#and im obsessed with owen

[enderwoah]

the other side of the war

summary:

Scott likes to think he is a sensible person. Because of this, he doesn't find it at all unreasonable for him to start freaking out when he catches a glimpse of a Homeworld ship passing over the Crastle. Owen is rather certain that he is a sensible person. Because of this, he feels as if his response of dropping his recording device onto a rock and breaking it instantly upon seeing the sapphire that exits the large castle is entirely reasonable.

or: owen, beks, and eloise go from homeworld to find the deserters on earth. owen very much recognises scott. title from story of tonight (reprise) by lin-manuel miranda. au by @chrisrin. fic is life on earth by @sixteenth-days. read the tags!

(ao3 link)

(2,593 words)

Scott likes to think he is a sensible person. Whether that is true or not is entirely subjective, but he's quite sure he is one of the most level-headed gems currently residing on Life, if not the most.

Because of this, he doesn't find it at all unreasonable for him to start freaking out when he catches a glimpse of a Homeworld ship passing over the Crastle.

"Glimpse" is a loose term—he both sees it in a vision and then sees it out of the corner of the window only a few seconds later, almost too fast to catch and not looking like it was planning to stop. The vessel was yellow in colour and rather small, which at the very least tells him that it's not another colonisation attempt or scouting expedition. His relief from that realisation is very quickly undercut by the strangling anxiety at what it could be instead, and his efforts to try and pry into the future to see what could be on the ship are suddenly interrupted by the knowledge that Jimmy was going to come barreling into the room from the window in a few moments.

He does so with as little grace as Scott saw, his foot catching on the ledge and making him lose his balance on his way inside, all the while yelling, "Scott- Scott, I saw another ship fly by-

"I know," Scott says coolly, pretending like there aren't fractals crawling across the wooden boards around his dress.

Jimmy fixes himself from somehow being tangled up in a stone slab. "You know?"

Scott grips the sides of his dress. "I saw."

"Oh," Jimmy says shortly, shoulders slumping. He looks back out the window as if expecting the ship to come around again—which it very well might- before turning back to Scott. His wings are refracting the light of the sun onto the ground, making their trembles all the more obvious. "What do we do?"

"Tell the others, if they haven't seen already." He kicks his legs to break the ice sticking his dress to the floor before it becomes unbearable. "Hopefully, it'll just pass by without encountering us at all."

Jimmy tilts his head to the side like a bird, which are quickly becoming one of Scott's favourite things on Life. "I don't see why it would fly this close to the surface if it was just passing by."

"'Hopefully,' dear," Scott says with a weary smile. "I said 'hopefully.'"

"Ah."

Scott laughs lightly, the warmth in his chest chasing away his anxiety as Jimmy giggles to himself, face turning a slightly darker shade of blue. He reaches out to lay a hand on Jimmy's arm—

—and then there's a small ship in a forest, there's orange and green and blue, there's weapons and shouting and a lapis falling to pieces in front of his eye—

—and Scott's grip on Jimmy's forearm turns almost violent in its intensity. Jimmy looks down at him, concern preciously obvious in all of his body language. Scott doesn't look up. His hands are shaking.

"You saw something," Jimmy says softly, immediately crouching to be at eye level with Scott.

"I did."

His face is pinched with concern and worry and stubborn, stubborn love, a fierce protectiveness that has lead to his hypothetical death in several timelines in Scott's vision. "Was it about the ship? Was it bad?"

Scott shakes his head on instinct before catching himself and leaning more into a head-tilt, like the birds. "They're coming. They've spotted us. There's only three gems, I think, and they're going to land in the forest in front of the Crastle."

Jimmy's face goes pale. "Could you tell what type of gems they were?" Scott shakes his head, and Jimmy immediately pulls him into a hug, which has been his thing lately. Spontaneous displays of affection—though this one, Scott supposes, is not that spontaneous. He hugs Jimmy back and does his best not to touch his wings so as to not drench his arms. "It's gonna be okay, Scott. We'll be alright. We always end up alright."

