kellanved-ammanas

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Heavy/Medic & Sniper - Just an Observation

Summary: Turns out that circular breathing (vital to playing the didgeridoo) can help to alleviate snoring. At least one merc (probably several), having been reliably informed that they snore, starts pestering Sniper for lessons.

~

Medic hadn’t necessarily said it as a complaint, just an observation. One of a list of reasons why they only shared a bed in a sexual sense and not just in general. His main reasons had been being a doctor/scientist meant sometimes he needed to be up at odd times of night to take care of a patient, do something with an experiment, and/or to handle a medical emergency. Heavy being disturbed from sleep by all that too wouldn’t do anyone any good. The, “Besides, you snore, it would be hard to sleep next to,” had been just an additional reason.

It was all perfectly logical. Heavy had no complaints. He had no desire to possibly be woken by Medic’s sometimes needing to get out of bed at odd hours. So them separating to sleep in their different rooms was perfectly fine with him. What about after this job though? Presumably one day they would, if not retire together, still go somewhere else together. If it was just the two of them, those disturbances would be less likely to pop up frequently enough to be an issue. Heavy’s snoring would remain though. If it was loud enough to be an additional reason they couldn’t sleep side by side then surely it might be enough to be a main reason too.

And so, after only a handful of days after the discussion about possibly moving into the same room, Heavy made his way to Sniper camper van. He paused outside, hand already raised to knock. There was no reason to be nervous. But still, asking for help never felt right. Handling problems directly on his own was preferable. Technically he could teach himself this on his own but the only books he would be able to get on the subject in America were ones written in English. He could muddle though of course, he was more than conversational in the language after all, but it would be much faster and easier to just ask Sniper. No hunting through bookstores for something that would take even more time and effort to read and understand required. Especially since a book couldn’t reliably give him any feedback no matter how easy it was to read. So, not letting the hesitation hold for more than a handful of seconds, he forced himself to knock.

The sound of Sniper’s didgeridoo playing inside stopped. A few seconds later the door opened, revealing the man himself. “Uh… hey, mate.”

“Hello. I have problem. Doctor says I snore. I have heard that…” Heavy paused again. Probably the was a proper phrase or term for it in English that he’d never heard before because it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that normally came up in their line of work. “…that type of breathing when playing wind instrument can help with snoring.” That should make clear what he was asking for, right? “I was wondering if you could teach me, please.”

Sniper let out a slight chuckle before replying. “Engie was here just the other day with the same request. So uh… I guess I’ll tell you what I told him. I ain’t sure how good a teacher I’d be but I suppose I got nothing much else to do so I’m willing to try. We could do it this weekend, midday Saturday, same day I’m gonna try to teach him.”

“That is acceptable. I will be here. Thank you.”

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Engie/Pyro & Medic - A Miracle Worker

Summary: Do you do the continuation already? If not, I request for you to do it

[A/N] This is in reference to chapter 37 in which Pyro has died, Engie called it into base and Medic had decided to try to bring him back.

~

If anyone could bring Pyro back it was indeed Medic. It was taking so long though. Was that a sign that the experiment had failed? Or perhaps that meant it was working; if it had failed Medic would’ve come out with the bad news sooner. It was impossible for Engie to guess which it might be.

Having been expelled from the room many hours ago, all he could do was sit outside and wait. Heavy came by occasionally with remainders to eat and take care of himself general. He obeyed mostly to break up the monotony of sitting and waiting. Most of the time though that’s all he did; sit and wait, trusting Medic’s excitement to do the experiment meant it was likely to succeed.

The passage of time was grating though. Every passing hour the temptation to knock on those doors and demand and update grew stronger. Engie stood to do so but… stopped. Probably he shouldn’t. It might be a bad idea to disturb Medic in the middle of it. And so, he sat back down. What if he just peeked in though? Just to see whatever there was to see. If he stayed quiet, it would probably be fine.

He stood again but still didn’t do anything more than turn to face the doors. Did he actually want to see what Medic was doing to Pyro’s body? Would it do him any good? Could he glean anything from it when he himself wasn’t a doctor? Medic hadn’t even told him what exactly he was doing, only that he might be able to bring Pyro back to life even though he’d been dead for hours by the time Engie got here with the body. And so peeking in for just a look might not…

The doors burst open, the clank of them loud enough to make him flinch after how long the silence had held. It was Medic of course, opening them with a flourish. Which was a good sign, he usually only did that when he was proud of himself.

“I am a god!” he said, the visible bags under his eyes and the general dishevelment of his blood stained clothing barely showing in his voice at all.

Engie didn’t really need to ask at this point but… “It worked then?”

It was Pyro who answered as he stepped out next. “Yeah.” His suit and mask were missing. Instead he wore a hospital gown and seemingly nothing else. “It worked. I’m alive again.”

Engie approached, opening his arms, intending to go in for a hug but stopped. What if he was still injured or something? Before he could think of what to say instead, Pyro closed the rest of the distance between them to hug. He smelled strongly of medi-gun fumes but he was warm and solid, his embrace strong as ever. Engie relaxed into the hug, still more gentle than usual though, just in case.

“You two have fun,” Medic said, the exuberance in his voice diminished by his exhaustion. “I’m gonna go take a nap.”

“Thanks doc. You’ve certainly earned a nap. We’ll talk later.” Not only about how grateful Engie was to have Pyro back but about how interesting that experiment of his was. He’d really brought someone back from the dead. Not unheard but with how long Pyro had been dead for and how damaged his body had been, it shouldn’t have been. Medic was a miracle worker.

