#married with a supercarrier au

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@rainintheevening @threshergm @ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask @thearbiterthel @stitchlingbelle You asked.

(This is rough and subject to change without notice)

—

“Don’t talk.”

Tom looked quizzically at the Master Chief’s visor.

“Don’t talk to each other about what you saw,” the Chief elaborated tersely, still aiming his rifle out the Pelican’s open bay. “You’ll need to get debriefed once we get to the ship.”

“What ship?” April asked.

“Yeah, where are we going?” Sully added.

“UNSC Mercy Seat. Medical frigate,” the Chief answered.

Tom glanced at Chyler. She was silent and unmoving against his shoulder. She hadn’t said a word since boarding the Pelican.

She’s not OK.

“Chyler.” Tom nudged her. “Look.”

Chyler blinked slowly. “At what?”

“The sunrise. Just look at it.”

Chyler stared out the open hatch. “Why?”

“Because someone should.” Tom took in the golden glow over the snowcapped mountains. “Someone should remember it. And we’re the only ones left who can.”

—

There is of course more to this story. I’ll see how long I want to make it.

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I really should write Tom and Chyler in the immediate aftermath of the evac, because Chyler is so shell-shocked and very very not OK by the time Chief leads them out of the building.

Tom’s not OK either, but he’ll be too busy taking care of Chyler to worry about himself for awhile.

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Things that have happened this Thanksgiving morning:

I learned about Humans Are Space Orcs which somehow I managed to go three years on Tumblr without encountering.

I remembered I have an idea of either Tom or Chyler getting bested by their version of a Roomba, necessitating a late-night doctor visit. Can’t decide if it’s funnier to have Tom carrying Chyler through the ship or Chyler saying “I’ll pick you up” and Tom responding “Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening, honey.”

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I wrote a thing. Part of a story I may write at some point about what Tom and Chyler were up to during Reach.

@ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask based on our AO3 conversation 😁

—

General Audrey Lasky dabbed at her eyes and for the third time in the last hour, tried to pull herself together.

Her daughter-in-law was dead, and the work wouldn’t let up enough for Audrey to go to the other side of Ankara and be with her grieving son. Or for him to come to her.

Some things never change. We’re in the same damn city, and I still can’t be there for him.

“You kiss our children with that mouth, Marine?” Audrey’s late husband would have asked her.

Shut up, Jim, Audrey wearily told the voice in her head even as she wished its owner were admonishing her in person.

She fought off tears again. Nobody needed to see General Lasky sobbing at her desk.

Ping…ping…ping

Who wants me now? Audrey hit the “accept” button without caring much about who was on the other end. “This is General Lasky,” she answered tonelessly.

“Audrey?” A staticky female voice asked.

“Yes,” Audrey confirmed. 

A sigh from the other end. “Oh, finally. I’ve been trying to reach Tom for the past three days!”

Reach Tom? Audrey stared at the wall. Now she was hearing things. Things that sounded a lot like her daughter-in-law. The same daughter-in-law who had died over Reach.

“Have you heard from him?” The caller continued. “Do you know how to get in touch with him?”

“Who is this?” Audrey demanded.

Chyler was dead. So who was this on the phone?

“Who is it? It’s me. It’s Chyler.” A confused pause. “Is everything all right?”

Audrey nearly laughed. Nothing was all right. Reach was ash, Earth had nearly joined it, humankind was running for the hills, and now she was hallucinating a call from her son’s dead wife.

“You’re dead.” Audrey didn’t see any point in beating around the bush. This was all a dream or something, anyway.

“What?!”

“Your name was on Bleak Midwinter’s casualty list,” Audrey said bluntly. “Saw it with my own two eyes.”

“I wasn’t on…oh.” A gasp. “Oh, I must have still been listed on the crew manifest.”

Audrey sat up straighter. Was it possible? Was this real?

I have been down this road once before.

“I got reassigned at the last second,” Chyler—maybe it really was her—continued. “Glory’s Light. They needed an ops officer and…wait, did Tom not get my message? That I got switched?”

