#they are amnesiacs for different reasons! but it is still neat to meet someone like you

[the-insouciant-scientist]

@fallenlondonficswap @uniquezombiedestiny

For the general swap! Listen both our main characters are amnesiacs I had to do Something with that

Down Here Underneath

Maethyl Fallow & Harper Faraday, General Rating, 909 words.

Maethyl dropped back into her seat with a heavy sigh, a cup of steaming hot coffee warming both hands. It had been a hell of a morning, and she was looking forward to finally allowing herself to just sit and relax. She let her head loll backwards against the chair, tentacles curling gently around its wooden edges, when she heard a small cough across from her.

“Ah, hello?” A voice said. She looked up and half-winced when she realized she had not, in fact, found an empty table. How she had missed the pages upon pages of scribbling and scientific notation was beyond her. She squinted at her unexpected table-mate, who gave her an owlish look of surprise in response. 

“Sorry, I can move if you want me to. It’s been… a day.” Mae said after a moment. She really didn’t want to move, it was a very comfortable chair and she was tired, but it felt rude not to offer.

The stranger shook their head. “Oh, it’s no issue, really. Sorry about the mess.” They said sheepishly. Mae took a good look at them, from their unruly hair to their neathbow splattered labcoat worn unbuttoned, and came to the conclusion that this was probably as neat as they ever were. She shrugged, and they relaxed by a fraction.

After a moment of uneasy peace as they both tried to acclimate to each others’ unexpected presence, the scientist went back to their writing. Maethyl sipped at her coffee and tried not to stare too obviously. 

“So, what is all this?” Mae asked. The stranger looked up near-immediately, alight from the opportunity to talk about their work. 

“A collaborative experiment with my spouse, on mordants and fixatives. Some of their Neath-color dyes don’t stay in fabric well. Like gant, especially. Or irrigo.” they rambled, referencing a faded violet-ish stain along the hem of their coat. Mae’s vision slid across it no matter how hard she tried to focus.

“I see that color when I close my eyes, sometimes.” Mae said. 

The scientist perked up, rolling a fountain pen between their fingers. “Memory loss?” they asked, almost seeming excited at the prospect. Mae frowned. People always made such a fuss about her amnesia, once they found out.

After a moment she nodded, begrudgingly. “Can’t remember anything before waking up in a New Newgate cell a few months ago.” She took a small sip from her drink to break the tension.

They fluttered their right hand by their side, suddenly, surprise and delight twining in their expression. “It was a few years ago for me, but… I’m the same.” they said, softly. Mae choked on her coffee in surprise for a second, coughing. “Do you remember anything from before? Or just total amnesia.”

“Dunno. If I did remember any details I’d just forget that I did, so how would I know?” She replied. “Do you?”

“Understandable, given the nature of irrigo. Ah, I… Some? But not really. Mostly just snippets, stuff tied to senses. Sometimes I remember the scent of surface flowers, or the texture of a specific lace, or the feeling of sunlight, but… I completely lack context, or any specific details.”

Maethyl hummed in sympathy. “Sounds nice, at least.” 

Her conversational partner nodded after a moment, as if lost in thought, before speaking once more. “So, you’re still pretty new to the Neath then, if you only woke up in New Newgate a few months back. How has it been for you so far?”

Mae groaned, setting her coffee cup down and burying her face in her hands. A stray tentacle clung to one of her fingers. “Tried my hand at growing mushrooms and ended up in the middle of a warzone.”

The scientist winced. “That was a doozy. I’d like to say that was an outlier, as summers go, but from my observations it’s more pattern than coincidence. Augusts seem to just have a particular kind of trouble to them. And Thursdays, for that matter, especially at the end of any given month.”

“Eugh. Noted.” She replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. The scientist offered a wry smile, before it abruptly shifted into dawning realization. 

“Oh.” They breathed. “That was your first time ever seeing the sun, then.”

Mae instinctively hunched up her shoulders. “Yeah. Yours too. What did you think? I thought it was a bit shit. Bloody hurt, too. I’ll be ecstatic if I never have to feel that again.”