[kellanved-ammanas]

Tf2 Drabbles: Spy & Medic - Actually Ideal

Summary: Due to being stationed somewhere with high tornado risk, Sniper's campervan has to stay in the garage. Not only is he very much not enjoying this, but the others aren't terribly pleased about having to hear him practise saxophone AND didgeridoo at random times of day.

~

Sniper’s playing wasn’t horrible but he also wasn’t the best there’d ever been. He needed the practice. Good for him for putting the work in that but it sure would’ve been nice if he would do it when Spy wasn’t trying to relax.

Spy’s room shared a wall with the garage where Sniper’s van would remain until they moved bases again or tornado season ended, meaning more than anyone else, he heard everything. Every flubbed note, every instance of going back to start from the beginning of the song and/or stanza, everything. The didgeridoo was the less annoying of Sniper’s chosen instruments as its droning was easier to tune out as a background noise. Unfortunately, it was also the one he was better at and thus spent less time practicing.

Sniper seemed to have an uncanny ability to know when Spy was trying to settle down to paint or read. The saxophone in particular was prone to drowning out the gentle music from the record player. A small easily portable player, it couldn’t get loud enough to drown at Sniper’s playing in turn. Meaning Spy was always stuck listening to Sniper’s practice sessions.

After two weeks of this, Spy’s patience was quickly drying up. His hope that this would be a short assignment was gone. He had to do something about it before he went insane.

He waited until Scout dragged Sniper off to do whatever it was the two of them did when Scout dragged him off like that. The garage door was unlocked, allowing him to easily sneak in and pull it gently closed behind him before starting for the camper van. Upon reaching the door, he lifted a hand to open. Before he could make contact though..

The door swung open. Medic stood on the camper van’s stairs, holding what could only be Sniper’s saxophone case, judging based of its shape. Their eyes locked, both frozen for a moment before Medic broke the silence. “Would you believe me if I told you this isn’t what it looks like?”

Spy let out a small chuckle. “No. You’re annoyed by the saxophone practice and want it to stop?” Medic’s lab was also in this part of the base. Meaning he would also often had a front row seat to Sniper garage practice sessions.

“Yes.”

“Well that solves my problem too.” Having Medic steal it instead was actually ideal. “Now let’s get out of here before he comes back.”

Medic stepped down and closed the camper’s door before following Spy towards the exit. Before they got there, it too opened. Spy’s heart skipped a beat but blessedly it was just Demo and Pyro this time. They stepped in and froze at the sight of Spy and Medic.

“You’re here for this too?” Medic asked, holding up the case.

“Aye,” Demo replied. “It’s bloody obnoxious, ‘specially when I got headache.”

Welp, seems like almost everyone was annoyed by it. Maybe talking to Sniper about it would’ve been better, less petty for sure, but too late now. Spy’s plan had been to quietly return the instrument once the camper van was no longer in base. Whether Medic intended to do so was unclear. If not, it wasn’t Spy’s problem.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Whole Team - Monster AU

Summary: My request (no rush, please take your time): more of the monster AU from chapter 61, with snippets of various mercs' nonhuman-ness reveals, plus Sniper/Scout and Engie/Medic.

[A/N] Over on Ao3 this is the 100th chapter of the fic I'm putting these in over there! Let's go! I chose this request to do as the 100th chapter because I like the AU and it was easy to find a way to include everyone on the team, not necessarily an equal amount, some ideas were just longer or shorter than others, but they are all there. It's basically 8 drabbles in one.

~

Scout half cecaelia, half siren

Even wrapped in several layers of snow gear it was still horridly cold. Scout had never hated anything more. Okay, maybe there were lots of things he hated more but the cold, snow, and ice were up there pretty high on his most hated list currently.

Below him the ice creaked and groaned ominously. It had been doing that since he’d wandered onto it and was the only reason he even knew that he had so it was probably fine. Heavy had warned him not to walk on it but with how much snow was falling from the sky, it had long since become nigh on impossible to tell where the ground ended and the frozen lake began. So he just kept walking.

The base was in sight now. Meaning he should be visibly on its cameras. He lifted the briefcase above his head in a wave. Someone should be on the cameras. Hopefully it was someone who would think to let him in so he wouldn’t have to take of his mittens to punch in the door code. And maybe if they were feeling real nice they might even brew up a hot drink for Scout to…

A splintering sound came from beneath him, loud enough to make him flinch. He jumped to side, landing hard enough to make another cracking sound. And then he was falling through and into the water below.

Unlike any water he’d been in before, it took his breath. It subsumed him in an icy abyss, taking everything that he was and leaving only cold nothingness in its wake.

~

The hum of the overhead medi-gun was twice as loud as the one Medic took into the field. It soothing in a way only mechanical ambiance could be. But also not soothing because it meant he was in Medic’s lab. Not a place any sane person would want to wake up in.

He forced open his eyes. It was dark, the only lights a dim artificial one somewhere to his left and the overhead medi-gun’s glowing beam. Which didn’t mean anything because even in the day time Medic kept all the windows shuddered. Supposedly he was sensitive to the sun, it hurt his eyes and he got burnt real easy, or something like that. Scout was pretty sure by now that it was because he was a weird freak who liked the dark and carrying around an big umbrella all day to look ‘cool’.

With a groan, Scout sat up. The blanket covering him fell to his lap. … It was the only thing covering him; he was naked. He scrambled to pull it back up to his chin.

“Oh good, you’re finally up.”

Scout bit back on a flinch as he turned to look at Medic getting up from his desk to approach the operating table Scout sat upon. “What the fuck’s going on here? Why am I naked?”

Medic ignored the questions reached him, leaning in uncomfortably close. “So you’re a siren, huh?”

