#they are just full on staring at Linus’s ass

[bluewritinghood]

[chubbyheroesworthyheroes]

Linus didn’t care much for history, that was more of Lloyd’s interest. Sure, as a kid it had been fun to listen to the stories of the heroes of old, and even now, he held a great pride for what those who came before had accomplished against the dragons, but it wasn’t something he found overly interesting. The Shrine of Seals was an important place in Bern, though few actually knew where it was anymore. It lay hidden among the mountains and woods, and the only reason he was here now, was to make a last stand and take revenge against the Lycian lords that were headed for the legendary weapons here.

“Legendary my ass…,” he scoffed, looking around the torch lit room with irritation. There wasn’t much here at all; just a large, stone room with minimal decoration to it. If there was really something mystical or even mildly amazing here, he sure wasn’t seeing it.

Growling in annoyance, the Mad Dog rolled his eyes and decided to hunker down in the large stone chair at the center of the room. It didn’t matter if there was something here or not, the only thing he was here for was the pathetic lives of the lordlings that were going to walk right into his ambush. Idly tapping the cross guard of his sword against the arm of the stone throne he was sitting in, Linus quickly grew bored and further frustrated at having to wait around. Sitting still wasn’t really in his forte, so it didn’t take long for him to jump back to his feet and start pacing around the chamber.

As he was making a haphazard circuit around the room, a small section of the floor seemed to depress under his boot, a clicking noise alerting him just a bit too as the entrance to the shrine suddenly closed with a great groaning of stone. The chamber was thrown into darkness for a moment, the torchlight flickering -- threatening to snuff out -- before burning steady again. It only took a moment for his vision to adjust, a string of colorful words leaving his mouth as Linus immediately attempted to budge the door open again -- and, when that failed, tried to repeat what he’d done to close the blasted thing in the first place.

“Fucking hell, really?!” Linus blusters futilely, slamming a fist against the unmoving stone door as he realized that he was well and truly stuck until his men figured out how to reopen the shrine. Huffing out an angered breath, he gives the door a good kick for being a bastard -- it didn’t help at all, but it made him feel a tiny bit better to vent his frustrations.

Time seems to drip by slowly as he waits, the crackle of the torches eventually wearing down Linus’ anger enough to make him feel almost dozy after so long of staring at the blank walls.

The unnatural sound of something squelching about in the shadows of the room jolts Linus out of the near-sleep he’d fallen into, scrambling to his feet from where he’d been sitting with his back to the stone door. Brown eyes skimmed the dark edges of the room for anything, not seeing anything at first, until something finally inches its way into the dim light of the torches. And, really, he has no idea what to call this thing other than a something -- it has no real form, the creature simply moving along the floor in a vaguely slug-like, blobby form of...whatever the hell it was made up of. It had a pastel red color to it, its form more or less translucent despite the pigment.

Well...at least this was something interesting.

“You’re a weird li’l fucker, ain’tcha?” Linus sneered, unsheathing his sword and poking the tip into at the creature that seemed to be aimlessly inching around. To his surprise, it didn’t really react; the tip of his blade sunk into the thing with hardly any resistance, and all the creature did was wobble to a stop. “Huh…,” he shrugged, figuring that poking at it wouldn’t be all that fun for very long, moving to pull his sword out of the gelatinous blob.

Only, Linus found that the little red creature was holding onto the metal with a death grip. Scowling and readjusting his hold, Linus tugged firmly at his weapon, but all this managed to accomplish was a brief suction-like noise as the blob started to move up the blade.

“What the…,” Linus breathed out in trepidation, trying several more times to free his sword of the goop that was clinging to it and steadily moving up its length with every attempt he made.

The red goo lurched forward suddenly, and Linus shuddered at the feel of it sliming over his hand. It wasn’t sticky per se, as it looked like it would feel sticky on contact, but it was cool and slick in a still intensely unpleasant way. Just like with his sword, any attempts to pull his hand out of the red goop were only met with frustration; the slime, however, seemed more energized as soon as it made contact with his skin instead of the stone of the floor or the metal of his blade, and quickly abandoned gripping onto the weapon in favor of enveloping more of Linus’ arm.

It was at this point that Linus saw the full scope of the creature he’d been poking at. What he’d initially seen was just a small section of it -- as the wet suction of the slime claimed more of his arm, the rest of the creature made itself visible from the shadows. It was massive, and the fact that he hadn’t been able to see or hear the damn thing for its size had panic creeping into the back of Linus’ mind as he struggled to get out of the thing’s hold.

“Okay, you big fucker, let go and maybe I won’t tear you apart!” Linus threatened, trying to wrench his arm free or even shift some of the mass off with his free hand. It did little good, as his fingers couldn’t get a grip on the slick surface. But, fear spiking and turning into rage, Linus continued to fight against its hold.

This didn’t deter the slime in the least, his struggling only seeming to interest the beast more than anything else as more of it started to slip over and around him. Furiously trying to gain some sort of purchase, Linus’ boots squished into more of the red goo, making it harder for him to even move now. A shiver of disgust ran down his spine as he felt the cool goo drip onto his abs and inch over his abdomen with a weirdly sentient touch -- as if it was curiously investigating him. “I swear, you go anywhere you ain’t supposed to and I’ll--!” his enraged shouting was swiftly cut off by a tendril of slime jamming its way into his open mouth. The force of it had reaction tears stinging his eyes, Linus gagging as the viscous substance filled his mouth and then forced its way down his throat. There was a long, drawn out moment of full blown panic as Linus found he couldn’t breathe; he struggled desperately, clawing and kicking at the creature as his vision swam from lack of air. Eventually, the creature seemed to understand that he needed to breathe, and eased up enough so that he could pull in ragged lungfuls of air through his nose.

Saints, he’d nearly blacked out there...And while the damned thing was learning to let him breathe before it pumped more of itself into his mouth, it was still rather eagerly streamlining itself down his throat. Working his jaw a bit, Linus let out a muffled groan of frustration when he couldn’t bite through it; soft though it felt and appeared, it was like trying to chew through a thick ball of leather. It did, however, have the odd perk of being ridiculously sweet; the bright flavor of cherries leaving a syrupy taste in his mouth.

Unable to really move or get himself free of the slime, Linus could do little more than seethe and watch as more and more of the room filled with the creature. It seemed pleased that he’d stopped fighting as much, generously pumping more cherry flavored goo into him at a pace that didn’t suffocate him. Except, a new issue cropped up when the inevitable feeling of fullness started to hit Linus.

He squirmed a bit, wincing at the stuffed feeling as his stomach churned, trying to deal with what was being shoveled into it. He huffed out an aggravated, pained breath through his nose, ramping up his struggling again when it felt like he was going to be sick from the sheer volume of goop it was trying to get in him. The red goo seemed to pause for a moment, its previous coolness melting away into a pleasant warmth. Relief struck Linus almost instantly at this, the overfull feeling in his stomach fading away as the warmth sunk in.

Relaxing a bit, Linus simply let it pick up where it left off for a while, until he felt something off…

Glancing down, his brain seemed to hit a wall when he saw the belt strapped over his chest digging in to his belly. The six pack abs he’d had just moments ago were completely gone, a soft, chubby belly having replaced it after whatever the creature had done. To make more room, it must have absorbed itself into his body -- but this wasn’t really something the human body was meant to ingest, and this was the result…

A muffled protest was all Linus could get out as the slime ramped up the pace. Every time he felt like he was going to burst from the pressure in his stomach, the creature would repeat the process of absorbing what it had pumped into him, which resulted in more weight getting added to the Mad Dog’s once muscular frame.

Frustration and indignation had slowly faded into a food drunk sort of resignation as time ticked by in the semi dark of the shrine. It was monotonous and repetitive, and the feeling of being filled to the bursting point with warm slime made it difficult to actually stay awake -- similar to the effect of eating a big meal and then needing to sleep it off. Linus’ attention narrowed down to a fine point of swallowing down the increasingly large bursts of goop that the creature was pumping into his mouth. Eyes glazed over, he barely even processes the way the slime is expanding his body anymore.

The belt that had been digging into him early on was reaching its limits; Linus’ gut growing steadily rounder as the slime fed him, the thick leather indenting harshly into the flesh the more doughy his middle got. Eventually, it was too much, and the buckle snapped, freeing his engorged belly to bounce forward and into his lap. He felt some of the slime creature squish between the underside of his gut and his chunky thighs, a muffled noise escaping him as the creature seemed to caress at his expanding bulk -- at least, as much as a boneless mass of goo could manage. It was a weird feeling, the suction of the slime against the sensitive skin of his belly, but it wasn’t altogether awful.

But, it wasn’t just his middle that had taken a hard hit; Linus’ entire frame was chubbing up just as nicely thanks to the slime.

Even without the red goo cushioning him, his ass had plumped up enough to be plenty comfortable against the hard stone beneath him. His trousers were quite tight at this point, the material struggling against his fat ass and thunder thighs. His face, while never angular, had clearly rounded out; chubby cheeks flushed red and a double chin softening his jawline. Broad shoulders and a strong back were now padded generously with pudge, smoothing out muscles into soft valleys of fat. His pecs were still holding somewhat firm, round and pert as they sat atop the growing mass of his gut. Likewise, his arms had maintained some definition, the added weight serving to mostly make them look more bulky as they stressed the sleeves of his shirt and jacket. The juicy swell of thick lovehandles rounded out his figure, not so much fighting his belly for space as much as merging with it to create a deliciously supple tire of flesh around his middle and sides.

The room glistens a shimmery red from the slime creature practically filling it up with its behemoth size, the light from the torches reflecting off of its form as it oozes around Linus. If it has an end at all, he can’t see it. All he knows is that it hasn’t let up an ounce with its feeding, a constant, thick stream of the stuff bulging out Linus’ cheeks like a fat chipmunk that had hit the jackpot of nuts; pumping its own astounding mass down into his gurgling, fattening stomach.

Time had practically ground to a stop for Linus, everything in the world seeming to have narrowed down to just encompass the massive creature as it blimped him up with itself.

He couldn’t even stifle the groan that was building up in him if he wanted to, a slick, slime covered hand clumsily smacking against the bulge of his belly as he dazedly rubbed at the swollen mass. Despite constantly and continuously being stuffed to the brim, it was incredibly soft and squishy. Chubby fingers sunk into the soft flesh with ease, and if he pressed down hard enough at certain points, Linus could feel the slime in his gut roiling about as it filled him up. Outside of the time it took to absorb itself into him -- which took mere seconds -- the creature didn’t appear to be stopping for anything, and as his body continued to fatten up and swell out with all the added weight, Linus dumbly thought it was a good thing this place wasn’t horribly small.

[cozykhaos]

A New Sun. Part 6

Abigail and I walked to the bar, Asher scampering between us. We were running late, but neither of us cared. The bell over head chimed when we arrived and we beelined it for the side room, where the pool table was at.

“It’s about time you guys showed up,” Sebastian said not even looking up, he was leaned over the table, pool cue ready. He took the shot. Sunk it in middle left pocket. Sam groaned, his back to us. “Just for once, could you go easy on me?”

“Nope,” Sebastian gave him, his shit eating grin.

Sebastian paused as he noticed Asher trying to scramble onto the couch. The pup tried to jump up, after a few failed attempts he reached up and just tried pushing himself up with his back legs. “What’s up with the dog?” Sebastian asked.

Sam jerked himself upright and franticly looked around before spotting Asher. “Holy puppy Batman,” he dropped his pool cue on the table and sat Indian style on the floor in front of the couch. Ash sat now and stared at Sam, head cocked to one side. “Where did you come from?” Sam was putting on his best baby voice.

“Hopefully another dog,” Sebastian said with a smirk on his face. He placed his own cue down and sat on the couch next to us. Ash finally made his way into Sam’s lap.

“I have been chosen!” Sam gushed. Abbie now moved onto the floor and Ash stared between her and Sam. Finally, he decided the floor between them worked. He rolled onto his back, tummy exposed and ready to be scratched.

“Marnie gave him to me actually,” I said. “She was waiting for me when I came back from the beach.”

“We went fishing today,” Abbie chimed in.

“You went fishing?” Sebastian had an eyebrow raised.

“Well, Kit went fishing. I read,” Abbie shrugged.

“How’d that go?” Sebastian leaned back in his seat, his long legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle.

“You really want to hear about my fishing adventures?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why the hell not,” Sebastian was smirking at me. I felt myself get flustered, Abbie looked up at me and winked.

“Well, it was storming,” I started.

“It was not!” Sam stared up at me.

“This is my story!” I snapped, then cleared my throat and continued. “Any ways, like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted. It was storming, but thankfully Abbie had brought an umbrella.”

“It didn’t do us much good,” Abbie sighed.

“Not at first any ways,” I shook my head. “So, Abigail had the umbrella, she was mainly fighting with it though. The winds were pushing us around every which way and the fish really weren’t biting. But I was determined not to leave, I had to catch something. I am after-all just a poor farm girl now.”

Sebastian snorted, I glanced at him, he waved for me to continue.

“So, just as the pneumonia had really started to set in, I felt a tug on the line.”

“More like a yank,” Abbie added.

I nodded in agreement.

“So, this yank happens, and suddenly I am being dragged across the dock, my ass getting splinters in it, when Abbie grabs my hand.” I leaned forward. “But because of the rain our hands are slipping, I’m not able to hold on. My grip slips, I’m pulling into the air by the wind! Just as I am about out of reach, Abbie is able to hook the umbrella handle onto my foot. My hero!”

“Anything for you boo,” she batted her eyelashes at me.

“So, there we are. Wind, rain, umbrella. I’m still holding onto my fishing pole and Abbie is trying to pull me back to the dock. While this is happening, my pole is being snatched around. I feel my shoulders starting to dislocate as the beast at the other end tries to jerk itself back into the ocean.” Sam and Sebastian were now leaning forward with me. Abigail had a smirk twisted up onto her lips. “Finally, with the strength of Yoba we are able to get back to the dock. And inch by inch we were able to pull the monster in. It had one glowing yellow eye in the center of its head, scales the size of post it notes-“

“Post it notes, really?” Sebastian asked.

“Yes, post it notes,” I nodded. “I worked in an office for 4 years, what do you expect?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, not office supplies though.”

“Fine, scales that are 3”x3”- “

Sebastian groaned.

“Sharp teeth that had little bones sticking out from between them. It wiggled around on the dock, trying to escape back into the ocean,” I was interrupted again by Abbie wiggling on the floor. “Yes Abs?”

“I beat it with my umbrella!”

“She sure did!” I clapped then leaned back into the couch.

“Wait, that’s it?” Sam asked, at some point during the story he had clutched Ash into his arms. “What happened to the fish!?”

“Why do you think we were late, we had a fish fry,” I shrugged.

“What!?” He flung up his arms in exasperation. Ash started to fall but Abigail caught him, she moved to the couch and placed him between us. Sam flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “Worse story ever.”

“I don’t know, I was pretty… hooked,” Sabastian laughed, Abigail groaned. Sam looked at him, then began to chuckle. Soon Sam was in a full belly laugh and tears were streaming down his face. “Okay, it wasn’t that funny,” Sebastian chuckled. Robin poked her head around the corner. “Are you guys okay in here?”

“We’re good,” Abigail nodded.

“Sam is just having a moment,” I nodded down to him, he was still giggling and wiping the tears from his cheeks.

“Okay, just checking,” Robin smiled towards Sebastian before disappearing once again.

“On that note, I need a cigarette,” Sebastian stood.

“I’ll go with you, Ash probably needs to go outside,” I said standing and taking Ash into my arms.

“I’m going to order us some snacks,” Abbie said.

“I’m going to keep laying here,” Sam piped in.

               Sebastian and I stepped outside, I put Ash down, who immediately sat down in between my feet.

“So much for going potty,” I said down to the pup, who was staring into the night.

“Want to walk, it might make him feel better,” Sebastian said through his cigarette.

“Good idea,” I nodded, we began walking, Ash staying between my feet, a small whine coming from him.

“I think your dog is afraid of the dark,” Sebastian chuckled.

“You think so?” I asked looking between Sebastian and Ash.

“It seems like it. Staying close to mom, crying. The only thing he isn’t doing is wetting himself.”

“Is that it buddy? Are you afraid of the dark?” I asked Asher, who’s forehead was now wrinkled in stress. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. Ash’s ears perked up.

“Problem solved,” Sebastian said, then pulled out his own phone and turned on the flashlight. “Double the light.”

We had turned right and headed towards the forest. We continued in silence, walking past Marnie’s farm. Finally, Ash scampered ahead a little, nose to the ground. Sebastian and I faced each other, he took a drag off his cigarette and blew the smoke towards the ground.

“So,” he said. “Why’d you come back?”

I was taken aback, I stared up at him eyebrows wrinkled together. “What?”

“Why’d you come back?” He asked again.

“Because I inherited the farm,” I almost added on a duh.

“Yeah, but you’ve been gone for almost seven years. No one wants to come here,” Sebastian took another drag.

“I don’t know, a lot of people have seemed to move in sense I’ve been gone.”

He gave me a look.

“Well, like three people have moved in,” I still hadn’t meet Elliot (who was yummy according to Abigail) and Linus. I had already met Leah.

“And it seems like every single one of them are trying to run from something. So, what are you running from?”

Myself.

Everything.

“Nothing. I found the letter from my grandpa, it was in a box and I decided on the spot that I was moving here.”

Sebastian’s dark eyes studied me. I tried not to shrink under the gaze.

I nudged at a spot on the ground with the tip of my toe. Ash came running back and then paused and looked between the two of us. “Ready to go back?” I coughed out.

“Yeah,” Sebastian lit another cigarette as we turned back.

My mind kept spinning and I tried to think of a way to change the subject. The air was tight with tension.

“Oh, who do you get your internet through?” I asked looking up at him.

“SuperSpan, why?” He asked.

“I need to hook up my set up.”

“You play?”

“All day if I could.”

“I’ll send you their number,” he typed into his phone, then handed it to me, snatching my phone out of my hand at the same time. I typed my number in and we switched back. “What have you been playing?”

“Well right now I am living a Harvest Moon simulator,” I said, and Sebastian snorted. “But I just quit WoW for the 100th time.”

“Final Fantasy 14 is where it’s at,” Sebastian nodded.

“I haven’t played,” I frowned.

“You are really missing out.”

“I’ve heard.”

The rest of the night went by like this, back at the bar we ate and drank. Sebastian dominated at pool, while Abbie and I played Journee of the Prairie King. Ash slept on the couch, curled up in a ball. Gus had come over once, telling me Ash was fine in here, but not in the dining room or kitchen. Then gave Ash left over French fries.

By 10:30 we cleared out and went our separate ways. I was more than happy to fall into bed. Asher tucked his head under my chin, his paws curled up between us. Both of us fell asleep quickly and soundly.

