#just today i realized i was automatically scribbling larger than i used to

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Ok I’m glad I found the actual ask box instead of the EMBARASSING thing I did earlier, aside from that

How long does it usually take you to make a drawing? :3 I know it’s different depending on the caliber of the drawing but for an example let’s say just Barnaby and Wally doing whatever in a scene

I’m very curious about your process!! ^w^

i just saw what you mean and for your sake i'll Pretend I Did Not See lol. its ok tho it happens, Tumblr's a tough cookie to wrangle

hm. it Does vary wildly, both depending on quality, how used to scribbling a thing i am, and how well the art-mojo is flowing! on a bad night, a simple sketch could take an hour while the same sketch on a good night could take 15 minutes

and it's also hard to say since i don't really keep track! for example, The First One in this collage is a more involved sketch and i suspect it took thirty minutes maybe? i remember having some Difficulties so maybe longer? trying to get size differences between multiple characters in the same sketch adds a Lot of time, as does making sure they interact properly. while the last one in the collage (the Nom) probably took closer to ten minutes

i know the Laughingstock in Aziracrow's outfits i belted out in, oh... an hour or three? it's really hard to say! i think it was several bc i was watching gomens at the time, and i think it got through a couple of episodes... clothes add a lot of time! but certain things that i thought i did Quickly took hours in reality, and i only notice when i look up and see the clock has Changed Drastically! i have a very loose perception of time!

it really just depends on my motivation & how used to drawing something i am. like scribbling Eddie takes a while, lots of guidelines and erasing and redrawing. but scribbling Barnaby? easy. takes me seconds in comparison. way less guidelines - i know where everything is and where it goes! drawing dragons takes even less time - This One was done in a Blink, and the only guides i used were head circle / snout circle / jawline.

[artemisegeria]

A Formula, A Phrase Remains (4/7)

Title: A Formula, A Phrase Remains (4/7)

Rating: T

Word count: 3719

Warnings: None

Summary: Endgame spoilers. Wanda Maximoff has known so much grief in her life that it moves with her like a second skin. But she is a survivor. Moving on is what she does. So she tries to put the latest tragedy behind her by putting all her focus into Avenging and forming a new family for herself.

Meanwhile, Princess Shuri is gathering her own team to bring back someone who was lost far too soon.

Available from the beginning here.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read, left kudos, and/or commented. I really appreciate it. This chapter has a little bit of fluff because I can’t help myself, and also some angst and a new development in the quest to bring Vision back.

Disclaimer: I’m including some characters in this chapter that I’m not really familiar with beyond a little bit of research; that’s why they’re not in it for very long.

“Wake up, Wanda. It’s time to leave now.”

“Don’t wanna go,” she mumbled into her pillow.

“Neither do I, but we have no choice, unfortunately.” A gentle hand nudged her shoulder. She only burrowed more deeply into the pillow. The hand moved across her back rubbing soothing circles there. “What if I offered you the proper incentive?”

“There’s nothing you can offer me to make me leave this bed.”

A deep chuckle was his only response. She finally rolled over to look at him. Vision looked at her with fond amusement, with just the spark of a challenge in his eyes. “I believe I can think of something.” Vision reached for her and drew her into a kiss. At first his lips just barely skimmed Wanda’s before he deepened the kiss. She started to wrap her arms around him when he phased away from her.

“Vizh!” He grinned down at her from where he was now standing at the edge of the bed. “That was a mean trick. You really can’t convince me to get up now.”

“My apologies.” She rolled her eyes at his unrepentant tone. He regarded her with faux thoughtfulness. “Perhaps I have to take matters into my own hands.” The next thing Wanda knew Vision had scooped her up in his arms. Her arms automatically went around his neck.

“You didn’t take matters into your hands. You took me into your hands.” She tried to maintain a put-upon expression as he carried her into the bathroom, but she couldn’t resist cuddling closer to him.

Vision grinned more widely. “Well, you are what matters most to me, so I believe it works out to the same idea.” He chuckled again, clearly impressed by his joke. She shook her head at him, but pulled him into a kiss.

Wanda stretched out her arm only to run into her bedside lamp. She sighed as she sat up in her narrow twin bed. The others had teased her for her choice when they started setting up the mansion, but they stopped when she quietly admitted that she didn’t want to wake up reaching across a larger bed to find it empty.

