Lostfic: Dharmasankat
Sep. 3rd, 2009 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alliecat8Title: Dharmasankat
[Dharmasankat (Sanskrit: धर्म dhárma, loosely translated as "law" or "duty" and sankat, "trouble" or "problem") is a term in Indian religious and spiritual contexts implying a moral or ethical quandary, where choosing any of several options would result in a breach of one's dharma.]
Fandom: Lost
Characters: Season 1 ensemble
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through the Season 5 finale
Disclaimer: Only mine in my dreams
Summary: Knowing what they know now, if each of the original characters got a second chance to decide whether or not to get on Flight 815, would they? An interconnected series of DRABBLES.
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eponine119 for the suggestions! :)
“Ticket please.”
Wildly, and with a tinge of bewilderment, the person looks around. Just a second ago they’d been….
But regardless of where they’d been, where they are is in the Sydney airport, and it’s September 22, 2004. Yet their memories of everything that happened on (and off) the island are intact. The last thing most of them remember is waiting for the detonation of a hydrogen bomb.
The agent is urging them forward. The door of the plane is about to close. There’s no time to ponder their plight; they have to decide. Do they get on Oceanic Flight 815, or do they walk (or run!) away?
********
Jack: Maybe he can change things this time. Maybe he already has. How will he know if he doesn’t go back? What’s left for him back in L.A.? Sarah and her mystery man. The endless guilt of his father’s death. And yet…in this timeline the crash hasn’t happened yet. Jack knows that somehow he’s an important player in whatever game is centered on the island. If he doesn’t get on the flight, maybe that is the key that will change everything. Maybe they are all better off without him. He drops his ticket and walks away. Maybe that is his destiny.
Sawyer: He thinks his hands are still bloody, but the ticket he’s holding is black and white, pristine. Only a second ago he’d been holding her hand, and then she fell. But here is his second chance. A miracle. Desperately, he thinks "this time things will be different." He’ll be better at being what – who – she wants, so that he can keep her. This time if she fell, he’d go into the hole and rescue her. The Doc would go back too, of course, and he’d fix her right up. Sawyer shows his ticket to the agent and boards Flight 815.
Kate: Keep running, her mind shouts silently, though she’s handcuffed to the marshal and it seems that she has no choice but to go back to the island. But what is left for her anywhere? Jack is not the man she thought he’d be. Sawyer found someone else, and even if Juliet dies he’ll never be the same. Her father doesn’t want her. Her mother hates her. Aaron belongs with Claire. She remembers a deal that Mars had once tried to make with her. “Let me go,” she pleads. “I promise I’ll stop running.” Incredibly, it works. She walks away, free.
Hurley: He’d boarded, dazed, and now he tries to turn around. “I can’t fly!” he cries. “I’m bad luck. We’ll crash on a haunted island and it’ll be all my fault. Please! I’ll pay you a million dollars!” The flight attendant urges him forward, accustomed to phobic flyers. Then a woman rises from her seat, approaches them, and holds out a card. “I’m a clinical psychologist, and this man is my patient. He’s fixated on me. I think he followed me here. We need to get off so that I can help him professionally.” Libby and Hugo exit Flight 815 together.
Charlie: He is shaking, sweating, his stomach cramping. He needs a fix more than anything else in the world. He needs it more than love, or loyalty, or respect. It shames him, disgusts him. It breaks his heart. The island is his only means of escape, where he overcame his habit and found love and loyalty, and most importantly, earned his honor. Desmond had said, “No matter what I try to do, you’re gonna die, Charlie.” Course correction. He can die in the gutter as a drugged-out has-been, or he can die again as a redeemed man. Charlie boards the plane.
Claire: No matter what, she’s keeping the baby. Aaron, her son. She remembers the sweet smell of his hair, the feel of his soft baby skin, the bubbling sound of his laughter. She’d never imagined that she’d feel love so powerful that she would lay down her life for another’s. But on the island Christian had shown her things. The evil ones had tried to take Aaron there, but they had failed. She had saved him. Here, out in the world, they wouldn’t fail to take him. As she steps onto the plane she feels him stretch comfortably inside her belly.
Sun and Jin: It must mean something that they had both found themselves here, now, in Sydney at this turning point in their relationship. So much had been left uncertain on the island. Jin had been facing a nuclear explosion in 1977 while Sun had been facing…something immortal…thirty years later. There are no guarantees that they will ever find each other again, or that they will return to Ji Yeon. But without the island their daughter will never exist. Ji Yeon is the most important thing in the world, so they must take a chance. They hold hands as they board the plane.
Boone: He squints as he looks around himself. He’s alive, but he’s filled with a prevailing sense of failure. He had failed at life. He had failed to be independent, without his mother’s help. He had failed to help Shannon fight her. On the island, he had lost Shannon. Yet he hears the distant echo of Teresa’s voice, reading. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night?...But if I’m not the same, then who in the world am I? He’s alive. He has another chance. This time, somehow, he’ll get it right. Bravely, head held high, he boards the plane.
