpectedly, someone new had become so deeply embedded in his life, in such a short time, that it threw everything into chaos.
Glitch had been at his side since Central City, saving his life, talking endlessly and filling in all the holes missing in Cain’s shattered heart. He couldn’t imagine going on, after everything they’d been through and after all of this was over, without Glitch still beside him.
~~
End Chapter 5
On to Chapter 6