“Bright. Warm. Absolutely painful, yes. But… I don’t know. As I crashed up there, burning in sunlight, all I could think of was that it was breathtakingly beautiful. But that very well could have been the adrenaline talking.” The scientist said, fidgeting with their cosmogone-lensed spectacles.

“Can’t say I agree, but to each their own.” She said with a half-smile. They both let their gazes wander over the rest of the coffeeshop, deep in thought.

“I wonder, though, how many others there are out there like us. Whose lives basically began in prison, not even remembering what they did or didn’t do. Maybe we should start a club.” They said with a dry laugh.

“Neathy amnesiacs anonymous. Anonymous because all of us have a shitty memory, that is.” Mae joked. The scientist paused for a second, seemingly having trouble parsing the humor, before they smiled too.

“Neathy amnesiacs anonymous.” They echoed. Mae picked up her coffee cup in a mock-toast and drained the last of it.

[sarcastic-sketches]

Meeting the 501st

Carrying on from my Force of Nature AU post where I mash the TV show Primal (Genndy Tartakovsky) with the Star Wars prequels, Anakin has crash landed on a hostile planet and is now a feral amnesiac. He’s half-force and he’s going to use that to his benefit to survive this place.

So, years after Anakin has forgotten everything about himself, the Clone Wars are in full swing, the Galaxy is ready to tear itself apart, and both Dooku and the Jedi Council have taken notice of a very biologically active planet that has a bright star of a force signature on it. A force signature that could sway the tide of battle. Is there a nexus point on that planet or is it a person?

Both sides obviously don’t want the other to get it and use it against them so Obi-Wan, his padawan Ahsoka, and the 212th/501st go to the planet to check it out. (The 501st are kind of a satellite Legion that attach onto other Jedi led Battalions as and when needed… they are claiming Ahsoka as their Jedi if the war is still going when she's Knighted.) Expecting resistance from the Separatists, they don’t really anticipate the planet itself to resist them.

They soon realise this planet is hellish and the less men they have on the ground the better. Miasma fog that disorientate you and alter your memories, entire forests that move to grab ships flying overhead and bring them down to the forest floor for carnivorous fungi to feed upon, a crimson moon that crests over the horizon inciting predators to swarm and hunt on mass. 

Rex says he can handle this with just Torrent and he’ll keep in regular comms with General Kenobi who is probably needed elsewhere more. Obi-Wan wants to stay, because hot damn does that force signature feel familiar but it can’t be, Anakin has been missing/dead for 4 years, and he can’t keep his priorities in order. So he leaves Ahsoka with them to keep an eye on the Force signature (that's been moving) but so far it’s keeping to the dense jungle that seems to take up half the planet. They set up camp and wait, feeling very creeped out by all the life on this planet that wants to eat and kill everything else and not seeing any clankers. Ahsoka's hackles are raised near constantly.

Fives: This is like Umbara all over again Echo: Don’t.

I’m gonna say all the boys are here because I want them to be and having only Obi-Wan lead them would have changed which battles they went to and how they fought them etc. (Also no Krell, because that guy can choke). The legions would have been shuffled around as there is one less Jedi General (who could pull a win out of his ass) to send off to different campaigns. Whenever Obi-Wan isn’t actively giving orders, he just lets Rex and Cody team up to do what they do best tbh. Rex wasn’t made a Captain of the most elite trooper calibre for no reason and there are three additional ARCs in Torrent.

They are shocked to discover that there are actually people living here but they are kept neat and secure behind their fortified walls. Tiny civilisations that strive to keep the nightmares out, by any means possible with vastly different lifestyles. You’ve got the witches who steal the life force of others to create more of their own, the humanoids who live exclusively underground to keep out of sight from aerial predators, and the more advanced communities who Do Not Leave their borders that they’ve made safe. 