[language-of-love]

burning one hell of a something...

Summary: Bad ventilation, burnt steak and an obnoxious fire alarm, all the ingredients needed for Patrick to meet David and spark a very different kind of flame. (AO3)

Chapter 2 : stoking the fire

David’s kitchen is a disaster area. The steak he’d been trying to cook is a charred lump on his one and only pan. And oh god - the vegetables, all of the onions, carrots and potatoes it had taken him almost an hour to peel and chop, are strewn all over the floor from when he’d dropped the baking sheet when the fire alarm had gone off. If he wasn’t such a clean freak, he’d leave everything exactly where it is, grab the pint of ice cream in the freezer and go crawl into bed.

But bugs are not a thing he can add to the deepening black hole of his existence here in this apartment, so he rolls up his sleeves and starts to clean. His stomach growls as he drops the steak into the trash can and he wishes he could just grab a credit card from his wallet and order himself a pizza.  But that’s not in his budget. Nothing he used to love is, not anymore.

There’s a knock at his door and he cringes, hoping it isn’t his next door neighbor coming to chastise him for the fire alarm. She’s got a bit of an attitude, but usually it’s directed at other people and he finds her rather amusing. He’d hoped he’d never have to face Ronnie’s wrath, but after the fire alarm on Tuesday, she gave him quite the ear full.

David breathes a sigh of relief when he sees who’s behind the door.

“What did you burn this time?” Stevie asks, dramatically lifting her open flannel shirt over her nose as she walks past David into his apartment.

“Steak, but it wasn’t my fault.”

“I know, I know...it’s the lack of ventilation, you mentioned that on Tuesday…”

“Well, as the property manager of this dump, it seemed like something you should know,” he snaps, free of any real bite, as this back and forth thing is just his and Stevie’s way.

“You say that as if I have any real power in this situation. You’re hilarious.” Stevie is now lying on David’s couch with her feet up, her long dark hair cascading off the edge as she stares at the ceiling fan whirring annoyingly loud overhead. God, he really hates everything about this apartment. Except maybe Stevie and the cute guy he met tonight, but that’s not enough to tip the scales. Those caramel colored eyes of his though...they were something else...and now he’s hungry again.

As if she’s reading his mind, Stevie turns her head and gives him a pointed look. “I saw you talking to Patrick.”

“So what? He was just being nice.” David turns his back to her to wipe the grease splatter from his stovetop and to hide the blush he’s sure is creeping up the sides of his neck. His conversation with Patrick had been a fun distraction from his mortification, but that’s all. He’s as straight as a pin…

“Patrick is nice. Which is why it was such a surprise seeing him talking to you for so long.”

David turns at that and gives her the finger. Instead of responding in kind, she pushes to her knees and leans into the back of the couch, dropping her chin to her hands as if she’s Linus from the Peanuts cartoons and his couch is the ledge of the brick wall.

“I like this for you,” she says with a sneaky smile, her eyes sparkling with mischief he honestly doesn’t understand.

“Like what for me? Like that I know how to have a conversation with a cute guy?” As soon as he’s said that, he knows he’s fucked up.

“So you think he’s cute, then. Good first step.”

Dropping his sponge into the sink, he turns on the water and garbage disposal, dropping the vegetables into it one by one as he stares Stevie down. After about 10 seconds it’s too much for his own ears and he turns the disposal off again, annoyed and flustered and really fucking hungry.

“I’m like 99% sure he’s straight. And I’m sure you saw his jeans. A guy who would wear those jeans is not the kind of guy who’d be into me. Trust me.”

“So, you checked out his ass? Good second step.”

Stevie ducks just in time to avoid getting hit by a very wet sponge. And he immediately regrets throwing it as it lands on his coffee table, leaving a new mess for him to clean up.

“Look David, I might not be an expert where dating is concerned, but I definitely saw the way Patrick was smiling at you. If you didn’t notice that, you need to get your eyes checked.”

Thinking back on it, David does have to admit that Patrick was a pretty smiley guy. But he’d honestly just chalked that up to him being nice. A lot of people in this apartment building have this nice gene that they must have been born with, because there is nothing about this place that David would qualify as nice . As for his ass, well, the quality of the jeans did nothing to detract from it, he can’t deny that.

Stevie, unfazed by the one-sided conversation she’s currently having, just forges on. “What were you two talking about?”

David just shrugs and shakes the rest of the vegetables from the baking sheet into the sink. “My lack of cooking skills. It wasn’t anything revelatory.” Except for the fact that Patrick offered to teach him how to cook, but that was just him being nice. Right? There wasn’t anything behind that offer besides a desire to not have David set off the fire alarm again. That’s why he’d said no...wasn’t it?

In all honesty, David doesn’t actually have a good answer for why he turned down Patrick’s offer. And now he’s feeling just a tiny pang of regret.

“Well, he’s kind of new in town and probably looking for a friend or two, so maybe make an attempt at being less like yourself the next time you see him, David. You never know when a friend can become a benefit…”

“I thought we agreed to never speak about that again,” David cuts her off, thankful that their brief foray into friends with benefits territory didn’t crash and burn the best, and maybe only,  friendship he’s ever had.

“Point taken.” She’s on her feet and walking towards his door, but pauses and looks over at him where he’s still making a now distracted attempt at cleaning. 

“I’ve got half a bottle of wine and leftover chinese at my place. See you in a half hour?”

Oh, bless her and their shared fondness of MSG.

“I’ll bring the ice cream.”

As he finishes his cleaning and gets ready to head to Stevie’s apartment, he realizes something is missing. Patrick still has his one and only oven mitt.

[jadegreenworks]

God and Glasses

FFT2 Prompt featuring Hanniglasses! If you’ve seen it in the booklet, please have a peek on Ao3 to see the full story!

“Hey, Hannibal, I’m taking Linus for a walk—”

Will stopped abruptly in his tracks, Linus bumbling into the backs of his legs, both of them pausing in the doorway to Hannibal’s study. With stark shock etched on his face, Will stared at Hannibal Lecter, who placidly gazed back at him, a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose.

“Will?” he prodded, his mild tone at odds with the soft smirk on his lips. “Is something wrong?”

“No, just—” Will cocked his head, unable to hide his surprise. “You got glasses.”

“I did,” Hannibal said, touching the wire frames with a gentle finger.

Will shoved his hands into his pockets and moved close enough to get a better look at the glasses in question. The delicate wire frames gleamed against Hannibal’s tanned skin and stray strands of his fine hair, longer now and almost entirely silver. His amber eyes flicked over Will’s face, seeing him clearly, bright and mischievous and wreathed in laugh lines Will loved, having been the cause of so many.

“You’re staring, Will.”

“Sorry,” Will said, huffing a soft laugh, struck by the sight of his husband wearing glasses. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Do you recall several nights ago informing me that I needed a pair of readers?”

A small sound escaped Will at the word, one he failed to stifle.

“Am I amusing you, Will?” The temperature dropped significantly with that question.

“No,” Will said, grinning. “That wasn’t a laugh, Hannibal, trust me. Second to never expecting to see you wearing glasses comes you using the word ‘readers’. It’s... cute.”

“Cute?”

“Yeah,” Will said, knowing Hannibal couldn’t resist him for long.

“What was decidedly not cute was being told by my drunken, melancholic husband that I’m ‘blind as a bat’ and need to get my ‘prissy ass’ to the optometrist and do something about it before I ruin another meal.”

Will winced, ducking his head but not breaking eye contact. How could he, when Hannibal was so majestically irate? He seemed a scholarly longshoreman, sitting in his comfy chair drenched in sunlight, snuggled in a thick cable knit sweater with his tousled hair falling around his face.

“For some reason you also tried convincing me I’m not god.”

“Did I manage to persuade you?” Will teased, taking the seat opposite him in the warm sunlight.

“I’m not certain why you attempted to,” Hannibal said, laying his book aside to stroke Linus when the portly dog flopped against his bare foot. “And I fail to see why my needing glasses had anything to do with my contested status as a deity.”

READ MORE

[classic-rock-roller]

1. You’re hanging out with Kevin and Bonham one day when you get a call from a producer. He says he’s the producer for Ninja Sex Party, and that their singer saw an Instagram video of Bonham singing something and he wants her to do a duet with them of Close My Eyes Forever on their next cover album. What do you guys tell the producer, and what do you all say when you’ve hung up the phone?

She all but grabs the phone out of my hand and screams “YES!!!!!!” so it’s decided. Bonham is bouncing off the wall once we have up and Kevin goes sarcastically, “Oh yeah, you’re not excited at all.

2. You get a call one day from Arin Hanson at Game Grumps. He says that they saw your latest music video and interview (which was your collab with QR), and want one member from each band to join them as guests on the Ten Minute Power Hour. Do you accept? Who does each band send? How does the episode go?

We of course accept and we send Bons (Because I think she’d kill me if we didn’t send her) and QR oddly enough sends Carlos. It was pretty funny but that was mostly because Carlos and Bons were constantly bickering and the hosts had to sit between them to stop them. Even so, they kept glaring at each other the entire time. 

3. You’re going through a bunch of Bonham’s great grandma’s stuff one day and come across an ornate but unlabeled bottle. It’s got a brownish liquid in it, and you say, “Is this whiskey or perfume?” Before Bonham can answer, Kevin grabs the bottle from you, chugs it, and says, “It’s perfume.” How do you and Bonham respond?

Bons: Kevin, you’re an idiot. 

Me (smacks his head lightly): Don’t go drinking unlabeled bottles. What do I tell you?

Kevin: Use the brain that God gave me. 

Me: Yes, now Bons, we’ll be right back. I’m gonna take crazy over here to get checked to make sure that stuff won't kill him. 

4. You and Kevin are meeting Bonham and her brother Chuck at a restaurant one day. You walk in and immediately Kevin says, “God it stinks in here.” Chuck responds with, “Yeah you get used to it after about never.” How do you, Kevin, and Bonham respond?

Me (Breathes Deeply): Mmmm It smells like home. Or like the oil fryers haven’t been washed in a while. Either way, it smells like a Yoccos. 

Kevin (gags): Don’t remind me of that place. You took me there once and I never want to go back. 

Bons: What the fuck is Yoccos?

Me: Look, just because it’s not five star does not mean it sucks ok?

5. Kevin is in costume for a QR video one day and you see he’s in Victorian dress. Bonham says, “I thought you’d look better in a suit, but you still look stupid.” He just looks at her and pokes her with his walking cane. “Fuck you, I have a top hat now.” How do you respond?

Me: Well, I think he looks very handsome. 

I then give him a kiss. 

Bons (shaking her head): I still don’t get how you find him attractive. 

Kevin (pokes her again): Hey! I’m like sex on toast! 

6. Your band is in the studio one day and you’re struggling with the vocal line. It’s too low to sing naturally at a good volume, but not low enough that taking it up an octave will help. You’re all stumped until Bonham shouts, “I got it! Be right back!” She leaves and comes back with a balloon. “How’s this?” She says, before sucking helium and then singing the line. “Think that’ll work, or do you want to try?”She offers you the balloon. What do you do, and how does the rest of the band respond?

I, of course, give it a try because sulfur hexafluoride is known to lower your voice and it helps us get the note. 

Sean: Whoa! 

Linus: That’s one way to fix it 

Erik: Your voice sounds weird. 

7. Your band and QR are playing poker one day, and Bonham is continuously getting shitty hands. After the fifth one, she says, “Is this origami class cause I can’t stop folding.” She laughs a bit at her own joke. How do you and the rest of the boys respond?

Kevin and Rudy roll their eyes.  Frankie wasn’t paying attention and Carlos goes, “I don’t get it.” I stifle a giggle. 

8. You and Kevin are walking down the street one day when a Japanese tourist points excitedly at Kevin. He says to his wife in broken English (he wants you to hear him) “Look Suzy, that’s Kenny G!” How does she respond, and what do you and Kevin do?

I’m laughing out loud full on bending over holding my stomach and Kevin screams, “I am not fucking Kenny G!” 

9. You and Kevin come home one day to find Rudy on the couch and Bonham lying on the floor. “Rough day?” you ask? She says, “I drink to forget but I still remember.” Kevin looks at her confusedly. “You’re eating skittles?” How does she respond and what do you and Rudy say?

Bons: Because SOMEONE (looks at me) drank all our alcohol last week and we haven’t gotten any more of it yet. 

Me: Hey, I can’t help that my guy friend was over. 

Kevin: Who is this guy friend? I’ve never heard of this guy friend?

Rudy: Oh, I’ve met him. He’s super nice. 

10. Bonham makes no bones about the fact that she hates Rush, but one day you and Kevin come over to find her listening to Limelight at full volume. Kevin says to her, “But you hate Rush.” She just gives him a look and says, “’Scuse you, this is Ninja Sex Party.” It’s still a cover of a Rush song. How does Kevin respond and what do you say?

Kevin: It’s still a Rush song though...

Bons throws a pillow at him but it hits me in the face instead. 

Me: Hey! Watch where you’re throwing next time, please. 

11. Bonham’s been fangirling a bit over Dan from Game Grumps lately. Kevin can’t stand it, and one day he asks her, “What’s your deal with Danny?” She says, “He’s a beautiful Jewish man.” “So am I, what does that have to do with anything?” How does Bonham respond and what do you say?

Bons: Yeah, but you’re not Danny...you’re...you. 

Me: We literally have this argument every time you ask, Kev. Just stop. 

12. Bonham is singing along very intensely to Africa one day when you and Kevin and Rudy are over. When the song ends, Kevin says, “That bop of yours was more passionate than your whole career.” How does she respond and what do you and Rudy say?

Bons: Fuck you

Me: It is not. (lightly slaps him upside the head) Stop being an ass 

Rudy: You should have learned by now not to be stupid.

___________________

1) You, Randy, and Kevin are in your singer’s kitchen in her dorm while she’s doing something in her room. All of a sudden, you hear her scream and a huge thump. She then comes out of her room with her forehead bleeding. She glares at herself in the mirror before mumbling, “You’re such a fucking klutz. It’s bad enough that this happened last year you have to go two for two?” Before dabbing her forehead with a wet towel and grabbing out the band-aids. How do you, Kevin, and Randy respond?

2) Your singer is driving and taking you, Kevin, Rudy, and Carlos somewhere. When you stop at a red light, she looks over at Kevin and goes, “Kiss me at red lights because if you don’t, I’ll kiss you.” She leans over and gives him a kiss. How do you, Rudy, and Carlos react to this display of affection?

3) You come home from work to find you and your singer’s apartment oddly quiet. You come into the kitchen to see a broken glass, a bottle of pills, and blood. You don’t know what happened, but you soon find her in her room passed out on the bed and there's a small pool of blood on the sheets. What do you do?

4) You, your singer, Tommy, and your singer’s friend are following her to her dorm. When she opens up the door to her room, her friend stops, which makes you and Tommy run into her. You follow her gaze to find her staring at your singer’s wall, which is covered in photos. Your singer’s friend says, “I think you’ve gone a little overboard. You have like a metal shrine on your wall.” How do you, your singer, and Tommy respond?

5) You and your singer always get ready in the same dressing room before your concerts. One day, you’re getting dressed while she’s sitting at the vanity. Right after you’re finished getting dressed, Erik quickly pops in. Your singer takes a breath, blinks twice, and then crosses herself. Erik gives her a look and says, “You’ve never been religious.” She looks to him and goes, “It calms mu anxiety before a show and it usually brings good luck.” How do you and Erik respond?

6) You come home from work one day to find Kevin leaning his forehead on your singer’s door and quietly knocking, “Come on, Hon, please open up.” You ask what’s going on and he says, “Her aunt passed away today and she’s had her door locked since I got here. I’ve heard her crying for the past two hours.” What do you say to Kevin and what do you do to help your singer? 

7) You, Kevin, and your singer are in the car. Your singer is driving and has her phone hooked up to the Bluetooth. While driving, she keeps skipping songs going, “No, nope, nuh-uh, nope.” Finally, Kevin screams from the back, “Oh my god just pick something!” How do you and your singer respond?

8) You and your singer are sitting at the table drinking coffee when Roxanne comes in with a picture of you and your singer. She places it in front of your singer and goes, “Mom, who’s that with you?” Your singer picks up the picture and goes, “Oh my god, Bons, do you remember this? This was that picture that started the news outlets saying we were dating.” How do you and Roxanne respond?

9)  You, your singer, and her friend Ryan are sitting at the kitchen table while listening to Metal Health. Your singer will periodically ask him who the band is to which he’d respond, “Quiet Riot.” He does this one time as Kevin and Rudy come in and Kevin goes, “Oh you know my band?” Your singer doesn’t look up from her book but goes, “Don’t take it as a compliment. I’ve conditioned him since college to answer that question with Quiet Riot because that’s all I play around him.” How do you, Rudy, and Kevin respond?

10) You and Kevin are sitting in the living room when you hear your singer scream. You run to her room to see what’s the matter and you find her picking Nikki, her and your cat, off a record. “How many times do I have to tell you, Nikki? We don’t lay on records.” How do you and Kevin respond?

11) Rudy and Kevin are over working on a song. Kevin is making noises and doing little screams here and there. Your singer comes out f the kitchen with this smile on her face and goes up to Kevin. He gives her a weird look before she kisses him on the nose and goes, “You’re a screamy boi.” How do you, Rudy, and Kevin respond?

12) You and your singer are at the bar with Nikki and Tommy. Your singer and Tommy are bored so they’re pointing out people in the bar and whether or not they’d date them. Tommy goes to your singer, “I dare you to go make out with Kevin.” She steels herself and you, Tommy, and Nikki watch her walk past Kevin to a completely different guy before kissing him. You’re all staring at her when she comes back and she goes, “What? That’s Kevin.” How do you, Tommy, and Nikki respond?

13) Your band is kind of stuck for one last song for their album. You don’t know what to do when one day, your singer runs in and goes, “Guys! listen to this!” Before she plays you this song Hunger (available upon request) She looks to you and goes, “Can we please, please, please cover it?” You’re about to say something when Linus goes, “Sure but none of us can make that opening Ohhh sound anything like that.” How do you, your singer, Erik, and Sean respond?

14) Kevin is trying to teach Mal how to ride a bike and he can’t seem to do it. Mal goes to you, “Auntie Bons, can you teach me?” After about twenty minutes he’s riding just fine. How does Kevin respond and what do you and your singer say?

@osbournebemydaddy   your turn Bons :)

[dee-brief]

I thought I’d already hit my low of being a bad friend on this site. Apparently not. @littlefandomheaven sent in this prompt close to a full year ago, and I’m only getting off my ass right now. I’m… I don’t think sorry quite cuts it. And I know that the few Stitchers readers who were around probably aren’t any more. But I will fulfil my promise to write this prompt, so help me.

