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WELCOME - Prompts Post Part I

Please see the most recent MOD NOTE

(updated 6 June)

Welcome everybody. How you got here I have no idea but thank you for coming and welcome again, nonetheless . As you may have gathered this is a Fic Prompting Meme dedicated solely to the hilarious and oh-so-addictive BBC Radio 4 sitcom - Cabin Pressure. I'm aiming for this to be pretty anything goes - but in order for everything to run smoothly, there are a few guidelines. Don't worry - they're not too restrictive.

FILLING GUIDELINES

As you probably all know - our meme now has it's very own database created and maintained by the great Enigel. It both catalogues each and every prompt that we post and provides links to fills. You can find it here: Google Spreadsheet

We also have a Pinboard archive which has been put in place by the lovely

oxfordtweed in the place of our late Delicious Archive. This Archive contains a list of all the prompts this meme has to offer - you can find it here: Pinboard Archive

This is a great step forward in making our meme just a little more organised (but not too organised of course. This is Cabin Pressure) which is always a good thing.

So in order to make things easier to archive - Please nest your fills.

This can be done by either posting each part as a reply to that part's immediate predecessor, OR by replying each time to Part I OR - well you get the idea :D

It makes it simpler for Enigel and myself to link fills in a clean and clear manner. Following these guildelines will be very much appreciated guys :D

REPROMPTING

Reprompting is allowed but please include the URL of the original prompt when you do so. It will make it infinitely more easy to Archive which would make both Enigel and I very happy :)

As for everything else

Be respectful to one another. Disagreements are fine, but not everything disagreeable is trolling. If you suspect someone of trolling, just ignore it. If you cannot respond to a comment without attacking or trolling someone else, keep it to yourself.

No bashing prompts. It might not be your cup of tea - but obviously someone wants it enough to go to the effort of requesting it. So just scroll past it.

Prompt away as much as you like guys - seriously, go wild - but please try to fill as well.

NEW - If your fill includes a major element that veers from the original prompt (crossovers, established universes, kinks, et cetera), please take a few moments to check with the OP that such additions are welcome. This has caused problems in the past and it only takes a few moments of your time.
Please no RPF. I'm not trying to oppress you RPF writers and enthusiasts, I would just really like to avoid any legal problems.

When you post a fill (or post a new part of a WIP) please go over to the Filled Prompts Post (if it is complete) or the WIP Post (if there are still more parts to come) and, following each post's guideline's, post a link to this fill or new part.

REALLY IMPORTANT ADDENDUM

According to numerous Child Safety laws it is illegal to provide pornographic material to minors. Seeing that the majority of the stuff we have here is rather adult in nature, this Meme is consequently an 18+ zone. Failing to comply to this rule could result in the Meme getting shut down. So if you're here and you're under 18 please back button now.

+ Please do not post anything regarding minors in a sexual situation. It really doesn't matter how tasteful or crass it is, there are laws that classify that sort of thing as child pornography and as such, I'm afraid we're going to have to go with the attitude that safe is better than sorry.

It really is VERY important that these rules are upheld as the consequences are severe.

Other than that - go crazy guys. Any problems please just message me and I'll try my best to work it out.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Prompt Index

Current Prompt Post | Current Chatter Post | WIP Post | Filled Prompts Post | Searching Post | Orphan Post | Page-a-Mod Post | FAQ | Beta/Concrit Post

cabin_pressure @ LJ | Cabin Pressure @ AO3 | IRC Chat @ irc.ecnet.org #FittonATC

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I want to see Martin come out to the crew.
Please make him really nervous about it - I don't know - maybe his actually family wasn't very excepting of the news, and please, PLEASE make them really happy that he has finally manned up and admitted it :D

Coming out to his family hadn't been easy. There was the nervous energy, constant fluttering of his heart rate whenever one or more of his family asked when he was going to get a girlfriend. Or made a homophobic joke. His father was the worst, casually dropping insults just as Martin was about to speak up at the dinner table. So he'd shut his mouth again and push at his food, trying to maintain a facade of "normalacy".