Shannon: Eyes wide, she looks around, filled with a sense of wonder and pride. After a lifetime of being treated like a pretty toy, she proved herself on Craphole Island, of all places. There, she had been useful. She had worked. She had loved. And she had almost saved Walt. But “almost” isn’t good enough, not for this new Shannon. This time she will save Walt and Sayid will save her, because of course he’ll go back for her. She’s worth something. Why else would she be given another chance? She looks for his dark curls as she boards the plane.
Sayid: The first thing he realizes is that there is no hole in his gut. The second is that Nadia is alive, and he knows where she is. No more looking over his shoulder, because now he knows his true enemy, men playing a dangerous game he wants nothing to do with. He hadn’t returned to the island willingly but in handcuffs, for why would he care about changing anything when he’d already lost everything? This time, he vows, he will not get involved. This time he will keep his love, Nadia, safe and happy. Feeling happy himself, he walks away.
Locke: This can’t be happening to him! Not now, when it was all over and he’d done what was required of him. But here he is, first in his wheelchair, and then feeling humiliated as a large man carries him onto the plane. If time is a loop, then he has to make sure that everything goes exactly as before or this time he might fail. He can’t fail the island; he won’t! It had given him a mission, and in the end he’d been a sacrifice the island demanded. He had given himself willingly. The island owed him its respect.
Michael: He’d blown it the first time, his chance to raise his son. He had so many regrets, so many things he shouldn’t have done. He shouldn’t have let Susan leave the country, and he shouldn’t have stepped in front of that speeding car. As he stands in the Sydney airport, though, those things are water under the bridge. He knows in hindsight (foresight?) that he shouldn’t have taken Walt onto the raft, and he shouldn’t have murdered Ana Lucia and Libby. But first and foremost, he shouldn’t have gotten onto Flight 815. “Waaaaalt!” he cries, running away from the plane.
Walt: Walt hands his ticket to the agent. “You can’t board without an adult,” she says. “Your ticket has to say you’re traveling unaccompanied, and yours doesn’t.”
“M-my Dad already got on the plane,” he stammers, and the woman answers, “Wait here. We’ll see.”
Walt doesn’t need to wait. His Dad’s on the plane, and Vincent’s there, too. Walt wants to go back to the island because even though it had been scary sometimes, he’d felt special. He is special. All it takes is one of his secret moves and he’s on the plane as it lifts off toward his destiny.
End
[Dharmasankat (Sanskrit: धर्म dhárma, loosely translated as "law" or "duty" and sankat, "trouble" or "problem") is a term in Indian religious and spiritual contexts implying a moral or ethical quandary, where choosing any of several options would result in a breach of one's dharma.]
Fandom: Lost
Characters: Season 1 ensemble
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through the Season 5 finale
Disclaimer: Only mine in my dreams
Summary: Knowing what they know now, if each of the original characters got a second chance to decide whether or not to get on Flight 815, would they? An interconnected series of DRABBLES.
Thanks to
eponine119 for the suggestions! :)“Ticket please.”
Wildly, and with a tinge of bewilderment, the person looks around. Just a second ago they’d been….
But regardless of where they’d been, where they are is in the Sydney airport, and it’s September 22, 2004. Yet their memories of everything that happened on (and off) the island are intact. The last thing most of them remember is waiting for the detonation of a hydrogen bomb.
The agent is urging them forward. The door of the plane is about to close. There’s no time to ponder their plight; they have to decide. Do they get on Oceanic Flight 815, or do they walk (or run!) away?
********
Jack: Maybe he can change things this time. Maybe he already has. How will he know if he doesn’t go back? What’s left for him back in L.A.? Sarah and her mystery man. The endless guilt of his father’s death. And yet…in this timeline the crash hasn’t happened yet. Jack knows that somehow he’s an important player in whatever game is centered on the island. If he doesn’t get on the flight, maybe that is the key that will change everything. Maybe they are all better off without him. He drops his ticket and walks away. Maybe that is his destiny.
Sawyer: He thinks his hands are still bloody, but the ticket he’s holding is black and white, pristine. Only a second ago he’d been holding her hand, and then she fell. But here is his second chance. A miracle. Desperately, he thinks "this time things will be different." He’ll be better at being what – who – she wants, so that he can keep her. This time if she fell, he’d go into the hole and rescue her. The Doc would go back too, of course, and he’d fix her right up. Sawyer shows his ticket to the agent and boards Flight 815.
Kate: Keep running, her mind shouts silently, though she’s handcuffed to the marshal and it seems that she has no choice but to go back to the island. But what is left for her anywhere? Jack is not the man she thought he’d be. Sawyer found someone else, and even if Juliet dies he’ll never be the same. Her father doesn’t want her. Her mother hates her. Aaron belongs with Claire. She remembers a deal that Mars had once tried to make with her. “Let me go,” she pleads. “I promise I’ll stop running.” Incredibly, it works. She walks away, free.