Scout didn’t manage to hold back a flinch this time. No one was supposed to know about that. He’d been doing such a good job keeping it a secret too, always making sure he was alone and the door was locked whenever he took a shower. Never accepting invites to swim in the Tuefort mote – not that he would’ve anyway with the Pyros down there all the time with their damn electric signs. Doing whatever it took to not get wet enough for his scales to come out.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Had he put enough bite into that to make it sound believable?

Medic didn’t look convinced. “You fell into the lake. Heavy pulled you out. I’m told you were glittering quite prettily in the fading sunlight.”

Oh. Scout couldn’t talk his way around that, could he? “How many people saw?”

“Everyone.”

Damn it. “For the record, I’m only half siren on my mom’s side and half something else on my dad’s. I don’t care what because I don’t care about him.” Whatever it was though was why his scales were various shades of dark blue instead the pretty pastel rainbow of colours Mom and his brothers had when in the water. It might also be why his singing wasn’t as hypnotizing as it was supposed to be. But Medic didn’t need to know that stuff.

“Noted.” Medic was still standing way too close. His eyes almost seemed to gleam in the low light. He was a creepy freak, always had been. Standing too close and having eyes that almost looked inhuman at times was nothing new for him though. Meaning perhaps that he didn’t intend to be weird about Scout having just been exposed as a monster. Unexpected but it sure would be nice if that was the case.

Speaking of being exposed as a monster though… “How much trouble am I in for this?”

“None. Miss Pauling already knew and thus it’s safe to say the Administrator did too.” Figures. “Soldier was mad for a bit. He thought it meant you weren’t American. He was corrected though.”

“Okay… cool.” The chances of that many humans being okay with a monster having secretly been in their midst for so long didn’t seem likely but… no one who took a job like this was a normal person anyway. So maybe it really would be fine.

Spy cecaelia

The reveal that Scout had secretly been a sea monster this whole time brought with it the usual spattering of talk any time something big happened within the team. Naturally for those in the know, this included speculation about Spy. Scout had made a point to clarify with everyone that he was only half siren and half ‘something else’ on his dad’s side. It could easily just mean human but Medic didn’t think so and Pyro trusted Medic’s opinion.

“It’s gotta be some other sea monster that can disguise as a human to walk on land, right?” Engie said.

“Perhaps,” Medic replied, “but there are a number of different kinds of monsters that can reproduce with sirens, not all of them water based.”

“Oh, really now. Such as?”

And so Pyro sat and listened to the two of them talk about the possibilities, mostly Medic sharing his monster knowledge – not surprising he knew a lot about them. Even after he’d finished cleaning his flamethrower and putting Engie’s tools back their appropriate spots on the wall he sat back down at the workbench to continue listening. He knew almost nothing about monsters other than that they were cool and thus couldn’t contribute anything. Neither of them seemed to mind his silent presence though.

Eventually of course the topic of how to figure out what that ‘something else’ Spy might be came up. At this Pyro raised his hand. “I’ll dunk him in water.” Dunking people in water was always fun. Normally he followed it up by jumping in and hitting his victim with the electric sign that he carried solely for that purpose. But it would be fun even without that.

Both Engie and Medic turned their heads to look at him. It was Medic who replied. “That would cover a lot of possibilities or rule them out if nothing happened.”

“Are we sure we wanna do that though?” Engie asked. “I mean, maybe we should respect his privacy.”

That would be boring though. They knew he was something. Okay, maybe ‘knew’ was a strong word but if Scout were half human he’d surely know that and would’ve said it, right? He wasn’t always the brightest fellow around but he wasn’t as dumb as he sometimes came of as. So it was very likely Spy was something other than fully human and the curiosity over that was hard to ignore.

Before Pyro could say that or Medic could reply with his own rebuke, Engie continued. “Or not. I wanna know too, honestly. We could ask but I don’t think he’d answer. So yeah, Pyro ‘accidentally’ dunk him in some water. Not water ‘round here though. It’s way too cold.”

Waiting that long would suck but they were already scheduled to move in a couple weeks. Back to Tuefort too with Pyro’s favourite mote. So he gave Engie a thumbs up. To spare Spy the hypothermia – even with the medi-gun being an easy fix for it, it still no doubt sucked – he would be patient.

~

Waiting until they were in the midst of battle had been the plan but Spy spent a good chunk of most battles invisible. Pyro had no way to follow him without setting him on fire which he wasn’t going to do to a friend. And the forts being inaccessible by car meant they had to walk part of the way to them which included walking over the bridge over the mote. Meaning it was time. This way would be better anyway because the enemy team wouldn’t see if anything happened.

He slowed down, falling back in the group until he was with Spy and Sniper at the rear. Sniper grunted a non-verbal greeting but otherwise neither paid him much mind. This was going to be fun.

When they were about halfway across, Pyro put his arms around both their waists, they stood just close enough to allow him to do so. Before they could do more than squawk in surprise, he pulled them closer and tipped all three of them over the railing. They landed with a splash, sending them near to the bottom before buoyancy and a bit of swimming brought them back up.

Spy said something in French, probably a series of curses and/or something along the lines of ‘what the fuck is wrong with you?’ based off his tone. On Pyro’s other side, Sniper scrambled to grab his hat from the surface of the water before it floated away with a, “Bloody hell, mate. What was that for?”

Ignoring him, Pyro turned to face Spy. The water in the mote wasn’t always the cleanest but having been away from it as long as they had it was more than clear enough to see through. Which also made it impossible to miss that like Scout, Spy changed in the water. There was a mass of… something in the water beneath him where his legs should’ve been. Pyro couldn’t tell what; the water on the gas mask’s lenses made them even harder to see through.