So the boys do similarly, making camp in a sort of fort - electrified fences, flood lights, constant fires, etc - and they are keeping watch when suddenly someone is sitting on top of a stack of crates handling their weaponry. They have no idea how he got past them but he looks human and doesn’t seem to want to eat them so they’re startled rather than threatened after a few minutes of watching him (they think it’s a him) not do much of anything. He’s clearly curious more than anything and he’s nowhere near as built as any of the clones. They could take him, right? The person looks kind of amused by their reaction anyway and darts off to a higher vantage point when one of the troops makes a grab for him. He’s a dark blonde, with hair that has grown into a curly mop, and the kind of lanky frame that's all limbs but with obvious deceptive muscle and strength to haul himself around that gracefully and that quickly. There’s also some nasty looking exaggerated canines and the clones are pretty sure humans don’t normally have reflective lenses in their eyes. 

Hardcase: Uhhh, Rex, you copy? Rex: Yeah? Hardcase: There’s someone in the camp Rex: Repeat that?? Hardcase: He’s not wearing boots either. We think he came out of the jungle. Rex: On my way

Ahsoka, taking one look at Anakin, perched on top of their ship and looking down at all the gathered troopers like a cat in a tree, points and goes ‘that’s him. He’s the one we’re looking for’. 

Still doesn’t really change the fact that he seems quite content to just bother them by being a nosy bastard about their camp but other than that he’s not really causing a problem. Or running away. He also has some amazing adaptation abilities - if he’s half-force, does that mean the Force is responsible for half of his genetic code? How much weird shit could come of that if the Force can handle slight morphological changes - He can grow gills if he’s kept underwater so he doesn’t drown. The reflective pupils aid him to see in the dark but during the day they are absent. Some of the men swear they’ve even seen him sporting a long flexible tail to hold things from time to time. The men all start bonding with this bizarre cryptid while Ahsoka and Anakin compare how big their fangs are and how sharp their claws are. Ahsoka is ecstatic that she now has a hunting partner because finally, someone gets it.

Rex: Didn’t think humans could get fangs like that, or claws Ahsoka: I’m not sure he’s entirely human. Seems too wild for that Anakin: Thank you Rex/Ahsoka: What

Up to this point he’s been entirely non-verbal and the troops assumed he couldn’t understand Basic. He absolutely can (retrograde amnesia doesn’t make you forget language) so he’s just been fucking with them. That’s ingrained, amnesia will not make him any less of a little shit. Thus begins the million and one questions they have for him once they realise he can speak and does understand them. He can also understand their droids.

They all start to let their guard down because huh he’s just a dude after all, trapped on a horrible planet and had to make do. It’s all fun and games until they see Anakin go from stationary to launching himself at a T-rex's throat that just charged out of the jungle in under a second. 

They respect the fact that he is also an apex predator on this planet from that point onward. 

[johannstutt413]

(requested by anonymous)

The Doctor was in her office, but she’d stopped working several hours ago; in fact, when Orchid came by to ask about her squad’s upcoming deployment, she found her at the empty assistant’s desk with what looked like a full-blown toolbox at her side. “Good afternoon, Doctor. I didn’t come at a bad time, did I?”

“Oh, hey, Orchid! Nah, I’m just working on some’n for my anniversary.” She held up the ring she was working on. “It’s our first, so I wanna do some’n extra special, ya know?”

“Anniversary? I didn’t know you were even seeing anyone. Who’s the lucky guy? Or gal, either way.”

That earned the Liberi a smile. “Blue, Glaucus, and I are going on six months now.”

“Huh. Like, all three of you together?” She whistled. “I think one’s about all I can handle.”

“I think that’s partially because of who that one person is, though.” The Doctor’s smile was somewhere between caustic and glacial as she fired off her retort.

Orchid sighed. “Yeah, you’ve got a point there...So, do you have an update for me on when my team’s heading out into the field? Poppy’s trying to schedule chainsaw lessons with Blaze, and it’s probably better for those to happen on deployment rather than in one of the training areas.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” She rolled her chair across the floor to reach her computer. “Lemme see where I put you...”