“He must not have,” Audrey murmured.

“Wait, you two thought I was dead?!”

A surge of adrenaline jolted Audrey out of her fugue. “Chyler.”

“Yes.”

“This is really you?” Audrey covered her mouth with one hand.

“Yes. Yes, Audrey, it’s really me.”

Audrey hit the mute button and let herself have a few seconds to cry into her palm. “Chyler. Tom thinks your dead, and I did too until about thirty seconds ago.”

“Oh, no,” Chyler gasped. “Is he OK?”

“No, but I’m about to change that. Can I reach you at this frequency?”

“Yes. It’s my command line on Glory’s Light. I really shouldn’t be using it for this.”

“We’ve all got bigger fish to fry right now.” Audrey made quick note of the numbers. “OK. Stay by your line.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I’m going to find him.” Audrey pushed herself back from the desk. “We’ll call you.”

“OK.”

Audrey almost ended the call and then thought better of it. “Chyler, I’m…” I’m what? Nothing Audrey could think of seemed to do this justice.

“I know,” Chyler said. “Just find Tom. Please.”

“I will.” Audrey ended the call, locked her computer, and ran. All thoughts of duty were gone.

Now, she had a duty to her son.

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While working something out for this fic I just found out Spartan Ops ends on Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day, Tom and Chyler?

Annnnnd now I have to make mention of this in the story.

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Okay, I finally worked my way here.

For the '100 ways to say I love you' prompts.

17 for Tom and Chyler

23 for John and Cortana

24 for Riz and Vannak!

And I can finally answer! At least one. Will do the rest in reblogs.

Shoehorned this into an idea I’ve had for a few months. One of the few MWAS ideas that did not come from real life, though we do have a Roomba.

—

17. “Watch your step.”

Chyler woke up to an empty bed and a light on in the kitchen.

Tom must be back. Chyler stood up and exited the bedroom, carefully dodging the robovac. “Tom?”

“In here,” Tom called from the tiny kitchen.

“Hey.” Chyler greeted her still-uniformed husband with a hug from behind.

“Hi,” Tom said in between bites of cheese. “Sorry I’m so late.”

Chyler flattened her cheek against his back. “Well, you’re going for the cheese, not the whiskey, so it couldn’t have been that bad.”

Tom humphed. “Wasn’t bad, just long.” He turned around to return Chyler’s hug.

The robovac trundled into the kitchen and bumped against a cabinet twice before continuing its lap around the room’s perimeter.

“I ever tell you how much those creep me out?” Tom asked as the vacuum crossed into the living area.

“Oh, please,” Chyler sighed.

“I’m telling you, it’s spying on us.”

“You know those things have been around for centuries.”

“Centuries of data collection,” Tom said conspiratorially.

“With which they have done absolutely nothing,” Chyler countered. “Not very good spies.”

The vacuum rolled along the edge of the couch.

“That’s what they want us to think,” Tom said.

“Do you want to vacuum your own rug?” Chyler asked pointedly.

“Not really.”

Chyler laughed and stood on tiptoe to kiss her husband’s cheek. “Well, if the robovac is a spy maybe we should go where it can’t see us.”

“Hm, good idea,” Tom yawned. “You go ahead. Let me put all this away.”

“Tom Lasky, putting things away?” Chyler asked with mock astonishment.

“Quiet,” Tom grumbled, but he was smiling.

Chyler smiled back and headed to the bedroom. She grabbed her compad on the way to the bed and started to look for new messages before thinking better of it. Roland would alert her and Tom to something urgent. Everything else could wait—

A thud and holler from the living area interrupted Chyler’s train of thought.

“Tom!” Chyler leapt off the bed and threw the door open. Tom was sprawled on the floor clutching his right foot, the Robovac slinking away like a kid trying to avoid Mom and Dad’s wrath.

“Watch your step!” Chyler exclaimed unthinkingly.

“A little late for that, don’t you think?” Tom gritted.

“What happened?!”

“What’s it look like happened?” Tom groaned.

“Is it broken?” Chyler bent over and tried to examine Tom’s foot.

