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Lix:
"The Hour. The Hour is Randall's baby. Well, it's not his brain child, of course, the BBC developed that format long before he joined. And we all worked hard to make it successful. But he... he is that wildfire burning behind that seemingly cold, analytical exterior. He adopted the Hour and he doesn't stop until it grew up to be the benchmark for investigative journalism worldwide. Yeah, he made it tick again, but it is the thing that makes him tick, just as well."

#PennedPossibilities 22

Lix:
"We are on the brink, World War 3 is a very real possibility, we might face extinction with both super powers having enough atomic potential to erase this planet from the solar system.
I can ignore the state of the world at night. Randall never could. He always had a light sleep, and if he really drifts off, he is tortured by nightmares. I don't know if it is still the same after 20 years, but I guess it is.
Me? I'm fine. I have my ways."
*grabs bottle*

#PennedPossibilities 23

Lix:
"You know, I asked him that, recently. You know what that idiot said?

'normal'

I must have stared at him as if he were an alien, because he elaborated:

'I admire that some people don't need to organize their desk just so or can pass a chair in the lobby without rectifying it. I admire people who are just...normal.'

You wonder why I call him an idiot? That's why! He doesn't see how brilliant he is because he is not normal. Normal of all possible traits. Shesh!"

#PennedPossibilities 24

Lix:
"Snooping around? Ha! If it were only that... he's tidying up when I am not looking. It is..." *trails off, staring ahead* "In a way it is really annoying. But on the other hand... I never needed anybody to look after me, I can do that myself, thank you very much, and I hate if my privacy is invaded..." *takes a deep breath* "But there is this feeling, when I'm watching him doing it. He cares. he really does. And that makes me feel... special? Valued? I don't know."

#PennedPossibilities 25

Lix:
"Ha, that's a difficult one. I mean, for me, it is clear cut. I would become the best journalist in the world. But Randall... he is so devoid of ambition. Greatness is nothing he wants to achieve, he is the kind who nurtures a project to be successful, not being successful himself... perhaps he would want to be the best in getting the whole world sitting down and working together. Yeah, this sounds like a dream he could have, thinking about it."

#PennedPossibilities 26

Stepping for a moment out of Lix's character here to say a few things as 21st century author:

Inspired by #PennedPossibilities I started a new pre-canon story of Lix and Randall in the Spanish Civil War, set in 1937 called "Strengths" which I will use for a while for these prompts.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48775423/chapters/123041050

"My" Randall not only has #OCD, he is also #neurodivergent
and therefore, he stims, only that when the story takes place, nobody knows anything about it.
1/2

#PennedPossibilities 27

All people realize is that he fiddles with things and behaves odd, but they don't know that it is important for his well-being. He tries to suppress it, but of course, he can't.
He knows he instantly feels better if he can tap things in a pattern or stroke the cloth of some of his clothes, but he is embarrassed that he is that way. So, he often turns to alcohol, both to wash down the horrors of war, but also because it is more acceptable to drink than to stim. 2/2

#PennedPossibilities 27

As I have changed stories, let's answer as young Randall:

"I do have opinions about 'you are what you eat', especially as it's a socioeconomic question with its own implications that inevitably points to the injustices of this world. But let's not go there, I wouldn't know where to stop."
*fiddles with his cigarette*
"I think 'You are what you do' is over-simplistic, yet, it is a statement that holds true. I take photos and write. It defines what I am and want to be."

#PennedPossibilities 28

"Dear Mr. Miller,

I want to write a few words to express my thankfulness for you having trusted me with being Mrs. Storm's photographer. I know you had to use your influence because at 29 I am too young for a war reporter by our statutes.

Rest assured that I am learning a lot and I hope you will find your trust rewarded by the photos I send.

The fascists are closing in on us right now, so I want you to know I was thankful to the very end.

Kind Regards
Randall Brown"

#PennedPossibilities 29

"Dear Walt,

just a short note because these might be the last letters we will get across the fascist lines via a trusted courier.
Forget what I wrote a few weeks ago. I'm very thankful you've sent Randall Brown. He might be a greenhorn, but he sure has his shit together. It's safe to say I wouldn't be still around without him.
Anyhow, you take care, will you? I mean, I've survived worse, but it doesn't look good and I wouldn't place a bet on our lives.

Take care,
Lix"

#PennedPossibilities 29

Edited for a name change in the boss they both write to, because that way I could tie him back to what will become "Upper-Floor-Miller" who is one of the side characters in "End of a Road Trip" who makes his first appearance in the chapter "The King, The Queen, The Knight, And The Pawn" there, but it is clear that he and Lix go a long way back.

Not sure if he is really the same man, but I love playing with all the canon I invented over time...