She recognized when she wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep. She walked downstairs into the kitchen and found Bucky also awake. The red light of the clock on the microwave glared at them, announcing that it was 3:38 am. He nodded at her. “Nightmare?”

She shook her head. “No, good dream this time. You?”

“Yeah.” He looked away from her, peering out the window, even though it was too dark to see anything. “The good ones can be worse.”

There was nothing much to say to that. She put the tea kettle on to give her hands any way to keep busy. “Want to talk about it?” She had to at least ask, though Bucky didn’t seem to be in the mood tonight.

He finally looked back at her. “No. You?” Wanda shook her head again. This was how their middle of the night conversations usually went. Neither of them typically cared to discuss their dreams, but as she had found when Vision sat with her after her brother’s death, sometimes it was nice just to have company. Someone who understood insomnia at their core. The very thought sent a pang straight through Wanda’s heart, but Wanda swallowed her tears. She refused to be ruled by her grief forever.

The room gradually lightened around them as they remained in companionable silence until it was time to get ready for their morning run. Wanda was grateful for the opportunity to move, to focus purely on putting one foot in front of the other, to be pushed to her physical limits. Today was sprints, and Carol always set a brutal pace. Wanda leaned into the brief forgetfulness.

There were many groans as the team climbed the stairs to their bedrooms after their session finished. Wanda relished the feeling of the hot water raining down on her sore muscles.

Wanda examined herself in the mirror after wiping the steam from it. She continued running a towel through her newly redyed brown hair. She had kept the red for a while, in memory of Nat and the happy times she had had rendezvousing with Vision. But no hair color could bring back her loved ones, and in the end, it felt right to go dark again. She swept her hair over her shoulder to get a better look at her face.

Dark circles stood out underneath her eyes, and her face was still thinner than was probably ideal. All her determination to move on could not grant her easy sleep or a healthy appetite. Her insomnia was worse than ever. Every moment spent awake in the middle of the night reminded her that the people who usually comforted her were gone. She was always grateful for her new team, but she missed Natasha’s matter-of-fact willingness to destroy her in training to take her mind off things and Steve’s steadfast, comforting presence. She avoided even a thought of Vision as much as possible. There was always Sam, who had said his door was always open, but he had enough troubles co-leading the team with Carol.

Wanda shook her head. There was nothing to be done about her losses, but she could get dressed and make herself a sandwich. When she finally emerged from her room, she found Carol walking toward her. “Good. You’re done. Tony’s lawyers are here. They want to go over the bequests from Tony’s will.”

Wanda took a moment to process the words, blinking at her. She would have assumed Tony Stark’s estate was long settled, but she supposed with the ongoing chaos even Stark’s influence and wealth could not make the system move faster. “I’ll pass. I’m sure he didn’t leave me anything.”

Carol shrugged. “They specifically requested you.”

“Fine.” She followed Carol down to one of the larger sitting rooms on the first floor. The remaining Avengers were seated while several men and women in immaculate suits stood in front of them.

The lawyers described Tony’s final wishes. There was the trust fund set up to help fund the Avengers for the foreseeable future, various gear that Tony had been designing for each member, and a number of small trinkets bestowed on Thor, who had come in specially with the Guardians for the full team training using Stormbreaker, and Rhodes. By the end of the meeting, there was only a small box left on the table in front of the lawyers. The one who had been explaining each gift said, “This is for Wanda Maximoff.”

The lawyer tentatively handed her a box and a key, attempting an ingratiating smile in Wanda’s direction. She only nodded politely at him. The box contained flash drives and a pile of papers with incomprehensible scribblings. One piece of bright red paper stuck out. She read the contents with growing dread and hope.

Maximoff,

I’d bet my new house that you won’t expect anything from my will, in the event I don’t give this to you myself. I know we never got along and never got a chance to mend fences. Maybe we were never going to, but Vision finally convinced me that it was worth trying.

That’s the real reason I’m giving this to you. I’m sorry we never managed to put him back together. First, we were afraid of failure, and then we were selfish, too caught up in our own lives and our own problems. The world’s been a mess. You’ll have a hard time believing how much. It’s nothing more than an excuse, but it’s all I have to say for myself. I was more aware of how human Vision had become than almost anyone else. I should have pushed Bruce harder to try again.

