firesoulstuff

[firesoulstuff]

I do not AI WRITE, I do not AI DRAW, I do not listen to AI MUSIC, I enjoy REAL MEDIA, and if it isn’t created by someone IT IS NOT ART.

[firesoulstuff]

C Team + That Young Justice Episode (either Rory and Dante or Nora and Knut)

All Dante knows is that his head is pounding.

Groaning, he forces his eyes open. There are stars above him, set in a purple sky as evening turns to night. Below him is cool and the surface shifts around with his movements. What kind of place-

"NE-AG!"

"AHH!!??!" Dante screams, just barely managing to bring his hands up over his face as a heavy weight comes barreling down on top of him.

His hands are forced away from his face and pinned at either side of his head by a set of strong, squeezing hands. There is just enough light left in the sky that Dante can see clearly the snarling face of his attacker as she looms above him.

She's just a kid. Well, probably a college-aged kid, but still. Her pale face is shining with dried sweat, and there is still enough light out for Dante to see the burned tint of red on her forehead and her cheeks. The straggly blonde curls hanging over her shoulders are coated in sand, like she's been lying in it for quite a while...

Sand. Sand is the kind of the kind of terrain which shifts beneath you as you lay there and move. To confirm his theory Dante cranes his head to the side, and for his efforts is vision begins to burn as small granules prick at the corners of his eyes.

The girl above him growls and tightens her grips around his wrists, as well as digs one knee harder into is chest. Clearly, she doesn't appreciate his diversion of his attention.

"Waga ań yuggah??" She snarls at him, "Wano isa manjai barka?"

"What?" Danta wheezes under her force.

She presses her knee harder.

"Waga ań yuggah?" Her growl is even lower this time, her words slower as she tries to spell something out for him. "Waga boh maty?"

All Dante can manage to do is stare at her. He tries to keep breathing, but all he ends up doing is wheezing.

"I... I don't know what you're saying." He stammers. "English." He tries to get her to at least understand what language he speaks.

"English." He says again, "Or, uh, habeas espanol?"

This time she scrunches her nose at him, and the more he takes in her features, the more he realizes she is doing the same to him. Aside from launching herself onto him and making it difficult for him to breathe and move, she hasn't hurt him yet either. All she has really accomplished is immobilizing him and talking to him in a language he's never heard anything like.

He has no idea how he ended up here. But, if he had to guess, he would be money she doesn't either.

Evidently she's coming to a similar conclusion; either that or she's assessing his threat level and deeming it low. She snarls at him in what he thinks is annoyance, and the next thing he knows she's released his hands and climbed off of him.

He staggers to his feet, filling his lungs greedily with air while the girl pulls what looks like a beat up remote for some kind of toy out of one of the pockets of her cargo pants.

"What is that thing?" He asks, but she pays him no mind. "Hey." He tries again, "Hey. Que estas haciendo?"

She turns around when he asks in Spanish what it is she is doing, though there is no recognition in her eyes.

"Ish aka?" She asks him, and he's sure she won't understand him when he tells her he has no idea what she's saying, so he stays silent.

That gets the point across, it seems. She turns back to the dial on her little remote and then begins to wave it around as though she is looking for a signal.

That goes on a few minutes. Dante spends it looking around mostly, and wondering how the hell he ended up in the middle of the desert.

Somehow, he gets the feeling Cisco is involved. He knew he should have just left well enough alone with his brother.

"Haga." A grunt - and maybe a command - from behind him interrupts his musings. He turns, and sees the girl looking at him and nodding out into the desert. "Sasa."

"You want to go out there?" He asks, pointing on ahead. She follows his finger, out to where she had looked, and then turns back to him.

"Ee." She nods, "Mika dagga ingata yuggah."

"What?"

She looks at him another few seconds, then shrugs, and then she turns and starts out on her path.

"Hey, wait." Dante calls, starting after her and nearly tripping over the shifting sand. "Wait."