Scott simply hums in return. The amount of confidence he speaks with is almost hilarious, considering how many times Scott has saved him from shattering without him even knowing. It would be hilarious if they weren't visions of his flower dying gruesomely branded onto the inside of his eyelid. "I know. Just stay close to me, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

Jimmy pulls back but leaves his hands on Scott's shoulders. "I never do anything stupid."

Scott is not content with giving him a look that he will not be able to see. He pushes his bangs out of the way and fixes Jimmy with the most lightheartedly withering glare he can manage.

Jimmy bursts out laughing. Scott can hardly help himself but follow.

-

Owen is rather certain that he is a sensible person. If the contrary was true, he is almost certain that he would have been shattered ages ago, or at the very least, reconditioned due to his innate value. He is almost completely positive that he is one of, if not the most level-headed gems that has ever stepped foot into consciousness.

Because of this, he feels as if his response of dropping his recording device onto a rock and breaking it instantly upon seeing the trio of gems that exit the large castle is entirely reasonable.

There is a jasper that positively towers over him, a lapis lazuli that is shooting him and his company a very distasteful look, and a sapphire, front and centre, just like him.

He gazes into Sapphire's bangs, and Sapphire stares right back.

They're both frozen, the plant matter around Sapphire's dress freezing so quickly the lapis begins to try and kick it away and the matter around Owen's dress cooking to a light sear. The vision of El and Beks' confused expressions flashes like a spotlight into the front of his mind, and he can see equally as perplexed looks on Sapphire's friends' faces.

He cannot believe what he is seeing—it shouldn't even be possible for him to be seeing this. This is wrong, this is terrible, this is—

"Owen?" Sapphire says, taking a step forward. Beks immediately matches the step, but Owen holds out his hand to keep her still. "Owen—Padparadscha, is that really you?"

"Yeah," Owen breathes, before clearing his throat and fixing his posture to be more straight. He glances at Beks and she immediately snatches up the pieces of the broken recorder. That was entirely his fault, be will admit—a reasonable response to seeing a friend currently siding with a bunch of deserting rebels he was sent to interrogate, but his fault nonetheless. "Yes, Sapphire, it's me. What are you doing?"

Sapphire's demeanor almost seems to brighten at that. "Oh, Owen, you wouldn't believe the things we have out here—I go by Scott now, by the way."

"'Scott?'" Owen repeats, rolling the name around in his mouth. "Why? That has nothing to do with you or your cut."

"No, no," 'Scott' says, shaking his head. "It's an alien name. I chose it myself, do you like it?"

"Do I like—Sapphire—Scott, whatever, do you realise how serious this is?"

Scott falters a bit, taking a slight step back as the lapis frowns at Owen. Owen stares directly at him, and he shrinks a bit but still asks, "'Serious?' What makes this so much worse than all the other trips out here?"

Scott elbows the lapis in the thigh, and before Owen can really process the fact that this...group of gems have encountered the other missions, El steps forward and clears her throat. She has been furiously tapping on a holographic screen ever since Owen broke the recorder, most likely transcribing the entire conversation. She doesn't even look up as she begins to speak.

"The Great Diamond Authority has recognised the presence of living and functioning gems on this planet that have not returned to Homeworld after several scouting and retrieval missions. The three of us are here as an extension of their luminescent grace and power to decipher and report upon the locations and intentions of these...missing gems."

The word 'missing' is dripping with distaste and scorn, and Owen is rather sure everyone felt it. Scott takes another step back and Owen stamps out the resulting twist in his chest. It isn't his problem if Scott decided to run off onto some planet and desert his home for...whatever reason. It isn't his problem that the sapphire has seen this writhing, damp, cluttered mess of a planet to be worth more than his life and the lives of those that took the mission with him. He is not going to think about it too hard because he is sensible and would prefer to remain that way.

"So what does that...mean?" the lapis asks, fiddling with his fingers.

"It means we're here to get answers, moron," Beks snaps, leaning on the hilt of her greatsword. "Though I honestly think the fact that you're not begging us to take you home is answer enough."