When Morgan was born, I realized how unfair I had been to Vision. At the time, I was still too focused on how he wasn’t JARVIS anymore. I didn’t appreciate all he had become until he started running away with you. By then, it felt too late to form the kind of bond we could have had.

I hope these notes go some way to making up for the past. They’re everything I know about creating JARVIS and Ultron. All the notes I made when we created Vision the first time. I also included some new ideas on how nanotechnology might be helpful in the process of repairing him. If you’re reading this, hopefully that means we won and someone can help you put this into practice. As of this writing, Vision’s body was still in Wakanda. They agreed to hold it in case the princess ever returned. She’s your best chance if I’m gone.

I wish you and Vision the best of luck. There’s another letter addressed to him at the bottom of this box if you’re able to revive him.

Well, I’ve used up my supply of sentimentality for the month. Just remember, if you and loverboy manage to have a little bundle of joy of your own, you’re obligated to name him, or her, after me. Tony or Toni works equally well.

You know who I am.

Tears were streaming down her face by the time she finished. She’d never have imagined that Tony Stark would make her cry with anything other than tears of rage. The others were all politely looking away from her while Carol handed her a tissue. With a few closing remarks, the lawyers left the room, evidently glad to have completed their task.

She just wished that she would have received this months ago, when she still had some hope that Shuri could revive Vision. The princess had told her that they had tried everything. She offered to hold him in the same room indefinitely, in case some new breakthrough came along, but Wanda declined. With everything that made Vision Vision gone and the smartest woman in the world out of ideas, she did not see the point in maintaining the charade.

She’d asked Shuri to give him a proper ceremony and let him rest in peace, and Shuri had promised she would. Still, she could at least show the notes to the princess. Wanda knew she was coming to New York tomorrow.

***

The first training session with the full team provided a welcome change of pace. Wanda loved when everyone came together, offering new tips and training styles that she didn’t often get to utilize. In the background, she saw T’Challa facing Peter Parker in hand-to-hand combat. She made a note to get some pointers later; she always admired his grace and strength. She didn’t have much more time to muse as she fended off Okoye’s staff with her own. The weapon felt clumsy in her hands, but the one rule for days such as these was that the powered needed to rely on more mundane skills, so as not to receive an unfair advantage in the fight to remain standing. The first fall meant you were out for good.

Wanda spun around only to meet Nebula’s batons. The blue woman’s blow hit at just the right angle and speed to push the staff from Wanda’s hands. She was forced to drop into a crouch to avoid Nebula’s next attack. As Wanda fluidly rose to her feet again, thanking Sam’s insistence on incorporating a bit of flexibility work into her training, she did manage to sweep her foot behind Nebula’s legs, dropping her to the ground. Nebula snarled at her, but the expression lacked any real malice.

In the free for all, Wanda quickly moved onto the next target. There was always a healthy reward for the last one standing. Hope had already dispatched Scott, who was good-naturedly cheering others on from the sidelines. Wanda had had to look away when she also tenderly helped him to his feet. Peter Quill, Bucky, Mantis, Peter Parker, Stephen, and T’Challa were out too. At the far side of the gym, Okoye suddenly brought down Valkyrie. Rhodes and Sam were fighting hand to hand. Carol was fighting Thor, their powers difficult to turn off but not using their full strength.

By the time ten more minutes had passed, Thor and Sam were also relegated to the sidelines. It was down to Okoye, Hope, Rhodes, Wanda, and Carol. Okoye and Hope were already facing off, Hope dodging nimbly away from Okoye’s staff, trying to tire her out. Carol was surveying their fight, presumably strategizing on who she would rather challenge. That left Wanda and Rhodes. Wanda approached him slowly. She and Rhodes maintained a cordial working relationship, but they had never been that close even before the break in the Avengers. His connection with Stark too prominent, no matter how unfair that may have been, as she had come to appreciate his much-needed common sense and ever-present sarcasm. Rhodes appeared to experience a similar hesitation.

But this was war. Wanda picked up a fallen staff to match the one in Rhodes’s hands. They gave each other a few experimental parries, testing and backing off. After a few minutes of that, Rhodes landed a solid blow on Wanda’s back, but she didn’t fall. She managed her own hit on his side. Out of the corner of her eye, Wanda saw Carol and Okoye teaming up against Hope. She was soon down. Carol and Okoye immediately turned to face each other.