 This is part one of two, and it is 100% canon compliant. Part two is me taking the prompt for the team to be protective of Cameron as an endorsement to write the AU of 2.0 that has been in my head since I first saw the episode. Please note, however, that although part one is compliant with canon, my adoration for Cameron Goodkin has not diminished in a year. So this fic is littered with me making him all kinds of awesome. And lots of headcanons of his relationship with Ayo, Linus, Camille and Maggie. Because I can =P

 Prompt: The whole team must have found out about Cameron's heart condition at some point, like Kirsten found out about it on screen, but what about the others? Maggie must have known beforehand, but what about Camille, Fisher, Linus and the rest? They must have all seen the scar in the season 1 finale and figured out what it implies. There is this line in the episode from Camille: "Who says your heart can take that?". So did she already know? How did she find out? Or was that just a figure of speech and when she sees the scar, she's like "Oh, crap." And what about Fisher when somebody tells him about Cameron's actions while he's in the hospital, because somebody definitely had to. He probably asked (Camille? Linus?) how Cameron is when he woke up, because he probably wants to know that Cameron's fine as he pushed him out of the way. And they have to tell him what happened. And then they could be all very overprotective. They can't go on like nothing happened, right?

The first person to find out was Maggie.

 Well. No. If one wanted to be incredibly accurate about it, the first people to find out about his heart surgery were his parents, as they’d been at his bedside as soon as he was rolled out of the operating theatre. And after them came a slew of nurses and doctors, some friends of the family and some people they employed to look after him or to stop him from going up the wall in frustration while his mom kept him as locked up as she could.

 But the first person to find out post his eighteenth birthday and final escape into independence was Maggie, and as far as Cameron was concerned she may as well have been the first. Everybody else had been told about him; over his head and despite his protests. And their reactions to knowing had been various shades of the same constricting cloth. And Maggie…

 Maggie had appeared out of the crowd of people at the MIT table at the science conference as though she’d materialised only a second before, back straight and eyes piercing and set of her mouth decidedly no-nonsense. She hadn’t bothered even glancing at the other exhibits; had marched directly up to his and had started firing questions at him like the frontline artillery of a war. He answered, a little bewildered, a little caught off guard, a lot intimidated, until the niggling suspicion got loud enough that he blurted it out loud.

 “You’re not… really interested in this, are you?”

 “What makes you think that?” Her gaze was a dark glacier.

 “You…” He remembered squashing the model of the brain he’d been holding because his nervousness caused his fingers to twist it too many times. “There’s too much… detachment, there.”

 Not everybody was passionate and excited about the mind, he knew, but everybody who asked beyond the usual checklist of questions had a… a spark. A connection to the thing that reflected in their eyes. He learned rather quickly that this was her way with almost everything, and learned just as quickly that his own bias toward warmth and passion and true connection would halt any real relationship forming between them, to the point where she would, many years later, accuse him of disliking her. But at that first meeting, without many interactions to show him how to read the signs, all he saw was the wall of precision that juxtaposed so spectacularly with the questions of interest she sent his way.

 “No,” she said, after a beat. “I’m not interested. Not in this particular presentation, anyway. I am, however, interested in you, Doctor Goodkin. In your work. And in your mind.” Cameron squirmed under the calculating look she sent him, twenty-two and still trying to get used to the doctor before his name being literal and not just teasing. “I’ve spent a lot of time researching you.”

 His tongue used the time where his filter was shut down by his surprise to blurt, “Are you going to tell me to choose between a red and blue pill, next?”

 Maggie stared at him in blank, reproachful silence for a moment and just as he began feeling mortified she replied, “Maybe. That depends on how you see my offer.” She put a business card down on the table in front of him. “Call me, and we’ll set up a time when you can meet alone. Without any…” She glanced to the right, and Cameron saw his supervisor returning from his bathroom break. “…interference.”

 And then she’d melted back into the crowd, back straight, eyes forward, and he’d wondered if one of the other guys was playing a prank on him. It took a while to call the number on the card, and even when they met up again the desire to ask whether he was having his chain yanked burned strong on the tip of his tongue. Maggie introduced herself then – the casually added NSA to her name and surname had the intended effect on him, he was sure – and instead of giving him answers she gave him more questions. Thirty-four of them, to be exact – hypothetical situations she wanted to see if he could solve and how long it would take him to do so. None of it made any sense, but he was waiting for people to email him back so he got started on the problems. And then he got sucked in. And then he was making a ten pm decision to screw sleep and the actual work he had to do, because the hypothetical situations were both completely science-fiction but also, strangely, excitingly, impossibly real.

 Three days later he shoved a stack of documents – hand-written, because he’d been told not to trust any printers – at Maggie, and spending some of the tensest moments of his life watching her flick through things. When she looked at him next, there was almost a smile of approval on her face. She, in turn, shoved a thick stack of documents towards him. An algorithm. An algorithm that, apparently, made the ludicrously science-fiction things he’d been working on neither science-fiction, only hypothetical or ludicrous.

 “Is this for real?” He finally couldn’t help but blurt the question out, leafing through an impossibility. He was a scientist, for heaven’s sake. But also… But also. “Can this… does it work?”

 “It could,” Maggie told him, still straight-faced. “If your designed tools and adjustments are good enough.”

  Cameron must have laughed, but he could never quite remember how he’d reacted to that knowledge. Probably like a gibbering idiot, some sober part of him liked to hypothesise when he thought back. In any case, Maggie didn’t change her mind. Instead, she explained that they had a location for a lab, and an opening as head of that lab that he could fit into. She explained the utmost secrecy the job would entail. She explained unnecessary things like how many people they’d be able to help if the algorithm on the paper managed to be turned into actual, working science. She explained that she had names of many others that he would help her interview for his lab once some of the hypothetical things he’d created for her had been tweaked now that he knew they were not-so-hypothetical. She explained that the list of others were all the best in the country and even in the world; that the team under their leadership would be brilliant and passionate and able to break ground and innovate in ways even his most passionate, secret dreams had never dared hope.

 And his only response, other than slack-jawed shock and gibbering idiocy, was, “Why me?”

 “We’ve approached others over many years,” Maggie admitted, calmly. “Some of them got further along in our interview process than you are right now. But they couldn’t take it to the point where the theory was made a reality. You were just next on the list of people to approach.”

 And, somehow, that made Cameron feel better instead of stung; made it more realistic and more attainable and less like something that was going to be proven to be a hoax. If he didn’t get this fantasy lab with the brightest in the country, if he didn’t get to make and update already existing technology that would look into dead people’s brains, then it would simply be because he was not smart enough to cut it. Not because the possibility was not a realistic one.

 And then Maggie put another pile of papers – how big their filing room must be – bunched in a folder onto the desk between them. It had his name on the corner, and Cameron eyed it warily before looking at Maggie. She was watching him even more intently than before, the promise of some sort of test in her eyes.

 “As I said before; we’ve been researching you. I have information on you from when you were ten years old.”

 The way she said it made Cameron know instantly that she knew. And he hated it – he hated that this woman who was offering him the potential at everything was the first to find out since he clawed his way to freedom. He hated that she looked at him with the power that knowing gave everybody, and how his words dried up under her gaze, leaving him unable to give a defence. Maggie Baptiste, scary government lady and potentially his boss, was the first to find out.

 And Maggie was the first to ask him. “Will any of this be a problem?”

 She meant his mother and her expectations and her not being able to know why he was quitting MIT. She meant James Miller. She meant that he was twenty-two years old and under the thumb of an old family friend who was only an old family friend because he was wearing brand clothing and driving a car worth more than some people’s apartment buildings. She meant the scarred tissue on his chest, and everything it implied.

 And for the first time, Cameron was able to reply instead of having the decision made for him. “No. It won’t be a problem at all.”

 Maggie watched him for another moment and then nodded. And because of that nod, Cameron put a halt to all of his current research and threw himself at the stitching possibility. So much so, that it only took four days before he was presenting what would become the first draft of the corpse cassette and a simulation that had stolen sleep and some sanity from him. But it gained him his first half-smile from Maggie Baptiste, and her telling him to show up for work on Monday. He, Cameron Goodkin, had done what all of the others she’d approached had never managed to. In four days.

 He grinned back and handed in his resignation to MIT within the hour.

 Ayo was the second to find out.

 Maggie and Cameron had been at a hospital doing a covert interview for some doctor Cameron didn’t remember any more – they’d barely spent five minutes with him before brilliant but no became very apparent where he was concerned – when they ran into her by chance. Their interviewee was walking them down a hallway, nattering on and being generally irritating, when there had been a commotion in a nearby room that distracted them all. The door burst open, and another doctor dragged Ayo out by her arm, already reaming into her. And Ayo stood, back straight and face fierce, and took every comment thrown her way – everything from the possibly warranted right down to the derogatory. And then she fought back with quiet, firm dignity, proving her knowledge and backing up her decisions, ploughing through the anger and the spit and the disgust thrown her way.

 “Do it again,” the doctor seethed, “and you’ll be without a job. I don’t care how much you think you know. This is my department. And you’ll never work for anybody if I say you won’t.”

 Their interviewee said some half-calming words to Ayo that basically implied that although the other doctor was known for being a big-headed jerk she must have screwed up in some way, and she’d shaken her head but said nothing. Their interviewee went inside the room to smooth ruffled feathers, leaving her standing alone and suddenly slumped in the hallway.

And something about that response of hers – or maybe it was something about her eyes – had Cameron undermining Maggie for the first time so he could blurt, without consulting his boss first, “You could work for us.” Ayo blinked at him, uncomprehending, and Cameron saw Maggie cross her arms out of the corner of his eye. But Cameron didn’t care. He wanted this one for their lab; something in his gut told him so. “I mean it,” he said, looking at Ayo and ignoring Maggie. “I don’t care what that guy said. We’d hire you.”

 “For what, exactly?” Ayo said, sounding more tired than interested.

 Cameron glanced at Maggie, who shot him a narrow-eyed look and didn’t move. For a moment, he feared he’d have to take back his offer, but then Maggie unfolded her arms, strode closer to Ayo, and started talking. And the interested quickly grew on Ayo’s face.

 Ayo had been employed by the NSA for three weeks – and still slipped up and called him Doctor Goodkin despite the others having settled happily into the first-name-basis of the lab – when she called him into the medical room she’d rearranged until it somehow reminded him of her. He was still faintly wary of doctors’ rooms for various reasons, and he’d planned to give her the help she needed quickly and then disappear, leaving the more friendly banter for when he was in a space that didn’t smell like memories he’d rather forget.

 “I’m doing a full medical on everybody in the lab,” Ayo told him and dashed every plan of a quick and painless escape in one violent blow. “It’s your turn.”

 “You’re here to watch the vitals of our stitchers,” Cameron protested, standing rooted to the spot. “Not the rest of us. Besides – I’m sure Maggie’s hacked all our medical records.” He’d prefer her not to know at all, but reading it in black and white was far better than her finding out while poking and prodding at him.

 “This whole lab is my responsibility, medically,” Ayo replied, readying tools and charts. “And I’d rather get clean data that I can add to with medical files, if necessary. It’s not exactly like I have a lot of work at the moment, anyway.”

 “Maggie wants me to – ”

 “Maggie gave me permission to do this, Cameron.” Ayo narrowed her eyes at him, suddenly calculating. “She wants the head of her lab in the best hands.”

 “Cut off one head and two more shall take its place.” Cameron was starting to wonder if this was Maggie’s covert way of getting back at him for undermining her with his offer to Ayo. It had all worked out in the end, of course – Ayo was brilliant and a wonderful fit and a wonderful person, besides – but he wouldn’t put it past Maggie to make sure he’d never forget who was really calling the shots again.

 “You’re stalling,” Ayo said, and her voice was suddenly a lot gentler. “I promise, I’m not going to do anything that will make you uncomfortable. It’s just some general check-ups. Okay?”

 It wasn’t okay, but he was backed into a corner. And so he clenched his jaw and let her poke and prod around and tried not to cold-shoulder her as he tersely replied to questions about his contacts, his lack of smoking, his exercise and diet habits and the like. And then the stethoscope came out and she asked him to unbutton his shirt and he sat there for a long, long minute, staring at nothing and trying to tell himself not to whimp out about this. She prompted him with his name, and he did as she asked, and he wasn’t looking at her but he could feel the moment she saw and started putting pieces together.

 “Ah.” Ayo said, succinctly. There was a long, loaded pause, and then she took a deep breath. “I’m pretty sure you’re aware about the concept of doctor-patient confidentiality?”

 It was not where Cameron had expected her to go, so he found himself glancing at her, puzzled. “Yeah,” he replied, slowly. “But that’s not…” He sighed. “And that gets overridden by Maggie, doesn’t it? Who already knows, by the way. Those hacked medical records, and all.”

 “It gets overridden by Maggie only in the absolute extreme circumstances – when it affects this lab to an extent that I cannot keep silent. Most of the other times? Maggie won’t need to know anything.” She waited until Cameron, still puzzled, met her gaze. “And I’ll make those calls the way I always have, Cameron – by giving sensitivity and the benefit of the doubt to my patient, not an organisation as a whole. But.” She paused for a moment to let it sink in. “But then it has to go both ways – you have to tell me everything. And I mean everything – even the things those hacked medical files don’t say.”

 Cameron scoffed. “What makes you think my files aren’t comprehensive? The doctors who repeatedly scanned every last hair follicle on my body would be offended, Doctor.”

 Ayo raised an eyebrow at him in a very mom-ish way, putting her hands on her hips. “Uh-huh. I did my residency in a hospital where everybody and their mama was hiding something. I know what trying to hide things looks like. And you, I’m afraid, are terrible at it.” Cameron tried to splutter, but Ayo shook her head. “That’s the deal I’m offering. I’m on your side, but you have to tell me everything you want to hide from everybody else. Deal?”

 “You really don’t need to – You’re employed here to make sure the stitchers are okay.”

 “I’m here to make sure you don’t get dead,” Ayo shot back at him, and he couldn’t help but crack a smile at her words.

  He repeated those same words back to her three years later when Kirsten first appeared in their lab, and she laughed at him, bright and understanding and amused; solidified in their quiet understanding of one another. She’d kept her word and had been on his side – and by his side – through the exciting and the terrible. And so he couldn’t even really be mad at her the first time ever she broke their agreement in order to tell Maggie about 5ccs of Potassium methochloride. Especially not when she kept all his secrets through his explanation of the plan to stop his heart. And especially not when she was the second face he saw when he woke up in a haze, and her relief was tear-stained and tight-gripped and a word in a language he did not know that he was pretty sure was her cussing him out.

 “If you ever do that again our agreement is off,” she snarled at him, her hands on his face and her face still relieved.

 “W’sn’t I g’nna fire you?” Cameron slurred at her, mouth twitching.

 She shook her head at him with a scoff, and squeezed his hand tight.

 Linus sort-of found out next, which was surprising. Surprising, because Cameron hadn’t expected to make actual friends with those in the lab, let alone good friends and let alone so quickly. ‘Friends’ had always been a concept he’d mostly left behind in memories before age ten, to the point where meeting and befriending people as an adult was not actually half as doable as he yearned for it to be. He’d had a few years of actual practise by then, and as such he’d managed to make friendly acquaintances with a number at MIT, especially those in research with him. But he’d never really managed to make them friends rather than just friendly colleagues, and he’d subconsciously assumed that the stitchers lab occupants would follow the same pattern. He gelled with the people in the stitchers lab very quickly, and in the quiet moments in his head he wondered whether it was because they shared a secret and a grand purpose, whether it was circumstance, or whether he’d helped pick them not only based on their skills and brainpower that he frequently fanboyed over but also because some part of him knew they would connect with him personally, and he was just that sad, lonely, desperate little boy he used to be that would allow his own issues to influence something as important as his new work. But it was hard to let those thoughts run too rampant, because regardless of his own bias the members were brilliant, and did fit in spectacularly, and although they got friendly quickly, they all stayed on the friendly-colleagues level without moving into plain ‘friends’ or showing any real potential of heading that way.

 But then Linus came on the scene. And he had that same… aura about him that Cameron had miserably conceded existed around himself – that something that made them half a beat out of time with the rest of the world. And instead of making it more difficult for them to get along – instead of it making Cameron irritated at Linus’ naïveté or jerk-ness at times – it somehow just made them slip into friendly a lot quicker. And, before Cameron could even realise it was happening to try and analyse things, Linus and he were hanging out after work. For non-work-related things. And somehow, spontaneously, Linus became a friend. A real, flawed-annoying-exasperating-awesome friend with two PhDs, brain and personality similarities,  great taste in fandoms and an appreciation for good food and loyalty in equal measures.

 Still – Cameron had certainly not intended for Linus to ever pick up that anything at all was amiss. But they’d been standing in line to watch the premiere of Star Trek: Into Darkness, surrounded by a throng of similarly-excited people, and two in the crowd had begun a very lively debate that turned into a bit of a brawl. Their antics had knocked into the people standing in front of Linus and Cameron, and the two men had received sticky, freezing slushies to the chest. They waved off the apologies, and set about the seemingly impossible task of getting slightly less sticky and wet (“Man, now I know why the Glee guys hate these so much.” “You watch Glee?”).

 Cameron started peeling off the Kirk Tshirt he wore, intending to wad it up and just walk around in the plain long-sleeved he’d worn underneath it that was comparatively unscathed. But the Tshirt stuck to the shirt underneath, and when he pulled the top layer up, the bottom went with it. He was quick in yanking the long-sleeved down, but apparently not quick enough: Linus was blinking in the vicinity of his chest, frozen in his mopping movements, looking slightly bewildered.

 “Woah. Dude -?”

 “Eh. Old childhood thing,” Cameron dismissed, quickly. “Looks a lot worse than it was. You got any napkins left?”

 Linus let the conversation be changed, and Cameron breathed a sigh of relief. It was only much later, when Linus was sliding into his car after they’d spent hours excitedly talking about the movie and theorising about what was to come and nitpicking at the changes, that he turned to Cameron with an unsure, serious look on his face.

 “So… Uh… Earlier on…” Cameron let him squirm in embarrassment, hoping it would keep him from bringing it up again. “You said… childhood, right? As in… in the past?”

 “Yeah,” Cameron said. “Yeah, you know how things just happen when you’re little.”

 And that had been the end of it; Linus had been completely put at ease until years later, when he found out what the scar meant for certain after Cameron had been brought back and he overheard Ayo explaining the bare minimum to the doctors as Cameron was admitted to hospital. In his defence, he took the deception well – Cameron half-awoke to Linus threatening to kill him, but when he managed to fully peel his eyes open, Linus greeted him with gentle warmth and relief instead of true anger.  After some of the chaos of the next few days died down, Linus came over to his house and started citing various episodes, books, movies and comic volumes that warned against team members, friends or family members keeping important information from others.

