#any electrical engineers feel free to chime in

[tergwearrow]

As someone who deals with electric thingies (technical term) on a regular basis: all being equal, voltage is irrelevant. Amps are your killer (given you have the volts to get to target, the shot goes across something important, and your target is particularly unlucky). The reason is: X2 tasers, the ones police use, are 50,000 volts DC....at nearly no amps. Some ye old brute-force-and-ingnorance stun guns clock 100,000, and cattle prods can hit a MILLION volts. Mind you, none of these are safe, just less-lethal. Bad luck, damaged or faulty gear, or abusive bs from the user, and a normal stun gun can easily kill. More volts = more pain and/or more risk, but humans can survive a lot more than a mere 50,000 volts. Source: people struck by lightning survive in some cases.

um

[books--freak]

The Sims 4 Elemental Legacy Challenge Inspired by Genshin Impact

This is an Elemental Legacy Challenge in The Sims 4 based on the elemental system from Genshin Impact. Each generation represents one of the seven elements in the game: Anemo (Wind), Geo (Earth), Electro (Electricity), Dendro (Nature), Hydro (Water), Pyro (Fire), and Cryo (Ice). Each generation will embody the personality traits, careers, and goals associated with their element, along with a distinct home aesthetic and play style inspired by their powers. It does use a lot of packs, but it can be easily edited for what you already own.

General Rules:

Each generation must represent one of the seven Genshin elements.

Traits, careers, skills, and homes must align with the assigned element’s theme.

Follow the goals outlined for each generation.

No cheats allowed (except for build cheats or mods that don't give unfair advantages).

You can randomize the starting element, or assign them in a specific order.

Each generation must have outfits where their signature color is dominant. Formal, everyday, and athletic outfits can vary, but the signature color should always be present in some way.

The color scheme should be prominent in the home design, particularly in key areas like the living room, bedroom, or kitchen. You could even assign specific rooms to feature the signature colors more heavily, like having a red kitchen for Pyro, a blue bathroom for Hydro, etc.

The clothing styles and homes don’t have to be based on the nations, since the game doesn’t give us the option to keep both the styles and the colors, but feel free to use CC as long as it’s purely for the aesthetic.

Generation 1 – Anemo (Wind)

The Anemo generation is free-spirited, calm, and adaptable. They love exploration, independence, and solving problems creatively.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Loner, Noncommittal

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim or Outdoor Enthusiast

Career: Scientist, or any freelance career

Signature Color: Light Green and White

Theme: Breezy, light, and airy

Goals:

Max the Singing and Guitar skills.

Travel to different locations often (take at least 5 vacations in their lifetime).

Own a home that features open spaces, light colors, and lots of plants or wind chimes.

Avoid long-term romantic relationships until later in life (Anemo Sims value freedom).

Have at least one child after a long period of wandering, to "settle down."

Optional: Complete the Bird Feather collection.

Generation 2 – Geo (Earth)

The Geo generation is stable, reliable, and seeks to build a lasting legacy. They are practical and hard-working, focused on wealth and security.

Traits: Ambitious, Materialistic, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Mansion Baron or Fabulously Wealthy

Career: Business or Architect (modded careers can work here)

Signature Color: Gold and Brown

Theme: Stability, strength, and opulence

Goals:

Max the Handiness and Gemology skills.

Build or purchase the largest house possible by the end of their lifetime.

Collect rare stones or gems.

Have a large family (minimum of 3 children) to secure their "dynasty."

Their home must be large and built with strong materials (use stone textures, earthy tones, and gold accents).

Optional: Complete the Crystal collection.

Generation 3 – Electro (Electricity)

The Electro generation is energetic, impulsive, and creative. They thrive on innovation and technology but can be unpredictable.

Traits: Genius, Hot-Headed, Erratic

Aspiration: Computer Whiz or Master Maker

Career: Engineer or Tech Guru

Signature Color: Purple and Black

Theme: Bold, modern, and futuristic

Goals:

Max the Programming and Robotics skills.

Build at least 3 electronic devices from scratch (robotic helpers, drones, etc.).

Create a "high-tech" home, featuring lots of gadgets, electronic lights, and futuristic décor.

Occasionally sabotage friendships or relationships due to impulsive behavior, but make amends afterward.

Have 2 children, both of whom must be raised to appreciate technology and innovation.

Optional: Complete the Space Prints collection.

Generation 4 – Dendro (Nature)

The Dendro generation has a deep connection with plants and animals. They value growth, nurturing, and environmental stewardship.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian, Green Fiend

Aspiration: Freelance Botanist or Country Caretaker (if you have Cottage Living)

Career: Gardener or Veterinarian

Signature Color: Green and Yellow

Theme: Natural, lush, and earthy

Goals:

Max the Gardening and Herbalism skills.

Maintain a large garden with at least 8 different types of plants, including rare and exotic species.

Live in a home that is mostly natural materials and surrounded by greenery (think lots of wood, plants, and natural light).

Befriend at least 5 animals and adopt at least one pet.

Have 2-3 children who help maintain the garden or care for animals.

Optional: Complete the Gardening collection.

Generation 5 – Hydro (Water)

The Hydro generation is peaceful, creative, and adaptable, often focused on emotions and connection to others. They enjoy helping and healing others.

Traits: Creative, Family-Oriented, Child of the Ocean

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire or Friend of the World

Career: Doctor, Painter, or Conservationist

Signature Color: Blue and Teal

Theme: Flowing, serene, and aquatic

Goals:

Max the Painting and Fitness skills.

Build a home near water (by a pool, lake, or beach) with soft blues and aquatic-themed décor.

Spend as much time as possible swimming or in water-related activities.

Throw at least 3 major family gatherings or parties during their lifetime.

Have at least 2 children and be heavily involved in their lives, fostering strong relationships.

Become a merperson.

Optional: Complete the Seashell collection.

Generation 6 – Pyro (Fire)

The Pyro generation is passionate, energetic, and sometimes a bit fiery or temperamental. They are driven to succeed and live life to the fullest.

Traits: Hot-Headed, Outgoing, Ambitious

Aspiration: Serial Romantic or Party Animal

Career: Chef, Actor, or Athlete

Signature Color: Red and Orange

Theme: Bold, passionate, and energetic

Goals:

Max the Cooking (or Mixology) and Romance skills.

Throw a minimum of 5 major parties during their lifetime, with as many sims as possible attending.

Create a home with bold, bright colors (especially red and orange) and a focus on social spaces like kitchens or bars.

Have a fiery romance with multiple partners, but ultimately settle down with one true love.

Have 1-2 children, but with a strained relationship early on (resolve it as they age).

Optional: Complete the Voidcritter collection.

Generation 7 – Cryo (Ice)

The Cryo generation is calm, stoic, and sometimes distant. They can be emotionally guarded but are reliable and thoughtful once you get to know them.

Traits: Loner, Perfectionist, Gloomy

Aspiration: Nerd Brain or Academic

Career: Scientist or Detective

Signature Color: Light Blue and White

Theme: Cool, calm, and reserved

Goals:

Max the Logic and Research & Debate skills.

Build a home in a cold or wintery area (with ice-themed décor, white or light blue tones).

Avoid close relationships for much of their young adult life, but form a deep bond with a single Sim later on.

Visit Mt. Komorebi or another winter vacation spot at least twice.

Have 1-2 children who grow up in a more reserved, intellectual environment.

Bring the founder back to life.

Optional: Complete the Snowglobe collection.

Bonus: Legacy Symbolism

To tie the legacy together, introduce a family heirloom or symbol that changes with each generation but keeps the essence of the element. For example a painting from reference of each heir, or a photograph.

Build a museum to display the heirlooms and collectibles for future generations.

Have the legacy founder write The Book of Life and pass it down through each generation, then revive them in the last generation.

Link to the Google Docs version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j04NTssNN9cwBeJGE3_ZEypmQFLt6-XdXoUCAIUks7A/edit?usp=sharing

[maxfoxdbh]

Markus and a biker crush? Like they have this awesome motorcycle and helmet that give them the most intimidating/badass aesthetic and vibe but really they're just a teddy bear. Also some flustered Markus would be awesome (I just found your account so expect more requests from me!)

OMG I can totally see him being into that kind of person lol 🥰 Thank you for requesting :)

I'm sorry it took a while. I took a bit of a break because my school just started up 😓

You’re Not Scared, Are You?

Biker! Reader x Markus

Summary: Markus has never met anyone quite as great as you, he just doesn’t know how to vocalize it.

Biker! reader

Post revolution

Jericho gang are buddies ❤️

Markus is whipped af

No warnings

💫💫💫

It was finally over. Markus could relax. Of course, things still weren’t perfect for Androids, but the improvement was so great that he finally felt safe and secure.

Ever since becoming Deviant, almost all of what he felt was distress, anger, fear.

Real happiness was rare, purely because of the state of the world. His future was uncertain, his people were in camps. It was hard to be happy when so much was wrong.

But now? Things were alright. He sat in the cool darkness of one of North, Simon, Josh and his favorite hang on spots. A park not too far south of the Spirit of Detroit Statue.

Simon smiled softly at him, leaning against one of the old oak trees. “Someone seems dazed, ” he noted.

Markus’s eyes flickered up to meet those of his blonde friend. “We really did it,” he said simply, “we’re free.”

“Yeah, Markus,” North chuckled with a smile, “we have been for months now.”

He wasn’t sure how to justify his bewilderment. The truth was, reality hadn’t actually hit him until just now. Markus was free. It was all over.

“You saved all of us, Markus,” Josh chimed in, propping himself up against on of the metal poles of the swing set, “we couldn’t have done it without you.”

“That’s not true,” He insisted, slightly embarrassed to take all of the credit for something as big as a revolution, “you know we wouldn’t have won if we weren’t all together.”

Simon smiled, “Yes, but you’re our leader. We’re happy to have you, Markus.”

The elected leader’s face softened and the corners of his lips turned up. “I’m happy to-” He cut himself off, hearing the roaring noise of an engine.

Markus’s head spun to the right, staring as a figure approached, perched up upon the seat over a motorcycle.

He stared the person up and down, eyes wide.

You wore a sleek, black helmet. It was too dark to see your face under the tinted glass.

Your leather jacket was worn and well loved. It looked cool as hell on you, but the real showstopper, arguably, was your bike, shiny and black with horizontal red striping.

Markus gazed in awe at both the machine and at the person stepping off of it.

He didn't think he’d ever seen someone so cool.

“Y/n,” Simon grinned, LED glowing bright blue in the dark, “you’re here!” He turned to the group, “This is my friend,” He introduced you, “We met at the music store.”

“Hey,” Your voice was calm and airy as you lifted you hand and cocked it to the side to say hello.

“Hey,” Josh tilted his head up in acknowledgment, pressing the heel of his shoe against the swing set.

Markus’s eyes were wide, cheeks flushing slightly as he took in the cool, tranquil aura you gave off.

“I hear you’re a human,” Josh notes suspiciously, arms crossed.

You turn your head to him, nodding. “Yeah,” You twisted your boot in the dirt.

You blinked up at the night sky and felt a snowflake drop onto your hand.

“Y/n is a good friend of mine,” Simon insisted with his hands up, smiling, “you don’t have to worry.”

He takes a moment to introduce you to Josh and North, who loosened up slightly.

North looks you up and down with narrowed eyes, analyzing you, looking for any signs of danger. “If Simon trusts you, then I do too.”

You nodded even though you were sure that she was still skeptical of you. Your hands reached for the clasp of your helmet and with ease, you pulled it off of your head.

Markus felt his artificial heart pound as you made a weak attempt to smooth down your hair.

Stunning.

You tucked the helmet under your leather-clad arm with a smile. Your face was soft, much kinder than Markus had expected.

Josh shrugged, “I agree. Besides, I’ve never met a real biker before.”

You giggled and tilted your head, hair falling slightly in front of your eyes, “I’m not very exciting.”

Markus raised his eyebrows, artificial heart pounding.

If only you knew.

“You must be Markus,” You smiled, holding out your hand, “Simon told me a lot about you.”

Markus blinked, not expecting you to suddenly speak to him. Mustering up all of his courage, he opened his mouth.

“I-I like your bike!” He blurted out, cheeks a growing shade of blue.

Snickers echoed around you as the members of Jericho whispered something about a crush.

You raised your eyebrows and lowered you hand hesitantly as Markus rushed to explain himself.

“I mean- I like you too! Well, I don’t like you like you, but- Well actually-” He shook his head, rambling on and on. “I didn’t mean it like that, really. I was just saying-”

“Do you want to come on a ride?” You cut him off with a question, tilting your head to the side coyly.

The cold breeze drifted through the loose hairs around your face and looking at Markus’s face, you could already feel your adrenaline rush building, feel the surge of energy that came from riding your bike.

“O-On the motorcycle?” He stammered, pointing to it with wide eyes.

You nodded with a smile, listening to the scattered giggles of Jericho’s leading members. “Well, I didn’t bring a car.”

Markus’s face flushed with color, heat rising in his cheeks. It was hard to maintain eye contact with you. “Yes,” The side of his mouth twisted into a nervous smile, “I guess that’s true.”

You watched as his eyes flickered between you and the bike, eyebrows taut together with apprehension.

North scoffed, watching as their fearless leader clenched his jaw, foot twisting in the dirt. “You’re not scared, are you?” She teased.

“What?” Markus asked, whipping his head around to look at her. He shook his head. “No. No, I’m not.”

You smiled and grabbed his hand gently, eyes sparkling with anticipation, “Then let’s go,” You grinned, pulling a hesitant Markus to your side.

He felt his nerves untense, scooching behind you on the back of the black and red bike.

You felt his fingertips apprehensively press into your sides and electricity buzzed throughout your body as you turned you head to look at him, putting on your helmet. “Ready?” You smiled.

Markus took in your steely leather-clad appearance again and then listened to the sweetness of your voice before nodding.

Without another word, the two of you took off into the night.

[lilysdaydreams]

For Them

→ Pairing : Corpse Husband X Fem!Reader

→ Genre : fluff.

→ Warnings : Swearing, Reader panicking a bit.

→ Request : Heya! I was thinking maybe a corpse x reader where the reader is playing among us with him and the gang and they use the proximity mic and he walks past her to hear her singing and she’s kept her singing like a MAJOR secret because she’s shy about it- idk you don’t have to do it if ya don’t feel like it it’s just an idea 💛

→ A/N : Oh my god, did Lily finally finish writing something??? YES SHE DID. Pretty happy with this, so I hope you guys enjoy as well! Sorry for any spelling mistakes :) Requests are open!

~~~

You grabbed the water on the table, moving to the side and out of the camera to quickly take a few sips. You could hear the rest of the group still yelling about the previous game. You laughed quietly hearing Peter and Rae yell at each other.

Looking over at chat you hummed as you took  in the questions.

"How much longer am I streaming?" you read out the question.

"Probably a few more games. Maybe like 30 more minutes. I wanna go get dinner soon." you mumbled as you kept on scanning the chat.

A random question caught your eye.

"Do I sing?" you read out with a laugh.

"Wow, that's such a random question oh my god. Um, I used to want to be a singer when I was a kid," you started leaning back in your chair. You looked at the ceiling reminiscing and chuckled when you remembered the concerts you used to throw for your parents.

"I used to get my parents to be the audience and I would sing all my different songs for them. When they weren't free, I would do it for all of my plushies on my bed. Oh my god, I probably have old videos in the basement or something."

You smiled wistfully, looking back onto the screen.

"Those were good times," you muttered.

Looking back onto chat, your eyes widened at the amount of  "SING FOR US" messages.

"Woah guys, calm down, that was when I was a kid. I don't sing seriously you know that right?" you questioned, laughing at how fast the chat was going.

"Okay okay," you said smiling when they didn't stop. "Lemme ju- Oh wait" you cut yourself off seeing the words "IMPOSTER" light up your screen.

"LETS GOOOOO" you yelled, turning your mic on again for the game. Everyone's voice slowly faded as people went different ways. You  stuck with Lily, both of you going straight to medbay.

"Lilyyyyy" you said dragging her name out.

"Y/N" she said doing the same to you.

You giggled, and asked her if she had med scan.

"Nope, I have the inspecting the sample one."

"Ohh okay," you said getting on the med scan and pretending to scan. You watched as Lily finished her task, saying a quiet "bye" and rushing off to the next task.

You sighed, moving off the scan and starting to walk towards weapons. "Lily's so nice, I'm so glad I got to meet her through this. Like, she's the absolute sweetest I swear, I'm hoping that I get to m-" you got cut off by a body being reported.

"Already?" you asked, others echoing. You gasped when you saw who was killed, immediately whining about how someone could kill Sykunno, while playfully glaring at Sean's name, who was the other imposter.

"Okay, so the body was at reactor," revealed Rae.

"I was in the cafeteria, going towards weapons. Me and Lily were in Medbay before but she left before me," you said leaning back.

Lily confirmed this, also stating that she was in weapons now.

Sean, Corpse and Felix all said they were in Electrical, and Poki said she'd been in storage.

You looked at the chat again, not saying anything while the rest said where they were.

The chat was still spamming "Sing please!" and you looked back to the game without giving an answer. If you were being honest, then what you had said before was a lie. You still sang. Hell, it had been your dream to release your songs ever since you started writing at 15. You had started singing by singing for your parents. Ever since their car crash though, you couldn't even think about  performing for anyone else. If you couldn't even  perform for them, then what was the point? For some reason, whenever you thought of  singing in front of someone, you couldn't even get the words out.

You sighed and skipped voting as the timer ticked down. No one was ejected and you started humming slightly as you moved away from everyone.

"Hmm should I sing you a song everyone?" you asked your voice very low. You breathed deeply reminding yourself that technically no one was in the room with you, and it was only your fans watching, a small community of people who were the sweetest you had ever seen.

Going into reactor and moving down to the very end so that no one could see you, you breathed in deeply and started singing lightly, noticing that the lights were off, the blinking arrow in the corner of your screen.

"I think we could do it if we tried

If only to say you're mine

Sofia, know that you and I

Shouldn't feel like a crime

You know I'll do anything you ask me to

But oh my God, I think I'm in love with you

Standin' here alone now, think that we -"

"Y/N what the fuck your voice is -"

You screamed before the person could even finish what they were saying, hitting the "kill" button without even realising, and letting out a gasp when you saw the black body flop over.

"Oh god, oh my god, what did I do?" you whispered staring at Corpses body, half of your brain freaking out over the fact that he had heard you and the other freaking out what to do. You quickly vented, coming out in electrical and pretending to do the download.

"Oh my god, guys!" you whispered furiously, playfully glaring at the camera. "This is all your fault, do you see what I did, I killed someone with my singing... I just got so scared because he came out of absolutely NOWHERE, oh my god guys." Leaving electrical, you heard someone yelling and headed closer to them laughing nervously when you found Toast and Sean yelling at each other.

"Hey guys," you said voice being unnoticed because of all the yelling and you moved into comms pretending to do a task there.

Just as you did that, Pokis body was found, and you gasped as you realised that Sean had killed three people so now there were 5 left. Toast was dead, which means that he just died, which left Sean, you, Rae, Lily and Leslie.

There was a stunned silence for a second as everyone took in the 4 kills and then Rae immediately  attacked.

"Ahh, the body was in cafeteria. Like bottom cafeteria."

"Um, So I just wanna add something, I was coming from the electrical right, and I was walking to comms, and Toast just passed in the middle of storage. I came into comms and Sean is here as well.

"Yup, shes right, toast just left and she came in." confirmed Sean.

"Well, I saw Leslie at the start of the round, we stuck together and then I was with Poki for a bit."

"Yeah okay, but where were you?"

"Well, I went to weapons then I went down into comms and storage and then I went electrical when lights were called and everyone was ther-" she said cutting herself off and gasping.  “Guess who WASNT there? Y/N wasn’t there!”

“Well yeah, I just thought someone else would do it” you replied. “I was all the way in upper engine and I couldn’t be bothered. You all did lights and I was doing my tasks in reactor and then I went to electrical and then I was waking to comms, and then I saw toast and then I got into comma and saw Sean. Even if I was the imposter and killed Toast, I definitely couldn’t have been able to kill Poki.”

“Yeah no, I still think it’s you,” said Rae after a pause, Leslie and Lily both giggling at her.

Lily chimed in then as well, “Yeah I haven’t seen y/n this whole round at ALLLLL, so I think its her as well."

Ignoring your protests, they all voted you out, and you shrugged at the camera as your character was thrown off the  ship.

"I think I'm okay with that guys, I was way too nervous to still play," you muttered, now looking at the chat.

"Guys," you whined suddenly remembering. "I was only meant to sing for you, I didn't want anyone else to hear it, Corpse literally came out of nowhere. I hope he wasn't deafened by my screeching," you grimaced.

The word "Victory" came onto your screen and you huffed out  a laugh as the lobby exploded with noise.

"Lily! I told you it was Sean!" exclaimed Rae.

"Sean was on a killing spree," you added in, sipping your water. "I only killed like two people cuz I was distracted, I swear he literally carried the whole game.”

“He backstabbed me!” said Sykkuno and you could hear the smile in his voice. “I was doing upload while he was right next to me and we were talking about how great this group was and he just killed me right there!”

Suddenly all the attention was on Sykkuno as everyone started cooing.

“Awww, Sykkuno, did you just compliment us?” Rae yelled, lots of other chiming in to tease Sykunno and him ending up stuttering because he got flustered.

“Alright guys,” you said when everyone quieted down. "I think I'm gonna go now."

"NOOOOO" yelled Rae, everyone else echoing her.

You smiled and quickly said your goodbyes, logging off the game and quickly saying bye to the viewers and ending that as well.

Slumping into your chair, your breath quickened. "Oh my god," you whispered, the realization creeping up on you that you had just sung in front of nearly ten thousand people and that Corpse had heard you sing. You and Corpse had met through Among Us with Toast inviting you to the lobby. You had fun playing with him and you'd both followed each other, but most of your interaction was in games. Like sure you'd messaged each other a few times but those were only brief conversations! and sure, maybe you had a small tiny crush on the guy but like WHO WOULDNT? He was sweet, nice and you related to him a lot. The point was, you were absolutely not ready to sing in front of him. You stood up from the chair and went to the kitchen, pouring yourself a glass of water to calm down.

Your phone rang and you grabbed it from the counter, choking on the water as you saw that it was from Corpse.

He had never called you before. Like you said you simply weren't that close.

Coughing out a "What the fuck?" you answered the call, grabbing onto the counter for support.

"Hey," you said, confused when there was no sound.

"Uh yeah, Hi Y/N. Its Corpse."

"Ah yeah, I see." You facepalmed yourself, rubbing your forehead. What the fucks was wrong with you.

"Um yeah, so uh I just- You know in the game? Um I kind of - well - I kind of heard you singing, um um, that song."

You stilled, not a breath coming out of you.

"Your voice, its -" he paused, letting out a huge breath. "It's absolutely beautiful."

You opened your mouth not even sure what you were gonna say but he continued talking.

"I just, I cant get it out of my mind. Have you heard some of my music?"

"Um yeah, I-I listened to it when I first heard about you. Your songs are so good!" you exclaimed, finally being able to move your mouth

"Do you think maybe we could do a song together sometime? Your voice would be absolutely amazing on one of the tracks I'm currently working on, its a chill one that I have, kind of like Agoraphobic," he asked, rambling through the sentence.

"Um, Oh my god," you muttered, still confused on if this was actually happening. "Yeah, Yeah definitely that would be so cool."

"Oh. Oh that's great, I-I didn't think you'd agree, that's great, I can send you a sample and the lyrics but -"

"Um," you started cutting him off. "If I'm being honest," you muttered, shoulders coming up to your ears. "I'm actually really conscious about my singing. Like this was the absolute first time I ever even sang on stream, so like sorry- I'm ruining it, but this is just a bit overwhelming for me. It's a great opportunity, and if you want I can definitely try but please don't have big expectations of me okay?" you asked biting your lip slightly. "I'm not that great."

There was a second of silence and then he whispered lightly, "Even if you don't believe it, just from those 30 seconds, I could already tell how amazing your voice was."

Your breath caught but a second later he had already moved on.

"If you want to, we could do a few singing sessions together? Just mess around have some fun? That way you can get a bit more comfortable and have some fun," he suggested, voice changing to a shy one that you hadn't ever heard from him.