All three of the gems standing across from them (including Sapphire, and Owen really is trying to wrap his head around the idea that Sapphire is over there and he is over here and they are enemies?, he supposes?) make some sort of scowl, and he sees the water in the pond not too far from them start to ripple, except that was about ten seconds ago and now the surface of the water is choppy and the lapis' gem is starting to glow.

"Owen," Scott says quietly.

"Padparadscha," Owen hisses, digging his fingers into his dress and staring down the lapis lazuli. He feels lightheaded. "No deserter is a friend of mine."

"Stars, Homeworld gems," mutters the jasper, who has looked nothing but mildly intrigued this entire time and is now gazing down at Owen with an unidentifiable expression that makes his skin prickle. "So dramatic."

"There's really no need to get overly-hostile, here," El says nervously, though the fact that she actually glances up from her holoscreen is sign enough that she is ready to bolt at any given moment. "We just want to ask some questions."

"No, I think the quartz may have been right," the jasper says, stretching in a way that cracks her knuckles and other assorted joints audibly but plays it off like a normal stretch. "We've given you answer enough."

"Are you suggesting we fight?" Beks asks, though she sounds more like she's gleefully proposing something rather than asking a question. "'Cause we're not leaving until we complete what we've been told to do. Unlike some, we still have a modicum of responsibility left in our rays."

"Beks," El says irritably, shooting the quartz a glare. "Stop antagonising them."

Beks stops leaning back and forth on her sword and instead properly wraps her hand around the hilt, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not doing anything. I'm just talking."

"We'd appreciate it if you stopped," the lapis insists.

"We'd appreciate it if you shut up," Beks snaps back, the tip of her sword digging further into the ground, piecing through the layer beneath their feet. Owen can't stop staring. "Really, I mean—a bloody lapis? And a sapphire? I mean, I wouldn't expect anything more from a jasper, maybe even a lapis under insane circumstances, but a sapphire? For this? This disgusting, pulsing planet?"

Owen blinks, and he can see serrated spikes rising from the water's surface.

Scott blinks, and he can see that same image of a lapis shattering in front of his eyes.

For a moment, the two of them are in sync again.

And then the spikes go flying, and Owen shouts out Beks' name as she lifts her sword to attack and the lapis kicks into the air with his wings. El immediately shrieks and ducks away, dress snagging on the sharp edges of the terrain as Beks' sword goes swinging in a terrifyingly wide arc in front of them. The only thing Owen can do is yell, really, until he realises he can do more and throws himself into Beks' back as hard as physically possible. He lands on top of her, and then falls straight onto the forest floor, something sharp digging into his abdomen.

At the same time, Jimmy's name is torn from Scott's throat as he lunges towards the lapis, attaching himself to his legs and pulling him down, yanking him closer to the ground just as weapons make contact and suddenly, Scott is holding nothing.

Scott snatches Jimmy's gem off the forest floor (thank the stars, thank the stars, that was entirely too close and he can barely breathe and he is shaking so hard he's scared the vibrations might end up shattering Jimmy, anyway) and shouts, "Enough! Enough, please. Cleo, please."

Owen's vision shifts back to reality (after watching three shards of ice go directly through Beks' head as her sword cut clean through the lapis' neck) and he realises that he is at the end of the jasper's weapon—'Cleo's' weapon, apparently. He looks up at her and sits up, scooping Beks' gem into his hands and clutching it close to his chest.

"This...this will get us nowhere," Scott says through ragged breaths, and Owen blinks and he sees a lapis gem shattering from Scott's point of view- a disorienting past-vision of Scott's future-vision that makes him feel dizzy. He hasn't done that in so long. How long has Scott been out here? Owen knew he went on a mission somewhere, but it isn't that uncommon for those to take several months, or even years before becoming a real concern. How long has Scott been missing?

"I—I agree," calls El from several feet away. Her dress is shredded at the bottom and Owen is quite sure this is the first time he has ever seen her legs. He blinks, hard, and sees Scott holding the lapis' hand as they walked out of the castle in front of them. A deep, painful pit settles in his stomach. "Please, let's just sit down and talk."

