the shippy/smutty bodyguard meme

[repost]

the bodyguard meme

never let her out of your sight. never let your guard down.

You're a pop star, or a royal, or maybe even the last of your kind who will bring about the Earth's redemption. Whatever the case may be, you're in a position that may be a bit dicey if you attract the wrong kind of attention. And you're a bodyguard, a soldier, a knight - a protector. Somehow, you've been roped into protecting this person. You'll be rewarded, of course. The work may be cut out for you, but just do your job, keep your head down, and it'll go smooth. Except for when the two of you break the bounds of professionalism and feelings begin to flourish. Being in such close quarters may get you to see the other in a different light, and saving someone's life just may be the ultimate form of intimacy. Could this be the real danger? To feel so strongly for the one you've sworn to protect...are you compromised? How to Play 1. Comment with your character and preferences, being sure to put if you want to play the guard, the guarded, or either. Also, you may want to put if you prefer fluffy, angsty, or smutty interaction - or have no preference. 2. Comment to others. 3. There are no prompts, because there are so many potential options there could be a hundred. Feel free to play anything: the beginnings of the relationship, just meeting, getting used to each other/not getting along at first, the obligatory first time, a threat on the protected's life and how their protector responds, how the feelings between the two has changed the protection, etc. Your only limit is you.

never fall in love.

Comments

[wintershepherd]

[ It was an old bit of folklore, at least a couple hundred years, bandied around by grandmothers over their crochets and old men on their porches over their morning coffees. Old as the hills, they said wisely, calling up a spirit for protection. Shouldn't be done lightly but sometimes it's needed. Usually for children, though there was nothing that specified it couldn't be done for an adult.

They'll come 'round and watch over the young'uns, all invisible like. Ever catch a child talking to a friend no one else can see? Might be their imagination, might not. Then they'd laugh and go on with their business, and think no more of it.

It wasn't just folklore.

But as the knowledge passed out of more and more generations, it seemed as though it would be lost. Yet even in modern times, occasionally one of them would feel it. Jack had seen it with other spirits, called away from their duties and their homes and be absent for a while. (They usually returned, but not always.) There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who received the summons, not bound by geography or familiarity.

All he knew was that when it was his turn, it hit him like a skid of bricks and was impossible to ignore so, like the others of his kind, he jetted into the sky to try and find the source, crisscrossing the continent and using senses he hadn't even realized he possessed until he alighted on a windowsill and the gripping heat in his chest finally lessened, letting him know he had the right place. Pressing one hand on the glass pane, Jack leaned forward to see who it was that had called for protection. ]

((ooc: you can decide who/what Clara's being guarded from? she also doesn't have to be the one who actually summoned him, could just be on her behalf))

[parallels]

[Clara hadn't called for protection from Jack. Not intentionally, anyway. It'd been years since she'd spoken to Jack or even given him much thought. The loss of her mother and the exhausting mess that was college and university had suppressed her love for silly things like spirits and playing in the snow.

Until the Doctor came along and brought it all back. But he was long gone now. They'd parted ways amicably enough. Or as much as she could have while practically unconscious in a hospital. But that had been two years ago. She'd gotten on with her life.

Until recently anyway. She'd been seeing something in the corner of her eyes, lurking in the shadows, in the cracks of the walls. At first she was convinced it was her imagination, but her mind knew better now. There were things in the world that she couldn't explain because they were mad and alien.

She sits at her kitchen table and sighs as she ends the call to a now dead phoneline.

[wintershepherd]

[ It was the unfamiliar house that had thrown him, for he'd never been here before... but looking through the kitchen window, Jack was stunned to find a familiar face. Older, certainly and more weary, but it was undeniably Clara. His mind instantly shot back to more than a decade ago, to the little brunette for whom he'd conjured his best snows and snuck into her room to share stories when she was supposed to be asleep.

But her mother had died and Jack, when he had found out (not as soon as he would have wanted, he felt terrible about that but it took time for news to reach him when he only came by for a quarter of the year) had come to see Clara again... but she hadn't seen him-- couldn't see him. Her grieving had broken the thread of belief that she'd carried and with a tightness in his throat, Jack recalled how many nights he'd spent at her window, his calls and pleading for her to hear him once more falling on deaf ears.