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Blue Poison was sitting at the counter with a pencil and pad of paper, sketching and erasing more than she ever had before. Cakes were supposed to be her thing, so why was this so hard…

“Hey, Blue!” Gummy walked in, a box of ingredients in her arms. “Everything okay? You looked stressed.”

“I’m making a cake for my anniversary today, and I want it to be perfect...but I don’t know how to make it look the way I want it to.”

The chef set her box on a side table. “Maybe I can help? Mousse has been-”

“Hi, Gummy!” Speak of the Feline, and she shall appear. “Oh, Miss Blue? You look worried.”

“Mousse, you showed up just in time! Blue’s baking an anniversary cake, but she’s worried it won’t look good. Can you help us come up with something that’ll really wow her special someone?”

The Anura mumbled, “Someones. I have two girlfriends.”

“Sure, I can help!” A black cat appeared out of nowhere with her sketchpad. “What kind of cake do you want to make?”

“...A wedding cake.”

While Rhodes Island’s best bakers conspired to craft the perfect anniversary cake, Glaucus tinkered in her room, looking through schematics to find the pieces she needed for the ideas in her head. It wasn’t every day she had something to celebrate, so she felt like she really had to make this special, but she was quickly discovering she didn’t have many ideas that made good toys. “Hmm...The Doctor said she’d like something she can set on her desk, and Blue likes watching the clouds on the top deck. Maybe something held in a magnetic field that has a liquid component? That would be interesting, and it shouldn’t be too hard to make. I will need a container of some kind for it, though.”

*knock knock* “Glaucus?” That was Mayer’s voice at the door. “Do you have the prototype for the magnetic field generator model?”

“One second.” The Supporter engaged her exosuit, walked over to the table she set the model on, and opened the door to hand it to the Anaty at the door...

...Who looked behind her and saw what she was working on. “Has it already been six months?”

“Hmm?” Glaucus followed her eyes. “Yeah. I want to make them something like levitating lava lamps. Actually, can I borrow a few Meeboos? I need some help with the containers, and I’m not entirely sure what I want to fill them with for the best effect.”

“I’ll do you one better and help you myself. It’s been kind of a slow day, but helping you out might teach me something I can use on the magnet-powered Meeboo!”

With a little trepidation, she let Mayer inside. “Alright, you can help me out. We’re gonna need two of them.”

“Obviously.” The Anaty chuckled. “What else would you do, ask them both to share?”

“...I am so glad I work with someone this perceptive.”

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

The Doctor’s shift came to an end, and she returned home with a trio of rings in her pocket, eager to start celebrating. She wondered if her girlfriends had gotten as into this idea of anniversaries as she had; for her, it was a brand new type of memory, one that, even as an amnesiac, she knew was a new sort of experience, and one she was looking forward to having many more of...

‘Home’ for the trio was the Doctor’s suite, partially because it’d been the largest of their three rooms, partially because she was the only one who didn’t need a separate workshop for her stuff, and partially because her room had been site zero...entirely by accident. All three of them being there had been intentional, at least - Meteor had held a meet-and-greet sort of thing for the more introverted folks, the sort of event only a team mom could have considered and then kept enjoyable, and afterwards Blue and Glaucus had taken up on the Doctor’s offer for a nightcap. 

They quickly discovered none of them could actually drink alcohol, each for a completely different reason, so it’d turned into the three of them talking the night away instead. The Anura made a remark that this was the most of Glaucus’ voice she’d heard since they’d met, and the Supporter admitted with a blush that this was the most comfortable she’d felt around a pair of people since she’d arrived. That got the two of them talking about life before Rhodes Island; Blue reminisced about walking hand-in-hand with friends, which prompted the Doctor and Glaucus to ask why she didn’t at RI. She sighed, saying most people were too scared of the possibility of her poisoning them to consider it - and before she could even finish the sentence, they’d each grabbed the hand closest to them with a level of coordination they couldn’t have even planned.

Man, that was a fun night.