 “Trust goes both ways, Cameron,” Linus said, seriously, and that cut Cameron deeper than anything else.

 Linus accepted his apology easily, and Cameron was relieved to find that Linus didn’t pick up hovering as a habit. His friend was a lot more hesitant about suggesting and going through with certain things than he had been, but he still trusted Cameron to know his limits, and trusted himself to be able to have Cameron’s back when the need arose. He did, however, join Kirsten and Camille in limiting his amount of daily caffeine intake, the traitor.

 Kirsten found out fourth, also in stages. Honestly, Cameron should have thought to lock his bedroom door. But he’d never had to before, and had thought the line of personal boundary he drew around himself was obvious enough to keep the three in his livingroom at bay. He’d let them in further than almost anybody else, and even they subconsciously toed the boundaries he’d spent years putting in place in the desperate hope that he could have friends that still left him to hold a piece of himself without them feeling they could reach out and take it from him.

 But he’d forgotten Kirsten wasn’t very good with boundaries. And he’d glanced up and found her in his doorway, startled by her blinking at the sight of him in a towel. And then he’d watched her eyes flick down to his chest and linger before purposefully following the scar back up to his face. He kept waiting for her to say something as he moved closer, but she did not and he found some relief in being able to shut the door in her face. Even she could understand that obvious gesture of keep out; too close.

 Kirsten was a master of not mentioning things, so he didn’t mention it, either. Just like that kiss. Just like how he felt about her – how every bit of him was gravitating toward her day by day like something being sucked into a vortex. He found himself wondering what she’d been thinking as she looked at him that night, and how she saw him every other time.

 And then he stops wondering for a while, because his crush before her ends in a hailstorm of bullets just feet away from where he’s crouching behind her closed front door.

 Kirsten was the fourth to find out, but the first he ever tells. He didn’t necessarily want to; she knew too much already, a large part of him argued. But, hell, he was pretty sure he was stupidly in love with her, and they were both dying, and she just didn’t want to accept that his very real version of the monster under the bed that he’d been carrying around with him since age ten was attaching itself to her, too. She didn’t seem to understand what it meant to have a life that was close friends with death. She didn’t seem to understand how you didn’t care when you died, but everybody else sure did, and being the cause of that much pain was enough of an incentive to live if nothing else was. And if she couldn’t – if the monster won – then, damnit, she had to minimise the damage she left in her wake. He didn’t particularly like Liam at all, but he could guess at how much Kirsten meant to the guy. And every human being deserved whatever balm to the pain of losing somebody as amazing, breath-taking, unique, lovely as Kirsten that they could get.

 He forgot that Kirsten tended to slay scary monsters on a daily basis. And if he loved her just a little bit more because she caused his constant, lurking companion to back a few more feet away from him. Well…

 He certainly loved her a bit more when the inevitable coddling didn’t come. She treated him exactly the same as she always had, even with the knowledge in her head, and the relief was a warm, tingly, gratifying rush every time she proved herself unconcerned with managing his life for him. And by the time the fretting did come – thanks to a damn fake psychic, of all things – he was too in love with her for her protectiveness to make him back a hasty retreat. Thankfully, Kirsten was also incredibly practical, and he could brush off her concerns without much effort at all. She trusted him to have her back; to come along and do his bit. To help.

 Kirsten was the fourth person to find out, the first person he told, and the first he’d willingly gamble his game of keep-away with the lurking monster on his back for. Because he trusted her with one of the deepest parts of himself and she still let him keep his freedom. And he’d be damned if he didn’t do everything in his power to let her see she could trust him, back.

 Camille found out fifth, in a process that was half Ayo, half Kirsten, and fittingly so. Fittingly, because he trusted her as much as Ayo and loved her as warmly as he did Kristen, just with a completely different kind of love.

 Cameron had slotted into place with her faster and easier than he had even with Linus. He had no real words to explain their relationship, and neither did she. So they simply shared a lot of looks and comfort in the language they both spoke so well and let whatever it was between them just be without poking at it with a stick and a magnifying glass. If she was some sort of undeserved gift from the universe to make up for lonely years then he was going to buy the gift horse an entire damn stable instead of looking anywhere near its mouth.

 So when, during one of her random visits to his apartment that had become frequent after their stakeout of the store across the road and his attached mi casa es su casa statement, Camille opened the wrong kitchen cupboard, he wasn’t as defensive or panicked or upset as he would have been had it been anybody else.

 “Uh… Cameron? Why do you have rat poison in your grocery cupboard?”

 “Hmm?” he said, distracted by the laptop in front of him.

 “There’s a bottle labelled ‘Warfarin’ in your handwriting in here.”

 That got his attention. And sunk his insides to the bottom of his shoes. “Oh, no, it won’t be in that cupboard,” he said, hurriedly, twisting around to find her standing in front of the tiny closet door in his kitchen cabinets that most people thought was just for show. She’d been distracted by the Warfarin, and hadn’t yet explored the other incriminating evidence in the tiny space. And he hoped to keep it that way. “It’s probably above the sink, Doll,” he added in his most nonchalant voice. “Did you look there?”

 But Camille would not be deterred. She smirked at him, amused and waiting for the funny story she thought she could smell, rattling the bottles of pills at him questioningly.

 “I got them when you started coming over,” he tried. “So your nemeses the mutant rats ever arrive we can poison them off quickly.”

 She gave him an unimpressed look, her lips twitching. “Har har.”

 For a moment, it looked like his gamble worked and he’d gotten away with it. But then he watched her put the Warfarin back and freeze as her eyes took in the other bottles and packets of pills stacked and neatly labelled by his hand in the tiny closet. He saw her shoulders clench, and assumed her hesitation was because her mind was whirling with questions and alarm and curiosity and worry and the war between asking and forcing herself to not stick her nose in his business. She took a deep breath, half turned to him, then seemed to change her mind and closed the cabinet slowly.

 Cameron sighed. How the hell was he supposed to work for a secret government agency if he couldn’t even keep one tiny, personal secret from a handful of people? He sucked at being a spy. But that didn’t mean he had to suck at being a friend. Taking a deep breath himself, Cameron set aside the laptop and made his way into the kitchen, nervousness and embarrassment churning bitter in his gut. But he couldn’t not give her answers; not somebody who fit that damn, sappy Bronte quote about souls with him so well. Not somebody who was like Ayo – full of compassion and warmth and heart for the world that made her see too much.

 He didn’t exactly have a script for that sort of thing, and so he simply buttoned down his shirt. She turned around, face hooded as she struggled with not asking about what she’d seen, and her eyes immediately popped in shock.

 “I had heart surgery when I was ten,” he said, and she swore a little breathlessly. He loved her a little bit when she tried not to stare. “Mostly sorted. Still need some meds, though.”

 “Cameron…” She searched his face, at a loss, the most complicated range of emotions in her eyes. And then she put one hand on his arm and squeezed and he found himself able to smile a little. “I…” He shook his head at her, pleading a little with his expression, and she huffed. “Why in your kitchen like that?”

 “More people tend to look in the bathroom cabinet,” he answered, honestly. “They’re much better hidden in an obvious place everybody thinks is just false panelling.”

 She eyed him for that, but didn’t say anything more. Not only that evening, but ever again; never brought it up even in passing or by a super obvious reference. But he was attuned enough to her to notice the way she looked at him a little harder, and stood a little closer at times, and seemed to count the number of coffees he had in a day. But those were little things, and he couldn’t begrudge Camille for caring because without that she wouldn’t be Camille. And when she did cross a line about it in his head, blurting for all the world the doubt that his heart could take being brought back – he was too busy to begrudge her for it. And he sort of got her back by dying on her a few moments later, so he couldn’t claim they were anything but even, really.

 (“I’m learning krav maga, now,” she told him out of the blue, weeks later.

 “I heard – that’s awesome.” The question was in his tone.

 “Yeah. Some of us possess this thing called self-preservation.” Her glare was somehow loving and angry and threatening all at once. “You pull a stunt anywhere near what you did in that lab that day ever again, Goodkin, and I will kick your ass. And then I’ll hack you so hard you’ll feel it for the rest of your life. Got me?”

 “Careful there, Agent. You’re almost getting scarier than Maggie.”

 “Good,” she said with a predator’s smile.)

 The rest of the lab found out as a collective not long after Camille. He knew they couldn’t have all found out at once, but he wasn’t exactly conscious (alive) to keep track of who noticed what when and who put the pieces together and who confirmed it for whom.  He was very sure they couldn’t have missed the scar or the way it took too many tries to get his heart started again.

 He felt a little bad for making them run around in a flat panic because their boss and usual stitch pilot had decided to off himself. But only a little bad. His whole world was being threatened – his life’s work, the potential to help and save so many, the colleagues that were his responsibility, the people he loved like family. You have to protect it, Jessica had told him of his heart. And he’d be damned if he didn’t do everything in his power to keep his heart safe and able to continue on. Even if it meant stopping his physical heart. Even if it meant he’d never get to see their shared dream for the programme take its first breath. Even if it meant giving up Kirsten.

 It all turned out fine, though, because they couldn’t really use the knowledge against him. For one, he was their boss, and not a close enough friend for them to have a say. For another, he’d come back fine. The monster had finally caught up with him, and Cameron had beaten it back. And how could he let anybody have a say on that area of his life when the thing he’d been taught to be terrified of almost all his life finally happened and… it didn’t kill him. Not forever. The apocalypse it had been painted to be turned into a mild inconvenience. And it didn’t matter who found out because Cameron was the one with the true knowledge, now. And he’d never be boxed in again.

 Without him knowing, Fisher was the last person to find out. While Kirsten sat at his hospital bedside, watching him sleep, Camille had stayed at Fisher’s side. And she was there when he woke up a few times during the night, and when he finally truly woke up the next morning, groggy but coherent. She gave him a vague sketch of events, but Fisher wasn’t a detective only in title.

 “What about Cameron? Did I get him out the way in time?”

 “Oh, you totally saved his ass,” Camille agreed. “He got knocked in the noggin a bit, but he didn’t even stay in here for a day.”

 They turned to other topics, and she’d almost gotten away with keeping Fisher in the dark about things that could potentially stress him out when Linus popped in and mentioned about stopping by Cameron’s room. Fisher turned on Camille with narrowed eyes.

 “Explain,” he said, tone booking no nonsense.

 And once she started, Camille couldn’t seem to stop. Yes, she’d held Cameron’s hand and seen him smile wonkily at her and heard his teasing and assurances. But she couldn’t stop seeing him, eyes wide and face grey, keeling into Kirsten. She couldn’t stop seeing the blurred outline of his still body while Ayo choked to Chelsea to call time of death. They’d nearly lost Fisher, but they’d come that much closer to losing Cameron. And her very heart rattled and moaned in her in exhausted horror at the very idea.

Fisher waited until she was finished, his mouth a grim line. Linus asked if he was in pain; if he should get the nurse, and Fisher shook his head jerkily.

 “That damn…” He exhaled sharply. “This is why we don’t let civilians…” He broke off again, jaw clenched. “’Protect my kids’, Maggie says,” he muttered, darkly, after a pause. “It would help if she told me I was also meant to protect them from themselves.”

 “He’s okay, though,” Linus tried desperately to reassure.

 Fisher just gave him a stony look. “My dad had one of those ops,” he said, quietly. “I know what sorts of long-term things go along with the cure. Specifically, I know how easily those people bleed. And don’t stop bleeding because of blood thinners. And that damn kid has been in all sorts of shit. Without a damn vest.”

 Camille slipped her hand into Fisher’s. “Hey, there. You’re not supposed to get worked up.” She squeezed gently. “Besides; I thought he wasn’t your friend?” she teased, gently.

 Fisher snorted, closed his eyes for a minute and sighed. “Hey, do me a favour and call Kirsten here,” he said to Linus. “I need to talk to her – before something else happens.”

 Linus nodded and patted Fisher’s feet. “Take it easy, man, okay? You gotta get better. And stop me from killing Cameron, which I now want to do all over again.”

 Fisher snorted. “I’ll start a protocol,” he said, and it didn’t even sound much like he was joking.

[survivor-rebelsvsroyals]

Tribal Council #11- Orohena

Welcome back Final Ten. With blindside after blindside will we finally have a merge vote that is not full of twists and turns? Let’s find out.

Asya: Obviously you’ve been feeling on the bottom lately as seen at previous tribals, how are you feeling tonight?

feeling paranoid as ever. i feel sick before every tribal and that ain’t changed

Dane: So last tribal was an eventful one for you! Talk us through the process leading up to tribal if you can, were you expecting tribal to happen the way it did?

That’s a loaded question lmao. Did I know I was going to receive majority votes? Absolutely, these contestants love to be upfront when they need you but as soon as they don’t they just stop messaging you.

Did I know that Seamus flipped the vote on me? Oh of course! After the first merge vote he was being passive aggressive, started lies about me giving Asya an idol, made personal remarks about me, and is known to flip a vote! And last vote was originally supposed to be John and look what happened!

Did I know Seamus was leaving? Somewhat. Asya told me to just vote Seamus and that he’s gone. I’m not surprised people snitched on him for being a pain in the ass to work with but I truly wasn’t expecting everything to fall into place like that.

There wasn’t much leading up to tribal. I’ve been consistently left on the outs as a player and considering these players move into the ponderosa house I’d be kinder treating them while they’re in the game.

Dan: In each of the merge tribals we’ve spoken about the Royal majority and yet we haven’t seen a Rebel leave yet. Do you think idols have been the only factor in this, or is it something else?

I think idols are certainly helping, but honestly there’s been a lot more behind the scenes of every vote so far that’s making me realize that this is a blurred game now. People have pissed each other off, voted for people they were originally aligned with or on the same tribe with, and the game is really underway.

Ryan: Ryan to put it bluntly you’re the last standing Manahune swap, but the Royals are still a plenty. How do you feel that the curse cannot go on tonight, as you are immune?

i feel cool i feel fun but most importantly i feel

https://youtu.be/6bgFBilKWB4

John: Lets talk about the challenge. Do you think there was motive in the way people chose who they got out of the challenge?

*John stares blankly into camera*

Lachie: You obviously abstained from immunity, is this a matter of safety or just not having enough time this round?

it’s called I didn’t read all the post and assumed we only had until 10pm not two fucking weeks to do the games xx

Linus: The viewing lounge picked you to essentially be eliminated first in the competition. Do you think the relationship to the audience is something that should come into play in how the castaways view you?

The audience can suck my dick. Please vl this.

Pippa: So, you were sort of in the middle of the discussion at tribal last time. After things settled down, do you feel safe?

I don’t think you can ever “feel safe” in survivor. I honestly never do. It keeps me on my toes I guess haha

Ruthie: How are you adjusting to the merge phase of the game? Especially when both votes thus far for tribals you were at were influenced by idols, how do you navigate the game?

I’m adjusting well- even though I definitely do NOT feel safe ever. I really like everyone and that is what makes it hard! I navigate by doing whatever it is the numbers are doing and both times it has backfired... so maybe I should try navigating another way now!

RTP: After Last tribal and the words that were exchanged, do you think we are seeing lines form that aren’t necessarily Royal/Rebel?

I don’t think the lines were ever royals vs rebels

Cool. If anyone has a hidden immunity idol now would be the time to use it.

*Everyone murmurs for ten minutes but nobody does anything so Nicole has to tell them to shut up so we can move on*

Alright, let’s get to the votes.

First vote

Asya

Second vote

RTP

Third vote

Asya

Fourth vote

RTP

Fifth vote 

RTP

Sixth vote and the next person voted out of Rebels vs. Royals,

Ryan Teddy Palmer.

Ryan, the tribe has spoken.

[cwnerd12]

The Nightmare

“The Nightmare” David enters the hospital. He goes up to a nurse’s station, “I’m here to see Jack Benjamin.” Nurse, “He’s in room 204.” David, “Thanks.” David goes and finds the room. He opens the door, and sees Jack sitting on his bed, looking as he did before being shot. David, “Jack!” He goes over and hugs him, “I missed you so much!” Jack, “Who the hell are you?” David steps back, “I-I’m David.” Jack, “I don’t know any Davids.” David, “Yes, you do, you know me!” Jack, “Who are you?” David, “I- I’m your boyfriend! I love you!” Jack, “I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t know who you are.” David, “Jack, come on, this is stupid, you escaped the palace to be with me!” Jack, “I’m heir to the throne of Gilboa, I can’t leave the palace.” David, “Jack!” Jack, “Get out of here.” David, “I know you know who I am!” Jack, “Get out!” A sudden loud BANG, Jack’s head jerks back, a bullet wound in his forehead, blood spattering the wall behind him. David spins and sees Gerald pointing a gun at Jack. In a safehouse, David jerks awake with a scream, sweating and panting. His eyes search the dark room around him, and he realizes it was just a dream. Beside him, Asher’s groggy voice, “Bad dream?” David, embarrassed, “Yeah.” Asher, “The woods, again?” David, “No, it… it was something else. Same thing happened in the end, though. Go back to sleep.” He sighs and lays there, dismayed.

David lays on a sofa, talking to Dr. Othman, “I’m pretty sure Asher is going to strangle me if I wake him up again.” Othman, “Or he could find a different room to sleep in.” David, “Yeah, but then someone else has to try to sleep next to me.” Othman, “How are your daylight hours going?” David, “Since Abner was crowned, the only two emotions I’ve experienced are angry and horny. Most of the time, I don’t feel anything, but, sometimes, those two pop up.” Othman, “And how are you dealing with them?” David, “In the past month, I’ve spent more time masturbating than I have in my entire life.” Othman, “That’s actually good. It’s a healthy way to deal with things.” David, “Okay. I guess I’ll keep doing it, then,” he sighs heavily, “When Jack was around, I never looked at anyone else, and now… I can’t stop looking at other people. And I’m bi, so it’s not like I can make it better by surrounding myself with just one gender. There are hot people everywhere, and I feel like shit every time I find myself looking.” Othman, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Separation is a hard enough thing to deal with, even under normal circumstances. It’s normal that you’re going to be frustrated. Whether or not you act on it, that’s a different issue.”