There was also the case of Aunt Julia. Aunt Julia was actually Uncle Julian, and he lived with his boyfriend in central London, working as a prominent drag queen. Martin quite liked Uncle Julian, but rarely spoke to him, the family cutting the man off. When Martin was little, only about five or six years old, Aunt Julia stayed for a few days. He was confused, but curious when he walked in on Aunt Julia putting on her wig and adjusting her breasts. She smiled and sat him on her bed, showing him how she did her make up.

Years later, Martin realised that Uncle Julian only visited in full drag to irritate the family. It made Martin's father particularly angry. Once, when his brother and two sisters had been taken on a weekend holiday with his parents, Martin had snuck downstairs into his mother's closet. He was supposed to be studying for an exam, but he spared an hour to carefully put some make up on like he remembered, and slip on his mother's green cocktail dress. He didn't try the heels - feet were too large.

He found that he didn't particularly like himself in those clothes.

And then there were the dreams. Dreams of crushes, dreams of men. Martin came to realise that he never had crushes on girls. Sure, they looked nice, but after a few girlfriends and a mortifying experience of heterosexual intercourse, Martin gave up on them. Quietly, he experimented with a few males from school and found that he liked it very much.

Unfortunately, the school didn't like that at all.

Age eighteen, a few weeks from finishing, Martin was caught kissing Sean Victor behind the biology classrooms. The school rang home, and Martin was uncovered to be what his family despised:

Homosexual. Gay. Fag, shirt lifter, faggot, cocksucking ungrateful child that didn't deserve the roof over his head and the clothes on his back.

Martin finished school, took on several jobs at once to pay for university, and immersed himself at Eton. And he was rejected there too, on the basis of his sexuality. So he stopped telling people, hid himself, became meek and frightened.

Which is why he was nervous now. He needed to tell them. He wanted to tell them, wanted to believe that they would accept him for who he was and not because his raft was boys-only.

"Martin, you're almost vibrating with nervousness. You'd put an Italian Greyhound to shame," said Douglas, "Spit it out."

Martin took a deep breath, and prepared himself for attempt number twenty-seven. It was like his family all over again. He hoped that he wouldn't get spat on or punched, but Douglas would never do that would he? He's a good man, isn't he? But he was older, he was old school, oh god what to do, what to do, don't chicken out now-

"Do you want to play a game of head chess?"

-and he chickened out. Again.

Douglas gave him a look, eyebrow raised.

"Certainly."

*******
"Carolyn, I have concerns. About Martin. He's acting odd."

*****
author: more later. Sleep now. :)

*gasp* Sleep?! You don't need sleep woman!!! Get back to your damn computer and write until your finger bleed.

... okay - slight over reaction, but I love this so much. Thanks for filling this prompt - I was so hoping someone would. You're doing great and PLEASE PLEASE update soon

Oh - and I forgot, poor Martin *hugs him*

I NEED SLEEP, AND I NEED TO PASS ENGLISH. I WANT TO GO TO A GOOD UNIVERSITY, DAMNIT!

Glad I'm doing the prompt justice ~ <3 !

*joins in the Martin cuddle*

Well - yesss...I suppose, I want to go to Uni too...but if you did another chapter - I would so ditch the business text I have in about an hour - seriously ditch it like a, like....I don't know like what - but I swear, it's history :D

(ignore me. Focus on English - but please update soon :D)

Thanks anon! The next and final part is up!

BLOODY HELL!! This is so brilliant!! Poor, poor Martin. I really hope the crew are absolutely fantastic and accepting and - well, them, when he finally does bring himself to tell them.

Oh poor Martin - he's so scared and...do you see what you're doing to me - I'm melting into a big puddle of 'awww'. You HAVE to update soon. *sob* please.

PS - good luck with you sleep/English

THANK YOU! :D I'm glad you're enjoying it, the rest of it's up now!

I just want to hug Martin and tell him it's all going to be okay. Poor little thing. Here's a bucket to contain you! XD I hope it holds all of you, don't want to lose any bits. Especially the bits we can cuddle Martin with.

And I did fabulously with English, so thank you for the well wishes!

AHHHHH!! I loved it - it's so sweet - you did excellent dude :D

Sorry for the double comment by the way - I reread the first part some many times that I just couldn't help myself :D

Brilliant job once more - please write more Cabin Pressure - because I absolutely loved this :D

That's okay. I saw your username pop up twice, and it makes me happy that you loved it enough to comment twice on the one part!