~~~

"Yeah sure," you agreed, smiling. "Lets try that."

3 months later, you guys finally released your song. Titled "For Them", you sang about your parents who you had loved dearly, and he sang about his parents and their distant relationship. It showed two different perspectives, two different stories, two different lives, and you both loved it so much.

The song was a success, with fans pouring into your channel and small community and well, your life. Most importantly though, along with all of it, came a mask-wearing man, who held you on the days that it was hard for you, and who you held on the nights that were hard for him.

fin.

[highonchocolate]

One More Cup of Coffee

ML Secret Santa for @togetherwekill! Happy Holidays :D

@mlsecretsanta

—-

The Queer Cafe: A Safe Space for LGBTQ+ People. All are welcome! 

Spoiler stared down at the cafe from her perch on a nearby rooftop. Black Bat crouched beside her, silent and still as ever, her only movement the flutter of her cape in the wind. The little shop was located in Amusement Mile, just on the outskirts of Crime Alley. Quite an interesting location for a cafe.

Logically, since it posed no threat, they should have moved on in their patrol route a while ago, but something was keeping her rooted to the spot. As cliche as it sounds, it was as if the Universe wanted her to go inside. 

Looking over at her partner, Spoiler indicated the still-open shop. “Wanna check it out? Patrol’s slow tonight.” 

Black Bat paused for a moment, considering the question, before nodding once. “Fast.”

“Yeah, okay. We’ll make it fast.” She jumped down from the building, landing in front of the door in a flash of purple. Black Bat followed, a silent shadow beside her.

She pulled open the door, and the heavenly scent of baked goods and coffee hit her nose. “Oh my gosh,” She moaned longingly. “That smells amazing.” She quickly walked (not ran, good vigilantes don’t run when they smell delicious food) inside, hand clasped around Black Bat’s to drag her in as well. The cheery jingle of the bell above the door chimed once, twice, and the two baristas at the counter looked up at the noise. One was male, with black hair frosted a light teal at the tips, and the other was female, with blond hair and blue eyes. “I don’t understand why I can’t be on the morning shift with Nettie and Kagami!” The blonde one was complaining as they approached the counter.

“Chloé, we all know that if you were in the morning shift, you would be cranky as hell because you had to get up at six. Don’t even try and deny it.” The man laughed. “Besides, you just want to be with your girlfriend while she works.” 

“..Maybe.” The girl, Chloé, grumbled in reply, crossing her arms petulantly.

Noticing Spoiler and Black Bat, they immediately stopped chatting and turned to the counter. 

“Hello. How may I help you?” The blue haired man smiled as they approached. His eyes were unnaturally teal, and they seemed to flash as they made eye contact. He radiated tranquillity, as opposed to Chloé, who seemed to have a loud, crackling energy that demanded your attention, and tugged at you until you noticed her presence. 

“Hey, uh, Luka.” Spoiler squinted at his name tag. “Could I get a cup of coffee, with cream and sugar?” 

“Sure.” He turned away to prepare her order, humming softly as he worked.

“What would you like?” Chloé turned to face Black Bat, a customer service smile plastered on her face.

Black Bat said nothing, opting to remain quiet in the face of this stranger, sizing her up and analyzing her body language to get a read on her character. 

At her silence, Chloé’s smile turned a bit more real, electric blue eyes softening as she pointed to a sign next to the display case.

All our employees are fluent in ASL, French, and English. Let us know if you speak a different language! 

Black Bat scanned it briefly, before nodding once and lifting her hands to sign. ‘Black coffee, please.’ 

‘No cream or sugar?’ Chloé signed back.

‘Sugar, no cream.’

‘Okay, You can head down there and wait,’ she indicated the other end of the counter, ‘your order will be completed shortly.’

“Thank you.” Spoiler spoke, cringing at how her words broke the calm silence that had come with their nonverbal conversation.

Chloé gave her a small smile. “You’re welcome.” 

—-

They were silent as they grappled back home. When they had showered and  eaten, Stephanie turned to Cass who was curled up beside her one the couch. “What’d you think of that cafe?” She asked quietly, running her fingers through dark hair, still damp and smelling faintly of flowers from her earlier shower. 

Cass hummed thoughtfully, head resting on Steph’s shoulder. “Safe. Trustworthy.” She paused. “Go back in the morning?” 

Steph smiled down at her. “Yeah, I’d like that. Maybe they have waffles.” She said hopefully, wiggling excitedly at the thought.

Cass laughed quietly, turning her head and pressing a quick kiss to her shoulder. Standing, she offered a hand and pulled Steph up. “Bedtime.”

“Yeah, I can get behind that.” She yawned, swatting away the blond strands of hair hanging in her face. “Lead the way, babe.” 

—-

They woke up a few hours later, cuddled together in a mess of limbs underneath the warm blanket. Yawning, Cass gently untangled herself from Steph’s grip, before heading into the bathroom to brush her teeth. 

By the time she walked back out in black tights and a matching sweatshirt, Steph was awake, blonde hair a tangled mess on her head.�� She snuggled deeper into her blanket as Cass approached, stubbornly keeping her eyes shut. Cass’ lips quirked into a smile at her adorably grumpy look. 

“Come.” She kissed her nose gently, “Going to cafe.” 

Steph grumbled out a sleepy reply, eyes finally opening. 

“Gimme,” She yawned, “Fifteen minutes, Cass.” Another yawn. “And then we can go.” 

Cass beamed down at her, giving her another kiss-on the cheek this time- before heading downstairs.

True to her word, Stephanie came downstairs fifteen minutes later, clad in warm black leggings and a white top, purple cardigan thrown around her shoulders.

“Let’s go!” She grinned, earlier tiredness replaced with her usual vibrant energy. 

Cass smiled back, already straddling her sleek black motorcycle. Seeing her girlfriend’s ride, Steph immediately hopped onto her matching purple bike, revving the engine and following behind as they weaved through the busy streets.

They stopped in front of the familiar storefront, the charming sign proudly declaring it was ‘Open for Business’

The bell above the door once again heralded their arrival with a loud chime. This time there were two women at the counter. They could have been mistaken for twins with their matching heads of raven hair, if it wasn’t for their different colored eyes and facial structure. Interestingly, when one of them shifted, her sleeve moved, revealing a hexagonal tattoo on her inner wrist. Cass immediately noticed it, nudging Steph softly in the side, and she immediately committed its whorls and lines to memory. Thankfully it didn’t seem to match any of the gang symbols she knew of, which was a relief. The food here was so good she’d hate to have to fight the owners in some turf war next week or something.

“Hello!” The one with the tattoo grinned at them, otherworldly sapphire eyes gleaming. What was it with these people and their strange eyes? “What would you like today?” 

“Coffee, cream with no sugar.” Cass said, spine straight, gaze unwavering. Assessing. The other woman didn’t even flinch in the face of her stare, choosing to smile, even as a pink flush crept over her cheeks. Her name tag read Marinette.

“Of course! Would you like anything else?”

“Bagel, please.” 

“Okay.” Some hair had fallen out of her messy bun, and she tucked it behind her ear as she turned to Steph. “What would you like?” 

“Uh, do you have waffles?” Steph blurted out, feeling embarrassed for no reason. 

“We do! Would you like any toppings?”

“Um, just whipped cream and chocolate syrup, if you don’t mind.” She fought the urge to fidget. 

Why was she getting so nervous?! It wasn’t her first time meeting a pretty girl! Besides, she already had a girlfriend.

‘But Cass said she would be open to three, remember?’ A traitorous voice whispered in her mind. 

She squashed it down. Marinette probably wasn’t even interested in her, much less the two of them.

“No problem. Do you want a drink with that or is water good?”

“Water’s fine, thank you.”

“And can I have a name for your order?”  

“Oh, it’s Stephanie. Stephanie Brown.”

Marinette smiled, “Your order will be out in a few minutes. Feel free to take a seat in the meantime!”

She walked over to a vacant table with two seats and plopped down in one, allowing her head to thunk down on the table with a groan. She heard Cass slide into the seat across from her, and felt her warm hand grip her own. “Was pretty.” Cass said quietly, noticing her blush. “Maybe…?”

She allowed the question to hang in the air as Steph lifted her head to look over at her. “Those eyes,” she said reverently. “I think I’m in love.” 

Cass shot her an answering grin, answering the unspoken question hovering over their heads. Yes, She seemed to say. I would be okay with both of you. 

“You sure?” Steph breathed out hopefully. After all, she had been the one to suggest the idea of a third in the first place. 

“Yes.” She nodded firmly. Anything else they were going to say was cut off by the arrival of their food. 

“Here you go!” Marinette smiled cheerily, setting two plates down. 

“Thank you, this looks amazing!” Stephanie told her enthusiastically, the warm scent of just baked waffles rising to her nose, mixing pleasantly with the smells of bagels and coffee.

“Smells good. Thank you.” Cass smiled up at her, watching as she flushed from their compliments.

“Oh, thank you! Enjoy!” She smoothed down her skirt and walked back to the counter with a smile.

—-

Before Steph knew it, they were going to that little cafe nearly every day, and although she tried to deny it, she knew it was because they both had the smallest crush on a certain ravenette. But Marinette clearly did not like their presence, if the way she would turn red (flushed or angry?) and begin to stutter or ramble whenever they were within ten feet of each other was any indication. 

She also seemed to get more worked up whenever they stopped by, seeing as she once dropped an entire plate of tiramisu when they walked in through the door. Not to mention all the other times it happened, whether it was dumping a batch of flour over her head, or spilling coffee on her apron, but it only served to make her that much sweeter in their eyes.

Of course, Adrien, another barista with blond hair and a forest green gaze, was quick to reassure the both of them that Marinette was a hopeless bisexual disaster, and she would always turn fire engine red and trip over her words (and feet) whenever she had a crush on someone.

After that, it was easy for them to ask her out.

“Hey Steph, hey Cass!” She laughed nervously. “What can I get you for today?”

Cass, straight to the point as always, stepped forward and looked her in the eyes. “Your number.” 

It was comical how fast her face turned red. “What?”

“Could we get your number, Mari?” Steph repeated, refusing to waver.

“I didn’t think you were interested-uh are you sure?” She spluttered.

“Yes,” They said in unison, ignoring how Adrien was cheering in the background.

“Oh wow, um okay, sure!” She tucked her hair behind her ears nervously, grabbing a pink sticky note and scribbling down a set of numbers in looping cursive.

“Thanks Mari,” Steph grinned, “We’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Oh! Um, yeah!” She waved as they walked out of the store. And continued waving, a lovestruck grin on her face.

“Bug, you can put your hand down now,” Adrien laughed.

“Oh my god Adrien!” She let her head drop into her palms, “That was a disaster! On a scale from ‘you’ll be fine’ to ‘never show your face in public again,’ how bad was it?”

“I think it was pretty good, considering they’re both coming back tomorrow, and they asked you for your number,” He said, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively. “Is there some romance in our Mari’s future?”

“Wait, were they both flirting with me?!” She shrieked, suddenly jolting up from her slumped position. “Was that them asking me on a date?!”

“How would I know? Romance is over my head.” He shrugged. “Ask Chloé if you need help with that kinda thing.”

“Oh my god,” She groaned, sliding down in her seat. “I’m hopeless.” 

“Hopelessly in love!”

—-

Soon enough, the two of them were regulars at the little cafe, in both their civilian and vigilante lives.

Cass would spend hours listening t o Luka’s music, the two of them communicating in a language only they seemed to understand. 

Stephanie and Chloé also grew close, their loud personalities and similar temperaments often prompting people to ask if they were twins, or sisters. 

Spoiler and Adrien hit it off as well, joking back and forth with each other as he prepared her order at ungodly hours of the morning, sunshine smile ever present.

Kagami and Black Bat, as unlikely a pairing as it seemed, also bonded over fighting styles, and their shared determination to get things done.

Group movie nights, random get togethers, spontaneous trips to the mall, soon the two of them couldn’t imagine life without the crazy group of five that had somehow become such a major part of their lives.

—-

And one winter night, as they cuddled together on Cass’ couch, Marinette told them of nineteen gods, bound to jewelry, and how time and time again heroes rose to protect the world. She spoke of a temple burned to ash, a sacred duty passed down from Master to Apprentice, and a tale of a corrupted brooch and how a man's undying love for his wife drove him to darkness. 

And after she finished her tale, silver tears glistening on her cheeks from the memories she had relived, Steph and Cass pulled her closer, clutching her tightly; and recounted their stories to her, whispering to her of swinging through the city at night, watching from the shadows high above, and battling in the name of justice.

As she snuggled deeper into her girlfriends’ warm embrace, Stephanie couldn’t help but be grateful for the small pull of fate that had led her into a coffee shop at two in the morning. 

Nothing could possibly ruin this.

Until her phone chimed with texts from Dick, Alfred, Bruce, and Tim asking her what, exactly, she thought she was doing, and why she was in a random apartment near Crime Alley. 

So that’s what they forgot...

[joezworld]

Mind Reading, Soul Stealing, Red Eyed, Diesel Electric Monsters!

June, 2000

A new millennium dawned on the Island of Sodor, and with it came many changes that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

British Rail was no more, and the North Western Region was now the North Western Railway, free to operate as it pleased.

One of the first things that The Fat Controller did was purchase a new express train.

Gordon was apoplectic at this news, but the Fat Controller explained that this new service was to be a through train to London - steam engines hadn’t been allowed on the mainland rails for decades, and under British Rail, a new locomotive would take the coaches to and from London. Now that BR was no more, it was more economical to purchase a dedicated trainset and avoid the locomotive change at Barrow.

Furthermore, Gordon would still be rostered on the midday express and the Limited, both of which only went as far as Barrow.

Pip and Emma had visited Sodor once before, and had been well received by the other engines. However, once it was revealed that Gordon would be displaced from some of his trains, some engines became suspicious...

The engines had speculated that the Fat Controller would purchase a new diesel locomotive to haul the train, and were very surprised to discover that he had instead bought a high speed train!

-

"Ah canno' put ma buffer on it," Douglas admitted. "But they're doing something! Just look at how they act - the lasses must be scheming or something!"

"Ah'm tellin' ye - they are up ta something!" Douglas said to the other engines in the shed.

"And wha' might that be Douggie?" Asked Donald. Unlike his brother, he had no issue with the diesels, and was confused as to why his brother was so vehemently against them.

"Those two have been nothing but polite and cordial this entire time, and- oh bollocks." Duck began, before his eyes widened in realization. "Do not tell me that you have been listening to Oliver again!"

The other engines groaned - Oliver's escape from the mainland had put him in contact with some of the worst diesels that BR had ever fielded, and he still didn’t trust them as a result. Furthermore, his relatively isolated duties on the Little Western meant that his only real contact with diesels was limited to BoCo, Bear, and Delta - three engines who had all 'escaped' from the mainland in one form or another. He held a pessimistic view towards other diesels, and most of the engines had learned to tune him out as a result.

Apparently Douglas had not. "Ah have - and he's right! That's how it starts - they come in all peaceful and nice, and then Boom! All diesels all the time! Ah saw it happen once and ah'm not about to let it happen again!"

"Oh my god" said Donald and Duck in unison. They were going to have words with Oliver the next time they saw him.

-

Across the yard at the newly-built diesel shed, the diesels were listening to Douglas' ranting.

"Well, I'm glad that we haven't actually done anything to upset him." Pip said after a moment.

"I was worried that we'd said something." Emma chimed in from the back.

Bear rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, let me be the first to say that I am glad that you aren't actually evil monsters out to destroy steam traction."

Everyone laughed at that, and evidently did so just a little bit too loud, because...

"AH KNEW IT! They're conspiring against uz!" Douglas shouted from inside the shed.

The diesels stopped laughing and stared at the shed, while the steam engines began berating Douglas.

That brought a fresh wave of shouting from within the shed, while the diesels looked at each other incredulously.

The other engines weren't audible, but Douglas certainly was. "Well maybe no' on purpose! But ye don' know what these new things ken do! They might 'ave mind control powers or something!"

"Mind control powers?" Bear said with a raised eyebrow. "Where does he even get that from?"

"Is that normal?" Said Pip, suddenly concerned about having to work with these engines on a regular basis.

"Not especially." Said Delta. "But when it does happen, they're like this until they suffer a karmically appropriate pratfall, at which point they realize that they've been stupid and apologize."

The others stared at her.

"What?" She protested. "Why do you think I never get too big for my wheels if I can help it? I've read the books! I know what happens to the rest of you!"

Bear and BoCo exchanged a significant look, while Pip looked thoughtful.

"So, that pratfall," she said slowly, a sly look spreading across her face. "Do you lot feel like speeding up when it happens?"

-------------

And so they did.

Henry and James were soon involved in this scheme by virtue of being 'involved' with Bear and Delta, and spent the next several days figuring out exactly what Oliver and Douglas were saying about Pip and Emma. They eventually compiled a long list of imagined abilities, including mind control, telepathy, soul-stealing, invisibility, and the ability to lie with a straight face.

(The steam engines disputed that last point, but all the diesels agreed that it was the only thing on the list that was true.)

-

A week later, they first sprang their plan. Douglas was idling at the big station as Pip and Emma loaded their passengers. He made a conscious effort to ignore the HST set, which was helped somewhat by Bear backing into the track in between him and them.

Then things began to go strangely.

"Oh, not much. How about you?" Bear said in response to nothing.

Douglas looked around to see who he could be talking to, and found nobody else.

"Very interesting." Continued Bear. "I'd never considered that before. Is that new?"

After a moment of silence: "I see."

A pause.

"I wonder how that would work on this Island?"

Silence.

"Really?"

More silence.

"Well I would have never guessed!"

Douglas began to wonder if he was losing his mind when Pip's guard blew his whistle and the HST rolled away towards Barrow.

After a long moment, Douglas spoke up. "Bear, who were ye talking to?"

"Pip?" Bear said, confused.

"No ye weren’t!" Exclaimed Douglas. "Ye were talkin' to thin air!"

"I was not! We were having a most interesting conversation. I'm surprised you didn't hear it, considering we were right next to you."

"Ye said nuthin!" Douglas protested.

"I think you need to get your hearing checked." Bear said as he pulled away with his goods train. He broke into a wide smile as soon as he was out of sight.

--

Next it was Oliver. He made a rare trip beyond the Little Western to collect a train of China Clay from Wellsworth. BoCo was asleep in the station's bay platform when he arrived, so Oliver quietly collected the clay wagons.

As he waited at the signal to leave, Oliver noticed that BoCo was mumbling in his sleep.

"No... mustn't... listen... to... evil... no one... controls... me..."

"BoCo?!" Oliver yelped, suddenly concerned by the diesel's mumbling.

"Huh?!" BoCo sprang to wakefulness suddenly, and Oliver would have sworn that for a split second, there was a red glint in BoCo's eyes. "Oh, hullo Oliver. Fancy seeing you out on the main line."