She looks at him, lets him come up next to her, but doesn't stop walking.

He wants to say that they should stay put and wait for rescue, but really, what rescue are they hoping for? They don't even know where they are, how they got here, and most importantly they are in the middle of open desert. What if rescue isn't coming? At the very least, they should at least find some shelter somewhere, and here there is none to be seen.

"Hey." He says again, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. She doesn't seem thrilled by that; turning sharply on him with a grunt, but he doesn't let his hand linger.

He taps his hand flat against his chest, looking her in the eye as he hopes he can at least get his name across.

"Dante." He says, and he taps his chest again as she watches him. "Dante."

She grunts, and the hand which she isn't holding onto her remote with she taps against her own chest.

"Bung." She says, and he nods.

"Bung."

[firesoulstuff]

how it feels when one of your hyperfixations comes back and stronger than ever

[firesoulstuff]

every day is A Struggle lately because we're just supposed to pretend everything is fine and normal and it's very much not? it's actually extremely bad? but we continue on because we must.

this is just the admission that it's very, very hard.

[firesoulstuff]

The softness in this, I love it!

Nora and Rory: "Do you think if things had happened differently that we would still be friends?"

Nora frowned at the two needles in front of her and the yarn connecting them. She thought knitting would be a whole lot easier than this. With winter settling in, the speedster wanted to do something for her newfound teammates. However, she'd had to restart the scarf for Dante twice, and now it might be a third time if she did end up dropping another stitch.

The bedroom door opened and Rory came in with Knut. As the dog wheeled over to his power port that had been installed specifically for him, her roommate walked over to the bed. She paused when she saw the blanket Nora had placed on top of the bed.

"Did you put this here?" she asked, unfolding it out on top of the other blanket already on her bed.

Nora shoved the needle into the stitch. "Yup. Snow's supposed to keep falling the rest of the night and temperature's supposed to drop overnight. Figured you'd need it."

"Thanks," Rory said as she pulled back the covers.

"You're welcome, but you know," Nora began as she looped the yarn over her needle. "A few months ago, I don't know if you would have said that. Are you going soft on us?"

"Ha," Rory crawled into her bed. "Maybe I've learned to trust you all."

Nora pulled the needle under the original stitch. "Do you think if things had happened differently that we would still be friends?"

"You mean if our first meeting hadn't been us knocking each other on our asses?"

"You started that," Nora replied, slipping the old stitch off. "But no, I mean if we met on the timeline itself. If we both got to grow up together."

All the could be heard was the soft hum of Knut charging.

"You mean a timeline where my dad didn't die and I didn't end up in space, right?" Rory's voice was softer. "And your dad didn't disappear?"

"Yeah," Nora set down her knitting. "A timeline where we both got to grow up normal."

"We're metahumans," Rory snorted. "Normal is highly unlikely. But...do you think we would have been friends?"

Nora looked across the room at Rory. Her eyes were wide with anticipation. She really had learned to trust them, and in the process had let her walls down. How often had she been able to do that? How hard was it for her? If she was parroting the question back to Nora, it probably had serious weight to it.

"For starters, you'd be older than me," Nora finally told her. "But maybe I would have been born sooner? I can't say. Still, if your parents ended up moving to live in Central City like mine, I think they would have joined up with Team Flash after the Legends."

"Dad would have complained about playing hero, but he'd find something in it," Rory added. "And maybe he and Mom would help figure out a way to have your dad not disappear."

The thought made Nora smile. "Maybe. Maybe we would have had playdates and spent time at holidays together and caused trouble."

"Maybe you'd help me build Knut."

"Maybe you'd sit next to me on the bus to school."

"Maybe we'd practice with our powers on each other without telling anyone else."

"Maybe, and if I ever needed to talk to someone who wasn't my parents," Nora paused. "I think I would have called you."

"I think I'd do the same," Rory told her.

Silence again.

Nora reached over to turn out the lamp, the only light source currently in the room. "I think we'd still be friends if things were different. And even though we didn't get that timeline, I'm really glad I've got you as a friend now."

