flocksystem

[flocksystem]

london simmons + cedric spliff 29

29: nudging them to show they are right beside them

London knows the cardinal rules of xyr world by heart (an irony, since xe has none):

There is no give without take.

The pitcher must throw the ball.

The first xe learned when xe was first pulled from the Shadows, finally allowed to walk in the light at the expense of another. Cedric told xem it was fine, looked almost relieved as he went under. London hadn’t felt guilty about it then, knowing that during the long-shadowed afternoons, xe had been able to emerge into those patches of dark, watching games from beneath the stands. Cataloguing data, calculating statistics.

SIMULATION: GUILT

DOPAMINE LEVELS REDUCED

There wasn’t much space for shadows now, underneath so many suns.

Xe used to visit him at night, those now-haunted hours where Shadows gathered. Xe had felt an obligation, being the one who had taken his place. Obligation became camaraderie, camaraderie became friendship. The problem with friendship, London discovered, was that it meant you had to care, and caring hurt.

Xe didn’t visit anymore.

DISTRESS DETECTED.

END SYNTHETIC CHEMICAL PRODUCTION? Y/N

Maybe this is why Mooney had been so reluctant to program in the emotion sims. London was built possessed of one thing, and it was the drive to acquire information. Xe ran equations from the Shadows, produced dataset upon dataset detailing the team’s ERA, OBP, SLG. Xe had seen the reactions the numbers elicited, the fascination, the pride, the shame.

Xe had, by natural extension of their drive to know, wanted to understand. Xe thought xe understood now. Xe thought xe might regret it. Especially now. But to stop now, to lose all the bad, would mean losing all the good too.

And there had been good. London wasn’t ready to give up on it. Not yet.

SIMULATION: FEAR

ADRENALINE LEVELS SPIKING

The pitcher must throw the ball.

London had learned the full extent of that today.

Numbers had always afforded London a certain degree of security. Even in an unpredictable world, they allowed xem to trace back a certain kind of logic. Logic had dictated that, in order to throw the ball, the pitcher must have someone to throw the ball to.

Logic had no place in what followed.

London Simmons advances to third.

London Simmons batting for the Moist Talkers.

If London did have a heart, it would be pounding now across two bodies. Two selves staring at each other across the space, the combined panic of two sets of falsified producers and receptors a tidal wave.

And then, by some miracle, there is shadow.

The cloud cover, sparse as it is, casts a stretch of shade back behind London on home plate. There’s a faint sense of contact, and if xe had any kind of olfactory system, xe would catch the scent of old books, cheap wings at trivia night, that spiced aftershave that Alston loved.

For a moment, there is no roaring crowd. Only relief, and quiet calm that passes over London (both of xem).

“You got this, kid,” Cedric says.

And London knows, in that moment, that xe does.

[flocksystem]

Casual Affections

Showing that they care.

smiling at each other from across the room

randomly texting a gif or emoji

laying their hand on the other’s leg

kiss to the side of the head

squeezing the other’s shoulder

fixing the other’s clothes

guiding them with a hand on the small of their back

embracing them from behind

ruffling their hair

placing their chin on the other’s shoulder

calling them nicknames

winking at them

teasing each other good-naturedly

putting an arm around the other’s shoulder

washing the other's hair

taking a photo of them smiling or in their element

looking in each other's eyes

putting a blanket on them

tugging at the other's clothes to keep them close

making them food they like

laughing at their jokes

placing a hand on the back of the other’s neck

brushing strands of hair away

patting their head

sharing an umbrella

bumping shoulders into each other

randomly face-timing just to hear their voice/see their face

pressing their foreheads together

nudging them to show they are right beside them

laying their head on the other’s shoulder

Love Language Part I | Part II

[flocksystem]

wholesome

[flocksystem]

Part 5 of 5 “Acceptance”

[flocksystem]

Keep reading

[flocksystem]

“You’re still here”

[flocksystem]

WHY

[flocksystem]

[flocksystem]

Tell me it didnt feel like this 

[flocksystem]

[flocksystem]

I doodled the boys, I was so happy and surprised to see them!

[flocksystem]

Alphinaud and Alisaie Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV

[flocksystem]

a lot going on today

[flocksystem]

say what you will about among us i think it’s incredible that it managed to make like 10 words unstable for anyone under the age of 30

[flocksystem]

big fan of that viral post going around talking about the "bible verse that implies jesus is trans" which is entirely made up and not an actual bible verse. joining the war on misinformation on the side of the misinformation

[flocksystem]

[flocksystem]

We’ve upgraded from horse dewormer to radioactive necklaces