"You were talking in your sleep!" Oliver said, forgoing any pleasantries.

"I suppose I might have been." BoCo confessed. "I haven't been sleeping very well recently - none of us diesels have."

As Oliver began even more concerned than he had been mere seconds ago, the home signal on the main line dropped to 'clear', and Pip and Emma roared through the station bound for Tidmouth.

As they passed, Oliver jumped slightly - Pip, who was facing him, glared at him as he passed. It was especially unsettling because modern diesels had their end-of-train lamps built into their eyes, so Pip's pupils were bright red as she glared back at Oliver and BoCo.

"She's up to something..." Oliver said to BoCo.

BoCo said nothing in return, and when Oliver looked over, he almost jumped off the rails - BoCo's eyes were the same red colour as Pip's and he was staring into the middle distance.

"She isn't up to anything Oliver..." BoCo said hollowly. "Why would you say that...?"

Oliver squealed in terror, and fled onto the main line as soon as his signal dropped.

BoCo waited until Oliver's train had vanished from sight before turning his lights off and laughing hysterically.

----------

This continued for some time - Oliver and Douglas would see one of the diesels, and the diesels would act strangely at the mention of Pip and Emma.

By the end of the week, Oliver was jumping at shadows, and Douglas was telling his conspiracy theories to any engine that would listen.

"So then Delta gets this faraway look in ‘er eye an' she clams up!" Douglas crowed one morning at Knapford station. “An’ there was no other engine there! She musta’ been talking to them while they wuz invisible!”

Thomas was spellbound. "And then what happened?"

Henry was not. "And then Douglas discovered that there was a reasonable explanation to whatever just happened and learned not to tell tales to impressionable tank engines."

"Ah am not! They. Are. Up. Ta. Somethin'!" Douglas railed at the green engine. "Look, there's Bear now! Let's just see - he's gonna do somethin' if we watch him close enough."

Bear tooted his horn in greeting as he rolled by with a slow goods train. Seeing Oliver and Henry, he quickly flashed his red lights and dropped his engine down a gear as he rolled between Henry and Douglas.

"Play along!" He whispered to Henry as he went by, the noise of his engine masking the words.

Henry blinked. That was an unexpected move... He watched the goods train roll by - it didn't feel right, pranking Douglas like that.

The goods train hadn’t even gone past yet, and he could already hear Douglas ranting about how Bear was a "red-eyed scheming devil!"

Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be. He thought as he listened to Douglas make blameless accusations about his fiancé. To hell with it then.

"What did he say?!" Douglas bellowed after the train passed. "Ah heard 'im say something to ye Henry! What did the devil say to ye?!"

Henry, trying his best to keep his face neutral, looked at Douglas in shock. "Oh hello Douglas! When did you get here?"

Bear's train cleared the signal block, and Henry steamed out of the station, leaving Douglas raving about "memory alterin' beasties!"

The engines looked up as Donald steamed up to the diesel shed. 

“Ah knoo ye lot are doin’ this - knock it off before ma brother completely loses his marbles.” He said firmly. 

“Is he going to stop saying that we’re mind controlling demons?” Bear retorted. 

The steam engine sighed deeply. “Ah want ye to know that he wasnae sayin that before ye started, but ah’ll talk to ‘im. Mebbe we can work something out.”

He steamed back to the sheds. Within a few minutes the sound of Scottish-accented shouting burst from the sheds. 

This continued for some time, to the point where Henry had his driver pull him out of the shed to escape the noise. 

Eventually, both twins emerged from the shed, Donald looking aggrieved and Douglas much more subdued. 

“Ah’m sorry.” The twin eventually said. “Ah think that ah might have let this whole ‘new diesel’ thing get to me a bit more than ah should’ve.”

There was some muttering from Bear and Pip before BoCo shushed them. “We accept your apology Douglas. Sometimes we can all go a little overboard -”

“I don’t.” Interrupted Delta.

“You hid from the Thin Clergyman.” BoCo glared at her before continuing. “We all can go a little overboard at times, so I’m glad that we can now put this behind us. Friends?”

“Friends.” Douglas said after a moment.

“Good!” Cried a voice from inside Donald’s cab as Siobhan poked her head out. “Now that we’re done torturin’ me Da’ for being thick, I wan’ to know somethin - how did all of you manage to make yer eyes turn red like that?”

“Oh, this?” BoCo said as he turned on his red lamps, making his eyes glow red. “It really is just something we were built with.”

The other diesels blinked theirs as well to show that it was not an unusual thing to be equipped with. 

“Oh that is so creepy.” Siobhan shivered. "I love it!"

--

“Oh no.” Oliver gasped as he watched the diesels flash their mind-control rays at Donald and Douglas. “They got to them.”

“What do we do?” Whispered Thomas from the next platform over. 

“I don’t know!”

-------

After the truce between Douglas and the Diesels, life became much more peaceful on Sodor. 

Unless you were on Thomas’ branch line. 

Because only Thomas and Daisy regularly travelled down to the big station at Tidmouth, the rest of the engines on the line learned most of their news from the main line engines when they met at Knapford station. This meant that information was slow and sometimes unreliable on the best of days. 

Now that Thomas actively believed that Pip and Emma had mind-controlled the rest of the engines, that information stream became warped and distorted very quickly. 

Matters were made worse when Daisy was sent to the works for several weeks to have her engine rebuilt. To keep up with traffic, The Fat Controller sent an engine to assist, and Oliver was the first to volunteer. 

The branch line quickly descended into hysteria.

Looking back on this series of events, it is mind-boggling that none of the big engines noticed, however, they had assumed that Douglas had told Oliver that it was all a prank, and that Oliver was an engine that could be reasoned with. 

Furthermore, Gordon, now displaced from the morning and evening express, was insistent on trying out other passenger runs to see if he enjoyed them. This meant that the engines who normally pulled those trains were also displaced from their duties, meaning that the engines who usually met Percy, Thomas, and Daisy’s trains on a regular basis were instead arriving at Knapford on random days and times. The sudden paranoia of the branch line engines was therefore overlooked or dismissed as ‘tank engines being tank engines’.

Matters were made worse when Daisy returned from the works, allowing Oliver to return to the Little Western. 

Daisy was due to return around lunchtime, and so Oliver took his train to Tidmouth, and then immediately continued on with a train to Arlesburgh, while Daisy took the return service to Ffarquhar. 

The other engines on the branch were busy with trains at the north end of the line, and didn’t know that Daisy was returning that day. From their perspective, Oliver was ‘vanished’ by ‘them’, and replaced with a diesel interloper. 

The fact that Daisy had been on the branch line for almost fifty years at that point was immaterial. 

“How do we know that you’re really Daisy?” Percy asked late that night. “What if you’ve been mind-controlled by them to make us into your thralls?”

“Because if I was,” Daisy hissed, acid practically dripping off of her tongue. “I would have done it already. Go. To. Sleep!”

No more was said that night, but the other engines continued to view Daisy with suspicion. 

Daisy, now thoroughly unamused, began asking the big engines if mind control was something that she could actually do - just so that she could get some peace and quiet! 

This did not ease the branch line engine’s concerns at all. 

Daisy found that sleep was much harder to come by as a result.

-

Things eventually came to a head when an extremely sleep deprived Daisy backed down onto the milk van a little bit too hard. The shunter had failed to set the van’s brakes, and it rolled away down the hill towards the next station. 

Percy and Thomas had, as the result of a lost bet, switched jobs that day, which meant that Percy, Annie, and Clarabel were halfway up the hill behind Daisy when the milk van rattled into view. 

“Horrors!” Percy cried as his crew applied the brakes and jumped clear. 

The damage to Percy’s front wasn’t catastrophic, but it was bad enough for the breakdown train crew to put him on a flatbed so he could be taken to the works to be looked over. Clarabel, who was behind Percy and took a nasty bump in the collision, accompanied him. 

Wendell was sympathetic as he collected them, but Percy was still wary, especially because his flatbed had been coupled up to Wendell facing backwards, meaning that neither he nor Clarabel could see if the diesel had been mind-controlled. 

Wendell’s shocked laughter when Percy told him this was not encouraging. 

-

The trip went normally until they arrived at Kildane. There, another engine was waiting, and attached itself to the back of the train. Percy and Clarabel eyed it suspiciously. It looked like a diesel, but one they had never met before, and had a strange metal contraption on its roof, which it lowered before they set off again. 

“Hi!” The engine chirped as the train set off. “I’m Abbey! Who are you?”  

“Percy...” He said cautiously. Clarabel stayed silent.

As it turned out, Abbey was an electric locomotive. She wasn’t new to the island by any means, but she had arrived after Percy had begun working on Thomas’ branch full-time, so they’d never met. She was very chatty, very curious, and had no idea what Percy and Clarabel were talking about. 

“Mind-Control Rays?” She laughed as they rolled towards Kellsthorpe Road station. “How would that even work?”

“I don’t know, but what I do know is that if their eyes turn red and then they look at you, you’re done for!”

“Red eyes?” Abbey looked thoughtful. “Do you mean reversing lights? We have them built into our eyes so we don’t need lamps!” 

“What?” Percy was baffled. 

“Yeah! It’s something that all engines have nowadays.” Abbey’s brows scrunched together in thought. “I think that mine has an emergency backup battery... let me try...”

After a moment of squinting, the pupil of Abbey’s left eye flickered into a very familiar red gaze. 

-

Wendell was not paying attention to the conversation behind him at all, and was startled to attention when Percy and Clarabel began screaming. 

“What in the world is going on?!” He shouted, trying to look behind himself and see what was happening. 

“I don’t know!” Cried Abbey. “They just started screaming!”

The commotion drew the attention of Wendell’s driver and second man as well, which meant that nobody on the train noticed as the Kellsthorpe Road home signal suddenly dropped to ‘Danger’ as they drew nearer to it.

The train rumbled past the signal without stopping, and approached the station at speed. Wendell finally looked forward, and saw members of the station staff waving their arms at him as they tried to right a massively overloaded porter’s trolley that had fallen over on the foot crossing. 

“Diesel and Oil! Stop the train! Stop the Train!” He shouted, drawing his driver’s attention, who applied the brakes as they entered the station. 

“I want you to tell me what happened one more time.” The Fat Controller said as seriously as one could while standing ankle deep in tin foil. The station was covered in the stuff, as was Wendell, Percy, Clarabel, and Abbey.

“The porter’s trolley was a consignment of tinfoil going to a restaurant supply store in town.” The stationmaster started. “It came in on the last train, and then it fell. We tried to make them stop-”

“I threw the signal! I did!” The signalman interjected. “They just didn’t see it!”

“No, we didn’t.” Wendell’s driver admitted, shamefaced. “We were trying to see why -”

“Percy was screaming.” Finished the Fat Controller.  

“Yes sir.”

“Why was Percy screaming?” 

“We don’t know sir.”

“Abbey might!” Wendell chipped in while trying to blow flecks of tin foil out of his nose. “She was talking to them when they started screaming.”

-

As it turned out, Abbey knew exactly why Percy (and Clarabel) had been screaming, and was willing to talk about it at length. 

The Fat Controller's eyebrows rose into his hairline and stayed there as Abbey kept talking. Percy and Clarabel remained silent, although it was impossible to determine whether it was out of fear, stubbornness, or embarrassment. 

“Mind Control powers? Really?” The Fat Controller wanted to be upset, but just could not manage it. “Where on earth did that come from?”

“Oliver sir!” Percy finally spoke up. “He said that the diesels were taking over the island with their evil powers!”

A surprised sounding "oh no!” rose from the next platform - Henry was waiting with The Limited, and had heard most of Abbey’s explanation. 

“Do you have something to add to this?” The Fat Controller asked Henry, unsure how this story could get any more ridiculous. 

-

Henry did have something to add. 

-

“Sir, are you all right?” His assistant asked as they returned to the car. 

“I’m fine.” The Fat Controller managed. “I just need a moment.”

He shut the door to the car behind him, and as soon as he was alone, he laughed until he cried. 

[olivemac]

heartbeat | chapter six | b.b.

Summary | When Steve Rogers asks Kate Stark to find the Winter Soldier, she gets too involved.

Notes | Captain America: Civil War re-write, essentially. Starts just after the events of CA: Winter Soldier.

Pairing | Bucky Barnes x fem!oc, Bucky Barnes x Stark!oc

Genre | romance

Rating | explicit

Story Warnings | mild angst, fluff, romance tropes, so many romance tropes, coarse language, alcohol use, canon-typical violence, smut (m/f), oral sex (f&m receiving), 18+ ONLY

Chapter Warnings | canon-typical violence, coarse language

Citation | Russo, J., & Russo, A. (2016). Captain America: Civil War. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

A/N #1 | FINALLY got this rewritten. Final chapter coming very soon, as well as a "lost scene" between chapters three and four.

A/N #2 | Feedback is encouraged! Let me know your thoughts.

master list | AO3 link

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prev chapter

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The next morning, the rest of Sam and Steve's plan comes together on the sixth level of a parking garage at the Leipzig/Halle airport. Steve pulls the car into a spot next to a grey van and gets out to greet Clint and Wanda.

"Cap," Clint says, shaking Steve's hand.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice," Steve tells him.

"Hey man, you're doing me a favor," Clint says. "Besides, I owe a debt."

Steve looks at Wanda. "Thanks for having my back."

"It was time to get off my ass," she replies.

Kate, standing by Bucky next to the Volkswagen, nods her hello to Wanda and Clint.

"How about our other recruit?" Steve asks Clint.

"He's raring to go." Clint walks over to the van and opens the sliding back door. "Had to put a little coffee in him, but...he should be good."

The man lying across the backseat jolts up at the sound of the van door. "What time zone is this?" he asks.

"Come on. Come on," Clint says, pushing him forward.

The man shakes Steve's hand. "Captain America."

"Mr. Lang," Steve says.

"It's an honor. I'm shaking your hand too long," Scott Lang says, dropping Steve's hand. "Wow! This is awesome! Captain America." He turns to look at Wanda. "I know you, too. You're great!" When he looks back at Steve, Scott can't stop himself from feeling his broad shoulders. "Jeez," he says.

Steve looks over his shoulder at Bucky and Kate, and Kate raises her eyebrows at him in a silent question of "Who is this guy?"

"Ah, look," Scott continues, "I want to say, I know you know a lot of super people, so...thinks for thanking of me." He mixes up the words in his excitement, then turns to Sam, "Hey, man!"

"What's up, Tic Tac?" Sam greets.

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time when I..." Scott trails off.

"It was a great audition," Sam says, shaking his head, "but it'll...it'll never happen again."

"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asks.

"Something about some...psycho-assassins?" Scott answers.

"We're outside the law on this one," Steve tells him. "So, if you come with us, you're a wanted man."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Scott says, shrugging.

"We should get moving," Bucky speaks up.

"We've got a chopper lined up," Clint tells Steve before a man's voice comes over the public announcement system in German.

"They're evacuating the airport," Bucky says.

"Stark," Sam says.

"Stark?" Lang questions.

Bucky looks at Kate. "You're not coming."

"Two things," she says, holding up two fingers. "First, I work for and own shares in a former weapons manufacturer started by my father. Second, I came to a foreign country as a single woman, alone, to find the Winter Soldier. Do you really think I came unprepared?"

She enters a code into the smart watch on her wrist and it transforms into a smaller version of Tony's Iron Man gauntlet, wrapping around her wrist and hand, leaving her fingers free.

"It's a repulsor," she says, pointing it at Sam.

"Nuh-uh, no," he says, holding up a finger.

"Plus, I know some self-defense," she says. "Romanoff trained me."

"So, she could probably kill us all," Clint says, smirking. Scott looks momentarily worried, and Kate winks at him.

Wanda hands Kate a duffel bag. "Thought you might want this," she says. Inside Kate finds a Stark Industries-designed tactical suit and a laptop.

"Thanks, love," Kate tells Wanda.

When she turns back to Bucky, he's staring at her. "What?" she asks.

"Nothing," he says, shaking his head, but his smile is wider than she's seen it in a while.

_____

While the rest of the team spreads out across the airport, Kate hangs back in a terminal, trying to hack into Tony's Iron Man suit. It's a long shot, but she wrote some of the code for FRIDAY so she thinks she might be able to shut down a few functions.

"Sir, Miss Stark is attempting take us offline," FRIDAY informs Tony.

"Shut her out," Tony says. "And remind me to ground her when this is over."

In the terminal, Kate's screen flashes the message "Nice try, sis" before going black. She slams the laptop closed.

"Fuck," she exclaims.

"We found it," Sam comes in over the comms. "Their Quinjet's in hangar five, north runway."

"I'm closest," Kate says.

"You know how to fly that thing, doll?" Bucky asks.

She smirks even though he can't see her. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Sergeant Barnes," she says, her voice heavy with innuendo.

Sam groans, "Please stop."

_____

With what's left of the Avenger's distracted by Steve's team, Kate is able to make her way to hangar five without any incident. She ascends the Quinjet's ramp and preps for flight.

"I'm in," she says over the comms.

"We're almost to you," Steve tells her.

From outside the Quinjet, Kate hears Natasha shout, "Get out of the jet, Katie."

She stands at the top of the ramp, not descending. "You know I can't do that, Nat," she says, shaking her head.

"Is he really worth all of this?" Nat asks.

Kate doesn't hesitate before answering. "Yes."

Near the entrance of the hangar, a control tower collapses. Steve and Bucky come running through the debris. Nat stands between them and the Quinjet.

"You're not going to stop," she says to Steve. It's not a question.

Steve shakes his head. "You know I can't."

Nat sighs, "I'm going to regret this." She lifts her wrist and fires an electric charge from her Black Widow's Bite, stunning T'Challa who stands behind Steve, ready to avenge his father’s death in the UN bombing.

"Go," Nat says.

Steve and Bucky join Kate on the Quinjet. "Glad you could make it," she says as Steve slides into the pilot's seat.

_____

Bucky and Kate sit behind Steve in the Quinjet, not speaking. Bucky's mind is a jumble of questions he wants to ask them both. He starts with Steve.

"What's going to happen to your friends?" Bucky asks.

Steve sighs and shakes his head. "Whatever it is...I'll deal with it."

Bucky stares straight ahead. "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

Steve glances at Bucky. "What you did all those years...it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."

"I know," Bucky says, then looks at Steve, "but I did it."

Kate bites her bottom lip and stays silent.

_____

Somewhere outside of Moscow’s airspace, Kate's phone dings. She pulls up an encrypted email from Tony.

"Steve, you need to see this," she says.

She opens a file detailing who the doctor in Berlin really was: Colonel Helmut Zemo. Steve studies the information, his mouth set in a hard line.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Kate asks.

"He's Sokovian," Steve finally says, and Kate can see in his eyes that he's still haunted by what happened in the small country.

"At least Tony knows the truth now," she says.

Steve only nods.

_____

Steve brings the Quinjet to land in the snow on a remote mountain top and kills the engine. Kate pulls out a rack of guns labeled 'Romanoff' and hands Bucky a machine gun. She takes a pistol for herself from a cabinet above and places it in her thigh holster. She can feel Bucky's questioning eyes on her again.

"Tony used to take me shooting every year for my birthday," she says.

"You sure about this?" he asks. She knows what he's asking, if she's sure about risking her life for him, choosing him over Tony.

"Always," she says, and she kisses him on the cheek before sliding another pistol into the back of her belt.

She moves to stand behind Bucky and Steve as the exit ramp of the jet descends.

Steve turns to Bucky and asks, "You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?"

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" Bucky asks, smiling.

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead," Steve says.

"What was her name again?" Bucky asks.

"Dolores. You called her Dot."

"Should I be jealous?" Kate chimes in.

Bucky smiles again. "She's got to be a hundred years old right now."

"So are we, pal," Steve says, clapping him on the back.

Kate follows closely behind Steve and Bucky as they enter the bunker. On a lower level, a loud thud catches their attention, and they all turn as a set of double doors are forced apart by Tony in his Iron Man suit.

He steps forward and retracts his helmet.

"So, you're done being a jackass?" Kate asks, lowering her weapon slightly.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony says. Steve takes a few steps toward him without lowering his shield. Behind him, Bucky keeps his gun aimed at Tony.

"It's been a long day," Steve says.

"At ease, Soldier," Tony says to Bucky. "I'm not currently after you."

"So, why are you here?" Steve asks. He wants to hear Tony admit he was wrong.

"Could be your story's not so crazy," Tony says. "Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I got to arrest myself."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork," Steve replies, lowering his shield. "It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap," Tony says, then he turns at Kate. "Katie."

"Big brother," Kate says.

Tony looks at Bucky. "Hey, Manchurian Candidate," he says, "You're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop..."

Steve indicates to Bucky that he can lower his weapon and he does.

The four of them continue through the bunker, with Bucky keeping Kate between himself and Steve. Tony, with his helmet reengaged, leads the group into a large chamber holding several cryo capsules.

"I've got heat signatures," he says.

"How many?" Steve asks.

Tony hesitates. "Uh, one."

As they enter, the lights come on and the cryo capsules fill with a hazy, yellow mist. They can see that the capsules contain the other super soldiers. Kate catches Bucky's eye and they share a bewildered look.

A voice comes over an intercom system. "If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep," Zemo says. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

As they draw closer, they can see that each soldier has been shot in the head.

"What the hell?" Bucky mutters.

"I'm grateful to them, though," Zemo continues. "They brought you here."

A light in a control room at the back of the chamber comes on, illuminating Zemo's face. Steve hurls his shield toward the small window, but it flies back.

"Please, Captain," Zemo says, "The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that," Tony says.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve asks, making his way to the door that separates Zemo from the rest of them.