“Is my eye deceiving me is or Spy a bloody octopus?” Demo asked from atop the bridge above them. The entire team had stopped to look. “I swear I ain’t had that much to drink yet.”

“Holy shit,” Scout said. “He is an octopus! What the hell man? You a monster too?”

Spy groaned. “The correct term is cecaelia. No one was supposed to know except someone just had to pull me into the water.” This he directed at Pyro so Pyro lifted a hand to wave at him.

“So that means we got two monsters on the team then, huh?” Sniper said, drawing Pyro’s attention back onto him. He’d put his hat back on. “That’s uh… interesting.”

It certainly was. Pyro had never met even a single monster before. Now he had two who were his friends. Spy would forgive him eventually… probably. He’d pulled Sniper in too after all on a whim because he was there but it should make it look like just a prank and not a means to attempt to out Spy’s monsterness.

“Would anyone else like to come out as a monster?” Medic said. “Now would be a good time.”

Predictably silence answered him. The chances of anyone else being a monster were rather low. They were rare, especially the ones that could convincingly pretend to be humans for any length of time. It’d be cool if there were more but Pyro wasn’t going to count on it.

Sniper Werewolf

“C’mon man, I like camping. I used to do it all the time with my brothers back home,” Scout said as he leaned against he side of the camper van, giving Sniper his best smile.

“Nah, this is a boring, um, meditation trip thingy. A spiritual religion thing. You wouldn’t like it.”

“Oh.” Scout leaned in switching to a whisper as he lifted a hand to cover the side of his mouth lest any lip readers be about. “Is it drugs? ‘Cause if so I’m down to have fun.” Was that how people who knew stuff about drugs would word it? The most he’d ever done was smoke cigarettes and weed a few times. He was curious about harder stuff though and if Sniper had it, he’d be interested in experimenting.

Sniper sighed. “No. It’s a religion thing. I’m gonna be sitting there cross-legged and silently praying the whole time. It’d would bore you to death, I promise.”

That did indeed sound boring, so much so, it seemed like a lie. Like it was something Sniper was making up specifically to convince Scout to give up on joining him on his upcoming camping trip. And here Scout had been thinking Sniper might’ve liked him. Had he just been putting up with Scout the whole time? Maybe that’s why he took these trips so often; specifically to get away from Scout annoying him all the time. Damn it!

“Religion doesn’t seem like your kinda thing,” he said before the silence could stretch on for too long.

“Yeah, well, you’re a sea monster and I’m religious. People got lots of sides to them that aren’t always obvious.” Yeah and apparently one of his was that he pitied Scout too much to tell him to just fuck off and leave him alone. Instead he had to leave the whole base like once a month just to get a break. Or maybe it was because Scout was a sea monster; he wasn’t as okay with that new bit of information as he’d pretended. … That would be worse than him just secretly finding Scout annoying. “Now could you please get off my van so I can head out?”

Tempting as it was to stay here and annoy him until he finally broke and admitted the truth, Scout pushed off and stepped back. He didn’t technically know for sure it was a lie after all. Sniper had been going on these trips long before he found out Scout was a sea monster. Which didn’t rule out him finding Scout annoying. And this was the first time Scout had asked to go, maybe he would’ve been willing to let him join before finding out Scout’s secret. Before he got too mad though, he’d needed to make sure he had something to get mad about.

“Thanks,” Sniper said as he stepped past him to open the door and stepped in. “I’ll see you when I get back, like always.” He hesitated before closing the door, waiting for Scout to respond. Scout didn’t and so he eventually closed it.

Scout stood there in silence until the engine started. She was loud but would it be enough to cover up the sound of someone clambering up the ladder on the side to the roof? He could only hope so because as she started moving, he jerked back into motion. Sprinting around to the other side, he grabbed the ladder and hauled himself up to the roof.

If Sniper heard anything from within, it wasn’t enough to convince him to stop and get out to investigate. The van kept going. Scout settled in for a long ride. It wasn’t going to be fun but as long as he stayed low, it should be fine.

~

Sniper drove until the sun started to dip towards the horizon and then a little more, stopping finally when it started to get dark. Scout sat up a bit and looked around. There didn’t seem to be anything special about the spot. Sniper had gone off road a couple hours ago so they were in the middle of the New Mexico desert. It was flat enough that Scout could see quite a ways even with the rapidly setting sun. There was nothing here or anywhere nearby.

The roar of the camper van’s engine cut off, plunging Scout into silence. He hated how quiet the desert and other places like it could be, it made it feel almost like something could jump out and attack at any moment. Which was ridiculous of course but he’d grown up by the ocean and it was always making noise. The approaching darkness only made it worse.

A couple minutes went by, adding to the tension as Scout didn’t dare move lest he make too much noise, before the camper’s door finally opened and Sniper exited. He walked away from the van, giving Scout a good diagonal view of him in the fading light. His hat and glasses were missing – were they prescription though and thus this was odd or just sunglasses and thus not needed? – and he had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders that draped down to just below his knees. No shoes or socks. What was he doing?

Once he was a few yards away from the van, he turned – Scout quickly lowered himself to lay as flat on the roof as possible – and sat down. And then… nothing. He just sat there. Was this some kind of prayer/religion thing? Weird but better than what Scout had thought it was. Maybe he should drop down and explain the error? … Nah, he’d wait a little longer to make sure first.

As the sun finished setting the stars came out and then the moon rose. She was full tonight, meaning as she crested over the horizon she cast enough light to see by. Not particularly well but enough to see that Sniper was a twitching under his blanket. Just a little at first and then a lot until it looked more like writhing. And then he made a sound like he was in pain. Shit.

