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thrillingdetectivetales) wrote2023-10-31 10:29 pm
thrillingdetectivetales) wrote2023-10-31 10:29 pm
A Kidnapped fic snippet that will probably never go anywhere.
It's Halloween and I have no self control, so I started noodling with a Kidnapped AU based on the movie Lost Boys. Translating a bunch of Jacobites into 1980s punk vampires is going to be a challenge, but the movie is cracky enough that I think I can probably get away with a certain amount of hand-waving.
Anyway, here's a little snippet for you. Oh! And also, Davie's mom is still alive, per the narrative of Lost Boys. I've called her Helen, like they do in the play, but may change it to Grace later, who knows. And yes, Davie's dog is named Campbell.
ETA: Swapped the snippet out for the updated version I redid last night because I like it far and away better.
Anyway, here's a little snippet for you. Oh! And also, Davie's mom is still alive, per the narrative of Lost Boys. I've called her Helen, like they do in the play, but may change it to Grace later, who knows. And yes, Davie's dog is named Campbell.
ETA: Swapped the snippet out for the updated version I redid last night because I like it far and away better.
It's a damp, dreary morning in the Scottish Borders when the Balfours set off for Edinburgh, a looming bank of thunderheads spitting the misty drizzle that so often precedes a proper storm.
The deluge breaks behind them as they go, like a curtain dropping on their old life. David Balfour isn't the superstitious type, but it's difficult not to see ill tidings in it.
Bad enough that he has to leave home at all, but to do so under such an inauspicious sign seems like the universe is adding insult to injury. A bolt of lightning splits the sky at their back and a faint rumble of thunder rolls out to bid them farewell. Davie's dog Campbell, a wiry-haired mutt of slightly larger than middling size, growls in reply, though he doesn't bother to so much as raise his head from where he's sprawled across the backseat, the great lazy beast.
It's only an hour or so to Edinburgh along the A68, but time seems to pass like treacle, stretching by them thick and slow.
It isn't until they're twenty minutes or so into the trip, tooling along under the cloud-streaked sky, that Davie's mother, Helen, finally interrupts the quiet that's blanketing them like a shroud. She leans forward and turns the radio on, flipping through station after station. She keeps flicking glances at Davie out of the corner of her eye as she goes, no doubt hoping that he'll express some little interest in one of them.
Not bloody likely.
Davie hasn't said a word more than the occasional affirmative or negative since they finished loading up the last of their boxes into the trailer before they left the Borders, and he doesn't intend to start now.
" - Conservative leadership re-elected for a third consecutive term - "
"No," Helen says, wrinkling her nose as she turns the dial.
Bzzzt.
" - over your shoulder, I'm walking - "
She hums in disapproval and twists again.
Bzzzt.
" - every time I look at you, falling stars come into view."
"Oh!" Helen perks up. "I love this one! It's from my time." She winks at Davie and starts swaying back and forth in her seat, crooning along with Michael Holliday and his sugar-voiced backup chorus. "Yes, that's just why you're so starry-eyed. That's just why you're so starry-eyed. When we touch I hear angels sing!"
She reaches over and squeezes Davie's arm. He shoots her a black look over his shoulder and shrugs her off, settling his chin into his hand and leaning so his temple touches the window.
Helen deflates with a sigh, straightening up and settling her hand back on the wheel. She stares out the windscreen while Michael Holliday continues warbling about how all his dreams are coming true. After a few seconds, she presses her mouth into a flat line and reaches out to stab at the button on the dash.
The car descends back into silence, only the rush of the wind through the cracked windows and Campbell snoring in the backseat serving to score the scene.
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Plus, the homoeroticism is great! Baby Kiefer Sutherland with a bleached blond mullet goading baby Jason Patric into joining his squad of displaced troublemakers who never grow up (because they're creatures of the night), with bonus Corey Haim (as Jason Patric's extremely twinky younger brother) and Corey Feldman (as one of a pair of vampire-fighting brothers whose hippie stoner parents own a comic shop in town).
Anyway, it's one of my favorites. The kind of movie that's not necessarily good but in a way that makes it great, lol.
I'm very excited to explore Davie's mom a little bit more! One of my favorite things to do in fic is to give characters family members they either don't have in the original canon, or else to expand on family members we only see a little of.
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Yes, I like seeing more of characters' family than we do in canon!—sometimes especially in shipfic, where it feels like filling in the context around the main pairing, if that makes sense.
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And yes! It absolutely does. I love a shipfic that's only two characters in a vacuum, don't get me wrong, but there's something so satisfying about seeing fully realized ensemble characters around them that make the world feel real and lived in. (One of the show's strengths, imo. Even the pirates, silly as they were, felt like real people.)
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One of the show's strengths, imo. Even the pirates, silly as they were, felt like real people.
Aah, yes! Definitely one of my (many) favourite things about the play—the main characters are great, and the ensemble are also excellent.