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized," Zemo pauses, "...there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes." He chuckles. "How nice to find a flaw."

"You're Sokovian," Steve says. "Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No," Zemo shakes his head. "I'm here because I made a promise."

"You lost someone?"

Zemo clicks his tongue. "I lost everyone. And so will you."

A small screen to Steve's left comes to life.

"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again," Zemo continues. "But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."

Tony steps up to the screen, his helmet retracted, and studies the grainy security footage of a secluded road.

"I know that road," he says. He turns to Zemo, "What is this?"

Kate steps up behind him. "It's...." she starts but doesn't finish. She can't pull her eyes away from the date at the bottom of the screen: December 16, 1991.

The tape plays. The car on screen crashes into a tree, and Kate gasps. She watches as her father tumbles out of the driver's side door and a man approaches. She can hear her father's voice in her head before he speaks: "Help my wife, my daughter. Please. Help." Bucky can't look at Kate; he doesn't want to see the realization dawn on her face, doesn't want to watch it turn to hatred. When her father looks to the man above him with recognition and says, "Sergeant Barnes?" Kate sobs. She isn't sure how her legs are still holding her up, and she can taste bile in her mouth.

When the tape ends, Tony lunges toward Bucky.

Steve stops him. "Tony. Tony."

Tony turns to Steve, tears in his eyes, "Did you know?"

"I didn't know it was him," Steve says.

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?" he asks again.

"Yes," Steve answers. Tony pushes him away.

Kate finally turns to look at Bucky. He's not sure he can handle the tears running down her face. "You could have killed me," she says. "You should have killed me. Why didn't you?" Her voice grows progressively louder with each statement.

"You weren't my mission," he says quietly. But it's a lie. The mission called for no witnesses. He doesn't know why Kate is still alive. But he remembers her wide, scared eyes looking up at him that night, not unlike how she's looking at him now, and his heart feels like it might crack in two.

"So, what?" Tony shouts. "The Winter Soldier has a conscience? You don't kill kids? Just leave them orphaned?" He lunges for Bucky again.

"Tony, stop," Kate says, reaching for him.

Tony turns to her quickly. "You're grounded, Katie," he says, and he fires a low-voltage stun from his repulsor that knocks her unconscious. Bucky lets out a deep growl as Kate's body hits the floor.

The fight that breaks out is chaotic. Steve is certain that Tony will kill Bucky, and he isn't confident that Bucky won't be able to keep himself from killing Tony to protect Kate.

"Get out of here," he roars at Bucky, and he throws himself between the two of them.

"It wasn't him, Tony," Steve shouts. "HYDRA had control of his mind!"

"Move!" Tony demands.

"It wasn't him!"

But Tony isn't letting up. Tony gets Bucky the neck and seethes, "Do you even remember them?"

"I remember all of them," Bucky growls and pushes off from the platform he's on, taking Tony with him.

_____

When Kate wakes, her head is pounding. She gets to her feet slowly and looks around. Zemo is gone, having used the chaos as an opportunity to escape, and she can't see Bucky, Steve, or Tony anywhere. The room is eerily quiet. She stands still for a moment, taking deep breaths and waiting for a wave of nausea to pass. She's fairly sure she has a concussion.

As her vision becomes clearer and the ringing in her ears dies away, Steve appears at the entrance of the room with Bucky beside him. They're leaning on each other and seem to both be holding the other up. Bucky's titanium arm has been blown away, and Kate gasps at the sight. Steve doesn't look much better. She makes her way to them and presses her palm against Bucky's bloody cheek. The sight of him in pain momentarily outweighs her heartbreak at the recent revelations about her parents. He hisses at the touch to his bruised face, and she pulls her hand away quickly.

"Sorry," she says. But he shakes his head.

Kate turns to Steve. "Where's Tony?"

Steve gives a nod over his shoulder toward the silo where he left Tony with the shield, and says, "It's over."

Kate wants to ask more questions, but she doesn't think now is the time. She follows the two super soldiers out of the bunker and back to the Quinjet.

_____

Aboard the Quinjet, Kate finds one of Tony's T-shirts and wraps it around what's left of Bucky's arm to cover the jagged metal. Then she pulls out the first aid kit and wipes the blood from his face. They haven't spoken about the tape or that night in 1991, and neither of them know what to say. So, they both stay silent.

When she finishes with Bucky, Kate makes Steve sit still so she can clean his wounds, as well. He watches her closely as she bandages his bloody knuckles.

"I'm sorry about Tony," he says. "About what he did to you back there."

"Thanks," she says. "I've never seen him like that. He...," she pauses, "I know he feels guilty about what happened, things he said to Dad before he died, things he didn't say. And then...having to raise me. It was a lot for him."

"And you?" Steve asks.

Kate is quiet for a moment before answering. “They died before I even knew them. The only memory I have of them is this dream of the night of the crash and a man I thought was a figment of my imagination. Turns out.…” She doesn’t finish the thought.

“It wasn’t him,” Steve says. “Not really.”

She looks over at Bucky, slumped in one of the seats on the other side of the jet. She knows he's listening, but he doesn't look up. "I know," she tells Steve, meeting his eyes again with a soft smile.

Kate closes the first aid kid and stands. Before she turns away from Steve, she says, "You knew. Nat knew, and she left it out of the file. You could have told me."

Steve looks up at her. "Would you have helped me find him?"

"I don't know," she says. She looks at Bucky again. "But I'm glad I did."

_____

final chapter

[nitannichionne]

If He Was YOUR Fan Chapter 16: Monday (A Henry Cavill Fan Fic)

Chapter 16: Monday

You get up earlier than usual, having spent the night at Henry’s. You awaken to the smell of coffee, basically because you took the time to set the timer. He finds this a pleasant surprise, having never thought to do it, and takes a minute to serve you coffee, smiling about not having to wait to get to the filming site to have some. You fill water bottles and hit the door, Kal being the only one who had breakfast. You decide that you really should stay at your own place on Sundays from now on so as not to interfere with his work rhythm or your own. You are at the gym really early, so early, you steal a nap in the car. Even Kal naps in the car. But Henry? Superman, yes, though a bit of a sleepy one, but after a few swallows of coffee he’s ready to go.

                                          “How are you holding up?” he asks, having finished a set. You take a ten minute walk on the treadmill, which you usually don’t do, but you have time. The coffee and adrenaline have brought the electricity to his eyes and the glisten to his skin, highlighting curves of toned muscle. You pause. He looks something like this after sex, but honestly, more intense.

“Hanging in there, honey,” you say. Your breath catches. Wait, you call Stella honey from time to time, especially when smarting off, but saying it to him now seems…you smile widely. “Elliptical, here I come.”

He gives you a wink, and you both move on with your workouts.

You are halfway through when Archer, Stuart and Stella arrive. Relieved that Hannah isn’t with them, you greet them brightly. “Hey, guys!”

Stella greets you with a warm hug. “You look like you survived!” She smiles and glances at Henry, who is working out. Her voice lowers to a whisper. “You stayed with him?”

It was a good thing you could read lips, because she barely got the words out. You give a small smile.

“Ohmigosh!” Stella covers her mouth, her eyes going as wide as saucers. She takes you by the arm and leads you further away. “So…what happened?”

“He was worried about me, and picked me up so I stayed with him,” you say simply. “Good thing, too, we barely made it before the storm broke and—”

“Oh. My. Gosh.”

“What?”

“He’s the lookalike, isn’t he?” She shakes her head at me. “There never was one?”

You lock elbows with her. “I need you to just not say anything especially to Hannah.”

She gasps, eyes going wide again. “I can understand that.” She crosses her heart. “I won’t tell a soul.”

You feel yourself relax. “Thanks—”

“We workin’ out or what?” Archer asks with a frown.

Henry turns and looks at him.

“Just a second, I’ve got one for you!” you call nervously, and look in the mirror to see Henry’s jaw clench.

“What is going on?” Stella asks. “I’ve never seen Henry look like that. He’s usually upbeat.”

“I need to know something,” you tell her. “You guys didn’t know you left me behind. right?”

“No!” Stella’s eyes went wide again. My, but she was an owl today. “Hannah said that someone told her.”

“Someone?” you frown. “No specific name?”

Stella exhales heavily. “No.” She loses eye contact with you. “That doesn’t seem right, does it?” She looks up hopefully. “Maybe it was Colin or Cindy?”

You remember that Cindy was also checking people out. You didn’t work with her as much as Hannah so maybe Cindy mixed you up with someone else. You were willing to settle for that. You didn’t want to think someone wanted something bad to happen to you. “Makes sense.”

“Either way, it ended well, right?” Stella asks hopefully. She uses the mirror to glance at Henry. “Is that why he looks so…unhappy?”

“He’s concerned, is all,” you say. “He is the main in this production, so he takes safety and production seriously.”

“You sound like public relations,” she teased.

“Ha, ha, ha, the money would be good,” you shrug. “I might need a ride, though.”

“There’s room for sure—”

“It’s Archer’s car,” you point out. “How did the weekend go?”

“We went to their place in town, and Hannah and I took Stuart’s room,” she shrugged simply. “But honestly, we mostly all slept around the telly in the living room.”

“Sounds like you guys had fun,” you smile.

“But it was just you and Henry—”

“And Kal,” you add quickly.

“Not kissing and telling?”

You shake you head, and Stella squeals.

“Archer got room in the car for my friend?” Stella asks.

“Always,” he nods, but doesn’t look at you.

You feel a loss, but manage a smile. “Thanks.”

“Sure.” He looks at Henry and you check the mirror. His cap is lower than usual as he works out, his eyes somewhat shaded from view, but his jaw is set and he looks serious as he curls.

You work out with Stella, and Archer works out with Stuart. You challenge them to do three circuits of eight machines, a minute on each. You catch Henry trying not to laugh as you all do it, some doing well, some not as much. You know the guys are using too much weight, and only suggest they lower it once, but they don’t listen. You and Stella don’t do more than fifty pounds on each of the machines, but the guys were trying to go twice to triple that.

“I can’t believe we did all that in thirty minutes!” Stella smiled, her face bright.

“Gotta have a short intense workouts in case you can’t do an hour,” you pant. “I actually prefer them. We are about to be on our feet all day, anyway.”

“Yeah, all day workout!”

“I got like twenty-thousand steps one day—” You are stopped when Archer steps in front of you and inhales deeply.

“You smell different,” he says in a low voice.

You shake your head. “How would you even know?” You step past him and head to the showers. You shower and dress quickly, a few minutes behind Stella. Henry pulls you aside as you get ready to leave.

“Everything okay?” Henry asks.

“Yeah,” you nod.

“What did he say to you?”

You scoff, “That I smell different.”

“You probably do,” Henry smirked. “You showered with me.”

You feel your cheeks heat.

“No worries, darling,” he grins. “you just used your own stuff, right?”

“Right.”

He kisses your cheek. “Have a good day. Talk to you soon.”

You stretch up and kiss him back shyly.

“Talk to you later,” he whispers.

“Later,” you say and turn to go, only to see Stella waiting for you by the door.

She smiles widely and waves good bye and you walk out. “He looks into you!” she says excitedly.

“Stella.”

“Okay, okay!” Stella bumps you and makes you giggle. “Come on, this is thrilling!”

“He’s actually…not what you think, Stel.”

She gives a low whistle and shakes her head. “If you say so.”

You get in the car, and there is an awkward silence.

“Well, heigh-ho, heigh-ho!” Stella says with forced brightness. “or, how is you say?”

You laugh, “I owe, I owe.”

Stuart laughs at that, and Archer smiles and shakes his head. “Off to work, Arch!”

“Here we go.” Archer starts the engine and speeds off.

The morning goes well enough. You try to keep your head down and work, but you find yourself looking for Henry when you can. You chastise yourself for it, but after the weekend you had with him, it’s normal to want him so soon, right?

You are startled by a hand on your shoulder and look up to see Colin.

“Hey,” he greets.

“Hey,” you smile, grateful he can’t tell that you were thinking about Henry and not fully concentrating on your work.

“Glad you’re okay,” Colin nodded.

“Thanks,” you smile, but slightly frown. He didn’t call you back that day, did he? “Any idea about how the mixup happened?”

Colin shook his head. “Actually, no. I talked to Cindy and she isn’t sure either, and we are so, so sorry about that.” He paused. “But you caught up with Stella after all, right?”

“My ride came, yes,” you say evasively.

“Great,” Colin grinned. “No harm, no foul.”

“Yeah.”

“Talk to you later,” he says and leaves.

That didn’t give you much information at all. From the sound of things, he didn’t know what happened either. Resolved and a bit happy to think of it has a mix up, you continue on with your work, part of you reliving the events of the weekend.

Your phone chimes and you look at it.

DAL: Thinking of you.

YOU: Thinking of you.

Now you can’t do anything but smile.

Thanks for reading! I enjoy comments, and please let me know if you want to join the tag list:

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Also, please feel free to check out my other Cavill Fan Fics. Wisdom and wellness to you.

[whumpsblog]

for another command, I want to see Connor allow Hanna to leave if she wants to and treat her like a normal person, but at the same time I want Hanna to not be able to leave as a command and watch her freak out that she can’t take the opportunity to leave like she wants to >:)

A prompt from @eatyourdamnpears. Man, talk about an emotionally brutal prompt! Thanks Carly for the continuing support and the wonderfull prompt! Please, keep ‘em comming! The events in this prompt DO NOT occurs in the actual plot.

Tag List: @bloodandbandages, @broken-horn, @eatyourdamnpears, @butwhatifyouwrite, @justplainwhump. If anyone wants to be added to the list or removed, contact me.

>> CW: panic attacks<<

Guards collected Hanna from her room and imediatly she assumed they were taking her to the basement for another . . . disciplinary session. She fought back, thrashing and kicking and biting and bucking, but their grasps on her arms held tight.

“Can you stop fighting us!” The guard protested. “Please! Just calm down! We’re not going to hurt you.”

Hanna refused and continued to fight back harder. With an anguished scream her hands started glowing. In truth it didn’t matter if they were taking her to the dungeon or not. Conner was more that willing to torture or humiluate her in any of the rooms in the mansion, be it the kitchen, living room, garden, or master bedroom. 

She could feel her hands as they glowed brighter and warmer, and as they did so the guards vocallize their concerns.

“Her hands!” Said the one guard panicked.

“I know! I see!”

“Can we knock her out?” 

“Conner said not to hurt her!”

‘He probably told them that beacause he wants me in prime torturing condition.’ She thinks to herself.

Behind her back she shoots a beam of light and hears the lound sound of shattering glass behind her. She releases another and this time, it’s followed by the sound of splintering wood and heavy falling objects. She keeps going. 

“SHE’S DESTROYING THE ROOM!"

“Just shut the hell up and do your job! We’re almost --”

Hanna releases a blast from her left hand and it catches the guard on her left in the stomach. He gets blasted away from Hanna, and she uses her free hand to blast away the guard on her right. It wasn’t her strongest attack, but it managed to push them both back about ten yards. It doen’t give her much time, but it would have to do.

She sends it down the hallway, not knowing where she’s going, but running none the less. At the end of the hall she gets to the elevator and once inside she punches the button with a “G”. Impatiently, she yells at the doors when they don’t close fast enough, and then blasts both of guards back again to ensure that their arms don’t prevent the doors from closing. The the doors finally close with a chime she hits the floor breathing hard and out of breath. On the other side of the elevator door the two guards can be heard yelling and pounding on the metal with their fists.

She sighs. She did it. She got away from the guards. Now all she had to do was get out of the elevator and run. She was fast and nimble and if she booked it to the woods she could probably disappear and find a town nearby. There had to be a town nearby, right? She shook her head. It didn’t matter if there was a town nearby or not. She would walk until she stumbled across something, and from there get situated. First thing on the list was food, then money, followed by proper cloths. Currently she wearing gym shorts and a white tank top. She’s illlprepared for the woods and she knows that she’s going to be spending the next couple days  cold, wet, covered in scratches, and hungery.

The elevator hits the ground level floor and she stops moving. She picks herself up off of the floor and when the doors open and she peaks outside cautiously. Apparently the “G” button didn’t stand for ground, but instead garage, because she finds herself standing in an empty three car garage. It was dead silent in the garage, and from the looks of it there weren’t any cameras either.

‘Change of plans. Steal a car and fuck walking in the woods.’ 

Hanna jumps into the blue Jaguar and inspects the steering colum. With most old cars one could rip open the steering column and expose the wires underneath. But newer cars posed a small challenge, and required screwdriver and some dismantling. She checked and found that she indeed needed a screwdriver. 

‘Shit.’ She hated wasting time but risking three minutes now could save her massivley in the long run. Jumping out of the car she starts searching the garage quickly and frantically for a flathead. She finds an old toolbox and digs though it loud enough and long enough to not notice the elevator as they open.  

Screwdriver in hadn Hanna turn and jumps when she sees Conner. She drops the screwdriver and it clangs to the ground, and she aims two glowing hands his way. So far every time Hanna attempted to escape Conner managed to stop her. But this time would be different. This time she was well rested, fed, and had plenty of light in the room to form several decent attack. 

Her hands start glowing and she drops to body defensivley. “You’re not going to stop me this time.” She growls. “My time here, is over.”

Conner frowns and though her desperatly wants to retort with some cheeky comment, he refrains. Instead, he extracts the keys to the blue Jauguar from his coat pocket and gives them a tight squeeze to steady his trembling rage. He looks down to the ground and closes his eyes. Everything his parents ever taught him goes against what he’s about to do.

With angry and forlon expression he averted gaze from Hanna and walks to the driver’s side of the car. He sticks the key in the ignition and starts the engine.

“The nearest town from here is south about fifty miles, so when you pull out of here take a left and keep going straight.” He stands up and watches her watching him with her glowing hands still raised. She didn’t trust him at all, and she was right to. He had held her against her will, humiluated her, tortured her, and starved her. And though he knew he couldn’t make up for his actions, he hoped giving her freedome would help offset some of his sin. “If you open up the engine you should be able to get there in twenty minutes, and from there its another two hours to the closest large city.”

He pulls his wallet out of his back pocket. “This baby gets seventy miles to the gallon because its half electric, and it only takes about forty dollars to fill the tank. Here’s all of the cash I have on me. It’s not a lot but it should be enough for you to buy a one way plane ticket to anywhere within the states.” He places three hundred dollars in cash in the glove compartment and then walks to the front of the car. “I would give you my card but then I’ll have to report you for stealing it, and then the police will get involved. Which I’m assuming isn’t something you want.” 

Hanna watches and listens to him, but she can't seem to comprehend his actions and words. “What - what are you doing?” She asks.

His brown eyes meet hers and Hanna is startled by the pain and anger within them. “I’m helping you.” He says.

Hanna powers down and her arms drop to her sides. She’s still on guard, but she feels that his confession is genuine. A horrible feeling bubbles in her chest and stomach and she fights against it.

"You're free.” He continues. “Go. Find your friends. Get your family back. It's over. I’m letting you go." He hits a button on the side of the wall and the garage door behind the Jauguar rolls back loundly. 

She still doesn’t understand. ‘Her captor had bought her. He liked torturing her. So why in the world, after only a week of possessing her, was he letting her go.’ Hanna continues to stand there stunned. She’s never seen this part of him before and for some reason it’s making her. ‘Was this a trap?’

“Go!”

Hanna jumps like a startled dog being scolded, but instead of moving towards the vehicle, she takes a step away from it. The bubbling feeling in her belly builds, rises to her chest, and squeezes at her heart. The feeling is all to familular and she realizes with horror that she’s having a panic attack. Just like when she was a little girl and a prisoner at Syrtex.

‘But, why on earth was she panicking? This was it! This was her moment. She was so close! All she had to do was jump in the car and drive. So why was she panicking? What triggered her?’ She takes another step backwards and when she bumps into the toolbox it clanks loudly, which startles her even more.

“Hanna?” says Conner with concern in his voice.

Hanna laces her fingers behind her neck and tucks her head into her chest in a desperate attempt to calm herseld down. Closing her eyes, she tries to determine the trigger so that she can stop the attack.

“Hanna?” Conner slowly advances on Hanna and though he’s multiple feet away and not threatening her, she backs away. She breaths harder and harder, unable to draw air, and unable to calm her racing heart. Hanna wraps her arms around her head and slides down the face of the tool chest. Small whimpers escape through her weazy shaky breaths. 

Conner’s kneels before her alarmed and with wide brown eyes that are looking for her face. He’s never seen her like this before, not even during their disciplinary sessions. This side of her was completely new to him. “Hanna what is it?” He reaches out to rub her back. “What’s wrong?” His hand touches her and the physical contact causes Hanna to snap.

A sudden burst of light explodes outwards from Hanna’s core and the force it knocks Conner several feet backwards and onto his back. The lights in the room flicker as her rolls onto his side and looks up at her. He still has no idea whats going on.

With her head still pressed into her knees Hanna’s claws and pulls and her hair. Her whole body is glowing faintly and the sight is something Conner has never seen before.

“You need to get away from me.” she moans.

Conner doesn’t get any closer to Hanna, but he fixes himself so he’s sitting upright. “No. Hanna, I’m not -- ”

She cries and releases another surge of uncontrollable power. This one pushes  Conner, who had been kneeling infront of her, backwards again violently. On the ground he flips over so he’s on his stomach and looking up at Hanna.

She’s looking down at him with green teary eyes that are wide and terrified. “Please. Just. Go.” She begs with a broken voice.

The desperation in her voice convinces him to move back and give her more space. He moves to the elevator and remains sitting there patiently until it’s over, refusing to leave her alone in this condition. 