Maybe Sniper was on drugs and was having a bad reaction. Not something Scout could help with but… he certainly couldn’t just lie here and watch. If he died, Respawn would catch up but still, dying alone was never fun.

Scout straightened, wincing only a little at the ache in his neck and back, before shifting to sliding off the van. He stumbled as he landed, falling to his hands and knees. Uninjured though, he stood, brushed himself off and jogged over to where Sniper lay on the ground now, writhing in his blanket.

“Hey pal, you okay? Sorry about uh…” He cut off as Sniper face turned to look up at him. It was barely even his face anymore. The bones in it had shifted, elongating into a doglike snout. Fur was growing in to cover it. The ears sealed the deal, they’d shifted upward and grew to fluffy points. Sniper was turning into a wolf. “Huh?”

Sniper growled at him. Scout stepped back. In hindsight, Sniper’s heading off once a month every month no matter their location or the weather, might’ve been a clue on what was really happening on his ‘camping trips’. If he’d paid attention to the moon cycle it would’ve been obvious but alas, he didn’t because why would he?

“Hey, pal. We’re still pals, right? I know you’re probably mad at me about the whole coming here on your roof thing but uh… not enough to like rip my guts out or anything, right?”

Could Sniper even still understand him? Did he even remember him? Could Scout outrun him if the answer to those questions was ‘no’? … Probably not. Maybe if he could get back up onto the rough or into the camper and lock the door, he’d be fine?

Sniper rolled and shook himself free of the blanket. He’d fully transformed under it into a hunched man-wolf hybrid, covered in a thick gray fur. He was still skinny though because of course he was.

Probably Scout should’ve run as soon as he realized what was happening. Too late now though. Instead he braced for a lunge. … None came though. Sniper just stood there, all his paws on the ground, his head bowed and wolf ears pushed back. Not in anger though but instead like he was cringing. He even let out a small whine before shaking himself again, a very doglike motion.

“Oh, okay,” was all Scout could come up with to say. He seemingly wasn’t in danger though so that was good. “So you’re a werewolf, huh? I guess that uh… explains some things. I kinda thought you were trying to get away from me or something.”

Sniper whined again. Scout had experience with dogs but not wolves and everything he’d heard of werewolves had indicated they were mindlessly violent. Which clearly wasn’t true else Sniper would’ve at least bite him by now. So what the whine might mean was impossible to guess.

“I’ll guess we’ll probably talk about this more in the morning, huh?” And maybe Scout had an apology to make for the assumption as well as his tagging along after being told not to.

Sniper turned and took off running, apparently he had some energy to burn. He was fast. Way faster than Scout. Cool!

~

Naturally Scout was allowed to ride shotgun during the drive back to base. “I’ll keep you secret, I promise,” he said as he buckled in.

“Nah, fuck it. Everyone always knows ‘bout you and Spy so we might as well tell ‘em ‘bout me too. I think several of them already suspect anyway. I’d uh… prefer it if you told ‘em so I don’t gotta.”

“All right, if you’re sure. I’ll tell them when we get back. Feel free to change your mind on that though. Just let me know if you do before I do it.”

Medic vampire

Medic having a store of blood bags was sensible. The medi-gun, both the battle ready one and the more powerful overhead one were great, but they needed power and medi-fluid to function properly. So having some backup mundane medical stuff in case of emergencies made sense. What didn’t though was why he would drink from one?

Even before deciding to pretend to be one, Engie had already figured out that organics were weird. Especially the kind of folk who ended up with this type of job. Medic’s particular brand of strangeness was as endearing as it was unique. Meaning perhaps that Engie shouldn’t be too surprised by entering his lab and finding him drinking from a blood bag. He still was though.

Finally seeming to have noticed his entrance, Medic paused and turned to face him. He held eye contact for a couple seconds before finally lowering the blood bag from his mouth.

“Howdy,” Engie said in hopes of easing the tension a little.

“Hmm… I’ve been rather lazy lately about remembering to lock the doors, huh?” He didn’t sound offended over Engie walking in on him doing whatever this was. That could be hard to tell sometimes though.

“Yep. I just uh, wanted to come in say ‘hi’ so, hi. I probably should’ve knocked.” He’d fallen out of the habit a while ago though as Medic did usually lock his doors whenever he wished to not be disturbed. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“You’re not going to ask why I’m drinking from a blood bag?”

“Well, I figure it’s probably part of an experiment or something and so you’d probably tell me eventually on your own.” Their experiments was one of their major talking points.

“Hmm.” Medic looked at him for a second or two longer before lifting the blood bag back to his mouth. There wasn’t much left in it at his point and thus it was less than a minute before he was lowering it again. “I’m a vampire.”

“Ah, I see.” That explained a lot actually. “That makes sense.”

“That a problem?”

“Nope.” It was just one more person on the team being revealed as non-human. Each reveal was statistically more unlikely than the last but so be it.

“Good. I’m tired of keeping it a secret. Let’s go find something more interesting to do then standing around staring at each other.”

Demo Selkie

Demo’s room was cleaner than Pyro would’ve expected. They had only been stationed here for a couple weeks though so perhaps the mess just hadn’t had time to really build up yet. Regardless it made guiding him to the bed easy.

He flopped onto it with a groan before mumbling something that might not even be English or any language. Pyro pushed him a little further from the edge lest he fall off. In the process he also rolled him onto his side in case he needed to throw up. He then pulled Demo’s shoes and socks off so he’d be more comfortable. The constant need to wear a gas mask helped a lot here because his socks looked visibly disgusting even through the gas mask lenses. Pyro couldn’t judge though, he was pretty gross under the suit most of the time.