#PennedPossibilities 29

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31042175/chapters/88189615

#PennedPossibilities 30
Randall:
"I...I want to give Lix something for still not having fired me. But whatever I choose, it seems wrong. Flowers might mislead her that I have romantic intentions. Sweets are perhaps not really appropriate. Also, I am not sure she could take them wrong. I also thought about offering her to clean and maintain her camera because she doesn't take good care of it. But that might make her mad at me. I really want to give her something, but... I am just not good at it."

When Lix and Randall grew up it was the first World War. While the UK didn't have an invasion, there were still a lot of friends and relatives not coming back, or coming back broken, body and soul. These childhood experiences influenced their decision to become journalists and war reporters. Now they are in the Spanish Civil War.
No, the world isn't better. Nor is it worse. It is the place it always has been and always will be.
They can only try and make the best of it.

#PennedPossibilities 31

Randall:
"A camera. Really, I did everything, I ran errands for people although it made me nervous I would not pick the right things and I delivered newspapers in the early mornings. It wasn't much I earned, but I saved every penny and was finally able to buy my first, used camera. A friend at the local newspaper let me develop my photos in his laboratory. I couldn't have afforded my own. He saw my photos and said I had an eye for it. The first steps to my later career."

#PennedPossibilities 32

Lix:
"After we escaped the prison of this fascist splinter group we found a farmer who gave us a lift to our headquarters. That was very kind and risky for him, he could have been shot for it. No idea how Randall knew this farmer would be on our side. But I am going to find out!"

#PennedPossibilities 33

Randall:
"It would be: 'The war is over. There are peace talks and it is very likely that we will have everlasting peace on Earth.' I know how unlikely that is, but you asked, and so, I answered."

Lix:
"'You have been promoted to Head of Foreign Desk.' It would be nice to strategically plan who goes where and what is the next hot spot to report from instead of wading in the mud and the blood of the trenches. I'm growing too old for these kinds of adventures."

#PennedPossibilities 34

Randall is a raging introvert. Detremental if you want to be a journalist. Becoming a photographer seemed the obvious solution. He can stay shielded behind the camera and spend hours in the lab without anybody finding it weird.

Lix is an extrovert. In the middle of the action, surrounded by people, that's where she thrives. She feels lost and alone when there is no one around, which is one of the resaons why she works with a photographer although she can wield a camera.

#PennedPossibilities 35

Randall:
"Recent friendship... I am not sure. I mean, I am the new boy, all the others on our team are war reporters far longer than me. I think I first have to gain their respect before I can even think of them seeing me as friend. I think I need to do something really, really outstanding and brave so they can respect me. Unfortunately, that is not my strong suit... I am just a photographer, not a former soldier, like Alex. A friend would be great to have, really."

#PennedPossibilities 36

Lix:
"Well, that's easy. Randall, my new photographer. He drives me mad with his tics and by being like he is. Weird. But he also has a certain something about him. He is good at patterns and connections. Systematic. I like that a lot. Yeah, I consider him a good friend by now. I am sure he knows. I mean, it is nothing you tell someone, right? You just realize you are friends now, and that's that."
*shrugs*

#PennedPossibilities 36

Randall:
"What's wrong with this picture? Let's see... as raging civil war instead of peace. Former friends killing each other over politics. Families divided and fighting each other for the same reason. Men's most noble intentions used and manipulated by people in power. The rise of fascism in Europe. The young democracies in Italy and Germany erased, and now, Spain is next. There is much wrong with this picture. More than I can count."

#PennedPossibilities 37

Lix:
"Wrong with this picture? Well, it is war, that's why I am here. Can't be a war reporter without, right? So, in that regard, everything is right and everything is wrong. Yeah... but there is something else... I could do with a man who is more than just a fling. Someone reliable who just loves me like I am. Someone who is interested in me instead of just my body. Ah, well, who am I kidding? That's not even in the stars. Might as well seek comfort in the wrong ones."

#PennedPossibilities 37

Randall:

"Right now, I only have a few poetry books with me and no bookshelf. As a war reporter, you travel light. But when I come back from Spain with a decent amount of money made, I sure will rent a flat and have a huge bookshelf and I will fill it with all the books I can get a hold on and I can afford. Affording real books is an old dream I had since I grew up."

#PennedPossibilities 39

Lix:

"I mean it's a bookshelf, so... books? Yeah, and some knickknack, memories of the places I have been. Actually, there isn't much space in there, the books already stand in front of each other and are crammed in on top of others. Not right here, now, I don't have a bookshelf. We change positions too often. I don't carry books with me, I ste... borrow them from others. Hush, don't tell Randall I borrowed his Miquel Martí i Pol."