>>Master List for The Story of Hanna Light<<

[cipheramnesia]

"Which way is the ground- which way is the planet. Wait. Where the fuck are we?"

"Based on network traffic and my calculations, we should be within range of Coyote Moon Station 6."

"Coyote... do you got windows on this thing?"

"I can offer several alternatives, but not only is the data afforded from the spectrum of light visible to your species vastly inferior to the instruments at hand, your capacity to interpret this minimal fraction of available input is-"

"Whatever I get it, I suck, just. I want to see the stars. With my own eyes, or close as I can get."

"That is... a feasible request. One moment please."

"Thanks..."

"You should now have direct visibility of the surroundings. I have adjusted this chamber temporarily to an outer position."

"..."

"Are you injured, or in distress? Some of your civilization are prone to a psychological phenomenon when-"

"I'm fine. I'm better than fine. I'm... free."

"I would not describe our circumstances as freedom, with the current limitations on my structure drive and main engines, I am at only a small percentage of full function."

"For someone that makes a big deal about it, that soul of yours sure ain't got no poetry."

"No p... I beg your pardon."

"I spent my life on that shithole planet. You spent, I don't know how long. Look out there. The stars. I don't even know where Coyote Moon is! Never heard of it! And I don't know where we go or what we do next."

"I will assist you in the navigation process to Station 6."

"That's not what I mean! Don't you care it all after a million billion years and a lifetime - we're finally out here, not down there! Look around you for fuck's sake."

"... It is... good to be in the stars."

"Thank you. All I ask. Now how are we getting an unregistered ship like you through customs?"

"I will explain while you practice docking navigation."

● ● ● ● ●

It felt like wandering through someone's apartment building, she couldn't get past that feeling. Overhead fluorescent flicker, no windows but every once in awhile a brightly lit bauble of art someone must've bought by the pound. A lot of the same sets of prefab plastic panels, though it'd been awhile since she saw any such facades over the bare metal walls.

The walkways were dirtier, on both sides of the path for electric bikes. No trace anywhere of litter, but it'd been decades since anyone tried to clean the infinite variety of human scuff marks on the walkway. More of the shops here were shuttered, either closed outright or not the kind of place you got in without an appointment and several scans from the security cameras. The walls around them had once been painted with an enormous mural of an unfamiliar sky, Coyote Moon's, presumably. It was faded badly, scraped away or graffitied over, overdrawn optimism still clinging to life down here.

She found the door she was looking for between an SST bank machine and something whose sign advertised it as Titan Mart. Rapped on the blacked out plastic door that said "Speed-E-Nav" in small gold letters, and waited out the effortful grinding of several CCTV cameras evaluating her and her depressing lack of concealed weapons. She had a full stomach which was all the weapon she needed if it came to that. The door clacked as a buzzer sounded, and she pushed her way inside through an overly enthusiastic electronic chime.

"It's not for me," she said, and pulled the folder up on her phone. "Recognize that?"

"Welcome, discerning customer," a chunky woman with deep dark skin and a shaved head sat before a hundred blinking computers of some sort. She didn't know a huge amount about them, but it looked regal. "Your need is our speed, what can we process today, miss...?" The woman's smile was very wide, and a dozen metal bracelets chimed musically together on her wrists. They smelled like ozone.

The woman leaned forward and moments later her smile dropped. "Yeah, I know it. What's he after this time?" She thumped back in her chair and waved the girl closer, unclipping a bracelet. "Show me what you got there."

She handed over the phone and the woman clicked her bracelet up to the charge points. "Didn't say, didn't ask, didn't get any names, not interested in sharing them. He just wants it run fast and I needed a favor."

The woman didn't give any indication she was listening, she just tweezed the folder out and held it up on the bracelet, which wasn't something the girl had seen done before, or was even aware was possible. She tried not to stare like a tourist.

The woman turned the glittering data this way and that before setting it in a glass plate. "Three weeks. Because he's a good customer and you look like a nice girl."

"I was... hoping for something faster."

"Hah! Good luck, you think these are what... pretty lights for show and tell? I got thirty strings beaded and twined and another eight in composite, and that's on external cooled q-square 26 CPUs. I know that boy, he's got a big mouth but no bite. Always talking about the big deal math he's writing but who's he come to when he needs the formulae run? Me. Maybe 19 days if I don't burn through another back gen."

The girl worked her fingers a little and unclenched her jaw. "Maybe I can do something for you. Something to free up some of the... the squares?"

She laughed a minute and sighed. "Oh thanks. Free up the squares. Well," she scanned the shelves stacked up with an array of mystifying metal boxes, wires, and clear glass cylinders. "Okay, I see your meaning. I suppose a little upgrade couldn't hurt if you think you're up to a little legwork."

The woman pulled a slim black box with vents along the side and a couple short wires trailing out of it, and handed it to the girl. She looked at it. "I suppose this is pretty legal."

"Of course it is, honey. Now, I know someone who owes me a favor..."

The werewolf girl sighed internally. Nothing was ever easy.

Sorry everyone I was thinking about the lonely werewolf tgirl and her friend the sentient intergalactic magic warship again. 🥺

[thinkingaboutyoungroyals]

Who Waits For Love (Chapter 6)

Summary: T.J. Kippen lost his chance to tell Cyrus Goodman how he felt when they were in the 8th grade. Now, they are in their junior year of high school and Cyrus is on his 3rd relationship. Is it time to give up… or continue to wait for love?

A/N: I don’t know if you guys will love me or hate me after this.

The drive home was silent. Cyrus puffed his cheeks and tapped his fingers against his knee. The silence, normally comfortable to him, was incredibly tense. He could practically feel the electricity in the air, but not the good kind.

T.J. was clearly bothered by something. He had joined Cyrus in the car with his jaw clenched, refusing to meet him in the eye for some reason. And his grip on the steering wheel was so tight that Cyrus could see his knuckles turning white.

“T.J.?” he called out, softly. “Is everything okay?”

The blonde jumped a little before shaking his shoulders. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

Cyrus huffed. “You’re lying. Pull over.”

“Cyrus-.”

“Please. You’re distracted. We’ll get into an accident if you keep driving like that.”

It was the right thing to say. T.J. would never allow anything to happen to them, if he could help it. He moved the car to the side and killed the engine. Sighing loudly, the blonde leaned his head back against the headrest of his seat, closing his eyes.

The sight worried Cyrus. T.J. seemed fine before they left school. He was his usual funny and affectionate self. It was only after…

Cyrus bit his lip. “Did something happen with Aidan?”

The blonde stiffened. Slowly, he opened his eyes and visibly swallowed.

“T.J.?”

His friend turned to look at him, looking conflicted. “Um… Aidan… asked me out… on a date.”

Cyrus’ chest tightened and his stomach flopped unpleasantly. “O-Oh?” he managed.

T.J. pursed his lips. “Yeah. It was… unexpected.”

“I didn’t even know he was gay,” was all he could say.

“Apparently, neither does he.” T.J. seemed to hesitate before continuing. “He said he’s trying to figure things out with himself. And… I guess going out on a date with me might help him confirm things.”

Cyrus’ brow furrowed. “Is he okay with you telling me?’

“I… I think so. I don’t know. I just… I needed to tell you.”

He smiled, kindly. “Don’t worry. I can keep secrets.”

T.J. appeared to hesitate again before saying, “He asked if you were my boyfriend.”

Cyrus’ heart sped up. “And what did you say?”

“That we’re best friends.”

“Oh. Okay.” Cyrus clasped his hands on his lap, tightly. It wasn’t like it was a lie. They were best friends. “So…what was your answer?”

T.J. sighed. “Um.”

Cyrus almost laughed if the whole thing wasn’t so serious. “You said… um?”

The blonde looked almost embarrassed now. “Yeah, kinda.”

“Are you Andi?” Cyrus snorted.

Finally, T.J. broke into his first real smile since he entered the car. “I guess I listened to her tell the story many times that it just got stuck in my head.” He chuckled. “But, I told him that I would think about it.” He met Cyrus’ eyes. “What do I do?”

Why was T.J. asking him? Well, he was touched that he took Cyrus’ opinion into consideration but this was about T.J.’s love life, not his. And if he liked Aidan…

Cyrus swallowed the lump in his throat and looked away. “Well, do you like him that way?”

It took a few seconds for T.J. to answer. “I don’t know.”

“But he likes you.”

“I… guess?” T.J. sighed, long and loud. “I mean… he’s cool. And we have a lot of things in common. And he’s very… forward.”

“You should say ‘yes’,” was out of Cyrus’ mouth before he registered what exactly that meant.

A sense of dread and horror fell over him. What did he just say?!

He took a peek at his friend. T.J. was quiet, looking like he was actually considering it.

Cyrus wanted to take it back. He opened his mouth to brush it off as a joke but then froze. Why was he stopping his best friend from possibly finding love and having a relationship?

The jock hadn’t dated during their entire friendship. Sure, he had gone on some double dates with Cyrus and whoever his boyfriend was at the time, but nothing serious ever came out of those dates. The blonde was straightforward about not romantically liking any of them.

It was like T.J. was just not interested in anyone. But, this was the first time he had seen him genuinely consider someone enough to ask Cyrus about it.

“Really?” T.J. asked in disbelief.

“Y-Yeah.” Chest tightening, he swallowed the lump in his throat. “I mean… like you said… he’s cool. And nice. And you deserve to be happy too.”

The blonde stared at him, his face unreadable. Cyrus gazed back, ignoring the way his chest ached and the stinging in his eyes. He wasn’t even sure why he was feeling that way. He should be happy for T.J.

“So…you’re saying I should say ‘yes’?” the blonde asked, his voice unsure… like he was asking for Cyrus’ approval.

So, Cyrus forced a smile. “I think Aidan is good for you, Teej.”

T.J. smiled back and nodded. “Okay,” he said, his voice cracking a little.

That was strange but before Cyrus could ask about it, T.J. turned away and put the car back in gear.

The rest of the drive was silent once more. But, the churning in Cyrus’ stomach never ceased. He felt sick.

…….........

He had finished his homework and studied for his English test. His brain was drained and he was ready to pass out. Checking the time and seeing that there was still half an hour before his step-mother would call him down for dinner (he was staying at his Dad’s for this month), Cyrus dragged himself to his bed and dived face-first on top of the covers.

Loudly, he released a groan.

Why was he so annoyed?!?!

Rolling onto his back, he reached out for his phone on the nightstand next to his bed and opened up the GHC group chat.

Facetime?

It took a few minutes for the girls to respond.

Andiman: Just finished my homework so I’m free!

Slayer: Me too. What’s up?

He tapped on the camera option and waited.

“Hiii!” Andi sang.

“What’s up, Cy?” Buffy chimed in.

He smiled, leaning back against his pillows. “Hey. So… I need your guy’s thoughts on something.”

The girls simultaneously nodded, ready to lend their listening ears.

Cyrus swallowed and took a deep breath. “So… today… T.J. got asked out on a date.”

“Wow, really?” Buffy exclaimed, eyes wide.

“By who?” Andi asked.

Cyrus bit his lip, hesitating. “I can’t say. But… ugh!!!”

He rolled over, tucking his chin on top of one hand while the other held the phone to his face.

“It’s been bothering me!” he whined.

The girls were quiet for a moment, just watching him have a mental breakdown through the screen. His head hurt and his body felt like jelly, like all of his energy got sucked out of him. He couldn’t get the image of T.J. asking for his approval to date out of his head. If anything, he didn’t need Cyrus’ permission! He could go on a date if he wanted to!

“Did he say ‘yes’?” Buffy asked, sounding heavily concerned.

Cyrus groaned. “No. Not yet, at least. But, I think he will.”

“Why would he do that?!” she screeched.

Even Andi looked shocked.

Was it really that unbelievable that T.J. got asked out? It wasn’t like it was the first time!

That thought made another vein on his forehead twitch.

“Because he likes them?” Cyrus answered, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“That’s impossible,” Andi blurted out.

Cyrus opened his eyes to both of his best friends looking distressed. “Why?” he asked, curiously. “He’s a great guy, I think. And T.J. seems to really like him.”

Why was his voice so weak and tired?

“What did you say?” Buffy asked, instead.

“Me?” Cyrus shrugged. “I told him he should say ‘yes’.”

“What?!” the girls chorused, making him lift an eyebrow.

“What is wrong with you two? Why do you sound so surprised that T.J. got asked out? He’s a great guy. Who wouldn’t ask him out?”

“Straight guys and lesbians?” Andi provided with a grin.

That made Cyrus chuckle.

Meanwhile, Buffy was still frowning. “So…you’re jealous?” she stated, slowly.

He felt his cheeks turn red. “How did you get that from everything I said?!”

Buffy shrugged. “I didn’t. I was taking a guess. But, based on that, it looks like you are.”

“Why would you think that?!” Cyrus replied, defensively.

“So, you’re not jealous?”

“Of course not!”

The two girls raised their eyebrows eerily at the same time.

“How do you two do that?!”

They simply continued to look at him, being all judge-y. Cyrus wrinkled his nose. They were so rude, giving him looks like that! What did they know?!

He huffed. “And so what if I’m jealous? I still…”

He trailed off, eyes widening in surprise at his own words. Slowly, he sat up, crossing his legs underneath him, realization dawning upon him and making his mind go haywire in confusion.

“I’m jealous?” he whispered to himself.

“I mean, Cy, it wouldn’t be the first time,” said Buffy, gently this time.

“What do you mean?”

“Cy, whenever someone asks T.J. out, you act all jealous.”

“That is completely false and untrue!”

“Really? Remember freshman orientation?”

That was three years ago, it was all a blur to him.

Buffy continued, “This one girl was clearly into T.J. and was flirting with him and when she tried to ask him out, you jumped right in and went, ‘Sorry, you’re not his type. He’s gay. You’re better off not wasting your time’ and practically shoo-ed her away.”

Cyrus remembered now. That girl was in his and T.J.’s History class. Every now and then, she would still stare at the blonde so he guessed that crush never went away.

“But it wasn’t like I was lying!” he responded, defensively. “T.J. is gay. He wouldn’t have gone out with her! I was saving her time and energy!”

Andi piped in this time. “What about the time Freddie tried to ask him out after you two broke up?”

Cyrus’ eye twitched. “He was breaking the ex code!”

“Which is?” Buffy prodded.

“To not date your ex’s friends!”

“That’s a stupid code and you know it!”

Yeah, he knew it was stupid. But, at the time, the thought of T.J. going out with Freddie didn’t settle well in his stomach. And T.J. didn’t even like Freddie that way! The girls were being ridiculous!

“Well, we’ve gone on double dates and I was never jealous of the guys he went out with,” he pointed out, very sure of himself.

Buffy burst out laughing and even Andi hid her giggles behind her hand.

“What?” Cyrus questioned, confused.

“You always had something to complain about the person on a date with T.J.,” Andi stated, matter-of-factly. “They either don’t pay T.J. enough attention or T.J. was too good for them or they made fun of T.J.’s dyscalculia and it made you angry.”

“That last one is valid! You should never make fun of someone’s learning disability!”

“Why are you in so much denial, Cyrus?” Andi asked, sincerely.

Cyrus froze. “I… I’m not,” he stammered, weakly.

“What are you so scared of?” she continued.

A lump formed in his throat. “I… I just…”

“Cyrus.” His pixie-haired friend flashed him a small smile. “Do you like T.J.?”

He dropped his phone in shock.

“Cyrus?!”

“Cy?! Are you okay?!”

With a shaking hand, he fumbled for the phone, raising it up to his face again. The little box with his head showed how red he was.

“Why would you think I like T.J.?!” he blurted out.

Buffy chuckled. “Well, for one, we have eyes. You’re not exactly subtle.”

“And when you’re with him, you always get this… sparkle.” Andi looked dreamy as she said it.

Cyrus opened his mouth to deny the allegations but stopped. These were his best friends. They would know if he lied.

But, would it be lying? It wasn’t like he still had feelings for T.J….did he? It was a long-ago crush that started in the 8th grade.

From the moment T.J. had come out to him, Cyrus had been waiting for him to make a move, but he never did. Cyrus waited and waited, but it began to feel like waiting for the dinosaurs to come back and re-populate the earth.

So, he figured that he should forget his feelings and move on. That was why he dated. If someone told him they liked him, he didn’t hesitate in accepting their feelings.

But… maybe… perhaps… the feelings had just been dormant. Maybe they never disappeared like he thought they did.

“Cyrus?” Andi’s voice broke through his thoughts. “If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. But, you know we’re here for you. We’ll always listen.”

“And we won’t judge either,” Buffy added with a smile.

Cyrus couldn’t help but feel touched by his best friends’ concerns. Which was why he couldn’t lie to them anymore. Not about this.

“I’ve liked him since the 8th grade,” he finally confessed. “I… I’m not exactly sure how it happened. But, one day, I just looked at him and realized… ‘I like this guy. He’s one of the best things that had ever happened to me’. And that was why I came out to him. A part of me was terrified that he would stop being my friend, but another part just… hoped.”

He remembered struggling and arguing with himself for several weeks before finally making the decision to tell T.J. that he was gay. And after telling him, it felt like a huge weight off his shoulders. He felt free. He wanted to tell T.J. his feelings but didn’t want to overwhelm him with too much information at once.

Maybe had been too naïve and had hoped…viciously hoped...that things would work out like they did in the movies. That the protagonist – him – would get the guy in the end. But, that hope was unfounded.

T.J. only liked him as a friend. His best friend.

“All these years, I thought my feelings for T.J. had disappeared,” he continued. “I started liking other guys, too, so I thought that I’d moved on. But, as it turns out, just because I liked and dated other guys didn’t mean that I stopped liking T.J. Maybe…maybe that’s why my relationships just never seemed to work out.”

“You heart wants someone else,” Andi stated and Cyrus couldn’t deny her statement.

Perhaps, he also had some shortcomings in his relationships. And that was not fully giving his all in it because of his lingering feelings for his blonde best friend.

“Why don’t you tell him then?” Buffy said, softly. “Before it’s too late. Cy, don’t wait for him to make the move.”

Cyrus swallowed. “I’m scared.”

“About what?” Andi asked, kindly.

“Losing him. He’s so important to me, you guys. I can’t… what if I make a move and things go wrong and we stop being friends?”

“I swear to God, you two…” Buffy mumbled before shaking her head. “Look, Cyrus. You clearly like him. Like, sickeningly in love with him!”

Andi nodded her head in agreement, making Cyrus blush.

“And if you don’t make a move, you’ll be stuck in this eternal loop of being friends and constantly jealous of each other’s boyfriends and ten years from now, you’ll wonder about the time you lost and the regret for not taking a risk when you had the chance.”

Cyrus let the words sink in, his chest aching in longing.

“Cyrus, we love you,” Andi said. “And we just want you to be happy.”

Cyrus swallowed. “What if… things don’t work out?”

“What if they do?” Buffy said, instead.

That left Cyrus thinking about possibilities that he had long ago given up on.

And a new feeling bloomed in his chest and he was both elated and terrified at its reappearance.

He was feeling hope.

…….......

“Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”

Cyrus blinked. “Huh?”

T.J. flashed him a quick look before turning his gaze back to the road. “You’ve been staring at me and not saying anything. It’s kinda weird.”

Coughing, Cyrus adjusted his position in his seat so that he was facing the front.

“Sorry. I was…thinking about something.”

“Oh? What about?”

“That’s for me to know.”

“Ooohh you’re keeping secrets from me now, Underdog? Should I be concerned?”

He said it in a joking manner but Cyrus could read between his lines. T.J. was worried about him. His heart skipped a beat and this time, he wasn’t confused. He knew what he was feeling.

“No, nothing to be concerned about,” he said, as lightly as he could.

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

They moved on to talking about other things after that.

For someone who was still coming to terms with the fact that he may still have a giant crush on his best friend, Cyrus was acting pretty normal. Then again, he had always felt comfortable around T.J. He always felt light, like nothing could go wrong as long as the other boy was beside him. Maybe that was one of the reasons he liked him so much.

They arrived at school and entered the doors, laughing and joking about the frogs in the freshman Biology classes.

“I bet you at least five kids are gonna run out of class to puke their guts out,” T.J. chortled.

“Were you one of the five who did that freshman year?” Cyrus teased.

T.J. turned red and was immediately on the defense. “No! I didn’t puke!”

“But you ran out of class?”

“That frog was gonna jump at my face!”

Cyrus chuckled. “I’m sure that it wouldn’t have-.”

“Hey, T.J.”

They turned their attention to the newcomer walking up to them: Aidan.

Cyrus felt himself go cold at the sight of the other boy.

Aidan sported a wide smile as he strode to them with confidence in his steps. He stopped right in front of T.J. and grinned at him before turning to Cyrus.

“Cyrus,” he greeted.

Cyrus forced a smile. “Hey, Aidan.”

The brunette then turned to T.J. again and lifted his hand, revealing a paper bag. “I got you something, Teej.”

Cyrus took a peek at his best friend from the corner of his eye and saw him turn red as he accepted the present.

“Thanks,” he said, opening the bag. “Scones?”

“Blueberry scones.” Aidan sounded proud. “You mentioned blueberries were your favorite.”

“Wow, that’s really… sweet.”

Cyrus held his tongue, even as he fumed at seeing Aidan blush at T.J.’s compliment. The other boy couldn’t get his gaze off the blonde. It was like Cyrus wasn’t even there!

Then, he stared at the bag of scones. It reminded him of T.J. always bringing him treats. When was the last time Cyrus had done that for him? He made a mental note to bake blueberry macadamia muffins this weekend. Maybe he and T.J. could do it together?

“So, I’m wondering if you had the chance to think about what I asked yesterday?” Aidan asked, breaking Cyrus out of his thoughts.