Rhodes took advantage of Wanda’s distraction with another strike to her legs. Wanda brought her attention back to the moment, but it was too late. Rhodes knocked her down easily, hand-to-hand combat still not her greatest strength. She accepted his hand up with a grateful nod and went to join the others. Several minutes later, Carol sat next to her, leaving only Okoye and Rhodes.

The crowd grew absorbed in watching them fight. They were both fiercely competitive and felt honor-bound to represent Wakanda and the United States Air Force admirably. They danced and dodged around each other, barely making contact. After several long minutes, Okoye finally began to advance on Rhodes in earnest. Her staff was almost moving fast enough to blur before their eyes. She was preparing a final strike when Rhodes backed away just enough to cause her to overbalance.

Okoye was on her feet again before Rhodes could react. “Well done, Colonel.” Okoye’s congratulations were sincere, but she already appeared to be calculating her next attack. “It will not happen again.”

Rhodes nodded at her, one officer to another. “I wouldn’t expect it to, General.”

With a final round of congratulations all around, the sparring broke up and everyone went their separate ways before the next session.

***

Wanda hid behind a couch with Bucky and Sam as Stephen turned off the lights while they waited for Carol. Hope had offered to take her out while they decorated and prepared the food. They all remained very quiet when the front door opened. Hope asked to sit in the lounge. Their footsteps grew closer, and Carol turned on the lights. They all jumped up, shouting “Happy birthday!” and blowing kazoos.

Carol glared at them before grinning wildly. “You got me.” Finally, Maria stepped out from the corner of the room. Carol shrieked and ran toward her. They embraced and kissed each other passionately, heedless of the others in the room.

They only broke apart when Monica came up and tapped Carol on the shoulder. “Hey, Auntie Carol.”

Carol turned, leaving one arm around Maria and pulling Monica in with her free arm. “You’ve been gone too long, Lieutenant Trouble.”

“Someone has to pick up the slack with you being down here.” Monica had taken up Carol’s cosmic responsibilities when she had decided to stay on Earth for a time to help the Avengers regroup. After absorbing the energy of the Snap, she wanted to do her part in following in Carol’s footsteps. She was finally fulfilling her dream of glowing and flying. It was a source of endless teasing between them.

With the reunions out of the way, the party really got going. Everyone loaded up their plates with food and mingled among those they rarely got to see. Someone set up some music, and there was arguing as they fought for which genre to be played, eventually settling on shuffle.

Later in the night, Wanda approached Shuri, Bruce, and Helen, whose heads were bent close together. They looked up at the sound of her footsteps, jumping slightly. “Nice to see you all. How’s your project going?” She knew Shuri, Helen, and Bruce had been working closely together for more than a year, but she never was able to get any details from them.

Shuri looked unaccountably nervous. “There have been some promising new developments, but it is not complete yet.”

“That’s good to hear.” Wanda could not understand why the three scientists were glancing back and forth at each other, but she ignored the vague unease in the back of her mind in favor of doing what she set out to do. “Shuri, may I speak to you in private for a minute.”

Shuri nodded. Wanda led her to a quiet corner, moving past Sam who dancing smoothly in the middle of the room and trying to draw in as many others as he could. Meanwhile, Mantis and Nebula were talking to Bucky in the opposite corner while Valkyrie and Thor were reminiscing amid a drinking contest. Wanda decided to simply go for it. “It’s about Vision.”

“What would you like to discuss about him?”

“Yesterday, Stark’s lawyers gave us the gifts that we received in his will. He gave me all his notes from when he and Bruce created Vision the first time. He said he had some new ideas too.” Wanda’s voice began to fail her. “I know you said there was nothing to be done, but could you give it one more look?”

“Of course, Wanda. I am happy to try again.” There was an odd light in Shuri’s eyes, but Wanda didn’t question it. She could not afford to get her hopes up after all this time.

“Thank you. Come by my room before you leave, and I will have the things for you.”

They rejoined the party. Sam pulled Wanda into a dance. She was not in the mood, but Sam’s enthusiasm was infectious. Wanda soon found herself getting absorbed in the beat, dancing loosely with Sam, Carol, Maria, Bucky, and Peter Quill. There was much laughter to go around.

The party carried on late into the night. Everyone grew looser and more eager as the music shifted among the various tastes within the mansion. It wasn’t until Stephen insisted that everyone needed to get to bed in order to be ready for another full day of training that the giggling masses moved upstairs to their bedrooms.