I'm really just a big softie like Martin, so I can't really write horrible endings. I had to give him a happy ending. I HAD TO. He was giving me the puppy eyes.

Now to ~~torture him~~ give him a child. I'm going to go on a Cabin Pressure writing rampage, I feel. O_O Oh well, more for this tiny little fandom!

Thank you for the lovely double comment and compliments and well wishes and, and, and everything. :)

"And when does Martin not act in a manner that the rest of mankind would define as 'odd'?" asked Carolyn.

She was doing the accounts in her office, red pen in hand, and black pen tucked in her hair. Quite frankly, she didn't have the energy to deal with Douglas at the moment, and she certainly didn't have the energy to deal with Martin. Whatever was troubling the young man would have to wait, because these accounts weren't adding up properly, and she was getting frustrated with them.

"I have come to believe that this is odd odd. Not just odd. He keeps," Douglas paused, searching for an adequate word, "twitching. At high speed. Like he wants to tell us something."

"That sewer rat had better not be trying to get away from MJN Air again," said Carolyn, looking at Douglas over the top of her glasses.

Douglas shook his head. Sighing, Carolyn set down her pen and stared at Douglas, resting her head in steepled fingers. Her eyes flicked over him, looking for falsehoods, before she sighed again, sitting back in her chair.

"If you can get this bloody column to be equal to the other one, then I'll deal with Martin."

"You do remember what I was fired for at British Airways?"

"True. You deal with him. And don't let Arthur eat the chocolate biscuits," she said.

"Why not?"

"They're not chocolate. They're mouldy."

Douglas nodded, and closed the door to Carolyn's office. Striding across the runway in his fashionable orange safety vest - it was a wet day, and the uniform tended to blend with the tarmac - Douglas climbed into Gertie to find Martin. Except Martin wasn't there.

Arthur bounded up in his overly enthusiastic way.

"OH MY GOD DOUGLAS! You'll NEVER guess what I just saw!"

"Was it the baggage handler solving a sudoku?"

"No. Much, much better!"

"Was it the engineer making porridge using the welder?"

"No, no, no!"

Arthur was on the point of exploding from excitement.

"Then what?"

"Skip was kissing a hostie from QANTAS."

"Don't you mean hostess?" asked Douglas.

It wouldn't have been the first time Arthur mistook a woman for a man. Something about hair-length and trousers tended to confuse the poor boy. But Arthur was shaking his head vigorously, reminding Douglas of a shaggy dog. Still, no indication that Arthur hadn't made a mistake.

On the other hand, Martin had never mentioned previous girlfriends, he wasn't at all that interested in girls, despite flustering about with that horrible Hester woman, and there was that momentary look of terror from the cut-costs Johannesburg when Douglas had suggested he go and seduce a local to stay for the night. He opted for the plane. Which all led to one conclusion.

"Arthur, you have to keep this quiet, or Martin will freak out, and most likely leave," said Douglas. "Do you promise?"

"Will I get a gold star?"

"Yes, you will get three gold stars. Now, promise me you won't tell anyone what you saw."

"Promise!"

By some miracle, Arthur didn't say a word about the incident. Douglas quietly passed the information onto Carolyn, and life continued as normal. They had agreed that Martin had probably had a pretty terrible time of it, and decided to let him come out in his own way and in his own time.

****

Martin was panicking again. Attempts number twenty-eight to thirty-one had gone terribly. Now it was number thirty-two, and it looked to be turning out the same as the previous ones.

He swallowed, mouth dry, heart thumping. He looked at his shoes, and then at the crew, then back at his shoes again. There was still the chance to pull out, he could just start going over the flight-plan, he could, he could -

Ungrateful brat. Ungrateful ball-fondling, penis-worshipping, queer. Nobody outside of your little faggot friends is going to accept you. Nobody.

- he could do this. Screw what his family said! He was allowed to exist, allowed to be with whoever the hell he wanted to be with, and he didn't want to have to work for a homophobic company, so it was best if he got this out of the way, so he could hand in his uniform, and try to find another job.

Martin raised his head, straightening his back and looked at each member of MJN Air determinedly.