“Oh… um…” T.J. turned his head to look at Cyrus, looking nervous and unsure all of a sudden.

Feeling his heart tightening, he knew he had to remove himself from the situation.

“I’m gonna go right ahead,” he stated, managing to keep his tone steady. “I’ll see you later, T.J. Aidan.”

Not waiting to hear a response from either boy, he sped off.

……..............

Days passed.

T.J. didn’t talk about it much but Cyrus knew he had agreed to Aidan’s date. Marty told him. And he watched Aidan practically skipping with glee in the halls.

It was basically confirmed when he asked T.J. if he wanted to hang out after his work on Saturday and the blonde told him he was busy.

Cyrus wondered if he was shy about it or just didn’t want him to know that he was going on a date. Either way, he spent his Saturday at Andi’s, lamenting his woes. The two girls were sympathetic but also jumped at the chance to goad him into making a move and confessing his feelings.

On Monday and Tuesday, T.J. picked him up for school and took him home as usual. But, he never said a word about his date. Cyrus didn’t want to nag him about it but he was driving himself crazy with curiosity!

He was still brimming with it when T.J. came over on Wednesday to study for their History test together.

They were taking a break and T.J. was sitting cross-legged on a cushion on the floor while Cyrus laid on his stomach on the bed. Both boys were on their phones. 

Cyrus was scrolling Instagram when a photo of Marty and Buffy on a date to the virtual arcade popped up. They really loved that place.

He turned his phone off and twisted his head to the side, staring at the tuft of blonde hair peeking out from the edge of his bed where T.J. was seated. He wanted to reach out and poke it or run his hands through it.

He held himself back, though.

“Hey, so how was your date with Aidan?” he casually asked.

It took a few seconds for T.J. to turn around to look up at him, red with embarrassment. 

“How did you know?

Cyrus smiled a little. “It’s not that hard to figure out. And… Marty told me.”

“Marty,” T.J. hissed before shaking his head. “It was no big deal. We just hung out.”

Cyrus lifted an eyebrow.

At the look, T.J. sighed and got up from the floor. He climbed onto the bed and laid down on his back beside Cyrus.

“It was… fun. He took me to an Escape Room.”

“That does sound like...fun,” Cyrus agreed, not moving from his position. He could see T.J.’s face clearly like this. “What else happened?”

The blonde chuckled. “It turns out we both sucked at it. We lost and they had to let us out.” He broke into a fond smile. “We went to laser tag after that. Then we had dinner at The Spoon. He paid and wouldn’t even let me handle the tip. And then he walked me home. I gotta say...he knows how to treat a date right.”

It sounded so romantic. Very textbook date night, but nonetheless a classic. And, suffice to say, Cyrus was jealous. Insanely. He was sure that he would have taken T.J. out on a romantic date too, if he had the chance!

(Although, he probably wouldn’t have thought of Laser Tag, at first. But, he would tuck that idea in the back of his mind for later.)

“Wow, that’s… that’s nice,” was all he could come up with. He cleared his throat. “Are you gonna go out with him again?”

T.J. was quiet for a moment, staring at the ceiling. Cyrus wondered if he even heard him. He was about to repeat his question when the other boy finally spoke.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh.” Cyrus swallowed. “But, you like him, right?”

“He’s…a nice guy.”

The unsure answer only served to strengthen the hope in Cyrus’ chest.

If T.J. didn’t know if he liked Aidan, then maybe…maybe he had a chance to capture his heart.

Buffy told him to take a risk.

This should be it.

It was time.

He was going to make a move and ask T.J. out.

Now, if only his lips would move.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“Anyway, we should go back to studying,” T.J. stated, pushing himself up and stretching. “It’s my turn with the flash cards.”

Watching him scoot towards the bedside table to grab said flash cards, Cyrus could only sigh in disappointment.

He was always a beat too late.

……......

More days passed.

Cyrus tried to pluck up his courage but whenever he tried, something always came in the way. Either they were interrupted, T.J. started talking about something else, or Cyrus just lost his nerve.

It was so frustrating! Things were easier when it was him being asked out!

Meanwhile, Aidan was idling around T.J. more and more. He waited for him in the mornings. He approached him at his locker. Sometimes, he would even sit with them at lunch.

Cyrus wished he could hate him. But…Aidan was nice. He was friendly and charismatic and he really genuinely liked T.J. and wasn’t shy about it.

By now, the rest of their friends were aware of Aidan’s crush. Buffy and Andi were clearly unhappy about it (they were on his team, after all!) but it wasn’t like they could stop the guy from liking their blonde friend. Marty and Jonah seemed neutral, but Cyrus was sure that Marty disapproved, too (probably Buffy’s influence).

Meanwhile, T.J. remained tight-lipped about what was really going on between him and the curly-haired boy.

It made Cyrus nervous, if he was honest.

And his fears were not so baseless.

One Friday afternoon, he was waiting for T.J. at the blonde’s locker. His friend was running late.

“Hey, CyGuy!” Jonah was striding up to him, hand lifted in a wave.

“Hey, JB!” he greeted back. “What’s up?”

“So, I read this article during study hall about mindfulness. Apparently, it helps with anxiety and stuff. They mentioned this book and I’m wondering if your Dad might have a copy?”

Unfortunately, Jonah still wasn’t getting therapy. The thought of it, alone, made him even more anxious. But, he was making an effort to take better care of himself now and resolved to read every article he came across about anxiety and how to handle it. Cyrus’ dad was only too happy to lend him books.

Cyrus smiled. “Text me the title and I’ll check at home.”

“Thanks! So, you waiting for T.J.?”

“Yeah, he’s running a bit late.” He scanned the crowd for the familiar blonde head. Finally, he spotted it coming down the stairs from the second floor. “There he is!”

His glee at seeing T.J. dampened when he saw another familiar head of curls behind him.

The two boys were talking and laughing as they neared the lockers and Cyrus. Jonah greeted them, friendly as always.

“So, Aidan needs a ride home today,” T.J. stated, looking at Cyrus. “Is that okay?”

Him? In a car with Aidan sending T.J. heart eyes the entire time and T.J. welcoming those heart eyes with that cute shy smile and blush?

“Yeah. Of course.” He cleared his throat. “Actually, I wanted to tell you that… I’m… hanging out with Jonah today.”

Brows furrowed, T.J. asked, “You are?”

“We are?” Jonah added, looking confused.

Cyrus flashed him pleading eyes. “You said we haven’t hung out just the two of us in a while.”

Thankfully, Jonah got the message. “Oh, right.” He turned to T.J. “Is that cool with you, T.J.? I’ll bring him home, I promise.”

Seeming to be over his shock, T.J. nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

Cyrus felt guilty for ditching him but he really didn’t want to be stuck in an enclosed space with him and Aidan for the next fifteen or so minutes. Watching his crush getting flirted on by someone who also had a crush on him? He felt like a coward, but he couldn’t watch it. His after-school rides with T.J. were sacred and he didn’t want to taint them with seeing such a display and his own jealousy overflowing.  

That was how Cyrus found himself at The Spoon with Jonah, basket of baby taters in front of them. He hadn’t spoken a word since the food arrived, only aggressively stuffing tater after tater in his mouth, barely tasting them. He was so annoyed!

“Is something wrong, Cy?” Jonah asked.

“Nope. Nothing’s wrong. Everything is fine and dandy.”

He grabbed his chocolate milkshake and sipped, quickly. A little too fast because the ice cold feeling immediately went to his head, making him flinch.

“Easy there, bro.” Jonah looked worried, now. He had successfully made Jonah Beck concerned. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

Aside from Andi and Buffy, Jonah was one of his dearest friends. He was his first ever true guy friend (and gay awakening but he wasn’t going to dwell on that anymore). 

And Cyrus didn’t really lie to T.J. He and Jonah hadn’t hung out just the two of them for a while now. They were always accompanied by the girls, Marty, and T.J. So, it was nice that they could just be bros again.

Maybe he could confide in Jonah? He trusted him, after all.

“Have you ever felt so strongly about someone that you’re scared to be with them?” Cyrus asked, softly.

Jonah’s eyes widened in surprise before nodding in understanding. “Because if anything goes wrong, you could lose them.”

It was Cyrus’ turn to be surprised. He never figured that Jonah, of all people, would say something that resonated so strongly in him.

“Is this about T.J.?” Jonah continued.

Cyrus felt himself blush but nodded, anyway. “You…know?” he asked, hesitantly.

Jonah grinned. “The girls like to talk about how oblivious you are. It’s hard not to get caught up.”

Groaning, Cyrus placed his arms on the table and propped his chin on top of them. “Did everyone figure it out except for me?”

“Possibly. But, hey. I think T.J. likes you, too. It’s weird that neither of you have made a move.”

Cyrus snorted in disbelief. “You’re wrong. T.J. doesn’t like me. At least, not like that. If he did, he would have told me long ago.”

Jonah shrugged. “Maybe he’s scared.”

“What would he be scared about?”

Jonah chuckled. “Losing you? You’re important to him, you know.”

At that, Cyrus blinked. He never thought of that. But, he still couldn’t help but doubt it.

“You should talk to him,” Jonah said, encouragingly.

“Yeah… I’m just… waiting for the right moment.”

Lifting his head, he decided to change the subject. “What about you? You seem to know quite a bit about liking someone very strongly and not wanting to lose them.” He grinned at his friend. “Is there something you aren’t telling us?”

To his surprise and curiosity, Jonah blushed and sheepishly looked down at the plate of baby taters. But, his lips were smiling.

“Come on, JB. It’s just me.”

Cyrus reached out and placed a hand over his on top of the table. He flashed him an encouraging smile.

That seemed to make Jonah relax.

“I… uh… have been hanging out with Walker more lately,” he started.

Cyrus’ brow raised at that. 

Walker. 

How unexpected. 

Then again, he and his friends seemed to surprise each other with their random crushes and choice in partners. (Except maybe Buffy. That was the only one that made sense.)

There was Andi and Amber, those two were definitely a surprise, considering their past. And then his crush on T.J., which was unexpected and hit him like a freight train.

Walker and Jonah didn’t seem too far-fetched. And the artist was the first boy the dimpled boy had shown genuine interest in.

“But, I’m still figuring things out so…is it okay if we keep this between us?”

Cyrus smiled, touched at Jonah’s trust in him. He patted the boy’s hand before pulling back. “Of course. Your secret is safe with me. And…same with the thing with me and T.J.?”

Jonah nodded.

They sealed their promise with a fist bump.

He truly had amazing friends.

A/N: I’ve always liked the idea of gay!Cyrus and bi!Jonah bonding about their crushes. 

Tag list:

@androgynouspoetrycollector

@tyrusmuff1n

@thedampjofangirl

@tjsmuffin

@alyssailovespuppies

@buffy-driscool

@r4anly

@delicatesleeper

@amazingpartytattoos

@unprofessionalart

@myrandom-fandomlife

@tjshoodie

@just-fic-me-up

@tjskipping

@completelysterling @theobligatedklutz

@justeilona

@literally-just-for-fanfics

@turtle0verl0rd

@angel28716

@tjlikedhimfirst

@tyrus-endgayme-confirmed 

@breadisticks

[slamncram]

Thor/Loki - Prompt: “I thought we were a family!” - Human AU

Fictober Day 1/31 - 1496 words - also on ao3

__________

“So, what’s the plan?”

Loki sighs, looking out the passenger window of the car. The storm has stopped for the moment, almost like it’s decided to pause in anticipation of what they’re trying to do. There are beads of rain clinging to the glass, catching the bright light pouring from the entrance of the building across the walkway, fracturing it and turning the image upside down if Loki focuses on them. He’s trying not to. It will be too distracting, and he won’t be able to concentrate on the task at hand.

Not that he much wants to focus on the task at hand. If he thinks about it, he doesn’t think Thor does, either. This isn’t the average situation, not their normal hurdle.

“Aren’t you the one who always makes the plans?” Loki asks, finally tearing his eyes away from watching the flow of people going in and out the front doors, and looking over at Thor. His step-brother’s hair is a little wild, coming loose from its ponytail, the blonde ends brushing against the collar of his leather jacket. The light is catching in his blue eyes the same way it caught in the rainwater beads on the glass, and just like them, Loki knows he can’t look too long. “I thought you just said last week that I can’t come up with a rock solid plan if my life depends on it?”

The smile Thor gives him has a teasing edge to it. “You couldn’t. You’re more of an on-the-fly kind of guy.”

“Mhm.” Loki shakes his head, tucks his hair back behind his ear again from where it’s fallen loose, and looks out the windshield, like the answer might be perched on the hood of Thor’s cherry red muscle car. “Well, this? Might be a bit hard for me to be the one working on the fly.”

Thor’s jacket rustles, a distinctive sound, and Loki doesn’t need to look over to know Thor is leaning closer to him. He can feel it in the air, like the electricity that seems to envelop Thor is pressing into his space more and more, sparking something inside him that he cannot indulge right now.

“I know you don’t want to do this. But I go in there, I’m going to stand out like a sore thumb. And you know she’s going to be upset.” At that, Loki does look over, giving Thor a sharp look and being rewarded with a big grin. Thor, pleased with himself for getting a reaction out of him. “Mother. I could care less whether she,” he nods towards the doors, “is upset.”

Thor has a point, there. Loki knows that, and he knows it’s because of Thor’s willingness to play on his fondness for his mother’s happiness. It’s that, mixed with Loki’s annoyance that has him, finally, pushing open the car door and stepping out. Before he closes the door, he leans down to fix Thor with a look.

“You’re going to owe me.”

The police station. It’s not exactly a big building, but, in their small city, it’s almost regal, long concrete steps descending from an entrance framed by tall stone columns. It was designed as a miniature version of the City of Asgard’s city hall, but Loki is far more familiar with this building than that one. A few mischief charges – cleverly talked out of – are to thank for that.

Those, however, are not the reason why he and Thor are here tonight, and certainly not the reason he’s doing his best to exude confidence, striding in the doors, the long ends of his jacket swaying around his knees as he takes the first right. No one questions him. They don’t even really look at him, and, when they do, they don’t seem to see him. The confidence, and familiarity with which he makes his way deeper into the building, make him almost invisible.

It’s luck, really. He’s making this up as he goes, and he barely has a plan when he’s coming to a stop in front of one of the holding cells. There’s a tall, dark-haired woman on the other side of the door, and the second her eyes – a more piercing blue than Thor’s – land on him, she’s on her feet.

“What are you doing here?”

Loki shrugs, glancing one way down the hall, then the other. “Are they going to let you out tonight?”

Across from him, his step-sister narrows her eyes, putting one hand on her hip. The knuckles of that hand are red, some of them split, and there’s dirt on the knees of her black jeans. “What, are you going to sit here and wait for me, baby brother? You might be waiting for a long time.”

“Right. Who brought you in, Hela?”

If his ignoring her question annoys her, Hela doesn’t bother to show it. “Heimdall.”

Loki nods. That works well. Again, not that he has a plan, but it fits into the non-existent one he’s going on. “Well, he won’t mind, then, will he? If we just take you.” Loki steps closer to the door, eyeing the keypad. The security in these cells isn’t exactly state of the art. They’re mostly just to hold people until they sober up, or, in Hela’s case, until they sober up after beating up somewhere between one and four men at one of the local bars, roughly six hours after getting back into town.

Hela steps up to the door on the her side, arms crossed now, watching Loki for a second.

“You know the keycode?”

Loki makes a ‘ssh’ gesture, before trying a few of the more faded buttons. He’s rewarded with a happy chime and a green light, and pulls the door open, letting Hela out of the cell with a dramatic wave. She rolls her eyes, steps back over to the bench for her leather jacket, and strolls out, actually waiting for Loki to let the door close again before she mutters, “lead the way.”

And Loki does. Hands in his jacket pockets, smirk on his face, he leads his step-sister through the halls, half-expecting this to all blow up in their faces. Any of Asgard PD could walk by, give them a harder look, and work out, oh, these are Odin’s kids, and someone should tell the chief.

Never mind that Heimdall has too much of a soft spot for Thor to ever deny him taking custody of his whisky-drinking, bar-fighting sister. That’s all Loki has to hope for, when they exit into the entryway, and pass the reception desk. It’s all been going far too smoothly, and he half-expects the officer at the desk to call out to them, but she doesn’t, and it’s only about seven seconds until they’re pushing open the doors, and Loki can breathe again.

“Thor’s parked... out front.” He says, gesturing at the car. “You can cram yourself into the back seat. I’m not giving up shotgun.”

Hela laughs, quietly, pulling her jacket on. The rain is starting to fall again, but slowly, like it isn’t sure they’re free, and it’s just waiting to start up as a true downpour again, and cover their escape. “Of course you are.” Loki can feel her gaze on him, the heels of her boots tup-ing on the walkway. “Are you two still fucking?”

There’s no real judgment in her tones, but Loki’s hackles raise, right away. Hela wouldn’t be looking to judge. Their family is so damn screwed up, what he and Thor do in their private moments is hardly of consequence.

Still, there’s ice in his tones when he answers. “Now that we busted you out, you better not make a scene out of mum’s birthday tomorrow.”

“Oh, Loki.” Hela’s tone is mock-apologetic. They reach the car and she pulls the rear door open, sliding in. Loki ignores her, trying not to listen to her greeting Thor, and his answer, as he gets into his seat. He closes the door, and the rain starts up in earnest, not quite drowning out the roar of the car’s engine as Thor brings it to life.

They pull out of the parking lot, and Hela’s hand finds the back of Loki’s seat as she leans forward, situating herself between them.

“I thought we were family!” She chides, and Loki looks over in time to see Thor’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Family doesn’t keep secrets. Thor, tell me.” She swats his shoulder. “Are you two still fucking, or not?”

Thor looks over, meeting Loki’s eyes, and something in Loki’s stomach flips, seeing the smirk on his face. Not answering Hela just outside the station was a choice made on instinct because they weren’t technically in the clear, yet. Now that she’s asking Thor, anything goes, any answer is a good one. Especially if it comes from Thor’s lips.

“Regularly.”

Hela barks a laugh, and leans back in her seat, shaking her head. “God. Our family’s fucked up.”

[pillowfluffs]

Best Friend!Baekhyun

Part 2 of 2

genre: fluff

pairing: Baekhyun x Reader (female)

Part 1

You could easily tell something was clouding his mind and making him hesitate on his words. “Because I like you!”

You were speechless. Did.. Did the guy you’ve been loving since childhood just confess?

“..What?” You were barely audible.

“Y/N.. I Like you.. No, scratch that. I love you. I’ve been in love with you ever since we met. Ever since we were basically in elementary school.” He looked at you with the most loving eyes. But now what were you gonna say.

“I..” you hesitated yourself, scared that this was all a dream, you pinched your hand under the table. When you feel the pain, you knew you had to go on. “I- I love you too, Baek.”

“Like /that/?” His calm smile growing on his face. You could see a bit of his ears growing red.

“Yes,” you giggled. “Like /that/” You both just sat there smiling, not knowing what to say next, and for the first time, you guys were having an awkward moment. Luckily the waitress brought your over your foods. They placed your favorite sausage and pancakes. The smell of the most perfect pancakes you’ve ever seen made your stomach growl.

“Thank you for the meal~” you chimed.

“Eat up,” Baekhyun said as he started grabbing the utensils for his eggs and pancakes.

About an hour passed by you two slowly eating and just talking and then you guys left, heading back to your place, agreeing to watch Interstellar. While driving back, Baekhyun was contemplating on whether he could hold your hand or not. He would keep on glancing towards your hand laying on the seat, open, just ready for him to hold. He would reach sometimes but bail and put it on the joystick. His fingers would constantly be tapping or fiddling or something. You noticed how antsy he was being, especially with his hand and soon you were able to connect the dots. When he lifted his hand to “hold” the joystick, you reached and grabbed his hand and held it. You used your other free hand and turned up the radio up as Electric Kiss was playing.

“Better?” You smiled.

“Yes~” Baekhyun smiled and squeeze your hand. A minute passed until Baekhyun asked again. “Y/N..”

“Hm?” You looked over at him.

“I know I’ve asked this before but..”

“What is it?”

“Who was your first bias from EXO?” He grinned, knowing the answer. “And please be very honest,” emphasis on the very.

You rolled your eyes knowing he knew the answer. But you had something better in mind.

“Mm, I don’t know. I told you someone before, but I’m pretty sure it was Luhan or even Chanyeol.” You looked over at him with a smug look on your face.

He instantly looked over at you, mouth agape with a slight smile on his face.

“Oh really,” he squeezed your hand more and tried to start tickling you.

“No, no, no, no, no, stop!” you laughed. “Hey! Focus on driving!” you yelled trying to push his hand back.

“Alright, alright,” he laughed. Baekhyun went back to focus on getting you two back alive. His hand lingered on the steering wheel again and patted the board while at a red light.

You were just on your phone, looking through some apps, looking outside. “The weather’s really nice,” you think to yourself before you feel a warm hand holding yours. You look down to your hand and back up to see your best friend’s handsome face. You thought back to that moment again back in the cafe to when the guy you’ve known all your life, who you loved so much, confessed his love to you. You noticed the way while you were telling him that you loved him back, his eyes, they were just so full of love. You could tell from the way he looked that he was ready for acceptance or denial right then and there. But.. When you said those words, you saw something new in his eyes. A new brightness sparkled in his eyes when he heard the words he had been waiting for years to hear.

He turned back around as you just admired him from the side. You couldn’t help but smile. Who could resist smiling at him; he was an angel. (Protect himmm) You just looked down at your hands, the way his thumb brushed over your knuckles and how he drew imaginary shapes on your hand. You were practically melting. You just smiled in your lap, appreciating him and his existence.