When she'd needed a lightness in her heart more than ever, he hadn't been able to give it to her. Jack had come around a few times after that to check in on her but, selfishly, he found it painful to watch her continue her life as though he'd never been a part of it. But then she'd moved and he had no way of tracking down where she'd gone and Jack had depressingly figured he'd never have the chance to see her again.

Now, sitting in her kitchen, there Clara was. And somehow -- knowing or unknowingly -- she had called for protection and he had answered. A silent, unseen protector if the legend was to be believed... for why would she possibly see or hear him now, when she'd stopped so much younger?

(He had to try.)

Frost fanned out across the window frame as he pushed it inward slowly. ]

Clara?

[parallels]

[Clara starts at the sound of her name, gripping her phone as if it were a weapon to lob at whomever decided to invade her home.

But then she blinks at the formation of frost on her windows and the figure entering into her room, tall and lanky, with an oversized staff. She remembers him. She remembers Jack Frost and the days that she used to spend with him in the little field behind her house. He'd been her imaginary friend back then. He made her snow and she told him about the things she'd done at school and the books she'd read. Until adulthood ate away at her innocent worldview and she lost him.

She sits at her kitchen table, completely still, and still rather unsure about what's going on.]

Jack?

[wintershepherd]

[ A long breath quaked out of him, shuddering and tremulous as she says his name and Jack just wants to hold that moment for a small eternity. Then he smiles, his eyes not leaving hers like he's afraid this might all comes undone if he strays before he calls her by the playful nickname he'd had for her as a child. ]

Hey Gingersnap. Whatcha got that poor phone in a chokehold for?

[parallels]

[She blinks a little at the nickname. It's so old. So far away that it seems like it should belong to a different girl. Then she shakes her head.]

To fight off any creeps who decide to break into my house through my kitchen window.

[wintershepherd]

[ Well... she did have him there. Jack rubs the back of his head awkwardly, suddenly feeling off kilter at meeting face to face an adult Clara. ]

Oh... yeah.

[ then he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind: ]

You got taller.

[parallels]

You didn't.

[Don't worry Jack. The awkward feeling is the same. Also, she feels kinda old now. When she was a girl, Jack was a teenager and that seemed so amazing to her. Now her teen years are nearly a decade in the past.]

And I peaked at 5'2".

[wintershepherd]

Well, they say good things come in small packages.

[ The spirit uttered a soft "heh", knowing that he would have looked identical to what she remembered. Despite the unsurety in his expression though, his eyes were warm. He had missed the precocious little girl whose imagination had rivaled even his best tales. Jack took a hesitant step towards her and then stopped, as though worried he might further startle her. ]

It's good to see you again, Clara.

[parallels]

It's nice to see too, Jack.

[And she knows the implications behind the word "see". She wants to ask other things. What he's doing here and why. But she doesn't. She remains still at her seat at the kitchen table with wide. brown eyes.]

[wintershepherd]

[ He was saved from having to find something else to say in the moment when something inaudible catches his attention and he half-turns, blue eyes scanning outside the window he'd entered through. After a moment he crosses the kitchen and presses it closed with the flat of his hand; it seems to resist a little, like something that even he can't see is pushing back from the other side before it clicks shut.

His mouth puckers in a slight, perplexed frown before he turns back to her. ]

Something going on around here, Gingersnap?

[parallels]

[There's an inhale from Clara and she instinctively scoots away from the window in her chair, her arms wrapping around herself in a protective hug. Her breath comes in quick and sharp, only calming once the window clicks shut though her body remains tense and agitated.]

You felt it, didn't you?

[wintershepherd]

[ Jack glanced back once more at the window but it seemed completely normal, the curtains hanging limp and straight without the breeze to stir them. His expression softens when he sees how she's hunched in on herself and he approaches, setting aside the long hooked staff so that it leaned against the counter. ]

Yeah, I did. Is that why you Called? Are you all right?

[parallels]

I didn't-

[She grits her teeth as she struggles to figure out what to say.]

I'm alright. I didn't call for my sake. I can handle myself.