"Me too," Rory whispered in the dark. "Good night, Nora."

"Good night, Rory." Nora settled under her covers and closed her eyes.

Knut barked somewhere in the dark.

"Now I wonder who would have been the captain if Dad left," Rory murmured. "Maybe Mick. Or Behrad. But he's terrible at flying the ship."

"Go to sleep, Rory," Nora muttered, too cozy now to think about how Rory had only referred to her father as the captain instead of her mother.

[firesoulstuff]

C Team + "Rory's basically a cat"

Zari winces as she hears stomping footsteps echoing down the halls of the stolen time ship. She knows it's Rory, and she braces herself to deal with it.

Sure enough, Rory comes storming through the galley; soaked through from head to toe, and with Dante hurrying to follow her.

"Are you two ok?" Zari asks, though she doesn't bother putting down her tea just yet, even as Rory stomps past her and mutters "fine" in answer.

Zari looks to Dante, the distant sound of a mechanical door whooshing closed may as well be a slam, and Dante huffs indignantly.

"I give up!"

"What?" Zari asks, her brows knitting together.

"Her!" Dante exclaims, "I understand that you superheroes get all broody and whatever, that's fine, but I turn around for five seconds and she's in the middle of a fight at the local tavern, so I try and help her and then she's fighting me!"

"She hit you?" Zari asks, an anger starting to bubble in her veins.

Until Dante seems to lose a little bit of his steam.

"Pushed me." He amends, "Away from the fight, which she did not have handled by the way."

"I can see." Zari hums, and takes another sip of her tea while Dante works himself back up.

"She ended up in a watering trough for the horses." Dante rants, "I tried to help her out, and not only would she not take it, but she actually stepped on my foot!"

"Hm."

"And God forbid I ask her what started the fight."

When he doesn't go on from there Zari swishes what's left of her tea around in her mug, giving him a minute to breathe before she dares to interject.

"If you're done." She finally ventures, "Do you want my advice?"

The look he gives her all but screams that he hadn't considered there could possibly be any advice on how to deal with Rory Snart.

"What I've found works," Zari says, "Is to realize that Rory is basically a cat."

Dante blinks at her.

"What?"

"And not a friendly one."

He blinks at her again, clearly at his rope's end, and so Zari puts her mug in the sink and then hops up to sit on the counter.

"It doesn't always make sense, given how attached she is to her dog." She grants him that much. "But, otherwise, it's a good mindset for getting through to her."

"How do you figure?"

"Well," Zari shrugs, "If you think about it, we leave food and water where she can find it; sometimes she eats it right away, and sometimes you wonder if she's eaten anything all week."

Finally, Dante takes a seat on a barstool, listening intently.

"You can't just reach out for her or even stand too close and not expect her to run away. Plus she kills all the mice."

Dante scoffs at that one, and Zari smirks, her mind wandering back a bit to another timeline.... To finding Ray sitting on steps to Sara's office utterly dejected...

"But eventually." She says, "If you leave enough doors open for her, she'll come around."

[firesoulstuff]

Group hug!!!

C Team: 6. First hug, like real, good hug

(Set before they find the Ireland house)

Dante pointed to the shores of the river below them. "Is that them?"

Zari followed his finger, pushing wet strands of hair out of her face. Sure enough, there were two figures standing on the rocks. Both seemed miraculously intact, which was more than what could be said for the location of the potential safe house they'd been investigating. Unfortunately, said house had fallen victim to a mudslide that had separated all of them for a bit. She'd found Laurel and Dante, but the girls had been missing until now.

"It looks like them," Laurel waved. "Nora! Rory!"

"Girls!" Zari shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth.

The one that looked like Nora seemed to wave at them. That was good enough for Zari to jump off the gravel road and start down the sloping hill towards the river. The ground was muddy, but solid enough to run on without giving way. Squelching noises behind her indicated Laurel and Dante had followed their lead.