“How should I know?” Tom dropped his head onto the floor. “Ah, hurts like a you-know-what.”

“I’ll, uh,” Chyler bit her lip. “I’ll pick you up.”

“I don’t think that’s happening, babe,” Tom said between hisses.

“I’ll call medical.” Chyler started back to the room for her compad.

“No need, Commander Silva.” Roland’s voice broke into the chaos. “I’ve already summoned medical attention. ETA five minutes.”

“Good.” Chyler nodded at the ceiling.

The robovac began dutifully edging around Tom’s side.

“Roland, turn this damn thing off!” Tom snapped.

“Right away, Captain.”

Chyler watched the vacuum return to its stand, then looked back to Tom. “How’s the—”

The vacuum began emptying its bin.

“How’s the foot?” Chyler asked once the noise subsided.

Tom lifted his head to glare at the robovac. “Told you that thing was bad news,” he panted.

The machine emitted a beep, almost as if in protest.

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I made a Tom/Chyler Picrew.

Link here.

They are young and Tom is very belatedly getting a clue 😂

I don’t know why I never thought to do this before.

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A Spartan, a Jedi, and a Cowboy Walk Into a Bar

My Heart In Your Hands

Red Flowers, Brown Bottle

(For the fic titles, hehe)

--Rain

Fic title ask game

A Spartan, a Jedi, and a Cowboy Walk Into a Bar: Is this the start of that Mando/Halo crossover I’ve been pondering for almost two years? 😂

The Master Chief is our Spartan. Who’s the Jedi? If we’re in Mando time, Luke and Ahsoka are our only real options, and Ahsoka’s not really a Jedi. So Luke.

Given my location in the country, the first cowboy I think of is the Dallas Cowboys. The first Dallas Cowboy I think of is Tony Romo. Why is he here? Nobody knows.

They walk into the bar where Din just happens to be drinking spotchka and get tied up in one of Din’s side quests. They all go liberate a town or something. Chief goes through the place like a wrecking ball. Luke uses Jedi mind tricks on the opposition and deflects blaster bolts with his lightsaber. Din cuts through things with his lightsaber. Chief contemplates lightsabers and energy swords but says nothing about it.

Tony Romo does nothing. We’re all just relieved he didn’t make a play for the other side.

Everyone leaves thinking this is the last time they’ll see each other but no one ever really sees the last of Din Djarin.

Oh if we’re going TV Halo Kwan has to babysit Grogu.

OK that got WAY out of hand very quickly LOL.

My Heart In Your Hands: Is this from this song? Either way, it has vibes of my Tom/Chyler almost-divorce fic that already has a title, if I can ever untangle it.

Red Flowers, Brown Bottle: Din gets flowers for Bo after an argument and doesn’t have anywhere to put them but an old beer bottle. Bo gets home and can’t stay mad anymore.

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Me: Would they salute here. I need to know if they would salute here. If I get this wrong I will die of embarrassment.

Also me: Spouses in the same chain of command? Yeah that can happen. Fraternization? Never heard of her.

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The Halo S2 trailer has me thinking that one of the many stories I haven’t written for Tom and Chyler yet is what they’re doing when Reach falls.

I’ve waffled between them being on Reach and getting evacuated/hastily deployed for air support, and one of them being on Reach and the other somewhere else.

Lasky’s Halo Alpha (I know Alphas can be iffy but you take what you can get when you live in in side character hell) says he was on Luna during the Battle for Earth, so he was probably there during Reach as well? So Chyler was on Reach and got off the surface before things really went to crap.

Do I want it to be sort of Circinius Redux or Circinius But Worse? If they’re separated, neither will know the other’s fate for a few days at least. Or. Well. Chyler would probably be pretty sure Tom is fine, since he isn’t near the action. Tom though wouldn’t know anything right away. He might even assume she died on the surface.

If I REALLY want to dial it up to 11, there’s a mix-up or last-minute change to Chyler’s ship assignment. The ship she would have been on gets destroyed and she was still listed on the crew manifest. So Tom THINKS she’s gone, and then finds out randomly that Chyler is fine and has been trying to reach him for two days and had no idea he thought she was dead.