Owen feels a bit ill. The present and the recent past are often a bit too similar and a bit too frequent for him to properly categorise, and he suddenly fears the idea of getting them very, very badly confused like he has done several times before. For some of those times, Scott was there to help him. He sees Scott pushing his hair back, staring at him, except when Owen actually looks, his hair is down and his hand is hovering by his chest. Around where his heart would be.

"Owen," he says quietly. "Let's go inside."

Owen blinks and sees Scott and this lapis encouraging each other, warning each other just behind the door, hugging each other, Scott standing on his toes while the lapis leans down and—

Oh. His vision shifts focus again. He's too dizzy for this. The sun is going down and the sky is painted in brilliant shades of yellow and orange and red and purple. It's black and tainted with trillions of stars in his vision alone.

"Yeah, alright," Owen whispers, looking down at Beks. He swipes his thumb against the face of the gem and holds her tighter in his hands. Scott is pressing the lapis to his forehead. The lapis is in a blue bubble within Scott's hands. Owen feels dizzy. "Let's go inside."

[ghostface-knight]

ok im just thinking about. owen waited 4 years to try and kill curt. he easily could have killed curt before he got back into the field, but he didn't.

curt would have been easy to kill too. he was weak, off his guard, out of shape, and drunk most of the time. hell, owen probably knew the location of curt's safe house. there was literally nothing keeping him from killing curt.

except, owen didn't want to kill that curt. he didn't want to kill some sad, groveling drunk who couldn't fight back.

he wanted to kill the famous Agent Curt Mega, who had left him for dead.

he also probably realized that if he just broke into curt's house and killed him then, curt would just accept it. he knew how depressed curt was, and how he was grieving. he knew that if he did it then, curt probably wouldn't even be upset about it. if anything, he'd be overjoyed at seeing owen alive, even if about to kill him.

no, owen wasn't going to let curt get a single ounce of relief when owen was killing him. he needed curt to grieve, and eventually heal, so he could tear the wound open again.

[starpirateee]

please continue the chimera!curtwen au! I would love to see the full story, and the consequences of curt joining chimera (and how owen reacts). it's such an interesting premise!

Y'all are asking for it! You've got that vaguely corrupted Curt comin right at ya! In fairness, I'm... also asking for it. This has taken over my entire brain and I will be thinking about this au for a hot goddamn while now....

(part 1)

"This is…" Once upon a time, the Secret Service operative known as Curt Mega used to be a legend. Known among governments, feared among their enemies. His was a name to be known, to be respected.

All of that came to an end at the beginning of 1959. In the dead of winter, Mega had been sent to investigate one of the most covert operations in the world, and had never returned. Some say he was killed in a gunfight. The reports say he was declared missing in action, and then presumed dead a month later. No matter the case, Curt Mega- a man with a future. A man of only 34 years old- was dead to everyone that mattered.

Everyone, that was, except Owen Carvour.

Because, the truth of the matter was that Curt hadn't died in a gunfight, or through some tragic accident… In fact, he wasn't dead at all. He had, however, joined the ranks of the dead, so to speak. Most of the operatives of Chimera were men just like him. People who had been declared dead, or who's country would be more than happy to kill them if they ever showed face again.

Suddenly, it made a lot more sense why they were informally known as ghost corps…

Owen had been getting Curt acquainted with the system that they had been developing under the noses of the world's governments. To say the least, he wasn't expecting a lot. Curt and technological developments were not two things that tended to mix, so he had rather low expectations.

"This is incredible."

That wasn't one of the things he'd prepared himself to hear, and he had to briefly check to make sure he was even still talking to Curt.

"Incredible, you say?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Curt nodded. "It works, doesn't it? You've got it deployed already?"

"We do. Mind you, what we currently have deployed is a prototype, really… A first draft. But the system for data collection will be much the same."

That's what they were looking at now. Massive banks of data, the likes of which Curt had never seen before, let alone tried to think about. He hadn't imagined that an archival system made for nothing more than drives the size of his forearm would be so large, but Owen had told him of a compound in the Pacific that they'd been developing, and he realised only that this was something that the world's governments would never catch up to.

