Tuesday: Role Reversal
Jul. 3rd, 2012 08:52 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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comment_ficToday's theme is Role Reversal. The ole switcheroo. Make the servant the master, the boss the employee, the poor character rich, the man the woman, the villain the good guy, the animal or alien the human...wherever your imagination takes you.
Rules:
No more than three prompts to a single fandom
No more than five prompts at a time
No spoilers in the prompts and if your fill has spoilers, please warn and and leave at least three spaces
Format:
Fandom, Character, Prompt
Fandom, Character/Character, Prompt
Examples:
Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny, Danny is the Camaro
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Merlin is the king, Arthur the servant
Doctor Who, Amy/Rory and/or the Doctor, Rory is pregnant instead of Amy
tag=role reversal
Rules:
No more than three prompts to a single fandom
No more than five prompts at a time
No spoilers in the prompts and if your fill has spoilers, please warn and and leave at least three spaces
Format:
Fandom, Character, Prompt
Fandom, Character/Character, Prompt
Examples:
Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny, Danny is the Camaro
Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Merlin is the king, Arthur the servant
Doctor Who, Amy/Rory and/or the Doctor, Rory is pregnant instead of Amy
tag=role reversal
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-03 01:29 pm (UTC)(no fic)
Date: 2012-07-03 03:32 pm (UTC)Oh, god, that's a punch in the gut.
Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-28 10:04 pm (UTC)There was a homeless man in the bathroom. He was half hidden underneath the cupboard underneath the sink, dragging out pipes and generally smelling to high heaven.
"Thor? Care to explain this?" Natasha asked, while Clint eyed the homeless man warily.
"I found him outside on the street. He is a good thrall. Very skilled. He fixed the beverage machine and the icebox. Tomorrow he is going to give us a 'sound system,' which he assures me is something every house must have. Why do we not have a proper sound system now? This is unacceptable."
After a long pause, Steve, who had come by to see what all the fuss was about, coughed and spoke up.
"Thor, you can't … you can't just take people off the street as thralls."
"Really? But he held a sign begging for lodging and food and listing his skills. He has no other means to support himself. He is of the lowest class in your city. What else is he but a thrall to be taken by the strongest warrior?"
"But it's slavery. That's not legal anymore. It wasn't even legal in my time!" Steve yelped.
Thor scowled. "You say there is no slavery. Yet I see it everywhere! The women on the street corners at night are forced there by dependence on drugs given to them by their masters, the young people at the centers of learning take on enormous debts in exchange for education, the people who clean the streets and boarding rooms are barely paid at all, workers in office buildings must win their freedom in order to become managers over other slaves, last week we arrested a group that held people in a windowless factory and kept their passports so they could not leave … and yet you are angry at me for providing this man with a spare room and some food so long as he fixes our machines?"
Everyone fell silent. No one was really sure how to respond to that.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm totally fine with this!" said the man under the sink, pushing himself out and sitting up, rubbing his grimy face with grimier hands. He had shoulder-length lank greasy hair and an unfortunate scraggly beard. "You can call me whatever you want, thrall, slave, Tony, whatever, I'll keep fixing your machines and inventing stuff. Just don't throw me out. Please …" his eyes were huge, and a little bloodshot, like a drunk puppy.
Natasha sighed. "Make him take a bath at least," she said before leaving. Clint gave the man a long hard look before following her.
"Guys? Does anyone know why there's a robotic arm attached to the coffeemaker now?" Bruce wandered up and stared at Tony. "Who are you?"
"Tony! Or Thrall. I'll answer to both. The robot arm is my doing. You like?" he grinned hopefully, a worried edge to his voice. "Because I can take it off if you don't, it's really simple, just give me -"
"It's brilliant!" Bruce grinned. "I don't especially care where you came from, but please tell me you're staying? We have so much to discuss!"
Thor beamed and clapped Steve on the back. "See! I was right to take a thrall after all!"
Steve rolled his eyes. But … Bruce looked so happy, talking with Tony and shaking his head at the man's sad excuse for a toolbox and brining him to the lab to see what the man could do with "proper tools" … and anyone that made Bruce happy was someone to keep around.