I only meant to write one paragraph sheesh.

Also this would be TWO glassings Tom and Chyler have survived.

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Me, shooting bad guy: I am trying to recharge my shields, buddy. This is RUDE.

Mr: It’s part of the game, honey.

Me, still shooting: RUDE.

—

Over 3.5 hours Mr and I liberated three FOBs. I think it was three. And we met Bassus. And killed him. We played so long we had to DoorDash burgers. I’m sure we won’t regret any of this come 7:00am.

I’ve decided the lady bridge officer talking to Lasky in some of the audio logs would be Chyler in an Infinite-compliant MWAS.

I had more observations but I feel like my eyeballs are about to fall out and my hands hurt from holding the controller so they will have to wait until tomorrow.

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Chyler allowing herself to make a mistake in front of Tom from the vulnerability prompts? I feel like she's a big time perfectionist.

Also just gonna throw this out there, but "begging them to stay" sounds like it has great potential for some angsty injury feels with a Spartan pairing like John/Cortana or Fred/Kelly.

From these prompts.

Well this took me forever and ever to finish. And that was just the first prompt.

I had a more serious response for this, but I wanted to write something for this mini-AU ❤️

xxxxxx

“Tom? You—hold on.”

Tom sat with a bemused smile as the video feed in front of him shook and jumped to the soundtrack of a small child’s squawking. He’d finally managed to secure a real-time video call to his family on Luna, and for the first time in months he could watch the chaos unfold without a time delay.

“OK.” Chyler set her device on the counter. “You there?” She leaned down into the shot.

“I am.” Tom raised the volume on his headset and made sure the noise canceling function was on. Even so, it was hard to block out the constant drone of Flying Fortress’s engines and the other conversations going on around him in the room colloquially dubbed “the phone booth.” “Should I ask how things are going on the home front?”

“It’s—Kate! What is that? Oh, just Teddy. OK. Yeah, we’re good.” Chyler answered.

“Sounds it,” Tom observed dryly.

“Kate! Honey!” Chyler picked up the tablet and started walking across the tiny apartment. “Want to say hi to Dada?”

The camera display flipped around and Tom saw his daughter sitting on the floor playing with a brown teddy bear. “Princess Kate!” He greeted.

“It’s Dada!” Chyler said.

“Dada!” The two-and-a-half-year-old dropped the toy crawled toward the screen. Her dark curls flopped over her eyes.

Tom ducked his face out of view. “Now, where’s that adorable Kate?” He sat up and feigned surprise. “Kate!” He placed his hand in front of the camera. “No Kate!” He moved his hand away. “Kate!” He covered the lens again. “No Kate!”

The little girl giggled and squealed at the familiar game. Well, familiar to Tom. He wondered if Kate even remembered the last time they’d played.

She’s so much bigger than she was then.

She looks so much like her mom.

“You’re not causing any trouble for Mumma, are you?” Tom asked, trying to take his mind off the gnawing sensation in his chest.

“Not for me, but the teachers at Launch Pad tell me she’s a little escape artist,” Chyler reported as Kate reached out to the screen. “You know I went to pick her up yesterday and found her running up and down the hall?”

Tom’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“She must have slipped out while they were changing shifts,” Chyler jerked the tablet away. “Kate, stop.”

“I hope you had words with them.” Tom frowned.

“Tom, she’s fine.” The feed jumped as Chyler stood. “They have those tags for a reason. If she’d managed to get out of the building somehow it would have tripped the alarm.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” Tom sighed.

“Because you’re paranoid.” 

Tom scowled. “Daddy instinct, all right?”

Kate stood up and batted the display again. 

“Kate, don’t—don’t hit the End button!” Chyler jerked the tablet away.

“Dada!” Kate called.

“Hi, baby,” Tom chuckled as Chyler held the screen out of Kate’s reach. “Dada loves you.”

“Say ‘I love you’?” Chyler prompted.