"I'm guessing the Pacific compound isn't the only one, huh?"

"No, not at all. There are backups for that data, and larger compounds in development, even as we speak. Quite enticing, right?"

"God, yeah." And Owen wasn't the only one surprised to hear him say that. He didn't think he'd ever find himself so interested in a world which he could never understand. A vast attention span was not something he was ever given, especially not the capacity needed to understand what was going on in the science and tech industries.

Granted, he still didn't understand it, but he had Owen's support again, somehow, so he was willing to believe that would change.

Owen closed the file they'd been delving through with one hand. "That's what we're trying to uphold now. And that's why I asked you here. Curt, how are you for acting?"

"Acting?"

"Yes. Acting. Pretending to be someone you're not."

"… I know what acting is."

"Are you any good?"

Curt had to genuinely think about that. He probably wouldn't find out why he'd been asked that until he gave an answer, so he tried to figure out some sort of a response. Had he acted before? What were they counting as experience, and did his former job give him any credit on the matter? "Well- uh- I'm no James Dean, but I'm not bad, I guess?"

"I suppose what I should be asking is: can you make it believable?"

"I suppose? I'm not really sure what you're asking me here."

Curt did make it so impossible to keep one's patience in check sometimes, and Owen supposed he knew that better than anyone. He sighed. "We are going to need you within the network, so I need to know that you're capable of swapping between roles and making flawless transitions. You're going to need it."

"That what they have you doing?"

"In part. But you know me, Curt. That's easy as far as I'm concerned. This isn't about my particular skills here, but about yours." He leaned forwards a little, quietly tapping a finger against the file.

"I probably haven't had the experience you have, but I did a bbit of something like that in the agency..? Y'know, case files, secret identities…"

"And your track record is nearly impeccable… I'd say you were fairly good at it."

"Thanks?"

Owen just smiled back at him. All too brief. All too professional. Not so much the warm, genuine smile that Curt's mind had attributed to Owen, but a show of something more than neutrality all the same.

"There's an event in a little over two weeks time. For all intents and purposes, this is your chance to prove yourself, and to prove that I didn't waste my time convincing them that you were worth it."

He'd said that so casually, as if he was admitting to having seen a movie, not something of that weight. It had managed to completely take Curt by surprise. He blinked. "Wait, run that by me again… You did this?"

"Well, I can't take all of the credit, but-"

"You convinced them to give me a chance? You?!"

"Why's that so hard to believe?"

"If you were alive at all, I'd have thought it'd only make sense if you… I dunno, completely hated me?"

"It wasn't personal."

Curt smirked. "You're a fuckin' awful liar, you know that?" There was something in the way his gaze averted for the smallest of seconds that was a blatant tell in curt's eyes. It was so brief that it was barely obvious, but he'd learned to spot it from a mile away. "What really happened?"

"I know you're someone they wouldn't want to miss out on, that's all."

"Owen..."

"... Because you're the best I've ever worked with and I knew I'd get another chance if they persuaded you..."

[kairithemang0]

Guys let’s be real here as much as I love the “Curt doesn’t shoot Owen” fics I feel like Curt realized Owen was way too far gone and that he should kill Owen because it would help the world rather then himself.

I feel like me thinking about them has 1. Ruined my perception of reality and 2. Royally fucked up my sleep schedule

[jakowskis]

"i hated owen for all/most of s1 i only started liking him in s2" weak. i liked owen since he got choked against a wall by an angry woman and then told her he wanted to shag her immediately afterwards. and then even more when he spent ep3 trying to intimidate and murder a rapist

[myinterestaredead]

RANT NUMBER TWO ABOUT C!OWEN‼️‼️‼️

HES LITERALLY SO FUCKING TRAUMATIZED LIKE WTFFFF

THE C!OWEN HATERS ISN'T EVN GIVING HIM A CHANCE LET HIM TELL YOU HIS LIFE STORY BEFORE YOU CALL HIM HEARTLESS OK???