"There's a reason why I called you all together today. And it's not for the flight-plan. Well, not exclusively for the flight-plan. I just wanted to let you know that I'm gay. Yes. Gay. Me. That's why I don't have a girlfriend, and that's why I'll never have a girlfriend. And I wanted to let you know that if any of you have a problem with that, tell me now. I refuse to work for an airdot that will reject me on the basis of my sexuality. So, do you have anything to say, or may I move onto the flight-plan?"

The silence that followed shot dread into Martin's body. He took a step back, arms rising to hug himself slightly. Then Carolyn smiled. Arthur was bouncing on the balls of his feet, grinning widely.

"Martin, we've known for quite a while," said Douglas.

"Y-You have?" asked Martin, colour flooding back into his face.

"Yes, and we've been waiting for you to man up and tell us," said Carolyn.

"Oh," said Martin faintly.

A shy, nervous, terribly young smile edged it's way to his lips. That went very well, but they hadn't said anything else, and it was possible that they were going to reject him now that he'd admitted to it, and-

"Martin, stop thinking. You'll strain your brain, and we need you as our captain. Now give us the flight-plan," said Carolyn.

"I told you it was a boy he was kissing!" shouted Arthur, turning on Douglas, "I told you, I told you, I told you!"

"You saw that?" squeaked Martin, covering his face with his hands, now more embarrassed than scared.

"Yes," chimed Douglas, "Nice looking chap. Are you still together?"

"Uhm, no, it was just a bit of a snog," mumbled Martin.

He looked down again, internally flailing around, then realising that they hadn't said anything bad.

"So, it doesn't matter?"

"No, you dolt," snapped Carolyn, "Now give us the flight plan."

Martin fiddled with the edge of the folder, trying to find the right words. He bit his lip, thinking, then let it go. The world was going watery and he sniffled.

"Thank you for accepting me."

Carolyn handed him a handkerchief. Martin accepted it, wiping away the tears, sniffling again, before breaking out into full sobs. Douglas looked slightly startled before placing a hand on Martin's shoulder.

"It wasn't easy, was it? Growing up. Telling us."

"My family cut me off completely. They called me all sorts of names, hit me, spat on me, threw me out of home. I was lucky to get the van. They didn't tell me when dad's funeral was. Mum refuses to speak to me, my sisters can't speak to me, and my brother wants to speak to me, but only to call me names, or insult me. I don't have a family."

"It's okay, sweetheart," Carolyn said, taking him in a hug and patting his back, "We're your family now."

"Yes," he croaked, "And I love you for it. I don't ever want to leave. I want to stay."

He pulled away carefully, dabbing the thoroughly soaked handkerchief at his eyes, regulating his breathing. He smiled again, eyes red.

"Thank you."

*****

Aaaaaaand that's all folks! :D Thanks for the quick flight together! (I went well in English, for all those wondering! Thank you for the well wishes. :D )

Martin had probably had a pretty terrible time of it Oh, the poor kid. I'm so glad that he's got a better family now!

(And it sounds like maybe his sisters want to reach out to him? Sequel, maybe?)

I could have sworn that I replied to this...anyway, a sequel would be cool, but I can't think of anything!

I'm really, really, really glad that you enjoyed the fic!

Beautiful <3

Thank you anon. *blushes*

Excellent fill. I do feel for poor Martin.

*blushes* Thank you. I've come a long way from these first writings, so it's good to know they still hold up after so long!

(Your icon? PURE AWESOME in a 100 by 100 pixel square).

Love this, very sweet, but why is Martin at Eton? It's a public (private, if you're American) school which you start at a child and finish at 18, why would he be going there at 18? Also, he wouldn't have needed to save up to pay for uni fees as this would have been in the days when university education was free...

Thank you, Nonnie. I'm actually Australian, and when I wrote this, I was in the middle of my final exams, brand new to the CP fandom, and did not realise that Eton wasn't a university as well as a high school. Actually, I completely mistook a part of an episode and thought Martin had gone to Eton. As you can probably tell, I'm a youngin' and do not know the privilege of free university. So there you go. I cring re-reading this story - there's so much I'm going to have to fix if I put it on A03! :) thank you again!

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WELCOME - Prompts Post Part I

Please see the most recent MOD NOTE

FILLING GUIDELINES

REPROMPTING

As for everything else

REALLY IMPORTANT ADDENDUM

no subject

Fill - 1/2

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Awwwwww

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