***

A few days later, Wanda entered the kitchen to find Cassie Lang, who was visiting with Scott and Hope, eating a cookie. “Hello, Cassie.”

Cassie’s face broke into a beaming smile when she saw Wanda. “Hi!” Cassie’s enthusiasm always warmed her, who also enjoyed seeing the girl. Scott had once told her that she was Cassie’s favorite Avenger, and Wanda could never forget that Cassie liked her when the rest of the world didn’t.

“Enjoying your stay here?”

“Oh, yeah. Do you think you could put in a good word for me? I want to train to be an Avenger. I keep telling my dad and mom and Jim that I’m ready, but they won’t listen.” Cassie had discovered that she now had the ability to grow and shrink like Scott after the second Snap. It had occurred just as she was handling some spare Pym particles that Scott had left behind in his wagon of possessions. Scott and the rest of the Avengers had been trying to help Cassie handle her new powers without becoming a member of the team.

Wanda had been on Cassie’s side of this conversation too often when she first joined the team not have sympathy for her position. Cassie was not a child, and it was galling to be treated as one when you weren’t. But she’d also had enough talks with Scott on the other side of the equation and enough experience with growing up too young to believe that she should appreciate her childhood.

“Cassie, I’d be happy to help train you, but you have all the time in the world to be an Avenger. You’re sixteen. You have a few more years to enjoy yourself before you have to worry about saving the world. Besides,” she leaned in confidentially across the counter, “you’d also have to convince Sam and Carol, and they’re not that easy.”

Cassie frowned at her response, but quickly recovered. “Could you teach me how to throw away that tank like you did a few weeks ago?”

Wanda sent the girl a mock glare. “That was supposed to be top secret.” A warlord had gathered an army and a number of stolen weapons and was marching on a much smaller neighbor when the Avengers were called in. She and Carol had each dispatched one of the tanks while the others had focused on negotiating with the leadership. Wanda was proud of their operation resulting in not a single shot being fired. It was the first time Wanda’s full powers had been drawn on since the final battle against Thanos. It had been both exhilarating and terrifying in a way. She was still not fully recovered from the strain. But they had tried to hush the whole thing up as much as possible to prevent further destabilization in the region.

“Sorry,” she said, not sounding particularly apologetic, “I begged my dad to tell me about the latest mission.”

“Well, it was pretty awesome.” Wanda grinned at her, and Cassie giggled. “Just don’t tell all your friends at school.”

“I won’t.” Cassie paused for a minute and looked at her hopefully. “But since I already know will you tell me more?”

Wanda was easily convinced, glad to have someone she could share stories with who didn’t already know everything. “Sure, let’s go to the library. I’ll tell you all about it.” Cassie bounced on her toes and followed Wanda eagerly.

 A/N: It seems to me like the energy pulse they mentioned several times in Endgame is a good way to introduce other enhanced individuals, so I used it as the method of both Monica and Cassie gaining their powers.

I am under the impression that Thor can now summon the Bifrost, and that is how he brought the Guardians to Earth quickly and easily.

Also, I imagine the hand to hand sparring could go a number of different ways, particularly if the enhanced were focused on not using their powers, so I just picked one outcome.

Finally, I forgot to mention this earlier, but if any part of the story is ever unclear or confusing, please feel free to ask what is going on, and I will be happy to answer/make edits to the chapter. I have a lot of ideas built up in my head that I may sometimes forget to actually convey on the page.

[missjscribbles]

@rileyomalley​ asked: 38 Romero/Poppy

Okay this was a lot of fun...but way longer than expected...

“Are those leeches?” 

“What else would they be?”

Still in the doorway to their tiny rented room, Romero watched Papaeva as he worked away at the wobbly end table he’d been using as a writing desk. His left arm scribbling into a leathery journal, his right playing host to one...two...three? Three leeches. And when he leaned just right...ah, there was a fourth. Resting on the inside of the left arm just above the clean bandages covering his wrist.

“Close the door, would you?”

The request snapped him from his stare and he obliged. But not without pursuing what ever this was further.

“So leeches then. What are they doing on you?”

He’d said he was an alchemist and a physician of sorts. Maybe owning leeches wasn’t so outlandish, but serving yourself up as a buffet to them was another story.

“I’m feeding them.”