Hurley: He’d boarded, dazed, and now he tries to turn around. “I can’t fly!” he cries. “I’m bad luck. We’ll crash on a haunted island and it’ll be all my fault. Please! I’ll pay you a million dollars!” The flight attendant urges him forward, accustomed to phobic flyers. Then a woman rises from her seat, approaches them, and holds out a card. “I’m a clinical psychologist, and this man is my patient. He’s fixated on me. I think he followed me here. We need to get off so that I can help him professionally.” Libby and Hugo exit Flight 815 together.
Charlie: He is shaking, sweating, his stomach cramping. He needs a fix more than anything else in the world. He needs it more than love, or loyalty, or respect. It shames him, disgusts him. It breaks his heart. The island is his only means of escape, where he overcame his habit and found love and loyalty, and most importantly, earned his honor. Desmond had said, “No matter what I try to do, you’re gonna die, Charlie.” Course correction. He can die in the gutter as a drugged-out has-been, or he can die again as a redeemed man. Charlie boards the plane.
Claire: No matter what, she’s keeping the baby. Aaron, her son. She remembers the sweet smell of his hair, the feel of his soft baby skin, the bubbling sound of his laughter. She’d never imagined that she’d feel love so powerful that she would lay down her life for another’s. But on the island Christian had shown her things. The evil ones had tried to take Aaron there, but they had failed. She had saved him. Here, out in the world, they wouldn’t fail to take him. As she steps onto the plane she feels him stretch comfortably inside her belly.
Sun and Jin: It must mean something that they had both found themselves here, now, in Sydney at this turning point in their relationship. So much had been left uncertain on the island. Jin had been facing a nuclear explosion in 1977 while Sun had been facing…something immortal…thirty years later. There are no guarantees that they will ever find each other again, or that they will return to Ji Yeon. But without the island their daughter will never exist. Ji Yeon is the most important thing in the world, so they must take a chance. They hold hands as they board the plane.
Boone: He squints as he looks around himself. He’s alive, but he’s filled with a prevailing sense of failure. He had failed at life. He had failed to be independent, without his mother’s help. He had failed to help Shannon fight her. On the island, he had lost Shannon. Yet he hears the distant echo of Teresa’s voice, reading. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night?...But if I’m not the same, then who in the world am I? He’s alive. He has another chance. This time, somehow, he’ll get it right. Bravely, head held high, he boards the plane.
Shannon: Eyes wide, she looks around, filled with a sense of wonder and pride. After a lifetime of being treated like a pretty toy, she proved herself on Craphole Island, of all places. There, she had been useful. She had worked. She had loved. And she had almost saved Walt. But “almost” isn’t good enough, not for this new Shannon. This time she will save Walt and Sayid will save her, because of course he’ll go back for her. She’s worth something. Why else would she be given another chance? She looks for his dark curls as she boards the plane.
Sayid: The first thing he realizes is that there is no hole in his gut. The second is that Nadia is alive, and he knows where she is. No more looking over his shoulder, because now he knows his true enemy, men playing a dangerous game he wants nothing to do with. He hadn’t returned to the island willingly but in handcuffs, for why would he care about changing anything when he’d already lost everything? This time, he vows, he will not get involved. This time he will keep his love, Nadia, safe and happy. Feeling happy himself, he walks away.
Locke: This can’t be happening to him! Not now, when it was all over and he’d done what was required of him. But here he is, first in his wheelchair, and then feeling humiliated as a large man carries him onto the plane. If time is a loop, then he has to make sure that everything goes exactly as before or this time he might fail. He can’t fail the island; he won’t! It had given him a mission, and in the end he’d been a sacrifice the island demanded. He had given himself willingly. The island owed him its respect.
Michael: He’d blown it the first time, his chance to raise his son. He had so many regrets, so many things he shouldn’t have done. He shouldn’t have let Susan leave the country, and he shouldn’t have stepped in front of that speeding car. As he stands in the Sydney airport, though, those things are water under the bridge. He knows in hindsight (foresight?) that he shouldn’t have taken Walt onto the raft, and he shouldn’t have murdered Ana Lucia and Libby. But first and foremost, he shouldn’t have gotten onto Flight 815. “Waaaaalt!” he cries, running away from the plane.
Walt: Walt hands his ticket to the agent. “You can’t board without an adult,” she says. “Your ticket has to say you’re traveling unaccompanied, and yours doesn’t.”
“M-my Dad already got on the plane,” he stammers, and the woman answers, “Wait here. We’ll see.”
Walt doesn’t need to wait. His Dad’s on the plane, and Vincent’s there, too. Walt wants to go back to the island because even though it had been scary sometimes, he’d felt special. He is special. All it takes is one of his secret moves and he’s on the plane as it lifts off toward his destiny.
End
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 04:04 am (UTC)This is awesome :D
no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 01:49 pm (UTC)And Sayid! I feel like that's exactly what he would do. Oh and Charlie and Walt! And Hurley/Libby. *Happy Sigh*
This made my day. Awesome job!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 10:57 pm (UTC)Love the fact that Sun and Jin are together here though.
Great concept!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-17 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 03:34 pm (UTC)Hurley, though, might still be plagued by the numbers - I don't think he was satisfied with the response he got from Martha Toomey in Australia, and without going to the island, he might never find out any more about them.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:51 am (UTC)