LIKE I KNOW HES A LITERALLY WAR CRIMINAL AND THAT HIS ACTION CANT BE JUSTIFIED (especially to apo and all of our hearts </3) BUT JUST LISTEN DUDE WAS A CHILD WHO TECHNICALLY GOT PROSUED INTO DOING MURDER HE LITERALLY SAID IT HIMSELF 'when you've been breeded into a killing mechine, a nation of peace will toss you aside like a spend torch.'

OK OK PICTURE THIS: you're a child whos been raised with the knowledge of this other race/species are dangerous and that you should kill on sight for your safety and your family BUT OBVIOUSLY you have your own thoughts that this isnt right, i mean you been told stories abt how those creatures killed countless of your people but they're just stories right??? Still in the end, you're a good kid so you did what you were told to, you trained so hard to be a guardman and protect people. While training you still have that though that all of this doesn't seem right, you shook it off and continue. One day you finally got the placement, you did good but you dont feel good. You confronted your dad and he said "you dont actually feel sorry for those things do you!? Dont be so soft they killed thousands of us!" You unfortunately do feel bad especially because you haven't seen them do anything wrong at all, and thats what you said. He exclaimed with anger and said that a weakling such as your self doesn't deserve to defend the country. You stormed off.

Its was ultimately only for awhile because you would eventually come back, and the sight of your hometown after days of being away is horrifying. Its all burned. Everything, everyone. Infront of the town there were spikes with severed heads of the people that used to live here(including ur mom and dad ofc) Who would do this? Of course it was non other than those who you taught to fight against, the other race/species that you were just defending days ago.

LIKE IF YOUR NOT GONNA HAVE BEEF WITH THEM UR EITHER AN EXTREME PASSIFICE OR YOUR INSANE NOW BEFORE YOU SAY 'well he(c!owen) went on to burn down apos hometown they experience the same pain and apo didn't leashes out' you need to know WHY c!owen did that in his eyes he did as an act of revenge

RANT OVER THANK YOU FOR READING ‼️‼️‼️🩷

[storytellerofuntoldlegends]

Wh. Okay so Sparrow offed himself bc he kept getting commands in his code that he didn't want to follow. So. So who or what was giving him the commands 😦

[crawley-fell]

Me walking past my boss after my 14th trip to the toilet in the same hour to read the fanfic I started last night

[obwjam]

why is no one talking about night at the museum g/t- so much potential

dude right??? it’s basically half a g/t movie and we don’t even talk about it anymore. like we get tinies using technology and getting trapped!!! come on. also we literally get tiny owen wilson which is the most important takeaway here

[kelp-my-beloved]

Scott and Shelby going full Frankenstein and turning a llama into a human, possibly giving him a higher level of sentience, only to turn him back because he's an annoying little shit. Slay

[thethattrash]

I'd die for him

[tforjatp]

babe wake up owen cut his hair

[bladetoblade]

there are so many star wars characters that tried to fix anakin skywalker, but i can say with 100% certainty that owen lars would have succeeded if they had been brothers

[funeralbelle]

hi click  {{ H E R E }}  for #756 gifs of culkin-esque actor OWEN CAMPBELL (b.1995) in Super Dark Times (2017), made by me for use of the rpc, and for to not be cropped into gif icons. Please do not crop into gif icons. Everybody stop telling me to put my page links in the post source so they show up in the tags. If you’re seeing this just consider this gif pack our little secret and feel cool about being in on it. Please do not crop into gif icons.

split into parts for slower computers: PART I. 526 gifs. //  PART II. 228 gifs. OR if your laptop is as weak as mine: pt.1 (168 gifs) ; pt. 2 (195 gifs) ; pt. 3 (165 gifs) ; pt. 4 (110 gifs) ; pt. 5 (118 gifs). 

Please do not crop into gif icons.

[jakowskis]

tumblr user ojibwa / gooseberry by james goss

[lonestardust]

this was playing in the tarloft when iris visited! i love how Carlos and TK always put on music when they have people over!! i love diegetic music so much; something so intimate about knowing what's on a character's playlist and how they enjoy listening to music, it brings a certain type of tangibility; to know their little habits and their taste in things!!