[She slowly raises herself out of the kitchen chair and rests her hand on her abdomen. It's soft and rounded around the child that is unmistakably inside of her. She's petite and clearly early enough along that she's only just begun to show. Her fingers clench around the fabric of her dress covering her gently protruding stomach.]

I called for his sake.

[wintershepherd]

[ Eyes fit to pop right out his head, he gapes a bit before: ]

Clara, you're--

[ Smooth, Jack. It's not like she doesn't already know. So he swallows the rest of his sentence and tries again with actual thought behind it this time. ]

You really did grow up. I'll help you-- help both of you, okay? Tell me everything you know.

[parallels]

[She laughs a little at the comment. She has grown up, despite how people treat her now that she's with child. Like a young girl who doesn't know what she's gotten into. She doesn't mind the stares and the comments anymore.]

It really has been a long time, hasn't it. [She sniffles and eases herself back into a chair, trying to fight the exhaustion that seems to come with being pregnant.] It's... I don't know what it is. Like something's following me. Something bad. But it tries to stay hidden, I think most people don't notice it or can't. But I can.

[wintershepherd]

Most likely they can't, the way they can't sense spirits. But I don't think this is a spirit, not the same way that I am.

[ He leaned on the counter, watching her, silently noting the strain with which she sat. ]

Do you feel it when you're around other people too, or only when you're alone? When did it start?

[parallels]

I don't either. I think it's something else. Something alien.

[She swallows and blows her nose, thinking back to when it started.]

I feel it when others are around. Worse when I'm alone. Started about... five months ago. When I first got pregnant.

[wintershepherd]

[ That was definitely not a good sign, though Jack carefully kept all traces of it from his expression and nodded instead, letting her know that details were the aim here. ]

And does it happen everywhere? Obviously it happens here at home...

[ He glances back at the window, but senses nothing further from it. ]

Anywhere you noticed you don't feel it at all?

[parallels]

[She runs her hand over her stomach thoughtfully before wincing a little as the baby shifted inside her. Pregnancy handn't been easy on her. She'd spent the first few months sick nearly all the time, vomting and sniffling. Now, she'd improved slightly but still felt miserable often enough. And now this.]

It's less in my bedroom. And where I work, Coal Hill School.

[wintershepherd]

[ Jack nodded, filing the information away to ponder on later. Something with familiarity? Other children? He didn't have enough information to make that call either way yet. He pushes off his lean and comes over to where she's sitting, placing a cold hand on her shoulder and squeezing briefly before letting go. ]

It'll be fine, Clara. I won't let anything happen to you. I'm going to take a quick fly around and clear the area, but I'll be back shortly, 'kay?

[parallels]

I know it will.

I'll be waiting.

[She gives him a tired smile and brushes her fingers against his hand. She trusts him to help. Or if he can't, she'll get through. She always does.]

[wintershepherd]

[ He leaves via the door this time, pulling it shut behind him and leaving a small zephyr on the step with instructions to guard. Then he took to the air again, flying slowly in widening circles with her house as the epicenter, senses both physical and not as fully extended as he could make them. Another small wind was called up, slipsteaming into the air current with him. ]

Go ask around and see if there's anyone in the area who might know what's going on.

[ Even though who or whatever was doing this might not be a spirit, Jack had been able to sense the disturbance immediately. If there were local spirits here, they might be able to give him more information. That done, he completed his circuit of the area before returning to the house and knocked before entering again. ]

[parallels]

[Clara shuffles over and opens the door quickly before shutting it. Don't want to bring any extra attention to herself. She's already the "young, unmarried, pregnant teacher" and doesn't need to add "crazy" to that list.]

Find anything?

[wintershepherd]

Not right now, but I've got a few breezes out to track down anyone local. Any spirits, I mean... other spirits. I don't spend as much time here, mostly just pass through with the season. Some of them can be territorial, don't like new guys like me hanging around on their turf. And the last thing I want to get challenged to is a round of Titles right now.

[ And that was Clara's impromptu lesson in spirit politics! He eyes her. ]

How, um. You know... far.

[ He kind of awkwardly gestures toward her stomach. Jack Frost was not well versed in asking pregnant women about baby questions, it was very evident. ]