"You're alive!" Nora's voice carried as they ran towards them. "Rory, they're alive!"

"I see that!" Rory's words sounded relieved instead of biting. "We're okay."

It seemed odd that the speedster wasn't running towards them until Zari drew closer. Then she noticed Nora's arm bound to two sticks with fabric. Both girls were spattered with mud, while the trio coming towards them had dried mud caking and flaking up to their knees. Aside from that, they both seemed fine.

Zari reached them first. She'd had faith in their ability to survive, but she'd been equally afraid of finding them in a much worse state. She was so grateful to find them both mostly intact and alive. Since they'd all been thrown together into nonexistence, Zari had come to see them as younger sisters. They would never be anything close to Behrad, but they were still important to her now.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she said, putting one arm around Rory and the other gently around Nora.

Nora sniffled against her, her good arm curling around Zari. "Me too."

Rory swallowed, but put her arms around Zari. It was the first time Rory had shown her physical affection. Apparently it took a natural disaster and the party getting split to bring out her softer side.

Two more pairs of arms came into the picture. Laurel and Dante had joined the group hug. Zari noted that Laurel's head rested against Rory's. Dante seemed to be a little misty-eyed.

"We're okay, guys," Rory said, albeit muffled. "But the house is gone."

"It's just one house," Dante told her. "It did look really nice though. But there's still others on the datasheet we found at the Vanishing Point."

"What matters is that we're together again," Laurel added.

"And that we know where Zari's ship is," Nora chimed in.

"Our timeship," Zari corrected, slowly slipping out. "And as nice as this hug felt, we probably need to find our ship and get out of here. And you two are getting checked out in the med bay."

The girls sighed. "Yes, mom."

Zari shook her head as she watched Laurel and Dante bite back grins. If she ever saw Sara again, she would be apologizing for all the crap she put the captain through when she was living on the timeline.

[firesoulstuff]

Hen knew EXACTLY what she was doing and you can't tell me otherwise!!!

911: "There's only one bed." "Well, darlin', I'm not sleeping on the floor, so I guess we'll have to share."

(Set during the crossover arc)

"There's only one bed," Buck blurted out, looking over Eddie's shoulder.

They've pulled over at a motel for the night, and they're not the only firefighters who decided to do so. It was a stroke of luck they were able to get two rooms, and Hen claimed the first one when they saw it had a single bed. The running assumption was that this one would have two beds, but that was not the case.

"Well, darlin', I'm not sleeping on the floor, so I guess we'll have to share," Eddie teased, stepping in and setting down his bag on one of the chairs. "As long as you don't snore."

Buck was still standing by the door.

"For the record, I don't care if you snore," Eddie added. "Buck?"

Now the other man tuned back into reality. "I don't think I do?"

"If you do, and you wind up doing it right in my ear, I will have to shove you over."

Buck snorted. "Just don't shove me on the floor."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Eddie unzipped his bag. "Hey, are you okay sharing?"

"I've got no problem with it," Buck told him. "We've both fallen asleep on the couch back at the firehouse plenty of times. We shared an air mattress when we had to self-isolate. So long as you're okay with it?"

"No problem here," Eddie shrugged. "You just seemed a little spacey earlier."

"Oh, that?" Buck waved his hand. "Just was thinking back to something TK told me and got lost in thought. You know how it is."

"Sure," Eddie nodded. "I'm not gonna have to have Bobby call Captain Strand, am I?"

"No, nothing like that," Buck shook his head. "I liked that Texas crew. They were pretty great."

"They were," Eddie agreed. "But I'll take the 118 any day."

Buck grinned. "Ain't that the truth."

[firesoulstuff]

C-Team + Bobby: "Who or what exactly are you people?"

(I made a choice to put on the Challenge while writing this)

Bobby stared at the assortment of people standing in front of the bed. All of them were looking at him with expressions ranging from curiosity to open suspicion.