“Ah ya yoo!” Kate responded, her tiny arms wrapping around her mother’s legs.

“Oh, I love you, Katie Bug.” Tom bit his tongue. He missed her so much. “Dada’s gonna see you next week, OK?”

“I can’t wait for you to get back,” Chyler said wearily. 

“I can’t wait to be back.” Tom watched Kate toddle back to her toys. “Kate probably thinks her dad lives in a computer screen.”

“She does not,” Chyler assured.

“And I’m starting to get claustrophobic in this tin can,” Tom added. “I’m ready to breathe air that isn’t recycled. And not have metal dust all over me. And see a color besides gray.”

“The last couple weeks is always the worst.” Chyler turned the camera to face herself and sat on the couch. “We’ve both been down this road.”

“I know, I know.” Tom rested his chin on his hand and took in his wife’s face. “I ever tell you you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen?”

“That’s your deployment goggles talking,” Chyler said with a poorly concealed smile.

“Learn to take a compliment, hon.”

“I—oh!” A crash interrupted whatever Chyler was going to say. 

“Chyler?!” Tom sat up straighter in alarm as the tablet clattered to the floor.

“Shit!” Chyler exclaimed. “Kate!”

“Chyler!” Tom called loudly enough to draw some glances from the phone booth’s other occupants.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” Chyler made a grunt of frustration. “You didn’t hear that, Kate.” Chyler picked up the tablet and pushed her hair off her face. “She knocked over that toy kitchen from your mum. I was afraid—”

“Shit!”

Tom’s jaw dropped. Chyler’s gaze shifted past the tablet.

“Shit!” Kate repeated the word with a toddler’s pride.

“Kate, remember, you didn’t hear Mumma say that,” Chyler said without looking at her husband.

Tom’s “Looks like she did” rebuttal got lost in laughter.

“Tom, stop laughing,” Chyler ordered.

Tom just shook his head. He was surely drawing even more attention to himself now.

“This isn’t funny,” Chyler continued.

“Yes, it is,” Tom managed to wheeze.

“Shit!” Kate hollered again.

“Kate, stop it,” Chyler admonished uselessly.

“Don’t give an order—” Tom had to stop and gather himself. “Don’t give an order you know won’t be obeyed.”

“What’s up with Lasky?” Tom heard someone ask behind him.

Tom wiped his eyes. “And you were always afraid she’d hear it from me.”

Chyler glared into the camera. “You’d better not tell any of your buddies about this.”

“There’s—” Tom looked around the room. “Eight other people in here! It’s too late!”

“You know what? You can stay in that tin can,” Chyler said. “And I hope you choke on metal dust.”

If he choked on metal dust now, at least he’d go happy. “Love you!” Tom grinned and waved at his bride.

Chyler ended the call, but not before Kate got the last four-letter word.

xxxxxx

Flying Fortress is a reference to the B-17. I thought it was a good name for a carrier.

The daycare story is based on Mr finding Bum Bum escaped from his Sunday School room one day.

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Character bingo Arbiter?

Character Opinion Bingo

So many headcanons: I came up with this before I learned that it’s such obscure canon that canon itself seems to have forgotten that Thel is married.- I have this crackish headcanon that he has three troublesome-but-loving wives and several troublesome-but-loving children. I’ve since learned this isn’t really how the Sangheili do things depending on who you talk to, but I like snickering about it.

Related to this, in my MWAS AU Captain Lasky and Shipmaster ‘Vadam occasionally commiserate about their wives. Thel thinks human males might be onto something limiting themselves to one wife.

Arbiter mixes up his English idioms Ziva David-style. If Johnson had lived, he would leverage this to mess with our dear Arbiter. They also would have been trust-you-with-my-life-but-not-my-car-keys friends.

S2 might blow holes in this but Silver Timeline Chief and Arbiter fall into a pattern of greeting each other as “Demon” and “Arby.” Starts off adversarial, eventually becomes grudgingly affectionate inside joke.