“Not because you’re poisoned I hope.” It was a joke and was followed by a short chuckle as jokes often are.... But the thought somehow managed to put a lump in his throat. What exactly were the odds that a doctor would poison himself...

“No, I would have told you before you left if I was going to do that.” Now that was a joke, right? He seemed fine. At least, whatever state “fine” was for the estranged half elf, he seemed to be in it. Albeit he’d kept his head low and eyes to his journal.

Normally leaving people to their own devices was not difficult for Romero, but if they were going to be sharing such small quarters for the night, he’d prefer it if there wasn’t a needless bloodfeeding happening three feet from his bed. Setting the purchases from his errands aside, Romero approached the creaky end table to check on his newfound traveling companion.

“Poppy...” he started, looking over the workspace. Papaeva’s arms rested on either side of the journal so leeches could eat comfortably. They were larger than expected too. He avoided looking directly into the journaling (far be it for him to snoop that deep) but skimmed the surface of his companion’s arms, and managed to steal a quick glance from under that white tussled hair. He was pale, or at least more pale than when he had left him, which begged the question:

“How long have you been like this?”

It took but a second for Papaeva’s quill to freeze, lifting from the paper to avoid a blot. His eyes looked across the table surface for something and when he didn’t seem to find it, a realization dawned on him. “I forgot to set the hour glass.”

“Well then.”

“Again...”

“You do this often?”

He tried to answer, and hoo boy would it have been a snappy one. But something about the way he lifted his head did not agree with him. Perhaps the motion was too fast for someone running that empty on their own blood, but in the split moment Papaeva had managed to face him, Romero watched him go from defensive to unconscious. He was just quick enough to drop to one knee to cushion the unceremonious drop of the half elf as he fell toward him. Still processing the absurdity of it all, Romero blinked at the ungraceful display. Papaeva face first slouched into him with a boot still propped on the chair, and a soreness growing in Romero’s knee from having slammed it into the wood floor more forcefully than anticipated.

He wasn’t left in a stupor for long though. Pulling the rest of Papaeva off the chair and turning him in his arms to face upright, Romero scanned for the jar that must’ve housed the now fat leeches. Not a difficult find as he looked near the table leg and found the vessel and dragged it toward them.

“How does someone like you survive on their own, eh?” Not that he’d receive an answer. It’d have to remain one of the mysteries of the universe until he woke and Romero predicted he wouldn’t be in the mood for much talking. But for now, the leeches could be plucked and returned to their jar. Using Papaeva’s supplies, his arms were patched up to the elbows without further drama. Occasionally, he glanced to the much cleaner bandages on his left wrist and for a moment he got the feeling that whatever was under there was probably more a secret than an injury, but that wasn’t his business.

They’d still been on the floor beside the end table when Papaeva began to stir. Romero had made himself comfortable sitting criss cross while studying his odd companion who was still in his lap. He looked worse than his usual sickly state, and understandably more confused, but Romero’s worry was long gone now that nothing was actively draining him dry.

Tired eyes scanned the ceiling, then the chair he had once been sitting in before settling on Romero. “How long was I out?” He didn’t sound too distressed. He’d definitely done this before.

“A couple minutes. I just finished using up the last of your bandages by the way.” The comment caused the half elf to weakly raise an arm to study the work and grumble something incoherent under his breath about supplies. Hardly the right thing to worry about if you asked Romero, but if Papaeva was well enough to complain about that, then he well enough to get an earful.

“You fainted...”

“I gathered that much, thank you.”

“Straight into my arms.”

“Unintentional. If you’re looking for an apolo-”

“You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”

“I-excuse me?”

Romero let out a laugh. “That brought some color back to your face didn’t it?” Carefully, he managed to get to his feet ignoring the grumbling protests to set Papaeva on the bed, almost automatically setting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from trying to sit up so soon.

“I wasn’t looking for your attention.”

“Was it the beard? Most people are drawn in by the beard.”

“You’re absurd.”

“Says the one who sticks leeches to himself. We are going to have to talk about your self preservation skills by the way...”

Papaeva apparently had nothing to say to that. Instead he opted to give the ceiling a long furrowed look as if he were trying to burn an escape route into it with his gaze. And Romero had questions. So many questions. But he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be getting many answers. Not today at least. So for now, he’d spend his time teasing Papaeva while he was an easy target.