Just Imagine...

Walk N Talk

"C'mon Ianto," Gwen murmured, "Lisa, Jack... being bisexual's not a crime."
"Or pansexual." Sam put in quietly.
"Right!" Gwen said with an enthusiastic nod, and Sam actually looked surprised, "it's okay no matter what you are, we're your friends, and-"
"Would you two stop it?" Ianto cut her off harshly.
"Whoa!" Sam said, putting her hands up and frowning, "where'd that come from? What's the matter?"
"I don't want to talk about this," Ianto hissed, "it was confusing enough when I first realized I had feelings for Jack, now I have to pin down a specific label." He laughed bitterly, "y'know I wish I was Jack sometimes. Or anyone else. Jack will proudly shout 'omnisexual' from the rooftops. Sam, you've talked about knowing you were pansexual when you were twelve and you speak of your gender so openly people don't want to argue. Gwen, you and Owen are so confident in being bisexual, and Tosh confidently came out to us as polysexual a week ago. But me? I have no idea, and talking about it makes me wanna scream."
"Oh..." Gwen said softly, "I'm sorry Ianto, I didn't mean to upset you."
The three of them were quiet for a moment, nothing but the wind between the old buildings of Tretarri to fill the silence.
"Y'know, I use the label 'genderqueer' as a synonym for 'I don't fucking know'." Sam murmured eventually.
Ianto glanced at her, then started to laugh.
"Seriously?" He asked. Sam nodded with an abashed smile.
"Yeah," she replied, "there's many definitions for it, but to me... I just figured I'll let my gender do whatever it wants behind that label. It works, I like it, the flag is a little ugly but I can live with that, and I just don't have the energy to narrow it down to something specific, so why bother? I don't care, all I know is I'm not a woman or a man, and I don't need to know anything besides that. Especially not in this 'society', as we call it."
"So you're not sure either?" Ianto inquired.
"Well," Sam shrugged, "I wouldn't necessarily say that. But in truth, no one's ever really sure. Sometimes it's just easier to find words that fit. You're questioning your sexuality, and that's okay. You don't have to know for sure. Whether you're straight, gay, bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual... or any queer identity for that matter. You're our friend, and all that matters to us is that you're happy with yourself for who you are."
Gwen nodded, smiling.
"Right..." Ianto murmured shakily, "questioning. That's what I am. Very very much so."
He blinked rapidly before his face crumpled, and he put his hands over his eyes to cover the tears. Sam and Gwen both moved to hug him.
"This is the first time I've talked about this," he said, sniffling, "it's like a weight's been lifted off my chest. Thank you."
"I hate to interrupt..."
Sam, Ianto, and Gwen had their guns drawn in less than a second, facing Bilis Manger with open hostility.
"We were having a moment, do you fucking mind, Bilis?" Sam growled furiously, "can't you go be creepy somewhere else? Like, another dimension maybe??"
"I dearly wish I could," Bilis said, "I don't want to be here anymore than you do. And I'm sorry I have to do this."
"Do what?" Sam hissed, but as soon as the words had left her mouth, her body went rigid. She couldn't move anything except for her eyes, following Bilis as he strode up to Ianto and Gwen, who were in the same frozen trance, taking their weapons away.
Sam's brain was screaming at her body to move, to fight, to do something, but it couldn't. This was exactly like sleep paralysis, Sam thought with a growing sense of dread. The difference was that she was awake this time, and she couldn't snap out of it no matter how hard she tried to make herself be calm or how many breathing exercises she did. This was a waking sleep paralysis, and she couldn't get out of it.
Bilis appeared in front of Sam, gently removing her pearl-handled revolver from her hands. Sam tried to force all the anger and hatred from her body into her eyes and shoot it at him, but it didn't seem to work as Bilis smiled, almost warmly, and cupped her cheek with one hand. Sam wanted to vomit.
"I'm so glad you're here for this, Mx Ryder," Bilis murmured, "and I'm sorry for what's about to happen."
His eyes became orbs of blazing white light, which grew and grew until the light filled Sam's vision.
Then everything went black.