After dropping the dirty socks in the hamper at foot of the bed and putting Demo’s boots in front of it, Pyro pulled the crumbled bed sheet up to Demo’s chin, loosely tucking him in. Probably he was too out of it to appreciate but maybe he would in the morning. Pyro gently patted him on the head before turning to leave. Before he could take more than a step though…

“Me skin, I like to… like to nap with it.” Demo continued for a sentence or two longer but his half asleep drunken mumbling rendered all by the word, ‘soft’ inaudible. Not that Pyro was entirely sure he’d heard the first part correctly anyway.

Pyro turned to face him. “What?”

More mumbling, now muffled too as half his face was pressed into his pillow. Pyro could just leave him to fall asleep without whatever it was he was trying to ask for. It wouldn’t take long and he wasn’t likely to remember being denied it in the morning. But Pyro wanted to help him if he could. Luckily he gestured vaguely towards his dresser, indicating that perhaps whatever he wanted as inside it.

Upon approaching it, the top drawer made the most sense to check first. Nothing but shirts and pants. The second drawer though contained something rolled up tight in the small space. A blanket perhaps? Pyro pulled it out, letting it unfurl in front of him. … A seal skin? No, it was too perfect for that. It was the whole rather large seal, flippers, face, and all. A realistic faux seal rug then. Cute!

Switching to a one-handed hold, he carefully pulled off one of his gloves so he could run his hand over it. It was soft and warm, almost like he was touching a living animal. Weird but cool. He’d have to ask Demo about it later after he’d sobered up.

Turning back to face Demo, he gave it a slight shake by way of asking if this was what Demo was looking for. He grunted and made a grabby gestured towards it so probably it was. Pyro walked over and gave it to him.

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he pulled it closed, trailing off into a loud snore.

After putting his glove back on, Pyro gave him a thumbs up even though it couldn’t be seen before turning and leaving. He made sure to turn off the lights and close the door gently.

~

Scout was the person he ran into first and thus the person he told about Demo’s weird warm seal blanket. From him naturally, it was only a couple of hours before everyone else on the team knew about it too. Which should’ve been fine because it was just a weird but cute blanket. But then Medic and Heavy came to talk to him about it some more.

“Is not a selkie skin,” Heavy said after Pyro had shared what he knew about it with them directly. “They don’t leave the ocean.”

Medic shook his head. “Even more than before I think it could be. Scout and Spy are both sea monsters and they left the ocean.”

“Yes but is unlikely. Too many monsters on this team already. Maybe he stole it from someone, maybe the selkie, maybe the selkie’s captor.”

“Or maybe it’s his and we’ve all been secretly monsters this whole time.”

Before Heavy could respond, Pyro cut in. “What’s a selkie?”

“A seal that can take human shape by taking off its skin,” Medic replied. “From what you described I think Demo might be one. It would explain some things about his reluctance over letting me draw his blood.”

If that was the case then perhaps Pyro shouldn’t have told Scout about the seal skin. Then again, if he was yet another monster on the team, that was cool. He never would’ve thought he’d get the shot to meet even one monster let alone five. Each one a different kind of monster too.

“We will ask when Demo wakes,” Heavy said. “If he says, ‘no’, Doctor is dropping it.” He gave Medic a pointed look.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Chances were Medic wasn’t going to drop it until he knew for sure one way or the other. Which meant that Pyro would likely know for sure too.

Soldier magical raccoon familiar

According to Soldier he and Merasmus used to be roommates. Merasmus vehemently denied that though, saying instead that he’d been an ‘a pest that he regretted ever having let in’, that he ‘should’ve left Soldier rooting around in the trash because that’s where he belonged’. Spy had always assumed it was a case of Merasmus regretting agreeing to the roommate deal and being verbose about it.

Halloween was approaching though, Merasmus would come with it, bringing to mind their adversarial relationship. A lot had been revealed about the team this year, including Spy’s own secret. It was probably a long shot to think there might be something like that with Soldier too but surely so many of the team being monsters couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Miss Pauling the Admin, or whoever had been in charge of recruitment had to have been looking for monsters. Meaning Soldier might just have a secret too and if so it no doubt involved Merasmus.

Spy could poke around Pyro, Heavy, or Engie’s room but with Halloween fast approaching, coupled with Demo’s recent outing as a selkie, prompting this line of thought, Soldier made sense to look into first. Breaking into his room was easy, so much so it could hardly be called ‘breaking in’.

Inside was predictably a mess. Not much on the floor but the way the pillows and blankets were bunched up on the bed, it looked more like a wild animal’s nest than a soldier’s bed. The strong reek of wild animal added to that perception. Given that, the growl that came from the bed wasn’t the least bit surprising. Lieutenant Bites.

“Hush,” Spy whispered to her. “I’m here to investigate your owner. I don’t care about you.” While she was far from docile, she only bit anyone who came to close to her. She was providing the perfect excuse to not have to poke too closely around the bed. Who knows what foulness might be lurking within those crumpled blankets and pillows?

The dresser – a measly cheap thing provided as part of the room along with the bed frame – was the only other piece of furniture in the room. Atop it sat Soldier’s spare helmet and a handful of other hats. Spy checked inside each one, careful to place them in the exact same position as before once he was done. Nothing. The drawers, he checked one by one. Between things, under them, and even for false bottoms. It was all just clothes though. Nothing that gave any hint that Soldier wasn’t as human as he pretended.

That didn’t mean anything for sure though. Spy was careful to keep hints of his non-humanness out of his possessions. Soldier wasn’t the type to be smart enough to do that. Maybe whatever he was wasn’t naturally something that could be gleaned from searching his room. Or maybe he was human and five members of their team being revealed as not was just a big coincidence. Damn it.