*grins smugly*

#PennedPossibilities 39

That Lix and Randall love Catalan poet Miquel Martí i Pol is a nod to @doctorwanderer and their story "Dance me to the end of love":

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38120962

in the collection #PaintingSongsWithWords

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PaintingSongsWithWords

#PennedPossibilities 39

Since @shaknais challenged @floofpaldi and me, here is the #PennedPossibilities 39 #DoctorWho Twelfth Doctor's bookshelf (I use they/them, since technically, we don't know all the incarnations up to him, right?):

You pull out some random things:

- a picture of Susan
- "Learn to play the recorder in 10 simple steps" (it seems unused and there is a whisky stain at the lower left corner)
- "The Modern Dandy Household - how to iron your frilled shirts and how to get stains out of velvet"

1/4

Randall is interested in everything, like a renaissance scholar. So, if he chose a teaching career, he most likely would look out for something interdisciplinary. I think he would feel uncomfortable teaching in front of a whole auditorium of listening students, he'd rather be doing field trips. Archaeology, perhaps? It has a lot of history but also science involved. I think that would suit him.

#PennedPossibilities 41

Lix would be brilliant in teaching politics, sociology, and geography. Always hopping between those when teaching, which means if you take her politics class, you will learn how human societies work and how topography shapes society - and vice versa. No matter which course you take, you get the big picture.

In her free time, she would teach girls self-defense and confidence so they can make their way in a male dominated society and not become victims of domestic abuse.

#PennedPossibilities 41

Randall:
"I hope I will have a beautiful wife that I adore and we live in a little house near the sea and our children and grandchildren visit regularily."

Lix:
"I don't want to think about retirement. But if I have to, I want to become one of those old ladies people tell weird stories about. You know, still rides a motorbike, collects at least 10 strays around the house, and makes kitchen experiments that sometimes go boom."

#PennedPossibilities 42

At the point where "Strengths" takes place, Randall hasn't an ex. He never had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, for that matter. At 29 he's still a virgin and very self-conscious about it. It is a major subplot.

Lix has more exes than she can count and some of them she wouldn't mind dating again, and if it is just for one night.
But now, fate has thrown in Randall as her new photographer and he is different, which annoys her but also sparks her curiosity...

#PennedPossibilities 43

Randall:

"I have, but I won't tell."

(Very terrible and sad things happened in his childhood, which Lix finds out in "Up North"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26494642/chapters/64568317 They haunted him even more and more often when he was younger)

Randall is a rather vivid dreamer of nightmares, a fact that I have used more than once. I like taking what burdens and haunts my characters and translate it to the language of dreams. I have one in this chapter of "Up North":

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26494642/chapters/65835265

#PennedPossibilities 44

Randall:

"Lix's giggling. It is... it only happens when she is really amused. She can laugh out loud and does, but it is sometimes a fake laugh to conceal her true feelings. But her giggling... it is honest, true, genuine... it comes from her throat but also, it seems her whole body vibrates and gives it resonance... and she draws her breath in, which makes a clicking sound and it...it...it sounds like I think angels would sing if there were such a thing as angels."

#PennedPossibilities 45

Lix:

"The first song of a bird after the fighting stops. In a ceasefire, there is a long moment of complete silence that is nearly unnatural. You are relieved, but anxiously waiting for that next shot, that next grenade, that next impact. And then, you hear the crickets, and afterwards, birds start chirping, but still, it can be cut by a shot every minute. But when that very first bird decides it is safe enough to try for a song - that's the best sound in the world."

#PennedPossibilities 45

Randall:
"I want to shoot THAT photo. The one that ultimately will show how cruel and unnecessary this war is and that it has to end. That all wars have to end."

Lix:
"Bring in the best stories. Better stories than my male colleagues so they have no other option than respecting me. I might risk my life for it, but that's totally worth it."

#PennedPossibilities 46

Randall:
"All of this Spanish food is weird. I mean, it... it is good, as soon as I have found out exactly what it is. But I always need to know first what it is and how it was made before I can eat it and... my Spanish isn't good. It... it's a problem. I can adapt, I'm not a snob... but... but... I need to know, first."

Lix:
"A slug. Ha! poor guy who bet I wouldn't do it. Paid me booze for a whole week. What fun!"

#PennedPossibilities 47

Randall:
"Compliments? They make me uncomfortable. I know they are just said out of pity. I know I can do better. I'm not doing enough. I don't do it good enough. I know. No matter what they say, I /know/ I can do better."

Lix:
"I watch my back and try to figure out which game they are playing. I yet have to hear a honest compliment. Usually they want sex. Or information. Some want to prey on my connections. It is never honest. What makes you ask that?" *narrows eyes*

#PennedPossibilities 48

Randall:
"I learned how to handle a gun. I didn't want to, mind. I hate guns. But I needed to go through basic military training before they let me go to a war zone, and so, I did. I don't enjoy shooting, though."

Lix:
"Very recently I learned that this youngster they sent me as a photographer, this Randall, has indeed a lot of hidden skills and talents that I don't have. I underestimated him in the beginning. You have to look beyond his strangeness and his tics."

#PennedPossibilities 49