"He still has to take a bath. Several, I think. And don't let him drink too much."
"You speak as if he is the first thrall I have ever taken. I know how to care for thralls, have no fear."
Steven shrugged and headed to the kitchen. The robotic arm was very impressive, handing him the coffee pot when it was ready. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Weird, yes, but then again, what wasn't weird in this household?
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-28 11:03 pm (UTC)Though this is indeed a bittersweet little story.
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-28 11:08 pm (UTC)Though this is indeed a bittersweet little story.
Thank you? Yeah, thank you ...
I wanted to put in more detail but I'm really not comfortable or confident with these characters so I just left it there. It's an interesting AU, I like it a lot.
I just thought, hey, Thor probably doesn't quite understand that you can't take thralls anymore, and Tony's just standing there offering skills for food and so Thor goes up to him and asks if he wants a place to sleep and some food indefinitely and Tony thinks this is too good to be true but he's been out of booze for days and it's getting cold and sure he'll go home with the huge blond guy who talks weird ... so yeah.
Plus, I wanted an excuse to work the word "thrall" into a fic. Because I'm a Norse mythology nut and I freaking love the Vikings.
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 01:10 am (UTC)Yes, I studied some Norse mythos back in the day (Fenris and Sleipner are still favorites of mine).
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 05:08 am (UTC)Yes, I studied some Norse mythos back in the day (Fenris and Sleipner are still favorites of mine).
Who wouldn't want an eight-legged horse, I ask you?
P.S. Sequel if you're interested: http://aunt-zelda.livejournal.com/304800.html
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 02:28 am (UTC)Oh, yay, I'm so glad this is happy instead of angsty! I am so curious about how Tony ended up this way, though.
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 02:34 am (UTC)I didn't have it in me to make it angsty. Well, it's angsty how he ended up there, obviously, I already have a headcanon for that. But it was more fun to focus on the "lol Thor, we don't do that stuff now ... except when we kid of do" and Tony adding a robot arm to the coffeemaker and just generally being fine with this ... weirdness. Whatever. At least he didn't get murdered, he's thinking to himself, which is what usually happens when a handsome stranger offers to bring a homeless guy home and it sounds way too good to be true.
I might be writing sequels because now this AU won't leave me alone?
P.S. Sequel if you're interested: http://aunt-zelda.livejournal.com/304800.html
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 04:00 am (UTC)And yay for (still) science bros (in spite of everything) moment.
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 05:10 am (UTC)What can I say, I'm a history geek!
And go Thor for pointing out the hypocrisy.
We still have slavery today, even in the "Western" world, it's just not as obvious.
And yay for (still) science bros (in spite of everything) moment.
I couldn't not put that in. Glad you liked it!
P.S. Sequel if you're interested: http://aunt-zelda.livejournal.com/304800.html
Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 08:00 am (UTC)Re: Fill: Thrall
Date: 2012-11-29 05:01 pm (UTC)This is so sweet and a little heartbreaking at the same time.
That's what I was going for. I couldn't make it just angsty, I had to get Tony off the streets. Writing a fic where he was just an alcoholic homeless guy with PTSD from a war he officially was never part of ... I just couldn't write that. I had to give him the happy ending.
I love Thor bringing the inadvertant burn by pointing out the deficiencies in our culture that leave so many people falling through the cracks.
It's so true, though. There are a lot of indentured servants running around, not to mention outright slaves, in our culture, we just don't think of them as such for the most part.
And Tony just begging to stay... Oh, sweetie!
Yeah, the tone is pretty light but deep down, Tony is begging to be let to stay and saying he's fine with being called a slave so long as he gets food and a bed. It's kind of horrifying.
Thank you so much for writing this!
*blushes* Awww, you're welcome! I'm so glad you love it!
There's also a sequel/continuation, if you're interested:
http://aunt-zelda.livejournal.com/304800.html
Fill: Speaking of Thralls (full story)
Date: 2012-11-29 05:11 am (UTC)http://aunt-zelda.livejournal.com/304800.html