"Who or what exactly are you people?" he asked, his voice little more than a croak.

"Take it easy," a woman with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail told him. She positioned frontmost of the people surrounding him. "You've been out a really long time. Nora, you want to go and get him some water?"

A young woman with short brown hair nodded. Purple and yellow lighting flickered and she was gone. A second later, she was back with a pitcher and a cup. When Bobby had woken up a few minutes ago, the same woman had disappeared in a flash of purple and yellow. It was why he has added the "or what" to his question.

Bobby pointed to her as she filled the cup and held it out to him. "How did you do that?"

"Oh, I'm a metahuman."

"A what?" Bobby took the cup with both hands, noting a tube on his wrist that led to an IV drip stand beside the bed.

"Nora has powers," the only other man in the room said. "Comes from her father, the Flash.""

"I'm supposed to be dead," Bobby said, confused by what was happening. "I was infected-"

"But we have access to some futuristic technology," a blonde woman now approached. "You're very lucky to survive. According to Mary, this was an early version of what will become the Armageddon Virus."

"And are you Mary?" Bobby looked to the dark-haired woman.

"No, my name's Zari," she introduced herself. "Mary's actually downstairs. Nora's the one with the pitcher. This is Dante and Laurel. And by the door, we have Rory."

Another blonde sitting in a chair by the door crossed her arms. "And Knut."

There was a strange robot next to her that almost looked like a dog. He was going to assume that was Knut.

"Okay," Bobby nodded. "I think I'm going to need to start over. Who or what exactly are you people?"

[firesoulstuff]

You work for American government.

[firesoulstuff]

Writer asks #3!

3 ⧽. what's something you like about your writing?

Oof, I mean, I go up and down with my opinions on my own writing. I'm going to say that one thing I've always liked about my own writing is that I can't bring myself to write an angsty ending. I am just too much a sucker for a happy ending so that's the only kind I write, and on the occasions I reread my own stories, I like that I know it's going towards a happy ending.

[firesoulstuff]

C Team + Bobby and Did I dream the whole thing?

These people, they say he isn't dead, but frankly Bobby is having a hard time believing that.

"Did I dream the whole thing?" He asks, though what "The whole thing" consists of, he isn't sure of that either. Whether he means the lab and the explosion, the CCHF, and the maybe his own death, or maybe he means his entire life.

This place, these people with superpowers and magic trinkets, they're all just so different from anything which should be real.

"No." One of them - Zari, the one who seems to be their leader - answers him. "No. What happened to you was real."

"If I was real then how am I not dead?" He asks, "There was only one cure."

"On your Earth." The blonde girl - Rory, the one who seems to always be lurking in the shadows - chimes in from the doorway. "Here, our ship has a med bay, and we managed to find you a cure."

"Your ship?" Bobby asks, and Zari frowns.

"Our time ship." She explains, not that it explains anything. "We're time travelers. Sort of. Our ship is from the future. Most of us are too. I think Laurel and Dante are the only ones from what you would call the past."

"From what I would call the past?"

"What year are you from?" Rory inquires, her lips pursed with complete and total seriousness, and all Bobby can do is scoff.

"Ok, fine." He decides to at least try and accept it. "Fine. Whatever. You people are from the future, or another dimension, or both. Whatever I don't care. Thank you for the hospitality, but if I could go home now-"

He tries to get up from the bed he's been lying in for days now; weeks, actually, according to them. But Zari gives him a sigh, and that is enough to stop him in his tracks.

"Yeah home... Home isn't exactly a straight shot from here."

[firesoulstuff]

✶ . ၄၃ . FIC WRITER ASK GAME !

any [insert __] is for the sender to fill in :)

1 ⧽. if you could sit down and finish any one of your wips without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), which fic would you choose? tell us about it if you want!

2 ⧽. if you could sit down and finish any completely new fic without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), what would you write? tell us about it if you want!

3 ⧽. what's something you like about your writing?

4 ⧽. is there an au or trope that you haven't written before, but would want to try?