Baekhyun could see you out of the corner of his eye. The way you looked at him was what he’s been dreaming of how you could look at him and return his love. No wonder so many guys were after you. The way you looked at him with love would make any guy swoon and soften for you. You were just too cute. The way you smiled and how your eyes would disappear into little crescents when you were always with him because you were always smiling. The way you were to persistent and hard working with school and you life. You were put together perfectly. No wonder you got a scholarship into Korea’s top school. He knew that if he wasn’t an idol, he would’ve asked you out years ago. He kept his eyes on the road, but you were always in his sight. His heart beat harder and faster in his chest as he kept on looking up from his peripheral vision to see you smiling and brushing your delicate fingers over his fingers.

He pulled into the parking lot and parked his car. He turned off the engine and opened the door when he told you to wait for a moment. He got out of the car while you still sat there, wondering what he was doing. He walked back around the car and combed his fingers through his hair before stepping up to your door and opened it.

“My lady,” he bowed a little and held out his free hand as the other held open the door.

He was driving you crazy. Could he be any more perfect?

“Oh, why thank you,” you grabbed his hand and held your wallet and phone in hand. He closed the door behind you. “What a gentleman, but where did Baekhyun go?”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” He smiled.

“I’m just kidding, chill,” you laughed.

He held onto his hand as you both walked up to your apartment. He swung your arms back and forth while singing aloud a bit.

You honestly loved his voice. You loved everything about him. He was such a caring person and a big hearted guy. His voice and his body were add ons that made him even more perfect. And don’t get me started on this guy and kids.

You both walked up the stairs to your apartment on the second floor and he was just skipping steps effortlessly while you had to run up the stairs since you couldn’t skip steps as fast as him.

He glanced back and saw you struggling a bit and slowed down. He chuckled to himself and felt a little blush grow on his cheeks. Agh you were too cute. You both arrived at your apartment and went in to get ready for the movie.

You slipped off your vans and went started heading into your bedroom.

“I’m gonna change real quick, brb,” you said, closing your door. “You can start getting ready!” You shouted through your door.

“Okay!” Baekhyun shouted back. He places both of your shoes on your shoe rack and headed for the guest bedroom. Since you two were so close, it was natural for him to leave his clothes here and yours back at the dorm. Some nights, he didn’t even go back to the dorms. He would text you once as a heads up and then he would normally shower, eat a takeout dinner he brought or eat something you made (which you almost burned down your house). He ate it barely able to stay awake and afterwards, he would crash into the bedroom. Over time, especially with his hectic and stressful schedules, he would come over to hand and relax. You even over time started decorating the room to suit him more. He quickly changed into some simple black patagonia sweater and some gray sweatpants. Then he went into the kitchen and heated up some popcorn.

You could smell the popcorn as it was heated all the way from your kitchen. It smelled so good, you couldn’t wait to eat some. You dressed up into your old high school softball sweatpants and put on your favorite hoodie.. Which was Baekhyun’s but you stole. Earlier, you knew he didn’t care, but what about now? Were you guys together? Like /that/? Like officially? Because he never said anything. You stood there for about two minutes contemplating. You held the bottom of the hoodie and thought about whether you should wear another hoodie or not. Ah, screw it. Even if you weren’t official, he still wouldn’t care.. Right? You went into your bathroom and got a makeup remover cotton pad and took off your eyebrows.. But BUT BUT, there was hardly a difference since you put on a light amount.. Hehe. hAnyways, as Baekhyun put the bowls of popcorn on the glass table and reached for the remotes to turn on your TV, he realized something when he went to go put the disk in.

“Uh, Y/N?” He was kneeled down in front of your movie cabinet looking around the other boxes.

“What?”You called from your bathroom, brushing your hair.

“The disk isn’t in the case,” a sudden realization hit you. You let your younger brother borrow the movie, but of course, his airhead self didn’t take the DVD case with him. “Should we watch another movie?”

“Uh, no,” you were actually a bit disappointed since you were actually excited to watch this movie again, but it was okay. “We can watch in my room, my dad just got a new subscription to HBO. Bring the popcorn and drinks,” you finished brushing your hair and went back out to turn on your tv.

“Okay.” You heard him walk to your fridge to grab some water and grab the bowls. You heard his footsteps making his way to your room. He used his foot to nudge open the door and place down the goodies on your mini coffee table where you would sometimes work on your homework.

“Will this be okay? Won’t the smell get stuck in your room?” He looked so soft and comfy.

“Oh, right,” you glanced down his outfit. You feel a light burn on your face once again while pushing open your window. “We’re dressed almost the same.. Again,” you thought to yourself.

“She’s so cute,” Baekhyun thought. “Wait.. Is.. Is that my hoodie?” He couldn’t really tell, but spoke up.

“Y/N,” you turned around.

“Is that my hoodie?” He places his hands on his hips and smiled,

Your face grew darker once again, you made a duck face and thought “hard.”

“..nooooo…” you turned back around to the window, pretending to latch the window, but you already did. “Shoot..” You thought to yourself. “He kNEw I wAS weARinG HISSS…”

YOu suddenly feel his arms snake around your waist as you feel his chin against the top of your head.

“Aww, don’t be embarrassed~” he rocked you back and forth. “You look so adorableee!” Now you really were embarrassed. You put your hands up to your face and covered yourself, you felt yourself growing redder and redder by the second.

“No, no, no, don’t cover yourself, cutie,” he turned you around by your shoulder and bent donw a little. He grabbed your wrists and tried to move your hands away.

“Aw, why are you so shy, don’t be~” he pulled you into his chest and rocked back and forth. His arms wrapped around your neck and head. (im so soft rn dont touch me).

You moved your hands away from your face and wrapped them around his mid back. He feel your arms and looked down at you to see your face buried into his hoodie with a smile.

“Come on, let me set up the movie,” you pushed him off of you and grabbed the remote and sat in your spot on the bed. He grabbed the popcorn and sat next to you. He sat all the ay back with his head leaning on the pillows and you sat further up a bit, pulling up the movie.

When the movie started, you grabbed your curtain remote that lowered your thicker and darker curtains over the windows, except for the one exactly to your right so the popcorn smell wouldn’t be so strong later on. Luckily, there was no glare too. As the first scene came on, Baekhyun pulled on your waist to have you lay down next to him. In the past when you two watched movies together, you would just lay down next to each other, but this time, he pulled you into his arms. It was.. Warm.. and soft. A cold breeze blew into the room and you shuddered a bit. He felt you shiver and wrapped his arms around you a bit tighter. The movie progressed to where you cried about two times already. Baekhyun would turn you over to face him so you wouldn’t watch the sad scene, but you loved this movie so much that you already had the scene memorized into your head. You cried into his hoodie and he would wipe away your tears with the pad of his thumb.

“Shh, don’t cry,” he cooed.

You turned back around when he told you the scene was over, but you already knew. Your eyes were threatening to shut as the movie was about three quarters of the way done. You yawned every now and then, rubbing at your eyes.

Baekhyun felt your deep inhales against his chest and brushed a strand of your hair from your face.

“If you want to sleep you can, okay? I’ll be your pillow,” he rubbed your arm.

You’ve never feel so tired before, especially while watching one of your favorite movies. You barely nodded your head when you fell asleep on his arm that he let you use as a secondary pillow.

“I love you, Baek,” you whispered as your turned yourself to face his chest, away form the light.