In his hospital room, Jack watches TV while Michelle does homework. A desk anchor on the news, “Today, the AFG has confirmed the identities of the twelve fighters sent to assassinate King Linus.” Michelle looks up from her homework. The screen shows pictures of the twelve dead Queens. Michelle shudders and looks away. Anchor, “They were all members of the elite fighting group called The Queens of Gilboa.” Michelle, “I can change the channel, if you want.” Jack shakes his head slightly. He opens and closes his mouth, but no words come out. Michelle, “Don’t strain yourself trying to talk. The words will come eventually, you just can’t rush it. Save your energy for therapy, okay?” Jack gives her a dirty look. Michelle, “Look, I know you’re angry and frustrated, but there’s no magic way to fix a brain injury over night. Believe me, I’ve looked. Just be glad you’re out of the ICU.” Jack looks away, annoyed. Michelle, “Being in the hospital fucking sucks. There’s no way around it.” Jack looks up at the TV. A reporter stands in front of a huge protest, “Today protests continue outside the palace, calling on King Linus to abdicate in favor of David Shepherd.” Suddenly, an explosion rocks the scene. Michelle stops doing her homework and stares. Reporter: “There’s been some kind of explosion, I’m not sure what happened, I need to get to a safe place…” Michelle puts her pencil own, “Shit!” She stands upend goes to the door, “I’m going to the ER, they’re gonna need my help.” She opens the door, but her guard, Nick, is there, “Where are you going?” Michelle, “Did you see the explosion on the news? I’m going down to the ER. I can help.” Nick, “You aren’t going anywhere.” Michelle, “I’m a fucking combat medic, I’m supposed to help in this kind of situation.” Nick, “Nope. I’m not letting you go anywhere you might escape.” Michelle, “What?” Nick, “Too many people, too much confusion, you’re staying here.” Michelle, “I’m not going to escape, I’m going to help!” Nick, “Sorry, I have orders.” Michelle, “Fuck your orders!” She tries to move past him, but he shoves her back into Jack’s room and shuts the door. Michelle tries to open the door, but the door handle doesn’t move, “Are you fucking locking me in here?!” She pouts on the door, “Come on!” Nick turns around. Behind him, the doctors and nurses rush down to the ER. Michelle, “Oh for fuck’s sake!” She pounds on the door, “Motherfucker!” She kicks the door, enraged.

Shay briefs David, “We’re sending our forces in Shiloh to help. It looks like the fucking Amalekites are at it again.” David, “I’ve been expecting something like this to happen. If we can’t figure out a way to go after Abner, we should at least figure out a way to go after Amal.” Shay, “Like Amal is going to be any fucking easier?” David, “Amal doesn’t have a palace full of security!” Shay, “Amal has an army of brainwashed fanatics, and he moves around!” David, “That’s still not a reason we can’t at least think about how we’re gonna try to get him. Maybe even try to gather some intel.” Shay, “I dunno what we’re gonna find.” David, “Anything is better than nothing. And, Amal might make another video. He seems to like the attention they bring. We might be able to glean something from that.” Shay, “So what do we do right now?” David, “Wait. If a video doesn’t come out in 24 hours, we should try sending some scouts around Shiloh, see if they can find anything suspicious. Until then, we just wait.” Shay sighs heavily, “Okay. You’re the boss.” David, “Do you think there’s something else we should be doing?” Shay, “Yeah, I do, but, I don’t know what it is.” David, “Don’t worry, I’m the same way.” Shay, “Are you doing okay, David?” David, “What?” Shay, “I probably shouldn’t ask, but, I know you’ve been in a pretty dark place since Abner took over.” David, “I’m doing as okay as I can be. I’m still here.” Shay, “Good. I worry about you, man.”

David walks down a hallway, and opens a bathroom door. He gets an eyeful of Beth, a very attractive girl getting out of the bath. She sees him. David, “Oh, shit!” He slams the door shut and tries to walk away. The door opens, and Beth comes out, wrapped in a towel, “Oh my god, I’m sorry!” David turns around and sees Beth, “Usually, I hear when someone’s in there, but you were… I should have knocked.” Beth, “I was taking a bath. Trying to relax. Self-care and all.” David tries really hard not to stare, “I should have knocked.” Beth, “Well, I guess my next phone call home is going to be really interesting. David Shepherd saw me naked. My sister is going to be really jealous.” David, “Nice to meet you.” Beth laughs, “I’m Beth, by the way. Beth Sebastiano.” She sticks out her hand. David shakes it, “I’m David, but I guess you know that.” Beth, “Yeah, I do.” She laughs nervously. His eyes inch toward her boobs. Beth, “Okay, well, I’ll let you use the bathroom, now.” She walks past him, her body brushing against his. David hopelessly stares at her ass (it’s a nice ass, too), “Yeah, okay.” Cut to: David jerks off furiously in the shower, and then leans against the wall, muttering, “Fuuuck!”

A physical therapist, Josh, helps Jack sit upright. Jack wears a helmet to protect his brain. Josh, “Okay, try to keep your head up. Lift your left leg for me.” Jack follows the instructions, grimacing as Josh counts to ten. Josh, “Good, now your right leg.” Jack lifts his left leg, but it doesn’t go as high as the right. Josh counts down to ten, “Excellent. You’re lucky to have regained innervation in your right side this quickly. Otherwise, you’d have a lot more muscular atrophy to contend with. Okay, let’s do it again.” He counts ten for the left side, ten for the right side, as Jack struggles. Josh, “Great! If you keep progressing, I think soon we’ll be able to start working on getting you sitting up on your own. That’s a big deal.” Jack flares his nostrils and sighs in frustration. Josh, “Let’s move you to the mat.” Josh and an assistant move Jack to lay down on a floor mat. Jack tries to sit up. He lifts his head and tries to raise his shoulders from the ground. Josh catches him and gently pushes him back, “Woah! Hey! Slow down! We’re not there yet.” Jack glares at him and grits his teeth.

In the living area of the safehouse, Shay, Joel, Asher, and Isaiah group around Shay’s phone, watching a video. Other soldiers crowd the room, including Beth, watching the video on someone’s phone from the arm of a chair. Shay gets up and yells, “David! Come here, you’ll want to see this!” David enters, “What?” He glances over, sees Beth, and they briefly exchange eye contact. Shay, “You were right, Amal released a video.” She holds her phone up for David to see. Amal stands in front of a row of Amalekites strapped with suicide vests, “Hello, Gilboa! I’m making this little video to say that, yes, the Amalekites are responsible for today’s explosion at the protests outside the palace. You’re welcome. I’d also like to promise you, there’s more where that came from,” he begins walking down the row of Amalekites, “Now, I know many of you aren’t sure whether or not you can trust certain figures who feature prominently in the news. Well, you can absolutely trust me,” he stops walking, “Unlike King Linus and General Shepherd, I have never once lied to you. Both Linus and Shepherd talk a lot about doing the right thing, serving one’s country, protecting the innocent, shit like that, and then what do they do? The exact same shit that I do. They kill people. Lots and lots of people. I, on the other hand, straight up tell you that I want to cause wanton destruction and hasten society’s downfall. Now, King Linus is an incompetent schmuck who, for thirty years, has done nothing but grovel at his master’s feet, and now his master is dead. How the hell is he supposed to lead his country through a time of war? I know that for this reason, many of you support David Shepherd, but I ask, has he really done anything to make this country better? Has he made anyone’s life better? He can’t protect you. He can’t even protect his own boyfriend. David was fucking there, and Prince Jack still got half of his brain blown out. Make no mistake, society is indeed falling apart. If you join King Linus or General Shepherd, chances are, you’re gonna die. If you join me, chances are, you’re gonna die, but I’m not bullshitting you about it. If, by some miracle, you happen to survive with me through this downfall, just imagine what you can do. You can re-build your life according to any wish you might have. You can be free, and not someone else’s definition of free. Join the Amalekites.” The video ends. Shay, “Asshole sure loves a monologue, doesn’t he?” David, “There’s gotta be some way we can identify this building. Look, we’ve got a shot of the width of the building, if we can figure out the length, we can try matching it to warehouses in Shiloh.” Isaiah, “I can estimate the width, but I can’t figure the length without getting a full view of the wall.” David, “One wall length is better than nothing,” he shakes his head, “I feel like I know this place. I don’t know why.” Asher, “Send it to Monique. She knows every abandoned warehouse in Shiloh.” Joel, “Okay, so if we manage to identify this place, then what? Do we just rush in like last time?” David, “It depends. If a scout can get a look inside the place, we can maybe formulate a plan. If it’s in Shiloh, that means getting to a safehouse won’t be a problem like it was last time.” We’re not pressed for time like we were- we have more time to be careful.” Joel, “The longer we take, the more attacks Amal is going to make.”

In the throne room. Abner makes a TV address, “Today’s cowardly attack on a peaceful protest will not go unanswered. I vow to uphold King Silas’s campaign against terrorism. Any group that threatens the safety and well-being of Gilboan citizens will be met accordingly.” The TV broadcast ends. Abner takes off his microphone. An advisor stands beside him, “Do you have any plans for going after the Amalekites, sir?” Abner, “I don’t care about them- the focus remains on Shepherd. He’s the only one who’s actually gotten close to me.” Rose goes up to Abner, “If you don’t stop the Amalekites, Shepherd will. Do you really want to give him another hero moment?” Abner, “I thought you were supporting Shepherd now.” Rose, “I said I like him better than you. I never said I actually like him.” Abner, “I can stop them both, I’m just going to stop Shepherd, first.” Rose, “Well, good luck, then.”

Josh and an assistant help Jack into his bed. Michelle sits in a corner watching the TV. Josh, “We had a good day today. Jack’s making really good progress. Michelle, focused on the TV, “Mm-hmm.” Josh takes Jack’s helmet off, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jack.” He and his assistant leave. The TV switches to Amal’s video. Michelle looks away in disgust, “I wish they wouldn’t show his videos. Free broadcasting for him,” she glances back up at the TV, “I hate his face. I hope David fucking kills him,” she looks at Jack, “How was therapy?” Jack huffs with frustration. Amal, “He can’t even protect his own boyfriend. David was fucking there, and Prince Jack still got half of his brain blown out.” Jack watches intensely. Michelle, “Oh, shit.” She hurries to turn the TV off, “He’s a monster, don’t fucking listen to him, okay?” Jack breathes heavily, gritting his teeth with rage. He slams his shoulders back into the bed. Michelle rushes to him, “Stop it!” Jack slams his shoulders again. Michelle grabs him, “Stop it! You do shit like this, they wont let you take that fucking helmet off!” Jack looks up at her, still breathing heavily, tears in his eyes. He opens his mouth, trying to speak, but nothing comes out. Michelle gently wipes away his tears, “I don’t know what to say to you. I know you’re in hell right now. You have every reason to be furious at everything.” She goes back to her chair, and drags it so she can sit beside Jack. She holds his hand, “Do you remember being shot?” Jack shakes his head slightly. Michelle, “Do you remember that day at all?” Jack shakes his head again. Michelle, “Maybe you’re lucky, then.” Jack glares at her. Michelle, “You must be sick of people telling you you’re lucky.” Jack nods. Michelle, “I’m sorry.” She squeezes his hand.

Late at night, David sits on a sofa, watching Amal’s video on a laptop. He goes backwards on it and re-watches a part where a window is visible. He sees movement, and looks up to see Beth looking at him. Beth, “Hi. Insomnia?” David, “Yeah. Haven’t really slept well in a long time.” Beth, “I’ve always been an insomniac. Mind if I sit with you?” David, “Sure.” Beth sits down on the other side of the sofa. David, “I know I’ve seen this warehouse before, I just can’t place it…” Beth, “I didn’t know you could tell one warehouse from another.” David, “Well, right now, I can’t, so you might be right.” Beth laughs softly. She sits quietly for a moment, and then says, “It was really unfair what Amal said about you and Jack. If it weren’t for you, Jack would be dead right now.” David, quietly, “Cameron was the one who saved him.” Beth, “Yeah, well, you led Cameron there.” David doesn’t say anything. Beth, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I can’t imagine that’s an easy memory to deal with.” David, “Why do you think I have insomnia?” Beth, “I can’t even imagine watching something like that happening to Yuri.” David, “Who’s Yuri?” Beth, “My boyfriend. He’s in the AFG.” David, “Oh. I guess that makes sense. Of course a girl like you would have a boyfriend.” Beth, “A girl like me?” David blushes furiously, “I- I mean, you- you’re good looking.” Beth, “Aren’t you gay?” David, “I’m bi. I generally prefer the term ryototsukai, but, well, I’m bi.” Beth, “Okay. I’m straight.” David, “That’s good to know. I guess.” Beth, “You must be really lonely without Jack.” David goes quiet for a long moment. Beth stares down at her feet. Finally, David says, “I was going to pick him up when he got shot. I went to Mt. Gilboa thinking that I’d have him in my arms again by that evening. I-” he pauses, thinking, “The last time Jack and I were together, I got stabbed, and then had surgery out in the middle of the fucking woods without any anesthesia, and I thought, for sure, that I would never experience anything shittier than that. Turns out, I was wrong.” Beth, “They can do that?” David, “Do what?” Beth, “Surgery without anesthesia.” David, “You wanna see the scar?” Beth, “Okay.” David puts the laptop on the floor, and lifts his shirt to expose his stomach, “This is where I got stabbed, this is where they did the laparotomy.” Beth leans in, “Holy shit.” She traces a finger down the length of the laparotomy scar, “That’s horrible.” David tries to hide his shudder. He lowers his shirt, “Still better than watching Jack get shot.” Beth goes back to her end of the couch, and David picks the laptop up again. David, softly, “I don’t even know if he’d recognize me. Brain injuries can do that. For all I know, he’s a fucking vegetable.” Beth, “I don’t think he is.” David, “Oh yeah?” Beth, “They aren’t saying anything because he’s getting well, and Abner doesn’t want to give you hope.” David smiles sadly, “Huh. That… that didn’t occur to me. Makes sense. I hope you’re right.” Beth, “I hope I’m right, too.” David watches Amal’s video again. He pauses it at a moment when the window is visible, “I know that window.” Beth, “What?” David, “There’s a window, here, I know it!” He turns the laptop around and shows Beth, “The red and blue glass panels, I saw those the first time I saw Monique perform! I know which warehouse this is!” Beth, “Oh my god!” David, “Well, Monique will know it. I don’t remember exactly where the warehouse is. Shit, I’ve gotta call her.” Beth, “Maybe you should wait.” David, “What?” Beth, “Monique will be pissed if you wake her up at 3 AM.” David, “Oh, yeah. Shay will probably be pissed, too.” He sighs and rubs his temples, “Fuck, I’ve got a headache.” Beth, “I’m gonna try to go back to sleep. Maybe you should try sleeping, too. Or at least lying in bed and thinking about how we’re gonna take out the Amalekites.” David, “Yeah, I’ll try. I guess.” Beth gets up and smiles at him, “Night.” David, “Night.” He watches her leave.

In the bathroom, David searches the medicine cabinet for aspirin. He grabs a bottle, takes out a few pills, and takes them. He puts the bottle back, and sees a box of condoms on the shelf. He stares at them for a moment, brain churning, hesitant. He grabs a strip of condoms and stuffs them into his pocket. He shuts the cabinet.

[eternal-bruh]

Why being caught in a Casual Loop is best to be avoided: I

Chapter 5

"And what's wrong with you now?" Linus has to take only one long look at them this morning to realize that something bad has happened and it is only going to descend into more shit later on in the day if his gut feeling is anything to be relied on.

He casts one inquiring look at Sappho, but the man shakes his head vigorously, declining with all his might any fault or involvement in these idiots' new and sudden bout of depression. Which is all the more alarming now that he thinks about it.

"If this has already happened did I feel like this too? Like, again?"

Long nose is close to rocking back and forth on his feet judging by his unfocussed eyes. He notices Linus' stare and takes a step closer, clamping his offending hands on Linus’ shoulders.

"Did you already say this before or will you say it again?!"

The native squirms under the wild stare filled with madness, but it proves to be an iron cage so he opts to just glare at the next probable culprit.

"What is he saying, Robin? And what did you do to break your crewmates?"

The woman has the nerve to blink and look amused of all things.

"Just a theory."

The official's eye twitches at the storm of gibberish the sniper is pulling. And now he is the one being rocked!

"What the hell is he even saying?!"

"He is asking if you think it’s possible to know the end of your own life and what are we doing today." The archaeologist informs him leisurely and Linus pauses.

"Those are completely unrelated!" With an almighty push, he manages to shove off the offending guy and huffs. Straightening his clothes, Linus clicks his tongue disapprovingly. They look like shit. And so he tells them.

"Well we sorry if we look this! Possible because someone had us sleep in a small box all last night!" Nami cries out indignantly, hands on her hips and expression stormier than the Grand Line itself.

Well damn it, she's become better at speaking, Linus thinks as he grudgingly cuts her off the list of possible victims of his curses.  

Biting the inside of his cheek like a real mature person, Linus crosses his arms and turns his back on them.

"I suppose you will be grateful to leave here then."

He knows where they are supposed to be going, but that doesn't make it any easier to navigate through the palace grounds while once again hoping against hope that they will not be seen and any other curious idiot will stay out of his way. He knows just the right place in the north-west wing of the palace grounds, right next to the outer wall overlooking the ocean. That small corner where the sea meets the island's shore and is towered over by the watchtower and the palace itself. Where most windows don't reach and where guards usually come to laze around. A place no one will ask him too many questions about being in. Because during this unsettling night, Linus has quickly reached the conclusion that introducing the Strawhats to at least some people he knows will be inevitable and a pain in the ass if he won’t do it willingly.

Why? Well, he now – somehow, at least a little – believes that this obscure group really is here from so many years into the future and possesses knowledge of strange and new technologies that they do not. It will be stupid not to keep them at an arm's length and learn everything he can under the pretext that he is responsible for them. He wants to know more about the Devil Fruits as a whole, but especially about the captain's because those are his powers that he has swallowed and Linus has to make sure that the guy knows how to use them right.

They are way too quiet, he notices after a good while when the enjoyable silence leaves in its wake only a strange and awkward feeling crawling up and down his spine and it is starting to irritate the hell out of him. He opens his mouth more out of spite, but at the sullen looks behind him – minus the captain's, which is not that surprising considering that the kid is pretty much a clueless ball of gum – he decides against it for the moment. It doesn't matter anyway, because their destination is in sight and deserted as is expected.

"So... meat?" Luffy tries for the nth time that morning at breakfast when he was presented only a normal portion of a plate composed of fruits. So he has now decided to appeal to his ancestor because he can.

Linus frowns at the nonsense question. "What meat? We have no meat here."

Luffy's head tilts to the side out of reflex as the straw hat wearer processes the foreign words accompanying the relatively only one he knew by heart.

"No? Here?"

"No is no. And yes, not here Luffy. There's no meat here." Robin's kind smile for her captain looks too encouraging to Linus to be completely innocent, but what the hell.

"N... No?" The man tries and it doesn't come out as horrible as he had thought it would.

Most of the pirates nod supportively at his attempt.

"For your first word it was pretty good, bro!" Franky grins and offers him an appreciative thumbs' up.

The native shakes his head at their needless excitement and fixates a serious stare on Luffy's sunken face which he promptly decides to overlook.

"We fight. Now."