He could search the closest where Soldier kept his weaponry and boots but what were the chances that’d gain him anything? A look towards the bed revealed Bites was still sitting the middle of its nest, watching him. Meaning checking that if he didn’t want to get bit would be a huge hassle.

With a sigh he turned to leave instead. He’d snoop around the others’ rooms later. If he found out anything interesting about them, he’d return to Soldier’s room to check the bed. For now though, it wasn’t worth the effort.

Later that day

Spy was barely two steps into the common room before Soldier was standing up from where he sat with Demo and Pyro, playing cards. “You!” he said, pointing right at Spy. Way too loud as always, he also drew the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Me?” Spy paused and pointed to himself.

“Yes you, maggot.” Soldier walked around the table to stand directly in front of him. “You were in my room.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” How the hell did he know? Spy had put everything back the way it was supposed to be. Being good at that kind of thing was literally part of his job. Even if he’d messed up a little, there was no way Soldier was observant enough to have noticed, right?

“Don’t lie, maggot! Lieutenant Bites told me you were in there. She watched you snoop. I didn’t want to believe at first but she doesn’t lie. Now the question is are you a commie spy, the enemy team’s spy, or both?” He cracked his knuckles, making it clear that regardless of the answer he intended to get violent about it.

Distinctly not in the mood to get punched in the fact right now, Spy held up his hands. “Neither. I’m on your side, always have been.” Mostly anyway. “I was looking for something.”

Soldier’s expression was hard to read under the helmet but his jaw tensed. “What?”

“I wanted to see if you had any cigarettes. I’m almost out.”

Silence for a few seconds before Soldier relaxed. “You could’ve just asked. I’ll gladly share my cigars with a fellow American.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that offer sometime.” Going that far to feed the lie probably wasn’t necessary with Soldier but it was better safe than sorry.

Soldier took a breath to say something but before could Demo cut. “Hold up, hold up.” He’d stood up and now made his way to stand to the side of them. “Did you just say Bites told you he was snooping around in your room?”

“Correct.”

With how prevalent the threat of getting punched in the face had been, Spy hadn’t caught the full implication of Soldier’s words. That was a very odd thing to say and how had he known Spy had been in there? “She speaks English?” Maybe Bites was the monster. A shape shifter perhaps?

“No, silly. She’s a raccoon.”

It was Scout’s turn to butt in now. “So you’re saying you speak raccoon then?”

“I’m a raccoon, of course I speak it. The fact that you would think I can’t is insulting.”

“What the bloody fucking hell are you talking about?” Demo asked, wording it differently than Spy would’ve but with the same amount of exasperation.

By now the rest of the team had gathered around. Even Sniper had showed up at some point. Soldier looked around at them all for a couple seconds before replying. “I thought everyone knew that already.”

“That you’re a raccoon?” Spy asked.

“Correct.”

“Ooh,” Medic said. “That’s news to me. Explain please.”

“Yeah,” Demo agreed, “’cause you look like a human to me. But then again I guess I do too so… fuck it, you’re a raccoon somehow.”

“Does it have something to do with Merasmus?” Spy cut in before he could answer. Had his suspicion been confirmed after all?

“Correct. Merasmus found me in his trash can and turned me into his familiar and roommate. I am still a raccoon though even if I look like a man. It is much easier to hold a rocket launcher with big hands like this so I keep them most of the time. I can however do this.”

Soldier planted his hands on this hips and… started shrinking. Slowly at first but it sped up until there was indeed a raccoon standing where he’d just been standing. His clothes didn’t shrink though, leaving him standing in the pile of it.

“Fascinating,” Medic said.

“Is anyone on this team a damn human?” Scout asked.

Pyro and Engie raised their hands. Whether Heavy neglected to follow suit due to not caring or was admitting to not being human was hard to say. Before Spy could ask though, Soldier-raccoon was growing big again. He’d stepped out of the clothing pile, resulting in him being naked upon reaching his full human form.

“C’mon Spy,” he clapped him on the shoulder, “let’s go get you those cigars.”

“Only if you put your clothes back on.”

Soldier paused to gathered back up but didn’t move to put them on before starting for his room again. “Not yet. I like being nude.”

Well at least Spy had gotten confirmation that his hunch was correct and he’d deflected Soldier away from being angry at him over the intrusion. If the payment for that was standing around with him while he was naked and smoking one of his probably shitty cigars, so be it.

Heavy Yeti

Probably no one could find out Heavy’s secret or out him, purposefully or otherwise. His genetic defect – only really a defect due to it harming his ability to withstand the cold as much as he otherwise would’ve been able to – made him look close enough to human to allow the differences to be explained as abnormal but still within the realm of theoretically possible for a human. They’d have to meet his family to know the truth and that wasn’t happening. So his secret was safe.

So many of the rest of the team had been outed as not humans though. And every single member had been fine with each of those outings. Quite a few of those outings had been involuntary though. It felt strange, knowing their secrets against their will while keeping his own non-human nature hidden. He didn’t owe them that knowledge of course but the fact that they’d likely be accepting of it did make him more inclined to tell.

Should he tell though? He’d never told anyone before. Upon leaving his mountain home he’d been urged to hold the secret close. Yeti fur sold for a lot on the black market. He didn’t have much himself but if anyone found his village thanks to his loose lips, he’d never be able to live with himself. Elements of that held true for many of the team though; monster parts in general tended to sell for a lot in certain circles even if they were technically illegal to harvest and sell. So by telling, he’d just be putting himself in the same boat as everyone else who’d been outed as a monster. Maybe it still wouldn’t be wise to, they were all hired killers after all, but Heavy liked them. He trusted them to be normal. Or, no, not normal, but not close enough to friends to not be greedy enough to sell him out.