5 ⧽. is there a certain kind of fic that feels the most satisfying to finish? any reason why?

6 ⧽. if you were to write a part two/sequel to a fic, what fic would you want to write it for?

7 ⧽. is there a fic you wish you received feedback on, but didn't get any/much? this ask game is asking someone else to then give feedback on said fic, pretty pretty please!!!

8 ⧽. what part of [insert fic] is your favorite?

9 ⧽. tell us about a wip/idea that you're excited about!

10 ⧽. what genre is generally the easiest or most enjoyable for you to write? which is the hardest?

11 ⧽. if you were to rewrite [insert fic] with [insert different character/ship] how do you think it might change?

12 ⧽. what's a song or two you associate with [insert fic]?

13 ⧽. do you have any writing projects/goals/plans you're working on/want to work on?

14 ⧽. is there anything outside of your normal content that you want to write?

15 ⧽. if you wrote a fic called [insert title] with [insert character/ship] what do you think it might be about?

16 ⧽. if you wrote a fic called [insert title] what character/ship would you want to write it for?

17 ⧽. are there any songs you want to write a songfic for?

18 ⧽. how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?

19 ⧽. give a hint/teaser about something you're writing without any context or explanation! tease us haha

20 ⧽. answer any one of the other questions that you want to!

[firesoulstuff]

C Team + Promise you, I'm not usually like this.

Zari sighs, scrubbing her hands over her face and up over her hair, settling her harsh grip against the back of her own neck.

She eyes the unconscious man whom they've dragged into the barn. He still hasn't woken and looks like he's been through hell, but after they gave him something from the ship's medbay, Knut gave the green light that he was safe to at least safe to exist near and to touch.

"I promise you, I'm not usually like this." Zari mumbles to the man. "But I think I owe Sara an apology."

Or two years worth of apologies, at minimum. She always thought she understood the kind of pressure Sara was under as Captain; at the very least, she thought she was starting to understand once Charlie came along to be the resident tester of patience. But oh no, now Zari knows she never once realized the kind of stress Sara was under.

She just snapped Rory and Nora to clean their room.

"This woman who's coming, to tell us what to do with you." She starts talking aloud to the unconscious man, because why not? "She... She helped me get this far." She explains, "She told me where to go, where to find a ship. Of course, she did all that for Rip Hunter too; this British asshole who wants us all working for his Time Bureau."

Or maybe he wants them dead. Or he thinks they should be Legends. Frankly, Zari isn't sure which version of Rip it is whom she is dealing with half the time, or if it's the same one or different. Mary always does warn her that time isn't always linear; and so one must be especially wary of other travelers.

"I know she plays both sides." She admits to the man, leaning against a wooden post. "But this team that I have here... She brought us together. Whatever her game is, I need to play a little longer.

To what end, she still isn't sure. It keeps her up most nights, honestly. All she knows for sure is that right now is Mary is the one who put her on this path, gave her her second chance.

She isn't ready to have it taken away just as quickly.

[firesoulstuff]

C Team Laurel and Rory + I'll be alright.

Rory feels like her lungs are on fire with how much air she is swallowing down. This is not going according to plan. Their... group, whatever they are, the five of them who have been exiled to an existence outside of the main timeline, they really need to stop sticking their noses where they don't belong.

They're in some pocket of fluxing time during a hurricane. The ship's system alerted to the timeline being about to go severely off track, and so they came in. After all, what do people like them have to lose?

"Dante!" Laurel calls out, and Rory picks up her head. Blinking water from her eyes she sees the distant shape of Dante being tossed up and down in the churning waters.

Rory swallows, both seawater and sadness. Dante is clearly struggling, trying to get closer to the rooftop of what she thinks was once and suburban garage that she and Laurel just barely managed to haul themselves up onto.

Then, Laurel starts to stand, and Rory reacts.

"What are you doing?!" She snaps, grabbing for Laurel's hand and just missing. On top of that, her words are far more loud and violent than she had been intending, and clearly Laurel was not expecting such a reaction.