And without any further ado, Linus launches a swift rubber attack that is promptly counterattacked by a 'Gum Gum Pistol'. Luffy looks taken aback by the sudden strike, but he isn't one to refuse a fight. This is finally a language that he can work with.

Linus decides on a swipe with his foot next, but the straw hat wearer only jumps up and launches a massive series of punches that the other avoids by rolling across the ground.

Jumping back to his feet, Linus decides to close the distance and trap the kid but the other is fast enough to reciprocate and doesn't fall for it, much to Linus’ surprise. The kid seems pretty stupid at first sight, but fights must be an exception. Or so it seems. Not only that, but fighting rubber with rubber is a pretty stupid idea to begin with.

The Strawhats watch the exchange of blows with interest, finding it a pretty amusing twist of fate to see their captain fighting with somebody using the same kind of powers as him. It isn't like watching a mirror – it is more like looking at different kinds of levels of the Gum Gum Fruit. Until now Linus hasn't shown many impressive or amazing moves, but he can keep up with Luffy and not get tired out and this is saying many things. Rather, the native uses more rudimental attacks that are not even as closely creative as Luffy's are. In contrast, they have probably been developed throughout years of fighting with them. Linus isn't shouting attack names for starters, and he seems more concentrated on studying the younger's moves than knocking Luffy down.

Linus itches to take out his sword, but he supposes it will be kind of unfair to the kid so in the end abstains to do that. But the fight is becoming dull and the kid has some admittedly flashy moves that he can't see the purpose of in a fight where you have to conquer an entire island in under one hour. Of course, they can cause mass destruction perfectly, but that is the least one would aim for when invading towns full of would-be citizens. It looks to him like Luffy is used to destroying rather than keeping things intact and that is a shocking opposite to his own style. It makes him yield to finish the fight and put the kid in his place.

Concentrating on the trajectory the Luffy’s fist is going in, Linus crouches down to avoid it and slams his hands on the ground. He hears Luffy’s surprised yelp and he uses the momentum to launch himself in the air, reaching for his sword while keeping his eyes trained on the confused kid. He doesn't let him get away with jumping out of the range of his attack. Linus lands hard, makes the ground swell under Luffy and launches him into the sky, though he doesn't get very far when a rubber contraption ties around his middle and pulls him down towards the cold, now hard, ground.

The crew watches with mouths agape as their captain gets plastered on the ground quite literally and in what could only be a twisted turn of events. Even by their standards.

"Are you alright, Luffy?!" Chopper is the first to snap out of his daze, his doctor side taking over instantly. The small reindeer runs quickly towards the raven haired teen, officially ending the fight.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Luffy is surprisingly laughing while nursing a bump on his head.

Linus towers above him like an immovable statue, his face caught somewhere between undecided doubt and disgruntled curiosity.

"What was that?!" Nami looks from one Monkey to the other for answers, but her question is brushed off by one and blocked by language barriers by the other.

"What the hell was that?" Linus scoffs as he pulls his rubber sword from around the kid's middle.

Franky and Zoro watch it reform into a normal looking one with solid interest.

"You – it – rubber?" Usopp cracks the coconut open first, because no one else seems to be up on doing that.

Linus throws him an odd look that suggests he should have known about it by now.

"Of course. The ground, too. Don't tell me you don't know anything about your captain's powers!"

Everyone looks at Luffy. The raven head blinks and grins back at them.

"Luffy not can do that!" Usopp cries out quickly in a broken language.

Linus takes in their honest expressions of raw confusion and resists the urge to slap his forehead.

"Then what can he do?"

"Be rubber. That it." Sanji flicks his cigarette absently.

Undeterred by the answer, Linus crouches down in front of the kid and repeatedly slammed his hands on the ground. Luffy watches him with an odd expression on his face, but keeps his mouth shut because he does not want to make Linus mad. The pirate captain leans back when the other's head snaps up to glare at him.

"Now you. Think of rubber!"

"Think of rubber, shithead. And do the shit he does." Sanji clears up the message for his captain.

Luffy bites the inside of his cheek in concentration and does as he is told, but nothing out of the ordinary happens besides him looking very funny to his crewmates.

"That was on another level than usual!" Nami breathes out after a good laugh.

"Yohoho! Luffy-san was so serious for a moment there!"

Luffy throws his ancestor a betrayed look which the man only shrugs off, too immersed in the fact that the idiot can't do what feels like second nature to him.

"Why?"

"Luffy is only made of rubber. He cannot make other things that." Robin explains.

Linus' eyes widen. "Then he can't become normal either?"

The archeologist's eyebrows draw up at the question, but she shakes her head negative. Linus deflates and lifts his arm.

Robin takes the offered hand with only a second’s hesitation and probes it to confirm what Linus is insisting about.

"He feels normal. No rubber."

The Strawhats pale.

"Wow, how did you do that?! Can I do it? C'mon old man, show me!" Luffy's face is beaming in excitement, but Linus shakes his head.

"Can you clone yourself, Robin?"

Robin nods. "Only one or two. I tire out easily if I do more."

Linus exhales through his nose. "Then it's the same with you, too. Sappho has hundreds of these."

Usopp chokes on his spit. "Wha-!"

"How do you think he discovered all these things?" The native ruffles his hair in frustration. "That idiot made the Fruits imperfect!"

"He said that he made the Fruits imperfect." Nami tells Franky.

The shipwright rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe Sappho had to make them this way."

Robin relays the message to Linus, who looks a little more pacified at the suggestion but nevertheless thunderous.

"What other Devil Fruits do you have?" The official asks, shifting from foot to foot as he opts to change the subject before he can make up his mind and really kill the blond.

"I! Human Fruit!" Chopper announces, lifting a hoof.

"Then... he was a raccoon?" Linus blurts out, studying the doctor much more closely now.

The small pirate does not need to understand everything to know what the man has just assumed and he promptly cries out in protest.

"I'm a reindeer!"

Linus blinks at the furious face, but thinks better of it.

"So I suppose the skeleton and the blue haired guy have Fruits, too?"

"No, me has none!" Franky grins, pointing a thumb at his chest proudly.

The native looks up at the musician. "So you have some kind of animation Fruit then?"

"Oh, no! I am quite dead." Brook announces jovially.

Linus pauses to process this information and he turns to Robin, who seems to have become his designated helper.

"What was his name again?"

"Brook. He ate the Revive Revive Fruit."

The raven haired man chokes. "What kind of name is that?!" It takes him a minute to realize what he has just shouted out and he clears his throat in embarrassment. "Brook, why are you a skeleton then?"

"I was lost... and came back... late?" Brook tries to simplify matters as best as he can for everyone's benefit.

"And when he came back, his body was already a skeleton. That is the reason for his image." Robin adds mildly.

"I... see." Linus isn't sure if he really can, but this is indeed the most logical way of how things went. "You have one of the Fruits Sappho was talking about."

"Live forever Fruits?" Nami asks curiously, surprised to get a sharp nod in return. "But... Brook can die, right?"

The navigator turns her head in the skeleton's direction, looking for confirmation or a denial. Anything.

The musician nods slowly, his empty eye sockets seeming to narrow marginally.

"I can indeed die if my bones are turned to dust. I will simply have no body to return to."

"Brook says that he can die. If his body turns to dust." Robin translates for Linus.

The raven haired man shoots Brook a critical look.

"I suppose this 'Revive Revive Fruit'," the raven haired man makes air quotations with his fingers, "is imperfect as well. Here, the man born with it has been living for a thousand years already."

Usopp gasps audibly at the information while Robin occupies herself with listing all the other Fruits they know and categorizing them for later use. Nami slaps her hands over both Sanji and Luffy's mouths to stop them from talking and shouting questions, trying in vain to translate what Linus has just said.

Seeing no problem with their curiosity, Linus continues. "He was born one hundred years after the first powers appeared on the island and he-"

"So he's not some kind of living legend that's been here for... ever." Zoro tries to whisper to Franky a little more conspicuously, but it goes heard by the storyteller anyway and he is rewarded with an expectedly dirty look.

"He has been living for more than a thousand years, returning to his body whenever he dies. After a while it has become too deteriorated to be lived into so he started changing bodies, negotiating with their former owners over them. That's how he's been getting by until now."

"Immortality, huh?" Brook hums thoughtfully, though if he is going to be honest this whole story does not sit quite right with him. It sounds like a very long and lonely journey. And he thought that fifty years was a long time.

"This does sound a little wrong, but I suppose this is just the way things are." Robin's smile is devoid of any amusement as she sits down on the grass. "Does he negotiate with the owners before they die?"

Linus scratches his head, this subject a little out of his area of expertise, but mind fueled by the rumors and his own experience with the man.

"Yes. Negotiations are usually very extensive and can last a very long time." The native's mouth pulls tight and the hand that is absently rubbing the side of his head falls limply. "He is an eccentric man. I hear he's haggling for a woman's body next."

Sanji discretely files this u nder his 'valuable Devil Fruits that are already eaten' list.

"Everyone has their preferences, I'm sure." Robin tries to see the bright side as Linus doesn't look too positive at this point in the conversation.

The man sitting in front of her snorts and looks Brook in the eyes – or his soul's eyes, to be more specific. "That man brings his fear of death to the extreme."

"You look to know him well." Sanji remarks as he exhales a cloud of smoke. He crouches down and stubs the used cigarette on the ground.  

Linus grounds his teeth, but doesn't deny it. "You can say that. My grandfather is friends with most of the Sages so I inadvertently met all of them when I was young."

"What did he say?" Chopper tugs on Usopp's pants, but the sniper shakes his head grimly before his gaze focuses on their historian.

"I didn't get most of it. Did you, Robin?"

The black haired woman closes her eyes and opens them back slowly. "Neither did I. He just used a couple of complicated words I've never heard before. But I believe he has met these Sages." She regards Linus with a serene expression that is meant to reassure him no secret plan is involved. "What are Sages?"

Linus grins slyly as he works to push Luffy off him. He swears that this kid gets bored way too easily, though he kind of understands where he is coming from.

"The five people that are said to live forever." He explains smoothly. "They tried calling them elders, but those five clunked everyone who said that word over the head because – ‘they are not old and wouldn't get since they are immortal so stop calling us that, you idiots'." Linus quotes, making sure to speak slower and revise any complicated words that might have slipped. "Clunk is when you hit."

"Yohoho, I see!" Brook laughs good-naturedly. "Though it sounds quite like the World Government we have in our time."

"Indeed." Robin's voice is decidedly heavier than before and she stands up with unusual stiffness. "It seems we might have another piece of the puzzle."

"You mean the Government might have copied them?" Nami crosses her arms as she looks over at the waves hitting the crumbling cliffs a few meters away.

"He said they were five, right?" Franky inquires and guffaws when he gets an affirmative answer. "I knew those idiots were just posers!"

"I kinda' doubt they're just that, Franky!" Usopp exclaims, looking around in fear, though it is obvious no shady old man from their time is there. Even so, after Enies Lobby, discussing about the World Government at any time is not making him any more comfortable.

Luffy's head snaps up when it seems that the discussion is set to some familiar tunes and he leaves his ancestor to his own devices as he saunters over to his friends' side.

"What's up?"

"It is entirely possible that they've gotten the idea of how to install and conduct an effective government from Raftel's example." Robin begins, her brown eyes wide and fixed steadily on the ground. "But there is always the possibility that one of them is a traitor and changed camps."

"Or will." Zoro adds, casting a furtive glance in the palace's direction.

"We shouldn't throw stones at anyone right now." Brook intervenes calmly. "First we have to figure out what kind of powers the rest of these people have. And associate them with the ones from our time."

"Brook-bro's right. No use pointing our fingers if we don't know in which direction." The crew's shipwright shrugs and the finality in his tone suggests they should drop the subject for now.

"What are you guys talking about?" Luffy's face is contorted into a truly painful kind of confusion that Usopp physically feels.

"Politics mostly. Linus said something and we started talking about the World Government." The sniper grimaces at the escalading groan that comes from his captain before he even finishes the sentence.

"Why can't you guys talk about something interesting!" The straw hat wearer slumps to the ground, defeated.

Chopper is next to him in an instant, fussing over whatever unseen injury the fight earlier might have caused him to fall to the ground for.

Nami pursed her lips at the pitiful show.

"Someone's coming." Zoro's urgent whisper and Sanji's suddenly lifted foot disrupts the easygoing haze they have been wrapped in.

Luffy's protests die as soon as the swordsman utters the first word and he looks up, gaze sharp and focused on locating the intruder.

Linus looks at their sudden agitation with raised eyebrows, not understanding one shitty fucking thing they are saying, but trying hard to make the connections. It does not go very well.

"So many people here! Is this a party without me you’re throwing, Linus?"

The voice comes from behind and Linus’ eyes widen quizzically while his heart stops for a split of a second. When his brain finishes making the connections and printing the results, he stares at the Strawhats' hanging jaws – again with the jaws, these people are much too easily caught off guard – and they seem to struggle between staring at him and at the newcomer.

Taking a deep breath because he feels that this is what he really needs right now, Linus turns around and bites back the waterfall of insults threatening to burst out of his mouth. Instead he opts to stare at the man crouched on top of the wall, standing against the morning sun and thus having his face partly obscured by the light. Which Linus is sure that is meant to make his entrance more ambiguous and mysterious, but in his eyes the guy is only ever pushing his luck. And this is the last damn time – he'll make sure of it.

"What the smothering hell are you doing here?" The raven head growls lowly, ignoring the whimpering and urgent whispers erupting from behind him.

The man on top of the concrete grins smugly and jabs a thumb at his chest. "Come now, is that the way to greet me?" The whine in his tone is almost amusing if the sight of his face wouldn't be too irritating to look at.

The intruder drops down from his perch and lands on the ground with a dull thud. Somehow, his closeness makes the Strawhats take a collective step back. Linus bites his tongue and decidedly doesn’t ask why their captain looks positively horrified at the moron he is just about to pummel.

"Well?!" Linus insists when all the idiot does is stand there like a restless child that just wants to intrude on something, but ends up being rightfully ignored. His jet black gaze studies the partially undressed man with as much criticism as he can materialize before he gets distracted. By the thing that most probably got the idiot so hyped up to search for and bother him.

"What is that shit on you!"

The Strawhats jump and Linus hopes that his roar goes unheard inside the castle.

The black haired man in front of him grins smugly and puffs out his chest which is partially covered in blue, purple and gold ink. "You like it? It's a phoenix, y'know?"

The simple question sparks a wave of anger in Linus and he clenches his fists, trying to calm down before he speaks.

"You got a tattoo on your wedding day?!" Screw calm, he still manages to explode like a volcano.

"A tribal style tattoo like they do on Shando-"

"You have to be ready in-" Linus stops and turns to glare at the sun for short a moment before resuming his rant, "two damn hours!"

"Did he just read the hour by the sun?" Usopp whispers to the closest person next to him.

Nami shoots him one of her usual looks that spells 'you're disrupting this dramatic moment', but shrugs. "I can too. I just need time to study its position to determine the exact hour."

"Yeah, but he did it in a second!" The sniper insists.

"What's got you so fired up today?" The taller native asks curiously, his eyes meandering towards the Strawhats. He seems to be too preoccupied with studying them to see the incoming rubber fist that hits him in the face a second later.

"You should have been preparing!" Linus draws back now that his anger has been well consumed in the screaming fest and places his hand over his face, silently wondering why on earth all shit is falling on him to deal with nowadays. "Why did you get a tattoo for anyways? Kallisto not interested enough?"

The other's face darkens a visible shade and he looks about ready to start stabbing Linus, but instead of that his shoulders slump and he sniffs.

"I thought it'd be romantic, y'know? Kalli said so..." He trails off and beams up again, like a light bulb switched back on. "Who're these guys?"

Linus rolls his eyes at the roundabout answer, but he is not at all surprised. Only concerned for the future of this kingdom. It won't be surprising if he'll end up being the one running all the shit in a couple of years, but for now the Monkey clansman remains hopeful. Maybe they'll find another idiot for the job. Going back to the present, he supposes that introductions are due but the faces of some of the time travelers make him rethink his decision. Their captain's pale and shaking form speaks volumes. But the intruding idiot is getting impatient and the kid opens his mouth right then so he doesn't have a choice in the end.

"These are my charges at the moment, the Strawhat pirates." He gestures to the group at large, recounting some of the names, but finding out that he has lost many of them from his memory. "Robin, Brook, sniper-"

"I am Usopp!" The long nosed man interrupts with a harrumph.

"Nami, right?"

The navigator sighs and nods. She knows that this is the extent of knowledge Linus possesses about their names at the moment, so she decides to take the lead and presents in turn the rest of her crewmates.

"Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Franky-"

"And that's their captain, Luffy." Linus finishes, throwing the slowly reddening kid a warning glare to keep his mouth shut.

Unfortunately, Luffy has been close to erupting for a while now and the sound of his name does not help him or his nerves.

Linus' companion makes a noncommittal noise as he returns the Strawahats' greetings.

"What's wrong with 'im? No matter, I guess. Nice to meet you too, Luffy!"

Luffy startles, his eyes wide and muscles stiff. He stares at the man with a specific kind of horror Nami associates with Thriller Bark or – in general – with seeing a ghost. Which is most certainly so in this situation. They've all been taken aback, but most rational thinkers that do not include their captain for obvious reasons, have soon realized that it isn't and couldn't be that person. Hell, everyone excluding Luffy has had enough time to make peace with that thought, but unfortunately their captain has a one-track mind that only blares through the alarms of one thing inside his head at a time. And this won't make Linus happy, goddamn it.

Face looking as if he has just discovered the One Piece, Luffy jumps to his feet and lifts his foot, intent to close the distance and catch the poor, innocent man in the most dangerous bear hug of all – his trademark, rubber one.

"Ace is that really you?! What are you doing here? Did the guy sent you here, too?! You really know how to speak this language!" Luffy's shouts are incessant as he struggles in Sanji and Zoro's twin holds on his arms and against Franky's massive fist clenched around his body.

"Luffy calm down, he's not Ace!" Nami tries, but her voice is too weak against that resolve swimming in his wet gaze.

Linus looks at Luffy and resists the urge to slam his head on a rock repeatedly. Next to him, the newcomer chuckles nervously and rubs the back of his head while he watches the spectacle in wonder.

"I see that I've got a fan."

The official is not so sure about that. Not in the mood to hear the reason, though still curious as hell why the kid has suddenly lost his mind, he turns towards Robin's serene figure at the edge of the stormy group and asks when he is sure that her attention is on him.

"What is he screaming about now? Again with one of your ghosts?"

The archaeologist smiles in bemusement at their predicament.

"Indeed. I am sorry, but our captain is very emotional about this. Can you clear this maybe?"

