SuperWho Ficlet “Contingencies” (Castiel vs. The Master, PG-13)
Title: Contingencies
Rating: Strong PG-13 for blood, gore, and character death.
Summary: If you’ve tangled with enough supervillains, after a while you just stop being a hero about it. The Master tortured Jack. Castiel isn’t exacting justice. He’s after vengeance, he’s cold, and he knows his quarry.
I only sorta blame merindab for this. She sent the headcanon ask, but it’s not like I haven’t been considering this moment for a long, long time.
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The Master had a (heh) master plan, of course. Not that he anticipated coming back, given the sweetness of his last triumph. But a man had to have contingencies, and counter contingencies, and contingencies for the contingencies, and… all right, yes, maybe he just rather liked saying the word ‘contingency.’ It made one feel professional.
He’d been watching the Doctor. Waiting. Setting the first wavelets of a plan in motion with his usual ruthless patience. It would be amazing. He’d collect an utter chorale of humans killed in the Doctor’s wake, let him witness their death rattles all over again and at the height of the suffering, he’d be there. The crowning glory. The only Time Lord left.
Maybe he’d get himself killed all over again.
After all, there were contingencies.
And watching the Doctor grieve (lose) was such fun.
New Castiel Torchwood headcanon:
Cas acquired guitar skill at some point and does play. Primarily because it’s a conduit to emotion. That’s not actually new, I’ve wanted Cas to pick up a guitar since I picked one up myself.
This is new: Cas has a slow-growing collection of vintage electric guitars. Some of them were acquired ‘out of time,’ saved from untimely demise at the hands of careless players. As such, these guitars aren’t allowed out of his private collection and nobody (except possibly Jack) is aware of their nature.
Most of them, however, were acquired legitimately. He keeps these for a reason: to run tests. Cas has a pet theory that electric guitars are a conduit to the soul, that creative energy is stored in the organic tissue of the wood over time, and that a guitar in the right hands is a sacred object.
He’s been developing tests for years, in his free time, measuring tiny differences in soundwaves from instrument to instrument; player to player.
This is because he’s not entirely sure angels didn’t have a hand in the creation of the first Les Paul. Namely: Gabriel.