She stares up at Laurel; the two of them with eyes wide and sopping tendrils of hair hanging in their faces. They're both shaking, both gasping for breath; barely recovered from the fight, the hurricane, and swimming up until right now.

Rory is fully expecting for Laurel to tell her none of that matters. That Dante is one of them, and even if he weren't, they can't just sit here and let him fend for himself.

"I'll be alright." Is all that Laurel says, even if fear is shining in her eyes, and Rory swallows down the weight of those words.

The two of them haven't talked since Laurel joined them, about what they are. They don't talk about the fact that they're an aunt and a niece who never met - barely knew each other existed - and yet here they are; forgotten from the same timeline.

But those three words - spoken so softly when they have every right to be a command - Rory knows it's the opening of the door.

[firesoulstuff]

The fact that you managed to cram so much LORE into this!!!!

I love them not knowing exactly where/how Rory came from in the timeline!

C-Team + "Take a Tylenol, you'll live."

"Take a Tylenol, you'll live," Rory's voice quipped from above.

Laurel looked up from where she'd been crouched behind a bale. Her niece was sitting up in the barn's loft, staring down at them. Laurel had no idea how long she'd even been sitting up there. She hadn't even heard her come in, or maybe she'd been in here since she and Dante first came in.

"How long have you been there?" Dante asked from where he was lying in the hay.

Rory shrugged. "A while. Long enough to see you land on your ass and complain."

Dante climbed to his feet, brushing bits of hay off his front. Frustration was starting to show on his face. Still, he picked the violin up with the upmost care, like it would explode in his face. And given that it knocked him on his ass several times, she couldn't really blame him.

"I thought you were taking that sheep back," Dante grumbled.

Rory climbed down the ladder, jumping off when there were two steps to go. "Nora and I couldn't find the owner. Decided to come sit in here, then you two showed up and blew out the barn doors."

"It wasn't on purpose," Dante argued. "I didn't exactly get instructions for this. And before you say anything about music, this is very different than a piano."

"So should I not go looking for the tool kit?"

Laurel gave Rory a look she used to give Sara when she was getting on her nerves. "It's in the house. We had to use it to fix a leak earlier. Go find Nora and get her to help."

Rory gave a thumbs up and left the barn. Laurel watched her go and walked over to the doors Dante had accidently broke off with a shockwave from his violin. They were lucky the barn had good stone walls and wasn't entirely wooden. A collapsed barn would not be ideal for laying low, even if Rip Hunter wasn't searching for them anymore.

"Baa."

Right, the sheep that had wandered onto their property. She was at the entrance to the barn. Thankfully, the animal seemed intact and unfazed by the barn doors on the grass. It simply stood in the grass and baa'ed at her again.

"How does she know what Tylenol is?" Dante asked.

Laurel spun around to face Dante. "What are you talking about?"

"Rory," he continued. "When I got knocked back by that blast from the violin, she said to take a Tylenol."

"Her bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired, but I do think she cares about us now," Laurel replied, walking back inside.

Dante shook his head. "Rory told us she grew up in space."

"What are you getting at, Dante?"

"How does she know why Tylenol is?" Dante repeated his earlier question. "Unless she's left something out in what she's told us, something's not adding up. Maybe they still call it Tylenol in space, but I know she's hiding something about how she was erased."

Laurel couldn't deny that he was making sense. And Rory had been avoiding that talk with her thanks to hurdles in their non-existence cropping up. "I'm inclined to believe you, but-"

She didn't get to finish her thought before Nora rushed in. The sheep baaed and ran right into the barn with them and into one of the broken pens.

"We need help," Nora said quickly. "There's a man in the field."

"What?"

"A man just appeared in the field," Nora explained. "I don't know where he came from. I think he's a firefighter but he looks like he was in an explosion or something because he's all dusty and there's blood. He's out cold. He needs help, guys."