She hums and Linus could have said no, but now he is compelled to even if he has been compelled from the start anyways because he has to introduce the tattooed man standing next to him. But this doesn’t mean he likes it either way. Bracing himself for whatever the hell will come next from this unpredictable group, he gestures toward said man.

"This is Amon, prince of this kingdom."

Silence reigns as Robin finishes relaying to her captain the translation of his words. Of course, this spurs an argument between the blond and green haired pirates and the rest have to enter the fray because why not. And when their captain finally snaps out of whatever trance or deep thoughts he has been in and actually begins to listen to what Brook and Nami are telling him, his face drops heartbreakingly as he studies Amon with the biggest amount of disappointment and sadness Linus has ever seen in someone. And then Luffy starts rambling about this or the other in that broken language of theirs, rapid firing everything he is still confused about and probably complaining over the situation. Because everyone they have met looked like those ghosts of theirs and he pouts and dries his last tears until, finally, he stops. All of them stop. And Linus will never know how close he has been in his assumptions.

"And Linus’ best friend!” Amon adds happily in spite of the slightly awkward atmosphere, slinging an arm around the other’s shoulders which is promptly shrugged off.

Linus rewards the guy with a good old glare and pursed lips.

“No, he’s not. Just an irritating guy who needs to be constantly babysat.” The official spits and promptly ignores the string of complains falling from the prince’s mouth. He addresses the Strawhats. “His wedding is today, so I need to get him inside the palace. Stay here and don’t move. Alright?”

He sighs in relief at Robin’s compliant nod and she makes sure that her friends get the message as well. Linus won’t be caught saying it out loud, but the black haired woman has become quite an indispensable link between the two languages in this short time. She shoulders half of his workload and he’s very grateful for that. It is safe to say that he has been completely lost when he heard that his job is to keep them safe. He hadn’t known how to even communicate with them and suddenly Sappho and the other competent folk decide that he has to make friends with the so-called pirates. It took him all night to accept this new reality and make peace with the fact that he’ll have to teach them their language or possibly have him learn the continentals’. Which he is trying to, but it proves too difficult to just be fine with catching words as they fly around. So he makes up a plan that will hopefully not end with this whole place destroyed.

Ruffling his hair again, Linus turns around and makes to grab Amon’s arm but instead of a solid limb, his hand passes through it. The gaping hole around his hand remains small for a moment, shy tendrils of fire licking his rubber skin without any intent of burning it before the gap gradually extends and swallows the raven haired man’s whole body, leaving only a red bead behind that promptly falls to the ground.

Linus watches it drop with a blank range of what-to-do-next. Behind him, the pirates look on with grim faces, most of them being aware that such a possibility is thoroughly possible. Luffy bites his lower lip in an effort to not run out there and hug the man who so resembles his older brother both in appearance and in powers. Hell, he’ll go as far as to say that their personalities are almost alike.  

The older Monkey clansman member rolls his eyes at the constant chuckling coming from seemingly all around before Amon reappears in a small storm of fire a couple of meters behind him.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” Linus groans at the cheeky smirk on the guy’s face. Seriously now, he is not helping his situation at all.

Turning on his heels, he marches off determined not to lose Amon again and when he is certain that the fire user is secured in his iron grip he drags him toward the towering building. He opts to ignore the incessant mumbles and complaints thrown his way like a professional.

Nami shakes her head at the sight, not sure what she can say in this situation.

“Luffy, I need to make sure things are clear in your head for now.” Robin’s voice echoes around the clearing an instant later and seven people turn to gaze at their captain’s form, slouched on the ground in apparent defeat. The historian smiles indulgently and is willing to comply with any of his questions.

Luffy lets out a breath that sounds close to a snort and closes his eyes as if willing all the complicated things far away from him. A few moments of uncharacteristic silence later, he nods his head and opens his eyes to give Robin his full attention. But he speaks before she can.

“I know that’s not Ace…” His voice breaks on his brother’s name. “But he looks so much like him!”

“I know.” Robin agrees mildly, sitting down next to him. “As hard as it sure is, you must always remember that none of the people we meet here are in any way people from our time.”

Her words ring loud and clear, obviously addressed to all of them.

“They may be distant relatives, direct lines of ancestors and who knows what else. But they are not one and the same.” Twinkling brown eyes regard melancholic jet black kindly. “I know it brings back bad memories and it hurts to see them so close when they are not. It is a century too early for any of them.”

“So we have to keep calm no matter what we see.” Zoro concludes, cutting Robin’s speech short.

“This might be just what they need to mark us as spies. Let’s not give them that chance, Luffy-san.” Brook accompanies his input with a small laugh that is meant to lighten up the atmosphere.

Luffy looks to be thinking it over for a minute before a smile blossoms on his face and he chuckles.

“Yeah, you guys are right!”

With a small push he lifts himself off the ground. Once back on his feet, the rubber man studies their expectant faces and grins.

“I’ll keep my guard up from now on!”

Sanji snorts at the out of context promise, but Nami supposes this is as good as they will ever get and that has to count for something. She resigns herself to wait in the relative silence they have going on. She ignores the louder ones of their crew in favor of giving her rumbling thoughts a semblance of order. Sounds of the game of tag fills in the bouts of silence and prevents the general mood from descending into depressive again. Luffy and Chopper are certainly not undeterred by being told to wait and do nothing.  

Linus returns fifteen minutes later when the game is reaching its climax and Robin clearly is going to win. The black haired man looks as if the whole world has just dumped a heavy boulder on him to carry up a mountain in the middle of winter, but at least his gaze is still burning with determination.

“You will eat lunch at the Monkey family manor today.” Linus clears his throat. “Where you will also be staying from now on, by the way.” The native blinks at the collective cheer Nami, Franky and Sanji give while the rest of the crew looks like their birthdays are coming. Swallowing back his curiosity, Linus continues. “But first, I have a few things to say to you.”

He pauses to make sure that Robin is listening.

“From now on you can walk through the city without problems. But please do not do anything to attract attention to yourselves!” He stops and glares at Luffy in particular. “You can visit Sappho whenever you want, but I’d suggest you do not go out there just because you are bored. There are also a few rules of the manor, but I will be relaying them as we walk.”

Robin nods and immediately starts translating for her friends. Linus occupies himself with studying the sparkling waters of the Grand Blue as their undulating waves splash against the rocky shoreline. He wonders if he made the right choice in the end, but seeing his charges’ considerably happier faces than before, he supposes that he is on the right track at least.

[eternal-bruh]

Why being caught in a Casual Loop is best to be avoided: I

Chapter 4

The blond haired man keeps on smiling long after his sudden declaration is over. He looks like he has all the patience and time in the world and he takes advantage of it to study the dumbfounded time travelers standing in front of him. That is, until the rambunctious group explodes into a myriad of exclamations and demands, all addressed to him.

In spite of the ruckus, Linus simply gapes. The only sign that he is still remotely there is the cyclical opening and closing of his mouth that must look decidedly stupid, but he doesn’t care. Hell, he can care less right now.

His gaze moves from a random spot on the tiled floor to the man he had thought he knew everything about and finds himself encompassed by an overwhelming array of feelings that can’t be healthy.

"This Sabo knows us, too?!"

The idiot pirate captain is yelling at the top of his lungs in a language that reflexively makes Linus nauseous and causes his blood to curl whenever he hears it. This language is their worst enemy and yet the blond bastard has brought them here intentionally.

"Wait a moment. What the hell is this? What."

The orange haired woman, who looks to be holding the most common sense out of them all, is sputtering like an idiot, interchanging between words and sentences, mingling their language with that defilement of a speech. All of them are doing that.

"I believe that mister Sappho will explain us everything, right?"

Nico Robin's smile is as transparent and plastic as everything about her speaking his ancestors' tongue without any qualms about showing it proper respect and he knows, knows that she wants to learn everything about this island and their secrets. And then go blab about it to those continentals.

He doesn’t need to look far to spot the head of braided blond hair and his hand snaps toward the neck beneath like a snake toward its prey with enough force to pin the older man to the table full of metal junk behind him. There are a few cracks and clinks as some of the parts fall off, but Linus only feels the fingers of his other hand clenching and unclenching, maybe drawing blood but who the hell cares in that moment. He concentrates on keeping his other hand firmly attached to that Sappho’s neck and his temper sparks when he finds the other man completely calm in the face of his fury.

The room has become completely silent and the official knows that those intruders are balancing their options right now, thinking they can stop him from killing this traitorous bastard.

"What t' fuck's all this?!” He spits the words like venom in a rapid fire of syllables that build accusations and many, many promises of pain. “Are you tellin' me you're the one who's brought 'em ‘ere?!"

"Calm down, Linus. Your dialect's resurfacing!" Sappho tutts and is not in the least concerned about the raging man that is attempting to strangle the answers out of him.

Linus sees red and white. And he damn hates that combination. "Answer. The goddamn. Question!"

Sappho seems to make up his mind and nods slowly.

"Sure will! But first you release me and we make up-" He is stopped when his upper body is suddenly yanked up and pressed back again over the crowded table. "Come now, Linus! This hurts..."

"Leave him."

Linus feels the cold blade belonging to the green head press against his neck and he grits his teeth, wanting to smack the bastard again – for his personal satisfaction this time. But he decides against it for the moment. It won't do to get killed and leave the island to be furthermore freely infiltrated. It takes all his willpower to untangle his fingers from Sappho's neck and when his hand finally falls back to his side, Linus exhales and closes his eyes. He tries to regain a somewhat figure of calm, at least for appearance’s sake and wills all the masochistic images to disappear from his mind and leave it clear.

"Aw. Look at him!"

Without any disquiet about having been almost killed by Linus, the scientist pinches Linus' cheeks like one would a kid's, never once stopping his cooing over how adorable the man apparently looks when he is angry.

The Strawhats blink and Zoro steps back hesitantly with an uncomprehending expression on his face.

"HE JUST TRIED T'KILL YOU!" Usopp screams then and points two accusatory index fingers, one for each of the two freaks in front of him.

The sniper has quickly come to the conclusion that this island – no, this past world, whatever the hell this was – is too freaking strange and twisted for his taste and weak to invented diseases immune system. There are people that somewhat resemble his captain and are murderers and then there’s people who try to get killed by said murderers and apparently are Luffy’s not-dead-brother-anymore look-alikes!

Just great.

Shockingly, Sappho beams. "Yes, he sometimes tries to do that."

He just admitted it!

"Alright, time out!" Sanji declares, gesturing with his hands the universal sign of a pause. "What is with you two?"

Linus chooses that moment to slap the intruding limbs away. He glares once more at Sappho before he trudges to an unoccupied chair at the back of the room, sits down and rests his forehead in his hands.

"Sappho was my babysitter."

"Really?!" Chopper, Brook and Usopp shout out, all with different levels of shock and incredulity.

“So Sappho’s made him a murderer, or-“ Usopp starts, but is unable to finish because the warning look Nami throws his way is enough to make him gulp back his words.

Luffy's head lifts at the new volume the replies are spoken in and starts to tug at Sanji's sleeve in order to get him to translate Linus' words for him. He is nevertheless shocked at the news, if the late exclamation he repeats is anything to go by.  

"So you are a scientist and a babysitter?" Nami tries, but she can’t fathom why someone would want to leave their kid with Sappho. Sure, she hasn't known him for very long but first impressions aside, she can easily guess that he isn’t the best at this particular job just by looking at how Linus turned out.

"Yes, times were hard.” Sappho shrugs. “I used to take care of Linus because Draco and I are old friends. It worked out somehow." He chuckles, a more serious air mingling along with his cheery attitude.

"Now please sit and let's talk."

"Alright." Robin readily agrees, glad to finally start learning all the facts. She glides along the workshop until she stands next to Linus.

Robin scans the perimeter, in the middle of searching for more chairs when said object literally slides along the floor by itself along with several others for her friends.

"Thanks Robin!" Usopp lifts a grateful hand as he takes a seat, only to find himself having to wrestle Luffy out of it first.

"Robin-chwan, you are as wonderful and thoughtful as always!" Sanji coos, but at the sight of the archeologist's raised eyebrows he draws to a halting stop.

As do the others. Everyone stares at Robin while she stares right back at them until Nami points to something behind her.

"I-Isn't that your-" The navigator trails off, hands flying to her mouth in horror at the implications.

Robin turns around and sees it, too. On the floor, a bodiless limb sprouts from the tiles like a shy flower from cement. It waves at them before it bursts into pink petals that fade into nothing once they touch the bluish tiles.

"Sorry, sorry.” Sappho laughs at their dumbstruck faces. “It was fun seeing your reaction."

The scientist scratches the back of his head uncomfortably and sits down on a chair facing them.

Robin crosses her arms with a smirk and summons a hand of her own to pat the scientist on the head soothingly. The man yelps and looks back with wide, calculating eyes as he glances from her to the limb and back.

She can’t abstain from adding. "Do not worry about it."

"Amazing!" Sappho exclaims, gaze twinkling like a starry sky. "So the Devil Fruits' experiment is going to be a success!"

Linus snorts and bats away the accusatory glares coming from the people he had just lied to.

"You! You said you did not know of them!" Nami purses her lips, itching to place her hands on her hips or maybe better – kick his ass.

The temperamental Monkey family member shrugs indifferently.

Sappho extracts a small object from the pocket of his pants.

"I believe that this is what brought you here."

Between his fingers dangles a simple, round, dark red stone pendant with swirls encrusted into it.

"That's..." Robin closes her mouth, not entirely sure she should say that the stone is reminiscent of the one the Road Poneglyph on Zou was made of.

"Like a Poneglyph, right?" The scientist grins at their baffled faces. "We've already started shipping most out in the world. Anyway, think of this pendant as a self-standing Devil Fruit!"

The historian stares at the man with wide eyes as she tries to wrap her mind about the implications.

"So you know...?" Robin trails off and looks at Linus’ narrowed eyes.

Sappho's smile is sour. "It is unavoidable now, I am afraid." He pauses as his attention shifts back to the loud group. "What do you think is the way to immortality?"

The blunt and out of context question leaves the Strawhat pirates speechless and highly suspicious. Of course, all but their clueless captain who still can only barely understand half of what is going on. Linus tries to mask his bewilderment with something more comfortable – irritation.

"Uh... live always-no, no, that's not the word." Usopp clicks his tongue, intrigued by now as he leafs through Robin's notebook quickly, eyes scanning for the right one. "That's it! Live forever." The sniper declares, proud about his discovery.

Sappho inclines his head in agreement. "That is true, but how does one achieve that?"

He lifts up several fingers when he is sure that both Robin and the long nosed guy have all the words translated. One of them is already folded down for Usopp's earlier suggestion.

"Age alteration, time travel, genetic changes or conservation. As far as we know."

"What the hell has this to do with their situation?" Linus grounds out, gesturing towards the increasingly confused pirates. Most of them are struggling to catch up with the upper level vocabulary the blonde has just used.

Sappho scratches his cheek sheepishly. "Sorry. I am trying to explain to you how this happened."

Robin smiles kindly. "It is fine. I understood most of it, but please explain in simpler terms. I will translate the rest if my friends do not understand."

Nodding, the man picks up from where he left off, throwing a grumbling Linus a playful wink that goes decidedly ignored.

"I said this was a Devil Fruit." He lifts the pendant in the air again. "It was made from a person's powers, just like all the others."

"So Devil Fruits are from people powers." Nami concludes. Now the mystery of why these people possessed her crewmates' powers is solved, though that is one question out of hundreds.

"This is one of those 'big' powers I tried to tell you about. Understand?" Sappho is surprised to see five of them nodding along. He smiles. "This is-"

"There are five people other than the king who have any say in how this place works." Linus interrupts, having figured out that Sappho's roundabout way of telling things will only make the explanation harder to understand in the end. "These people possess powers that grant them a sort of eternal life."

"Sort of?" Usopp inquires, now completely into it.

Linus fixes a scrutinizing stare that dares the sniper to open his mouth again while he speaks. The teen gulps and grudgingly refrains.

"If they would choose not to use their powers, they can die."

"Or if you stab them to death or something it might work, too!" Sappho pipes in happily, but is rewarded with a sharp slap over the head.

"And you have used those powers to bring us here. Why?" Robin prods, pencil and notebook posed to write.

The blond man blinks and frowns. "But I did not bring you here!” He protests mildly. “This little thing is only an experiment at the moment."

He shakes the chain a little, making it rattle.        

"Cut the crap!" Zoro’s jaw is clenched and he is not in the mood for any other stupid parables. "How we come here then?"

"That man could have brought us, no?" Sanji intervenes, one hand covering his captain's face to prevent him from speaking anymore. Seeing his friends are on the same page about his theory, he directs his attention to the other two awaiting in relative patience. "There was man back in the... future? Yes, that. He made us come here."

The cook's eye twitches and he slaps his forehead in frustration. "Argh! It's freaking hard to speak in such a roundabout way! This is pissing me off."

"You're not the only one, stupid cook." Zoro grunts and crosses his arms, leaning back in his seat. "For all I know, these two idiots might be planning our deaths and I wouldn't understand a word of it if they didn't want me to."

Robin's smile is full of mirth. "Indeed, but the same thing also applies to us speaking in front of them like this. They still think that we are here to infiltrate their country." The archaeologist looks at Zoro square in the eye. "We must make them understand that we are the ones who really need their help. Especially Luffy's ancestor. He still seems to not believe our story."

"He'll come around, I'm sure." Franky speaks for the first time since they've arrived. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes never leave the strange machine sitting in his hands.

"But Luffy is obviously from his family!" Nami tries to make a point, but it does not help much since there is nothing her black haired friend can really do to prove it. So she moves her stare to her completely bored captain. "Maybe Luffy can do something..."

"But he doesn't even understand half of what's going on!" Usopp aims to state the obvious. "How is he going to do that?"

"Huh. This really is the continentals' language!" Sappho's mouth is slightly agape as his eyes take on an excited glint that Nami has seen in Franky or Usopp whenever they come up with a new invention. "But it's obvious who brought you here."

Eight heads snap up at his statement and the scientist shifts in his chair uncomfortably.

"Luffy-san did!"

As one, eight jaws fall open.

At the mention of his name, Luffy looks up in confusion. He understood what Sabo-not-Sabo has said this time, but he has no clue what he had done. He doesn’t remember anything too especially important anyway. They are talking about the guy who brought them here, but what does this have to do with him? And damn, are Sanji's hands aiming at his neck?

"What did I do?!" For once in his life, Luffy is scared of his friends' disappointed and accusing stares pointed dead at him.

"Luffy was right in front of us when it happened. He couldn't have-"

Sappho's head tilts. "But of course he was. Both of them."

Robin's mind reels to a stop for a moment as it tries to comprehend the reason for Sappho's enunciation, but it soon becomes crystal clear to her. Because she is not one to kick away the more absurd and impossible theories like the one swimming through her mind right about now. It isn't possible – couldn't, shouldn't – but the fact is sitting right in front of them. If travelling to the past is indeed a possibility, of course it should be conceivable for the distant future to come to their timeline and then send them in the distant past. Because this is just so much easier, the archaeologist thinks with heavy-laced sarcasm.

