Title: Constant
Fandom: Sleepy Hollow (FOX)
Character: Ichabod Crane
Word Count: 403
Summary: Some things never change, even after 200 years.
Note: Originally submitted to the FuckyeahSleepyHollow drabble competition.
Complicated as his current predicament was, Ichabod Crane did not allow himself to be daunted by it for long. He was an avid scholar, after all, and he absorbed new knowledge voraciously. And at the moment, everything around him was a novelty.
Initially clumsy in the 21st century, he gradually found his bearings and learned more than enough to survive on a daily basis, trying new and interesting food everyday, struggling with outlandishly fast modes of transportation, and sophisticated technological devices. Having been a lover of languages both ancient and modern, he was soon growing accustomed to many of the current terminologies. He still wasn't quite sure what the "Internet" was and the lieutenant refused to go into detail about the mechanics but he understood that it was a vast source of knowledge that could be accessed instantaneously. It was impressive indeed but he was an old-fashioned fellow, to say the least, and he still preferred the texture of parchment to the cold, eerily bright screen of a "computer."
The world was a different place, and yet, it was not. Not really.
The evolution of language, the advancement of science and technology, the almost radical alteration of fashion – all of these were to be expected after the passage of time and having awoken two centuries late, Ichabod would have been very disappointed if everything was exactly as he left it. Although the things in this era endlessly confused him, he knew it was the same world he had always lived in. And some elements didn't really change, not even after two hundred years.
For instance, human nature, he observed, remained constant. One could change how people spoke and what they wore but never exactly how they acted in certain situations. People still reacted with fear, and sometimes violence, when confronted with what they did not understand. But they also still struggled to find the answers to every mystery, no matter how perplexing. Even when faced with the forces of darkness, not all abandoned hope and succumbed to despair. Instead, they rose to the occasion and fought valiantly for what they believed in. Even with the threat of complete annihilation, there were still those who had faith. And that was what would help them triumph against the evil in the end.
"So, all things considered", Ichabod mused, "Although this world may be full of mystifying changes, in essentials it is as it ever was."