Anyway, the Doctor went to unlock her door, only to have Blue open it for her with a bright smile, already out of her work clothes and in something casual. “Welcome home~ How was work?”

“Slow as hell, honestly.” She went for a kiss, encouraged by the frosting on the Anura’s upper lip. “You made dessert, I take it?”

“You’ll see. Glue got back a few minutes ago and went to the bedroom to change, if you want to join her.”

A shrug. “I think I’ll keep you company until she’s out. Did you burn yourself, dear?”

“Hmm? Oh, this?” She shook her head. “I dropped a beaker and cut myself while cleaning up. Nothing serious.”

“Gotcha. Hey, that was quick!” They both turned to watch Glaucus walk out of the bedroom.

The Supporter waved. “Didn’t need to do much. Are we ready to start?”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” The Doctor rubbed her hands together in anticipation. “I can’t wait to see... this...cake...Holy shit.”

“You’ve really outdone yourself, Blue,” Glaucus agreed, swooping in to take her hand as their third tried to figure out how to tackle the three-tiered titan in front of them.

She giggled. “I’m happy you both think so. I had some help planning it, but it turned out even better than I expected.”

“This reminds me of something,” the Doctor noted as they took the topmost layer for themselves, “but...I don’t know what.”

“It’s a wedding cake,” the Supporter replied.

The Anura nodded. “I’ve always wanted to try making one, and I thought this was as good a time as any. Is it good, Doctor?”

“You know how addicted I am to your cakes, Blue.” She’d already eaten a third of the portion she’d retrieved. “I’m happy there’s enough of this one to last a couple days.”

“Once we’re done eating, I have something as well.” Glue chimed in while it was on her mind. “We should wait, though. The frosting might stain them.” 

The Doctor flashed her a thumbs up, and after they’d had their fill (keeping in mind they were planning to go out to eat), Glaucus went back to the bedroom and returned with a pair of blue boxes with green bows on top, each manageable with one hand. “They’re a bit fragile, but I think they’re pretty neat.”

“...This is magnetic, isn’t it?” The Anura opened her box and pulled out a small double-capped cylinder with two distinct layers of liquid along with a flat black base.

“How do we turn them on?” The Doctor wondered aloud. “I don’t see a switch or any- oh, wait, it’s this, isn’t it?”

The Supporter smiled as she found the clicker she’d taped to the top of the box. “Green turns it on, red turns it off; both are gradual to ensure the cylinder doesn’t move too fast and shatter.”

“That’s really co- no, this is awwwwesome. I’m totally taking this to my office.” She’d expected it to float, because Glaucus’ thing was magnets, but to spin as well? That was next-level shit.

“You color-coordinated them as well,” Blue noted with admiration before kissing her on the cheek. “It reminds me of a stormy evening sky.”

Glue blushed. “Then I’m two-for-two.”

“Oh! Speaking of, I made us something, too!” The Doctor fished in her pocket, found the rings, and kept her hand there for a moment.

“...You’ve talked about making jewelry on slower days,” the Anura said, “but it’d be a pain to keep three chains in one pocket.”

Glaucus had to sit down, as even with her exoskeleton on, her knees suddenly felt weak. “Blue, I think I know what she made.”

“Let me know if you guessed right :D.” She held out her hand, and there were three rings - simple silver bands, nearly identical except for differently-colored stones on top - one sapphire, one amethyst, and one citrine.

“I was.” The Supporter fell sideways, laying across Blue’s lap. “We already have the wedding cake.”

The Doctor balked. “Not that I’d say no, but it still feels kinda early for that.”

“All in good time. I’ll consider it a promise for the future.” Blue accepted the amethyst for herself and put the sapphire ring on Glaucus’ finger.

“Same...” Glue, it appeared, was down for the count. “I might need a minute before...dinner...”

That was just fine in their book; the Doctor helped the Anura take their sluggish girlfriend somewhere more comfortable before disengaging the exoskeleton for some late afternoon cuddling. Despite all the blue in their lives (I mean, just look at those color schemes), life had never been brighter...