Canon isn’t real: This is almost everything for everyone after Halo 4 for me. But Arbiter and Chief should be best frenemies. Most of my ideas about this fit the TV timeline better than the games but Microsoft still robbed us of this gold mine. I want Chief and Arbiter to get handed some absurd mission that goes absurdly wrong and ends up with them stuck at the bottom of an elevator shaft bickering.

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5 and 7 for the ask game!

Talk about your fanfics asks

5. One individual fun fact for each OC in the tags. ヽ(‘ ∇‘ )ノ

I generally prefer adopting side characters to making a full-on OC, but I have a few OCs I’ll share:

Kate Lasky, star of an AU of my MWAS AU where Tom and Chyler have a kid. I haven’t really done much for Kate story-wise. She’s named for her grandmothers. Katherine means pure and Audrey means noble strength. “Pure noble strength” is a good thing for your name to mean, and I think Kate lives up to it ❤️

Jim Lasky (Tom’s dad) was an air/spacecraft nerd who wanted to be a pilot and couldn’t for some reason I haven’t identified. He ended up as a high school physics teacher. I invented Jim for Survivor and ported him to MWAS.

Angel, the fallout of The Scene in S1E8 and the centerpiece of my Vital Record/Angel-117 AU. I haven’t given her much beyond the first story in that series, except to decide that as an adult she looks like her mom with dark hair:

That’s Charlie Murphy’s natural hair color. Yes this is really her.

7. Shortest fic you’ve written (published or not)? ‹•.•›

This clocks in at 147 words. There may be something shorter on my FFN but I can’t be bothered to look.

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For this ask, 🖊 + Kate(?) Lasky?

(Help, I'm getting invested in a character that doesn't exist in a fandom I'm not in)

Sorry? 😂

This is a good one because I tried to write something for Princess Kate (I’ve decided this is what Tom calls her) the other night and didn’t get far because I don’t have much of a concept for her.

Soooooo.

If my math is right (always a big if) Kate is 21-22 when Halo 4 comes around. She gets into some trouble at her first posting. Nothing horrible, I’m thinking something rather harmless, but enough to put her on the radar in a bad way. Chyler quietly but insistently arranges for Kate to end up on Infinity. This is the part I ripped off from Lower Decks. Admiral Hood, who just listened to Tom bend the rules until they begged for mercy to get Chyler on board, acquiesces mostly so the Lasky family will leave him alone.

I already mentioned young Miss Lasky is a Chyler clone. Anna Popplewell, for reference.

Maybe Kate is a little taller. But she looks enough like her mother that especially when she’s in uniform, people often think she IS her mother.

I don’t have a good handle on Kate personality-wise, but let’s be real here, her parents are a VERY potent combo 🤣 so she must be rather a force of nature herself. If she got into trouble, even “good trouble,” we can safely assume she has some of her dad’s rebellious streak. Unlike her Lower Decks counterpart though, I think Kate actually wants to be good at her job. She’s just a square peg and hasn’t quite figured out how to fit in the round hole yet.

I think Kate should end up romantically involved with a Spartan-IV, don’t know if it’s one we’ve met or an OC.

While writing this I decided Tom refused to go into cryo once because he would miss Kate’s birthday and he got in hot water for it.

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Stop me before I AU again but I could totally make a crackish AU-within-an-AU where Palmer doesn’t get Lasky away from the artifact and Spartan Ops is Lasky and Glassman trying to buddy-cop their way through everything on Requiem while Chyler is holding the ship together.

Chyler of course is scared to death until Tom is home and mostly unharmed at which point she immediately becomes FURIOUS with him. Why would he grab at a man getting sucked into a Forerunner energy beam. Why WOULDN’T he grab at a man getting sucked into a Forerunner energy beam. Did you have your sense of self-preservation permanently removed, Tom?!?!?! Let’s not even start on the truckload of ONI BS Chyler had to shovel.

I think Tom would be proud of his bride for moving the chess pieces and sending Majestic in to rescue Halsey/foil Palmer’s plans, though. Sounds almost like something he would do.

Also need a fic where Gabriel Thorne (voiced by none other than Ethan Peck) gets outed as the Singing Spartan.