“I love you more, Y/n,” he yawned. He stared down at your peaceful state before he fell asleep as well. He lingered a kiss on your forehead and you both slept there while the tv stayed on.

~~~~~

Masterlist

[n7archangel]

Pirate Queen - Ch. 1: Better Luck Next Time

This is a “small” project of mine settled in a Mass Effect AU in which FShepard is a space pirate.  I got no beta readers (feel free to pm me, if you are interested), and I’m not a native english speaker, so pls be gentle with me.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Whoa, easy there, Vakarian! Couple more shots like this one, and you'll actually convince me that you’ve finally learned how to aim properly!”, A familiar female voice rang in his coms. 

The mockery was followed by roaring laughter from across the battlefield as Garrus popped the heatsink of his sniper rifle. This had to be one of the worst days in the past 5 years of his career in the Turian military. And considering all the crap he’d been through, it was telling. 

He’s been trailing this Eclipse smugglers ship for days now. An annoying game of patience - Slowly following the marker, trying to stay out of range of their radars. They could’ve engaged them in open space and shot them down, but he needed both the ship and its cargo undamaged. It was his only lead. 

According to the data his team acquired, the smugglers had established an outpost on a small planet in the Castellus System. It was a bold move to try and get a foothold in the middle of the Inner Council Space, but apparently it was worth the risk. Garrus’ found out that the bastards had been smuggling weapons, mods and drugs onto the Citadel for months right under the noses of the Fleet and C-Sec.  

He crouched down behind a big container, a barrage of bullets flying over his head. It was almost hilarious that those bullets didn’t even belong to the smugglers. No, they were dead. He’d seen their bodies scattered all over the base, as he and his team rushed through the hallways and corridors towards the cargo bay. If they hadn’t been a bunch of cut throats and murderers, he would’ve actually pitied them. 

They stood no chance against Archangel and her pirate crew. And it was that very crew that was now showering him and his men with bullets.

“Your trash talk has seen better days, Archangel!” Garrus yelled back at her, taking a glance at the battlefield from behind the container. He cursed under his breath, frustrated by what was happening in front of him. After clearing out the entire base of anything that wasn’t nailed down, the pirates were withdrawing to their last remaining shuttle, covering their retreat with a blaze of gunfire and biotic explosions. And there was nothing he could do about it.

It was his own damn fault. He should’ve acted faster, attacked earlier, and brought a bigger ground team with him. But now all he could do was to watch them get away. 

“Vakarian, sir, they are...!” He heard in his coms. 

“I see that! Go for the shuttle engines! Don’t let them take off!” Garrus roared, took aim and shot. Once. Twice. But it was too late. The bullets of his rifle ricocheted, bouncing off the kinetic shields. 

A wave of loud laughter and cursing rolled over the battlefield as the pirate shuttle lifted in the air. 

It was then that he saw her. Archangel. The self-proclaimed Pirate Queen.

She was standing at the edge of the shuttle interior, holding on to the upper door, her long tattered cloak waving in the wind. It was only her. Her two crew members had already disappeared inside. The pirate wasn’t shooting any more, nor was she trying to take cover. She just looked. At him. 

It was a rare occasion to see her in person. Protected by the mass effect field of the shuttle, she took off her helmet and let her red fringe fall down her black armour. For a few moments, they just stared at each other, while bullets flew around him, fired by his teammates in a vain attempt to shoot her down.

Then Archangel made a sassy tongue-in-cheek salute and disappeared behind the closed shuttle doors. 

The engines of the vehicle roared, boosting it to high speed and sending out a hot force wave that hurled several crates and boxes that were standing nearby towards Garrus’ and his team.  

He threw himself to the side, barely evading one of the bigger containers that would’ve easily knocked him down. As he got back up, his coms went utterly silent. None of the men on his ground team dared to speak. 

Garrus slowly took a look around the smoking and rampaged base. There was not a single surface that was not riddled with bullets, boxes and furniture were thrown over and scattered all over the place. Some of them were torn open, their contents spilled on the floor. In the far corner of the hangar, something stinking was burning. It was a mess. An utterly silent one. After the hellish noise of a firefight, the silence that had descended upon him now was absolute.  

His ground team began to slowly come around their covers, their guns lowered or holstered, their shoulders slumped. Garrus wanted to scream, if only to break this infuriating silence. But he managed to suppress the urge, if only barely, thanks to his fathers voice ringing in the back of his mind. It was unbecoming of a commanding officer to lose his temper. Instead, Garrus walked over to one of the terminals and sent in a searching algorithm from his omnitool into the system. 

No matter how badly things went, there was still work to be done. 

“Search the base”, he ordered, trying his damnedest to control his raging subvocals. “Check for survivors. See if you find any leftover contraband. Scan their systems for information. Move.” 

“Major!” he heard an exhausted, but very enthusiastic male voice coming from behind. “The Aurus has a visual with The Normandy! She’s currently in orbit and on the intercept course with the shuttle. We could open fire...” 

“No!” Garrus cut him off and turned around, a bit too harshly than intended. Corporal Albus, new blood on his team, stood in front of him saluting. Bright-eyed and tense like a spring, still almost a kid, but ready to instantly carry out any order with eagerness thrumming in his subvocals. He was way too zealous for how damn proficient he was with explosives.

“No”, Garrus repeated, with slightly less irritation in his voice and vocals. “The Normandy is none of your concern. You have your orders. Search the base.” 

He returned his attention back to the terminal, catching the last glimpse of the saluting corporal with the corner of his eyes. Leaned against the console, waiting for the searching program to find something useful, he took a deep calming breath. The first one since he’d set a foot into this damn smuggler base. 

His fingers slowly unclenched. The surge of adrenaline and anger subsided and got replaced by a powerless feeling of frustration. 

Another escape. Another missed chance. Another botched mission. Watching her casually get away with the contraband made his blood boil. For more than half a year he’d been chasing her across the Council Space. And every time he’d got close enough to get her in his sights, she managed to slip away like a ghost. 

Archangel. 

The human woman that annoyed the living shit out of him and roughly every bloody criminal organization within the Council Space. One day, she simply appeared out of nowhere and began to systematically attack anyone who wasn’t playing by her rules.  

“Major, we’ve found several weapon stashes in the east wing”, a female voice ringed in his coms. 

“Good, get everything useful to the extraction point. We’ll sort it out on the Aurus”, Garrus replied. The female voice said something else along the lines of ‘yes, sir, will do, sir’ he didn’t really listen to. His eyes were fixed on the control panel. He watched the code fly by, spitting out names, coordinates of locations and details on cargo. They got lucky. The system wasn’t scrapped. 

But Garrus’ thoughts were wandering. 

Back when he first got assigned to the 6th Citadel Fleet under general Adrien Victus, he didn’t know just who Archangel really was. Sure, he’d heard a thing or two from other Citadel Patrols or pissed off mercs that ended up in their custody. But those were isolated cases that resembled wild tales of drunk soldiers on shore leave. They made it sound like Archangel was some kind of elusive vigilante with incredible resources and extremely advanced tech at their disposal, almost all-powerful. Some said they were actually a Spectre, other that they were part of some undercover order or organization that had discovered secret prothean technology. Others even claimed Archangel actually was the last Prothean that had awoken from a 50,000-year long cryo sleep and decided to bring order to the chaotic galaxy. People went head over heels trying to surpass each other with nonsense. 

And then there were stories about her ship that sounded even more absurd. The Normandy they called it, apparently named after some place on the human homeworld. They said it was a ghost ship that could turn invisible at will. That it had a mind of its own. It would resist any tracking attempt and overload or flood enemies systems with junk data no matter how well protected they were.  

For Garrus, all those stories weren’t worth more than a dry chuckle. Until he got the orders from the High Command to hunt down Archangel and retrieve her ship, that is.    

He sighed. 

“Vesper?”

“Sir?” the same female voice chimed, a bit more enthusiastically this time. 

“Give me a connection to the Aurus. It looks like the data was left unscathed, I’ll send everything I got here up for analysis.”

Another ‘yes, sir!’ followed, while Garrus was tipping a number of commands on his omnitool. Once the transfer was complete, he scrapped the console clean and fried the system. The control panel went up in a burst of sparks and electric charges, its monitors blinking desperately several times and eventually going dark. 

He looked at it grimly for a few more seconds, as if blaming the now dead system for everything that went wrong today. Then turned on his heels and made his way past the scattered crates towards the exit of the cargo bay. 

The coms slowly started coming back to life. His team was talking about their findings, coordinating who was searching which part of the base, and communicating other kinds of information. At some point, occasional banter began sipping through.

The long walk back to the extraction point felt like it took forever. The corridors and hallways of the merc base seemed to be way longer than he remembered them from less than half an hour ago, when he was rushing through them with his team. But then again, there was no need to hurry now. Archangel was gone, and Garrus was certainly not looking forward to returning to his ship to write a report on the mission. So maybe he was just dragging his feet.  

“Major, we’re done with the search. We’ve secured 4 crates that contain contraband weapons  and 1 with weapon mods. There… There was also a big shipment of red sand, but…  It...uh...it was set on fire. Along with the storehouse…  and half of the base. Presumably by Archangel”, a deep male voice rumbled over the coms. The beginning of his report sounded rather confident, but then he stumbled. 

“And there... are no survivors among the mercenaries”, he added after clearing his throat. 

“Understood, Silas. I’m on my way to the extraction point. Meet everyone there”, Garrus replied, stepping over a merc corpse, as he made his way through a familiar corridor. Of course. She never let anyone live. Spirits have mercy on you, if you were stupid enough to get on her bad side. He’d seen the aftermath of her battles with mercs and slavers plenty of times to know that things tended to turn very gruesome very quickly when Archangel was around. 

She was a force to be reckoned with. 

As if to prove that, a large window that came up on his left showed the aftermath of her visit. About 100 meters away, a large prefab building stood out between all the smaller ones that made up the base. It was engulfed in flames. The fire was tall and had a distinct green shade to it, whether due to the mixture of gases in the planet's atmosphere or the chemical substances inside, Garrus wasn’t sure. He stopped for a few moments, taking in the eerie view as something inside the storehouse exploded, shattering the remaining windows. 

Garrus’ eyes went wandering. Just like Silas had warned him, the fire had spread over to adjacent buildings, slowly eating away on them. Red, greenish flames were lazily crawling across the painted walls and roofs of the prefabs, dipping through broken windows and dancing inside the rooms. Occasionally, there was a more or less loud crashing sound that interrupted the utter silence. The fire alarms were dead, just like the extinguishing system. Both diligently disabled in advance.   

Stepping over another corpse, Salarian by the looks of it, Garrus continued his way towards the extraction point. All frustration aside, he had to figure out their next steps. Most of those steps depended on what the analysis of the data he’d recovered would give out, but he was sure that if nothing else they’d at least find plenty of useful intel. Cargo logs and serial numbers should get them enough leads to figure out where the mercs were getting their weapon and mod supplies from. 

And hopefully more. 

Right from the beginning Garrus has had the feeling that something about the base felt off. He could not put his finger on it, but there were too many questions he had no logical answers to. With a bit of luck, the intel he could extract from the system would provide him with those answers. 

The shuttle had already arrived to pick them up, as he stepped out of the base and approached the extraction point. His ground team, consisting of 4 other Turians, was already there waiting for their CO.  

“At ease”, Garrus dismissively waved his hand as Vesper and Albus both jumped up from one of the crates to salute him. Silas and the last squad member, Galla, didn’t bother moving. They’d been with their Major long enough to know that all the formal shenanigans and regulations of the military tended to annoy him more than anything. The new kids would get it soon enough.   

Garrus let his eyes sweep over what little spoils they were able to retrieve. 5 crates. He suppressed a sigh and made sure that his subvocals didn’t give away his frustration. It wasn’t good, but it was a start. He could work with that. 

“Load this onto the shuttle. We’re done here”, he said, grabbing the handles of the closest crate. Several more or less enthusiastic ‘Yes sir!’s followed as Silas and Albus both helped him to carry it over towards the shuttle, where Galla and Vesper took it from them and dragged it into the corner. 

After a few trips back and forth, the Turians all boarded the vehicle, the doors sealed with a loud hiss, and they took off. Away from the ground and towards the planet's orbit, where their ship was waiting. 

Garrus fell into one of the seats as his team occupied others around him. He watched the smuggler base below them rapidly shrinking until it was no longer visible. For a moment, he actually considered nuking the damn thing with an orbital strike once they were back on the Aurus. Just for the hell of it. But eventually decided against it. Instead, he took a quick glance at his team, who was now relaxing from the combat and talking about how they ‘almost landed a hit on Archangel’.   

And just like after every encounter with her, none of them had as much as a scratch on them.

[jugandbettsdetectiveagency]

ANGST HALLOWEEN PLOT: Jughead Jones died on October 31st, 2017. Leaving his girlfriend Betty Cooper shattered. But every Halloween on the anniversary of his death he returns to see her. Betty knows eventually she must move on, but she simply can't. Jughead Jones was her soulmate. The love of her life, and as long as he keeps visiting her, she'll just have to wait to be with him in the afterlife.

Thanks for the prompt, love! As it suggests there’s some major character death in this one, but also ghosts - and bittersweetness, I couldn’t leave you without a resolved ending. 

prompts are closed

On thatnight, when the veil is at its thinnest, he finds his way home.

~

She sees it in the way the neonlight from Pop’s reflects in the puddle at her feet, turning it a vibrant shadeof red. It ripples on the autumn winds, sending out concentric circles towardsher toes.

~

“Juggie,please! Please, don’t go out there,” Betty whispered frantically, eyes wide andshining in the white lights the emergency generator had turned on when itkicked into action. The desperation she felt in that moment, willing him tostay still beside her, crouched under the table of their booth at Pop’s, was sostrong she could feel it manifesting in her throat, a lump lodging itself inher airways and cutting off her oxygen supply. 

The apples ofhis cheeks were burning beneath her clammy palms, flush with exertion andanger. She grasped at his face, a little too hard she thought, her nailsleaving white trails in his skin that disappear as fast as she could make them.

“It’s gonnabe alright, Betts. I’ll be right back, okay? Right back,” he soothed, smoothingher hair back, sweaty fly-aways getting tangled between his barely tremblingfingers.

“No. No, no,” she whimpered, eyes sliding shut as the tearsfalling down her cheeks decided his fate before it had even played out. Jugheadpressed a linger kiss to her forehead, cupping the back of her neck delicatelyto hold her against his lips.

“I’ll be back. Stay here, don’t move – I love you.” With that hewas gone.

~

Jughead hadalways kept his promises to her. It didn’t matter how long it took, or how manyobstacles had to be overcome, without fail they’d arrive at the destination he’dpromised they would.

He’d promisedBetty he’d find a way out of the Serpents’ game, getting sucked too far underbefore he’d even noticed his feet were sinking. Jughead pleaded with her togive him time, time to wriggle free from their ever-tightening coils, one limbat a time, before she gave up all hope.

She’d rememberthe tantrum she’d thrown, hurling cruel insults she couldn’t even rememberthinking, let alone feeling, one after another. She wanted to hurt him the wayhe was consuming her, fogging over her every thought and igniting a searingpain inside her chest as she watched him fall further under the dark spellspreading over Riverdale.

He’d kept hispromise; he’d paid with his life.

~

Betty couldn’t stop the strangled sob that ripped its way out ofher chest at the sound of a gunshot echoing through the parking lot,reverberating through her skull. The wail was swallowed in the roar of retreatingengines, stomach lurching with dry heaves that left acid burning Betty’stongue.

She couldn’t move.

Frozen and useless, she heard each tick of the oversized clockbehind the counter counting down the seconds he had left. Her joints werelocked and her muscles burned but she couldn’t get the sound of the shot tostop ringing in her ears.

In the next instant Betty lurched from under the booth, burstingthrough the door of the diner with such violence it almost comically contrastedthe delicate tinkle of the bell that chimed in the same second. There was adark mass contorted on the floor, shuddering gently like it’s caught on thewings of the breeze, engulfing itself in a rapidly expanding pool of darkliquid – it’s not Jughead.

It couldn’t be Jughead, it didn’t resemble him at all. The crumpledfigure was weak and pale, not the tall strong boy with olive skin and softcurls; the brave, lonely boy who’d climbed through her window and kissed herfor the first time; the man he’d become over the next year, growing up tooquickly to keep in step with the rest of his peers.

Betty knelt down by the body – not Jughead, it wasn’t Jughead –and pressed her hands over his, turning her ashen skin red. She could feel theblood creeping up her knees, seeping into her jeans with a sticky, unnaturalwarmth as it marked her a murderer.

She wanted to tell him she loved him – it would be the last time,she knew. But her tongue felt heavy, lips numb, and she could only watch as thegurgled breaths of the boy she couldn’t live without died without her.

Betty spent the next year telling herself she was angry at Jugheadfor ignoring her pleas. But, for the first time, she was angry at herself for makinghim keep his promises.

~

Halloween, ayear later to the day, is the first time Betty sees him again.

She doesn’tremember feeling any fear as he waits for her at the other end of Pop’s parkinglot. Betty was so used to seeing a flash of dark hair everywhere she goes, thesoft knit of a grey sweater, the graceful hunch of broad shoulders that onlycomes with trying to dissolve into the crowd, that it doesn’t even register tobe scared that this is no momentary hallucination.

“Took youlong enough,” she whispers, lips barely moving, surprised the sound evenpermeates the fall chill at all. He laughs like he can’t help himself, scuffinghis sneaker against the gravel as he casts his eyes bashfully downwards.

“Can’t youfeel it?” he asks as she takes steady, unhesitant steps towards him, perfectly measuredin pace. “In the air?” She stills to try and feel what he’s saying. There’s astrange static working at the tips of her fingers, raising the downy hairs onher arms, like the electric just before a big, summer storm. The air feelsthinner and her body feels lighter as Betty makes her way through the veil ofatmosphere surrounding them.

“Are you real?” she murmurs when she’s a hairs breadth away,letting her hand hover in the space between them.

“Yes and no,” he replies cryptically, arching one eyebrowchallengingly, in that way he always used it, and it’s this action that has hereyes stinging, knees shaking.

“What does that even mean?” she asks in exasperation,practically rolling her eyes with her words alone and he laughs again, notquite like she remembers, but not all that different either.

“I’m here,” he affirms, and Betty doesn’t realise how longshe’s been desperate to hear those words once again leave his lips. She reachesfor him, a sickening coldness burying itself in her bones as her hand glidesright through his chest. “But I’m not thathere, either,” Jughead laments, the corners of his eyes turned down as hewatches her heart break through the transparent windows in her eyes.

It’s too much, to have him before her but not within reach,and not enough all at once. So Betty decides to embrace the average and it isjust enough.

~

The next year she tells him his killer has been sentenced todeath. It won’t take place on Halloween so he won’t be able to see it happen,but she followed the trial with an attention rapt enough for the both of them.

Jughead wishes he could hold her as she cries but he’d haveto make do with the memory of her sloping curves in his arms instead. Shethought it would feel like justice had been served, like some clichéd sense oftragic romance closure. But he’s still dead and she’s still broken threehundred and sixty four days of the year. Jughead makes a joke about leap yearsand she snorts ungracefully in response. It’s the closest thing to a laugh shecan remember escaping her in a long time.

Betty looks at him as much as her eyes will allow while he’swith her, no matter how hard her heavy lids try and betray her, stealingprecious seconds from her solitary day of happiness. He’s curled up at the footof her bed, lanky limbs halted mid growth spurt, disobedient curls fallingacross his eyes (“beanies don’t come withyou to the afterlife, who’d have known”). A long forgotten ache rears up inthe pit of her stomach, and it’s been so long that she almost mistakes her lustfor the all-consuming sadness she’s become so accustomed to.

But the time she’d had to touch him had been fleeting,teasing, and she squashes the sensation down, resigned to feel unsatisfied forthe rest of her life.

~

Her new college friends give her a strange look when she saysshe going home for Halloween, wondering why she’d want to spend one of the best(and most promiscuous) holidays back in her small hometown, staying with herparents no less. Betty gives them a practiced smile and a delicate shrug,cementing the good girl image her young, teenaged-self had sworn she’d shed oneday. It doesn’t feel important anymore.

She feels panic bubbling up in her throat, threatening tooverspill in the form of her hastily eaten breakfast sandwich, when Jughead isnowhere to be found at Pop’s. She really had been going mad these past fewyears after all.

Her head spins as she begins a frantic search, eventuallycalming down enough to find herself pulling up in front of Sunnyside trailerpark.

Jughead is leaning against the wire fencing, the autumnal sunlightmaking him look even more translucent than usual. She takes her place by hisside, keeping a careful inch between them, hating the feeling that accompanies theaccidental brushing of her body against his form.

“What are you doing here, Betty?” he sighs, not taking hiseyes from where his father is digging out the weeds surrounding his trailer,with a vigour only befitting a man still grieving.

“What do you mean?” she asks, feigning confusion. In truth,his question stings but she knows why he asks it all the same.

“You shouldn’t be clinging to something that’s no longerhere. It’s your first year of college; you should be out having fun with yournew friends,” Jughead slides his eyes towards her, a hint of accusationinvading his tone. She lifts her chin an inch higher in defiance, barelynoticing the way this familiar action causes the corners of his mouth to tickup, despite the lines of worry still creasing his forehead.

“This is my one day, Jughead Jones, and you will not make megive it up,” she grinds out with all the ferocity of an upset kitten that’sbeen disturbed from its spot sleeping in the sun. He doesn’t push her anyfurther, because even in death he’s still selfish when it comes to Betty Cooper’stime and attention.

“Who would have thought that all it would take for my dad toget dry would be my death,” he jokes wryly, watching as FP straightens to wipea combination of two types of salt-tainted water from his face.

“Juggie,” Betty chastises, unamused by his attempt at humour.

“I’m sorry,” he apologises immediately, not wanting to be thecause of even more unhappiness for her. He’s already watched the sun inside hereyes start to burn itself out, catching itself with a tiny flame of hope justbefore it was extinguished for good. “I just thought he’d get worse after… It’sgood to see him on the straight and narrow. I thought that maybe– ” Jugheadcatches himself before he finishes that thought, his eyes darting guiltily tomeet hers before he turns away. He doesn’t have to say it. If FP had drankhimself into a grieving stupor it may have hurried things along a little bit.He swore he should have been sucked right to hell when the thought first creptits way into his head, invading his mind like the sharp, unwelcome barbs onspider’s legs, sending a deathly shudder down his spine. He’s aware of theirony.

Betty closes the gap between them, gritting her teeth againstthe unpleasant sensation every time her arm brushes his. She hadn’t spent a lotof time thinking that loneliness could work both ways.

~

“I can’t do it, Jughead.”

She’d said it a year earlier, too, and now here they areagain. If someone had told him that he’d be arguing with his girlfriend even indeath Jughead would have probably scoffed and then said he could see where theywere coming from. She was stubborn, impossibly, intoxicatingly so.

He just wanted her to start living again.

“Betts.” She still shivers when he calls her that. “It’s beenyears now,” he whispers, almost as if he’s trying not to remind her even whilesaying the words out loud. “All through college you never… You need to move on.”He can’t meet her eyes.

“Well how can I when I just know you’re going to keep comingback, year after year? You’ll never leave me alone!” she explodes, clamping ahand over her mouth, eyes wide with horror, the minute the words slip past herloosened lips. He’d just made her so mad.

The year before he’d asked her to go on a date, just one, forhim. That was a low blow. She’d be forever in debt for the sacrifice he’d madefor her, giving himself over (quite literally) at her request. Betty had fakeda phone call to step outside of the restaurant when she’d caught curious blue eyespeering in through the glass-fronted wall. If she turned around now she couldprobably just about make out her date at their table, nervously twisting hishands as he wonders whether he was doing okay on this first date with thepretty blonde girl who worked at the register across the street.

Jealousy burns, hot and betraying, in Jughead’s stomach as hecatches sight of the man, older than he’d ever be.

“You’re right,” Jughead replies meekly after a painful minutehas dragged by. “I have to leave you to live your life.” He’d do anything tolook into those crystal green eyes one last time, up close, but he knows thatif he does he’d crumple – instead he keeps them fixed on the pavement, staringat her sensible, blush pink flats.

“Juggie, no,” she cries, tears making her voice thick. “Ilove you.” It’s what she should have said as he was sucking in his last breathon that night, a lifetime ago (at least it was for him, it didn’t have to befor her), but only now does she find her voice. Jughead’s heart shatters.

“I loved you, too,” he replies carefully, putting all his stockin the past tense to keep her rooted to the sidewalk as he turns and walksaway. Forever.

~

He knows it’s childish but he can’t resist stealing the whitesheet hanging from Mrs Mayweather’s clothes line her backyard. He’ll get a kickout of seeing her wonder how it managed to disappear and then return with twosmall holes cut in it.

He’d kept his promise, he’d stayed away – he always kept hispromises.

Jughead stands across the street, so close and yet an entireworld away, as Betty guides the little girl with golden curls up to the nextdoor, pressing the bell and then helping with the joyous chorus of “trick or treat!” when their call isanswered.

He thinks that in another life those curls would be dark, andher nose would be a little less button shaped, but she’d still have her mother’scrystalline eyes and high cheekbones.

When they head back towards the street, the girl’s bag alittle bit heavier with candy, Betty’s eyes pass over him as if he wasn’tthere, under his ridiculous sheet, with even more ridiculous holes cut out forthe eyes – as if he were a ghost.

The man from the restaurant all those years ago meets them bythe fence, lifting the girl into his arms and delighting in her happy squeal. Heoffers to carry her candy bag for her and then throws his head back in laughteras she clings to it like her life depended on it, suspicion painting her cherubimfeatures. Betty laughs too, stroking her hair fondly, but it’s different to theone Jughead remembers.

Everything about the way Betty is… it’s all different to howhe remembers. The way her eyes soften into a different shape when the manplaces his hand on her lower back, drawing her to him. The way her lips part ina different fashion as he leans towards her for a swift peck… None of it is thesame as it used to be. The way it used to be with him; he likes to think she’sstored those memories away in a chest in the back of her mind, to pull out andflick through with a kind of melancholy that no longer tears you apart, whichmakes you feel sad in a good way, when the mood is right.

Jughead’s still noting the differences as they walk down therest of the block and vanish around the corner.

~

Betty doesn’tremember the lights in Pop’s ever being this bright before. Perhaps the old manhad finally revamped his beloved diner. Betty chuckles to herself as even thethought feels like a betrayal.

“Hey, you.”Her heart stops at the low voice that floats towards her across the limitlessexpanse, not quite settling into the diner of her fondest memories, not quitenothing at all.

“Juggie?”she whispers, scared to break the spell that’s brought her back to him.

“I got yourfavourite – strawberry shake with extra whipped cream. I might have eaten thestrawberry while I was waiting for you, though,” he tells her sheepishly, alight blush resting on his sharp cheekbones.

“That’sokay,” she breathes, tripping her way towards him. As she reaches out a hand tosteady herself on the booth she notices it’s missing the familiar wrinkles anddarkened spots that belayed her age. She fishes a tendril out of her ponytailto see that it’s blonde, not grey like it has been for so many years now. There’sno persistent ache in her joints, no tell-tale cramp of arthritis in her hands.She can’t remember what it’s like to feel this young.

“I’vemissed you, Betty, so much,” Jughead continues, standing in front of her now.When she lifts a hand it lands solidly on his chest. Without warning a flood oftears cascade down her youthfully flushed cheeks. “I hope you had a good life,”he says, his own voice wobbling with barely contained emotion. His eyes are asblue as she remembers.

It’s notanother second before she’s got her face buried in the crook of his neck, hiswarm hand cradling the back of hers, breathing in the scent of him she’d neverforgotten while he litters her hair, her temples, anywhere he can reach, with desperatekisses.

“I did, Idid,” she promises, clutching at him, determined to never let him escape heragain.

“Time forround two,” he murmurs into her hairline, and it’s already damp with his tears.“It’s been a long time coming.”

“I���d waitforever.”

[firefield]

David Bowie - Space Oddity (2019 Visconti Remix)

I’m a fan (so far) of all the times Bowie commissioned a remix of an entire album. Individual tracks, not always, but albums, yes. Some were desperately needed (Lodger and NLMD) some fixed technical flaws, restored sequencings, and generally balanced things up (David Live, Stage) some were about detail and subtlety possibly lost on casual listeners, but reward active listening (Ziggy Stardust, Station To Station.)

But with those wrapped up and in the can with the Legacy Box sets, I didn’t anticipate any new remix work, mainly because the key works/fixes are completed and the remasters of all the original mixes are overall pretty gorgeous. So this announcement of Tony Visconti’s two-month-long remix project of this brilliant 1969 record surprised me. Doing some digging, TV made his case and it makes sense. Limited funds originally to do the mix, so very limited time. The whole record was mixed in less than a week. So I could see the appeal for him, the original engineer, to sit with those recording sessions for awhile... revisit what did and didn’t make the cut, look at the balance of instruments in the stereo field, play with all those stems and see if anything special grows.

So yeah - I was happy about that and excited to hear his work. To some degree, I expected to hear some new parts, probably DB vocal layers never heard, a “modern” mix that shimmered and enveloped and impressed as is typical of Tony’s sympathetic and DB attuned aesthetic.

What we got instead was something much more sludgy and of its time. A psychedelic aural sieve with tracks jammed through it like hand-mixed sausage through a press. Holy shit! What the hell is this? If like me you have heard this album 100’s of times since you were basically a kid, it’s absolutely disarming. This is brave work. It’s not safe, anticipated or typical in any way, save the majestic treatment of the title track, which by the way, is not indicative of the overall effect this new mix has.

Fans of this record understand its depth, and I still hold that lyrically it’s one of his most profound and sincere works - and Visconti has absolutely impregnated this material with a dense gravity that I could not have seen coming. It’s just *heavy* man. The vocal treatments and layering make me feel like DB is alive and tracked these himself from some planet like Venus, with its crushing atmosphere and yellow green swamps of mystery. It’s one of those listens that happens sometimes in music where you sit there with your jaw open, not sure if you even like what you are hearing. Like the sound is happening and it’s something beyond your judgement until you’ve at least honored the work enough to listen through it quite a few times. Like you have to earn your hall pass, and until you get one, your job is to shut up and just listen.

The album opens of course with a stratospheric Space Oddity, with just absolutely amazing and heart rending strings and a vocal treatment that is alive with power and mystery and echoes into the universe from which it arrived. Instantly my favorite version of this well-known song.

Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed blends much more smoothly with the title track, but then begins to morph as the bass stabs into the speaker cones, mixed high and defiant, and by the time “I’m a phallus in pigtails” arrives, you’ve got a glorious sludge of footstomping thick-as-theives rock and roll. Guitars are nasty and tightened up, harmonicas drip sweat, and the dirty ride cymbal washes it all out over an extended Americana deep-south voodoo coda that just keeps on keeping on in spite of the oppressive humidity.

Letter To Hermoine is also thickened with an almost suffocating warmth and reverb - the sparkle of the original is dampened into a mush and David’s vocal is made stark, demo-ish, slipped more to the right channel forcing it to stick out even more than its already increased amplitude. I would never have considered treating this song in this way, a mix like this, but it makes a more personal song even more so, in a way that makes every crack of David’s voice feel like he stayed up all night writing it just for you. An extraordinary interpretation by Tony Visconti.

And now an album centerpiece, Cygnet Committee, with its lyrical themes that speak to literally the entirely of Bowie’s remaining career. The reverb immediately noticeable on the opening bass part unifies what has come before, and I’m impressed how “Beatlesque” this mix is, with the drums hard-panned, the rosedale electric chord organ mixed higher, the vocal reverbs appearing and disappearing, going from a near complete wash to totally absent when the narrator has a point to make. It’s not a “modern” mix at all, but perfectly suits the material and the time in which it was written. It doesn’t play tricks, or attempt to tickle ears with novelty - it lets this incredible song stand on its own and march it’s way to closing out the A-side.

So how to tackle Janine after all that? Tie it directly to an album to come, TMWSTW, stick that bass out far, and make all those whooping and earnest vocal layers pop. Wonderful B-side opener, begs you to turn up the volume and feel the bass in your gut.

One of my favorite mixes on the record is An Occasional Dream with its confident flutes and recorders, shimmering prickly guitars, and unusual and dreamlike backing vocal layers doing some very odd things. What an incredible song to be written by someone so young.

Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud is fascinating with its horn-centric arrangement and elevated strings and harps. Is it my imagination that I’m hearing entire vocal passages that I’ve never heard before? Are these vocal takes that were on tape but totally unused in the previous mix? I’d have to do an A/B comparison, but I think so.

“really you and really me.”

Hearing this vocal is like a timewarp into the future to his work on Baal. Like he’s able to suck up the experience and timbre of his own self 30 years on and use them when he likes. Incredible.

Aww man. Wow. How nicely does Conversation Piece sit here as originally intended... whew. Emotion. “I can’t see the road for the rain in my eyes.”

I’ll just let you enjoy this song in your own way without my input, expect to say that you will miss this artist’s presence in the world.

So yeah. Get it together. Alrighty. “God Knows I’m Good” is a brilliant song IMO although plenty seem to disagree, and that’s cool. Lyrically, it’s just killer, and I’m enjoying David’s natural centered vocal clean and clear. Beautiful smoothed out 12-strings gliding and gorgeous. Nothing out of the ordinary here besides some balancing and reverb choices, but an honest and heartfelt interpretation of an underrated DB song.

I’m expecting more of a Beatles/George Martin approach to the mix of Memory Of A Free Festival, and we’ll see. Lovely, honest and direct vocal treatment on David’s voice, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this morphs into the slew of background vocalists that include Marc Bolan and friends... wait - what? A Pink Floydian bridge into the coda? Wow! The Sun Machine is coming down and it joined a religious cult and it wants you to believe! Alright well, this is amazing.

If you have any love for this record, and aren’t one of those people who think remixing is akin to spray painting over the Mona Lisa, GET THIS. You’ll be surprised and touched by it, I guarantee. Hearing these voices swirl and smear at the end of this record makes me feel like Tony Visconti made this for David, his friend, and we just get to enjoy it too. Tony captured lightning in a bottle with this work here. Having access to original track stems included unused music, and the privilege of being there for the recording sessions so long ago, he’s in a literally singular position to rebuild and reinterpret these songs from scratch in a way that would be impossible for anyone else, even if they had the access to the masters that this requires.

I think one of the reasons I love it so much is that it lays bare the importance of mixing and mastering to the artwork itself, and Tony’s voice is all over this. And unsurprisingly, it’s a voice filled with genuine emotion and reverence for his friend. Space Oddity blows me away. For a song that is SO well known to fans and otherwise, one that is intimately mapped on our minds, it’s just remarkable that he can mine, find, and yank this sort of soaring majesty out of well-trodden aural paths. It’s just a wonder, and without hesitation my favorite version of the song. It’s absolutely perfect. His use of modern delays made me nervous with Lodger (I’ve since warmed to them) but in the context of this lead off track, they are just... yeah. David’s still around.

From the dizzying psychedelia of Unwashed, to the chiming percussive harmonics flittering like butterflies all over Letter To Hermione, to the brilliant inclusion and interpretation of the deeply lovely Conversation Piece, to the closing triumphant aural densities of Memory Of A Free Festival, this record is a masterful window into the genius of music itself. But the fact that it shows off Tony’s skill without feeling arrogant or showy at all is just wild. Work like this is risky, and guaranteed to smack a glowing target on your back from the “why-do-we-need-this-cash-grab” crowd - so I’m impressed with his ability to honor the art and the artist in this way, and to respect the impressive craft of audio and sound studio science. He’s one of the Masters of the craft and this is Legacy work. A gift and a treasure.