"I'm going to have to ask you to listen calmly." She tries to not let her distress show through, but it is tough when her friends’ scared eyes are asking her just what the hell does she know that they don't want to.

"You know I'm going to freak out either way, right?" Usopp makes it clear just for the hell of it. He is nevertheless backed up by Nami and Chopper's fervent nods.

Robin does not wait for any further denials of her plea.

"The man we all are probably talking about, if Sappho-san is right, is probably Luffy's future self. He must have come to his past to send us in the distant past."

As expected, the Strawhats' sniper has his hands in his hair already and his teeth are chattering. Franky's sunglasses slide dangerously down his nose, but go unnoticed. Nami and Chopper are on the brink of crying while Zoro rubs at his temples with a vengeance in a desperate attempt at therapy. Brook is in the midst of interrogating Luffy about it and Sanji decides to fuck all of this and lights himself a much needed cigarette.

"I see you guys are getting used to it already!" Sappho leans over to pat Robin's knee kindly.

"Why the hell would he do this?!" The swordsman of the crew asks when he thinks he has gotten a hang on the fact that this bottomless pit they are in is because of their captain. Again.

The blond scientist seems to have intuited his words. "I am sure Luffy-san that has his reasons. He has come here as well, once, and I have met him. That is why I knew you would come here in the first place!"

The man winces when most of the pirates groan at his story, but he plods on, intent on getting to the bottom of it. "But since you are here, I have already spoken to everyone that needs to know and we will help you find a way back! For the moment, though, we humbly request that you will aide us in the steadily growing conflict between us and the continentals."

Linus glares daggers at his former caregiver. "'Everyone that needs to know', huh? I guess I'm in on the joke now, too, or what?"

Sappho's head snaps up with a look of mingled shock and guilt.

"You are always busy and never have time to meet me! So how could I tell you this?” He whines. “But yes, you are in on the joke big time." He grins slyly and Linus feels the first waves of incoming doom assault him. "You've been tasked to take care of them!"

Linus' opens his mouth to a silent scream, but the older man's attention is already back on the time travelers.

"Robin, please translate that shit. His mouth was going one thousand miles per hour, I swear!" Zoro moans, igniting a kick in the shin from Sanji's disgruntled form.

"They will find us a way back, but for the moment they are asking us nicely to help them in the war against the Celestial Dragons." The historian relays dutifully, scribbling a few things as she speaks.

"Great. Now we have to risk our lives, too! Damn you, Luffy!" Usopp releases a painful cry.

"Aw, c'mon you guys! It's going to be fun! This place's fun!" Never one to refuse such an opportunity, Luffy is practically bouncing in his seat to go adventuring now that they've been given permission to.

"Fun for you!" Nami croaks out through her tears.

"I believe," Brook begins carefully, "that this might be our best opportunity. I doubt that they will simply let us freeload and do nothing."

"I agree with Brook!" Chopper announces, drying his eyes. He does not like it here very much, but if he is with his friends then he knows it will be alright. So they should aim to make Linus and Sappho like them, too. Although he has a feeling that the blond likes them well enough already.

Franky sighs and nods, his mind back on the little machine he was tweaking with earlier and Sanji grimaces, knowing they are right. But still, he does not find it in him to be happy or excited about it.

"I will leave you a few minutes to settle down. In the meantime, I will bring water." Sappho smiles amiably and clicks his fingers. Bodiless limbs sprout from various surfaces of the room, passing along a tray already filled with glasses. "I do not have coffee, unfortunately."

Linus snorts, but nevertheless sips at his drink. "Unmannered as always."

The scientist pouts and is about to refute his statement when a sudden argument erupts in the middle of the room. He turns in time to listen with a huge amount of interest as the nonsense sounds escalate into a full-fledged tirade. They have never aimed to focus on studying the continentals before, something which Sappho truly regrets right about now. But this is as good an opportunity as ever.

"What should I do with them?"

Linus' wonderings snap him from the scientific activity of gawking at the talking pirates without any qualms about how he must look like and he glances to the side to see the kid staring at the space in front of him, probably going through countless ideas. Since he is feeling particularly helpful today, Sappho is ready to offer some of his own advice.

"Well, you will need a place to accommodate them. Maybe the Monkey family manor-"

"Are you crazy?!" Linus hisses lowly, predictably. "You have any clue what will happen if certain people that live there will find out about this?"

Sappho can't find anything wrong with those certain people knowing so he shrugs. "Probably try to adopt them in the worst case scenario."

"Exactly!" The raven head throws his arms in front of his face and the blond knows now that the kid is on the brink of desperation.

Oh well, too bad for him.

"But you have to keep an eye on them, so it's the obvious thing to do!" Sappho insists, quite ready to end this argument. The sounds from the time travelers are slowly dying out and they need to move the discussion to more uneven grounds soon. He will have to prepare all the patience in the world for his explanation to not end up in utter material destruction.

Linus crosses his arms, a twisted grimace on his face, though he doesn’t offer much in return so Sappho is sure that he will use the next hours to steam over it.

"Do you know how the fishmen appeared?"

Robin's head snaps up at the abrupt change of topic, but she is nevertheless interested.

"What's he said?" Luffy shocks his friends by whispering instead of simply asking out loud, but Usopp pins it to the fact that Sappho reminds his captain of his older brother so much that his respect is automatically higher.

Lucky guy, the sniper concedes.

"What's that word, Robin?" He asks over Nami's head, leaving Sanji and Brook to argue about some of the words used in the sentence.

"Fishmen." The archaeologist answers absently, tearing a fresh page out of her notebook and handing the rest to him.

Usopp takes it gratefully and starts translating the whole thing again for the rest of them.

"No." Nami takes it upon herself to answer the cryptic question while her friends decipher the last of the message.

The blond nods in acknowledgement and inhales a deep breath.

"It happened a long time before our people first discovered Raftel. The fish populating this area first started showing signs of intelligence by forming colonies that were not based on their species, but on social norms. This evolved along with them until they ultimately became part human. That was about the time we came around, but instead of the usual war over territory they welcomed us kindly and we lived along them in peace."

"And there wasn't any war, I think." Usopp relays to his captain. "That’s the most I caught of it."

"I think he said something about peace too, y'know?" Franky rubs his chin thoughtfully.

"I don't understand why he has to tell us this shit, anyway." Sanji sighs and leans back in his seat with a disgruntled huff.

"Now, hundreds of years into the future,” Sappho fingers the hem of his shirt absently, “the clans that first founded this kingdom all have powers like me and Linus."

"How did it happen?" Robin taps her pencil on the page impatiently, creating a pattern unlike a constellation of black dots. "Does every clan have a special kind of power?"

Sappho shakes his head. "Every person has different powers, it's usually impossible to predict it until the kid is born. Only the royal family has had a certain type of power that did not change much over time. Many of our ancestors believed that a goddess of the sea thrust these powers upon them, but we have arrived at an altogether another conclusion not too long ago."

"And they got to a conclusion." Usopp is almost on the brink of a brain short-circuit from the amount of foreign information that needs to be translated and taken in real time.

"What the fuck's he talking about?" Zoro's eye is wide, his expression one of utter incredulity. He has understood most of it, but is lost on why the guy is storytelling in the first place when they have other things to worry about. Like the imminent world war if he has his facts right. Or the fact that they can very well be screwing over the entire world by being here in the first place. Or, hey, maybe their biggest problem yet – getting back to their time.

"That shithead better not be running his mouth without purpose or I'm killing him." Sanji grumbles, for once in harmony with the swordsman.

"Yohoho! I consider this to be rather interesting." Brook tries his best to diffuse their flaming spirits even if just a little bit for the sake of gaining as much understanding of this place as they can. "I believe that Sappho-san is attempting to try and make us understand the story of this kingdom."

Seeing as they were done with their talk, the scientist continues.

"The big rock sitting underneath this building has been revered as a heaven-sent monument, but my research proved that it is entirely something else." The man pauses to rest his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. "I believe this stone is the one that granted the fish the human power of thought and understanding and us the powers we have today. Its influence over the living things populating these four islands has been significant over the centuries."

"And they granted them their powers-"

"Whaaa!" Luffy's jaw is hanging open comically, his eyes bulged out of his head as he works to comprehend the story he is being told. "So this mystery rock's granting awesome powers! Let's go get some, too!"

"We can't, Luffy!" Chopper derails his captain immediately. "It doesn't work that way. He said that it happened over hundreds of years!"

The rubber man pouts sadly.

"Besides, you already have powers! You don't need any more of them." Nami huffs over his incessant whining.

Luffy sniffs over his newly destroyed adventure plan.

"That necklace. Is it made from this stone?" Robin inquires, scribbling down a few ideas.

"Yes. We only cut four small pieces from it to experiment with them as part of our 'Poneglyph' project." Sappho details helpfully.

"Poneglyph. Something about Poneglyphs." The Strawhats' sniper chants to himself, turning pages in a mad dash to find the right words. "Ugh. Robin! We need to organize this thing!"

"Four..." Nami begins, uneasiness crawling through her chest.

"Poneglyphs." Zoro finishes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I feel I know where this is going."

"We only shipped one out and placed it on the walking elephant – Zunisha."

Sappho stops and blinks at their collective groan.

"I fucking knew it! Damn it." Zoro keeps saying with the air of a disappointed parent.

"Shit, shit, shit and I thought we were in the clear!" Sanji fumbles with the lighter, deciding that another cigarette is very much needed.

"So this is like the Minks' story too or what?" The navigator asks apparently no one.

Hesitating, but taking the sudden silence as an invitation, the scientist takes the opportunity to continue.

"Ten years ago, there were only wild animals living there. But now it's already starting to look like they have a social hierarchy!" He beams proudly. "That is the fastest it has ever happened, which prompted me to arrive at the conclusion that the mass and dimension of the Ponelgyph must be proportional to the area that it reigns over..."

Linus sighs and slaps the constantly talking guy on the arm in order to get his attention. "You're mumbling again, idiot."

Sappho stops short and grins in embarrassment. "Sorry!"

"So." Robin clears her throat, being the only one to have understood the main idea of it all. "You say that because the area on Zunisha's back is small, the Poneglyph's power could influence everything to such..." She pauses, furrowing her eyebrows as she searches for the right word. "Proportions."

Sappho beams, looking like a proud teacher that finally got the kid to understand.

"Yes, exactly!"

Linus throws him a questioning look, but decides not to push further into it. He glances at the nearest window and swallows up a curse at the pitch black sky outside.

"It's getting late so-"

His smooth escape was unexpectedly aided by Nico Robin herself. And he had thought that she would be willing to stay up all week to find out about everything.

"Yes, it is enough. For now." The archaeologist folds the paper carefully and places it on her lap, hands folded over it. She smiles tightly at them both. "We will talk later if it is fine."

Somewhat disappointed, but knowing to read between the lines Sappho nods, lower lip is jutting out unconsciously.

"Alright."

He turns to stare at Linus, urging him to make a decision. On his part, the official scoffs and stands up.

"Not today, sorry." He tells the blond man before swiveling in place to face the Strawhats. "I will be here to pick you up tomorrow morning."

Three pirates nod and the group watches him go in relative silence.

Sappho sighs and rubs the back of his neck. "I guess we can find an empty room. But it will be a little crowded, I'm afraid."

He winces when the orange head glares at him, full on sharp knives and her eye like hell fire pits. But he doesn't change his statement, cannot change it because the facility is not supposed to be used as a place to sleep in, even though sometimes the scientists stay for the night if they get too absorbed in a project. That has been the case for him every day in the past few years, so Sappho can safely say that he has moved here permanently.

Which means one less chance of finding a free room to stuff this big group in. Sometimes Sappho hates Linus' condescending and unhelpful attitude. But then he remembers how adorable he was when he was a little boy and forgets about it not long after.

"This is not." Nami swallows, her face contorted into one of deep and profound pain. "The best. But we will manage-"

Luffy yells as he bounces from one bunk to the other, rebounding on the floor and walls continuously with the help of his rubber powers. Chopper tries to follow him by transforming into Guard Point, but hits Sanji in the back instead and the cook stumbles and bumps heads with Zoro which transforms into yet another violent argument that Franky tries to diffuse, but fails miserably. And the yells grow and grow in volume and color.

"Or not." The navigator finishes her sentence, watching incredulously as Usopp slides on the floor between Franky's legs in order to get to the other side of the room.  

Nami drops on the nearest bunk, eyes still pinned on the disaster in front of her. Now Brook adds fuel to the fire by getting his head stuck in the only window of their room – a small, circular glass that gives away nothing of the outside. She elects to save whatever remains of her sanity and turns her head to the only calm and reasonable person you could talk to in the room at this moment. Robin has been characteristically quiet, though a tense air is hanging above her head and it makes Nami worry.

"Robin-"

Her friend's head lifts, eyes clearing as if exiting a trance and she smiles warmly as her eyes scan the anarchy going on in front of them. Standing up, she claps her hands loudly, creating echoes in the obscenely small room that Sappho has managed to find for them. It is definitely a broom closet and no one can tell Nami otherwise, but at least it has a bathroom. Though the woman doubts that Franky will be able to squeeze in there.

"Let's all calm down, shall we?"

Robin’s brown eyes move from one person's face to the other. Or in Brook's case, the back of his afro. Her smile is almost tangible and goes along with her motherly tone.

"We will take turns to the bathroom and draw straws to see who will sleep on the hammocks and who will be the unlucky one to sleep on the floor."  

Usopp groans, knowing that he might as well be it with the kind of luck he usually has.

"Now, Chopper is first."

Robin's announcement surprises many.

"Why me?" The reindeer in question asks out of curiosity.

"You are the youngest." Robin replies smoothly, easing herself back down on the only chair in the cramped room. "Kids should be in bed first."

The others accept it pretty easily, but Nami whines internally and braces herself for the long wait.

"Man, this is really fun!" Luffy shouts loudly, constantly kicking Usopp's hammock in order to swing his own. The captain has been in a continuous bout of energy ever since leaving Sappho’s office room slash laboratory.

The sniper throws him a reproving look, but chooses to kick back and swing along himself.

"I swear if you fall on me I will kick both of your asses." Franky grumbles from the floor, trying in vain to find a comfortable position. The shipwright has been the unlucky one to receive the spot because he cannot fit in any of the bunks and drew the short piece of paper for the hammocks. The thick blanket was fine, but it didn’t mean that it was in any way comfortable.

"Ugh, these beds are made to fit someone like Chopper not us!" Nami complains, trying to turn on her other side in the bottom bunk, but failing miserably. "I'll be claustrophobic until morning!"

For the first time, Usopp reverently thanks his shitty luck for the miracle that is him sleeping in a hammock. It was about time his luck redeemed itself.

"I'm comfortable really..." Even Chopper's tone was pouting.

"Only you, trust me." Sanji growls from above him. "Goddamn marimo, you're a fat ass idiot!"  

Nami's temple pulses when a resounding bang made by metal follows the cook's curses.

"Shut up! I'm trying to sleep, cook bastard." Zoro yawns noisily and manages to bang his head on the ceiling. "Damn it, this is your fault!"

"And you goddamn deserve it, shithead!" Sanji replies instantly, stifling his laughter.

"Fuck off-"

"Shut up or I'll make you!" Nami has had quite enough of them for today. Or more accurately, she has had quite enough of everything today.

"Even though I'm in the top bunk, I do not feel any better than you do, Nami-san." Brook adds to the list of complaints. "My legs are dangling over the top and I'm sure that I will not feel them in the morning. Oh, even though I don't have anything to feel them with. Yohoho, skull joke!"

"... It doesn't work, Brook." Usopp says after a deliberately heavy silence.

Nami's murderous aura pointedly pulsates in the dark.

"Come now, this isn't so bad." Robin stifles a giggle at the surely dark look the navigator must be throwing her from the bunk beneath. "If you cannot sleep, then maybe I can tell you a few things that I have figured out from our talk today."

"Story time!" Luffy exclaims randomly and throws his hands in the air, even though no one can see him.

"I'd like to sleep, but some damn idiot just doesn't let me!" Zoro grunts, but is willing enough to listen for the moment. Maybe he will be able to fall asleep if Sanji is distracted enough.

"I could fucking care less!" The cook shoots back before turning to coo at Robin's beauty and charm – two things completely unrelated to anything they are supposed to be talking about.

"Robin-chwan, we are so close together! Let's hold hands!"

The archaeologist stifles another giggle. "I'm afraid it will be quite dangerous to hold hands like this since Brook or Zoro could fall off and break them along with their fall."

Usopp yelps at the matter-of-fact tone while Sanji positively growls like a beast.

"These two idiots wouldn't dare!"

"I would if you won't shut the fuck up!" The green haired swordsman swings his hand and hits the blond in the head.

"Why you-!"

Seeing as no one is protesting to her proposal, Robin takes it as a confirmation to break the ongoing fight.

"If I had any doubt that this is Raftel, now it's confirmed. We really are here, more than nine hundred years into the past."

The silence is no less surprising than Luffy's complaints about this not being a story at all that he is saying under his breath.

"The slab of rock the Road Poneglyphs are made from is the Rio Poneglyph for sure. And it seems like it is more special than I had anticipated."

"Yeah, I mean giving powers to people? Making animals transform into humans? It's like..." Franky trails off, staring into the dark space ahead.

"A god." Robin finishes.

Nami exhales shakily, a hand already rubbing her forehead.

"And the weapons?" Sanji decides to bring the subject into discussion.

"We know that Pluton was constructed in Water Seven, but if they named an island after it I think they might have hid it there." The archeologist suggests.

"So we know about the 'glyphs and the weapons, but there's still the Devil Fruits and Luffy." Zoro manages to turn on his stomach without falling off and that he considers the ultimate victory.

"Eh? What's up with me?"

"And the fishmen." Chopper adds. "How did they end up at the bottom of the ocean if they are living here?"

"Probably whatever happened during the Void Century made them descend to Fishman Island." Usopp suggests.

"And apparently Sappho is in the process of inventing Devil Fruits." Brook says. "So it will be best to talk with him later about this."

"And I believe that Luffy's involvement in this matter comes down to a simple theory, if we look at the whole picture." Robin tackles the most sensitive point of their conversation. "If Luffy had the necklace, then Sappho must have given it to him or he found it somewhere and then came back to the past to send us here. And from then on this happens again and again."

"Like a full circle?" Chopper quips in.

"Yes, exactly like a full circle." The historian agrees. "It's something that happens again and again without a certain point of where it begins or ends. It's called a Causal Loop. And we are right in the middle of it."

Chapter 5