And so, decision made, he waited until supper when everyone, even Sniper, would be in the common room for food. He stood from the table and clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s gaze. “I have confession.”

“Let me guess,” Scout said, “you’re also some kind of monster?”

“Correct. I’m yeti.”

“Ha, see Snipes? I told you we’re all fucking monsters. It’s weird. What about you Engie and Pyro, got any news to share?”

“I’m human,” Pyro said, raising a hand.

“I ain’t a monster,” Engie said next. He didn’t say ‘human’ though. Probably an unimportant distinction. Maybe not but it wasn’t Heavy’s business.

Sniper spoke up next. “Aren’t yetis normally like, hairy or something? And you’re uh… mostly bald.”

“I have genetic defect. I grow much less fur.” Most of what he did have was on his chest and back.

“You’re a hairless bigfoot!” Soldier said. “That explains a lot.” Bigfoots were different, a cousin to yetis at best, but close enough. “I knew I would meet a bigfoot one day.”

And with that, the big reveal that Heavy had been wrestling with since Soldier’s outing as a raccoon a few days ago, was over. No one was even surprised at this point. It was quite nice to finally have off his chest.

Engie robot

Leaving Engie to guard the intel alone wasn’t something they always did, often Pyro stayed with him, but it wasn’t particularity unusual either. He was more than capable of holding his own in defensive situations. So there’d been no reason for anyone to think much of it until the explosion had gone off, collapsing that part of the building. Which still normally would’ve actually been fine – if their intel got buried under rubble it couldn’t easily be stolen, when they needed those documents themselves it would be more of problem but still a minor one – but the explosion also likely hit Respawn.

The chance of Engie surviving the explosion and the building collapsing on him afterwards was low. His only hope was that Respawn wasn’t as damaged as it looked from the outside.

It was frustrating waiting for Scout’s report on the damage but if the enemy team resumed fighting – they’d seemingly been ordered to stand down for now – Medic was needed on the front lines even more than usual. Their Respawn might be down but the enemy’s certainly wasn’t, putting them at the huge disadvantaged if any of them died. The only upside was that the clouds overhead were thick, blocking the sun. It wasn’t much of an upside.

He shifted, adjusting the medi-gun’s backpack on his shoulders. The umbrella sticking out of it wasn’t new but Engie had upgraded it for him recently because the ribs in the old one had been sagging. Medic could’ve done it himself of course and had intended to but Engie had somehow noticed that minor flaw and had done it before Medic had found time to get around to it. And now he was probably dead. If Medic could get to him before he finished dying, the medi-gun could save or, failing that, Medic could just turn him. An unlikely scenario.

So Engie was almost certainly dead and there was a good chance of it being permanent. That was… an uncomfortable thought. Medic should’ve turned him. Engie had declined his offer to do so though. So had Heavy and everyone else on the team. Maybe Medic should force the issue with the rest of them before the enemy team…

“I found Engie,” Scout’s voice came through the radio. “He’s um… well…”

“Dead,” Spy finished for him, “Not surprising. What about Respawn?”

“No. I mean… he’s not dead. He’s… it’s probably better if you guys just see for yourselves. I can’t carry him out on my own though so if you could come help, Heavy, that’d be great. We’re at what used to be the back of the uh… left side of the building if you’re facing the entrance.

“On my way.” Heavy took off and Medic followed. If Engie was still alive somehow he definitely needed medical assistance. Scout hadn’t sounded particularly urgent though and he hadn’t asked for Medic’s help, just Heavy’s. Intriguing.

Despite the need for vigilance against the other team not having diminished, almost everyone fell in line behind Medic. The only one who stayed was Soldier, still intent on his patrol. Spy was presumably still nearby too and Sniper had found a good vantage point a short distance away. So it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

Finding Scout and Engie didn’t take long with Scout standing atop some rubble, waving them over. On the other side of Engie sat slumped against what had once been a wall. His lower half was missing, nowhere in sight. No guts spooled out of him though or even any blood. Instead it was wires, a few of which were sparking.

“Howdy.” His voice sounded not unlike it was coming from a damaged speaker. “Looks like I got some explaining to do too.”

“Robot?” Heavy asked.

“Yep. Made by Fred Conagher. He uh, accidentally did too a good job so I made myself a body that looked convincingly human and now we’re here. I maybe should’ve said something sooner but uh… it is what it is.”

“We really are all fucking monsters, huh?” Demo said. “Or monsters and a robot. What ‘bout you Py? Ready to come clean?”

Pyro shook his head. “I’m human.”

Medic didn’t believe that. Right now wasn’t the time to get into it though. “We need to deal with all this first. I assume you’ll need help putting yourself back together?”

“Help would be much appreciated, yes. I can walk you and Py through what I’ll need from you no problem though once we get back to the main base.” Where they could turn that Resapwn on. Without the teleporters it was going to be quite the long walk but at least they would all be making it.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Engie & Spy - Didn't Need Words

Summary: Sending a request before I forget it (no rush, I know you're backlogged): two of the mercs when they were small children randomly meeting at a playground (as in, a children's play park/ play area); bonus points if there's a language barrier which doesn't stop them from becoming friends.

~

The new kid looked like he might be the oldest on the playground or maybe he was just the tallest. If he was older though it wasn’t enough to justify him sitting on the bench instead of playing. Sitting and watching was what adults did. How long had he been sitting there for? It didn’t matter.

Dell stood and approached him. “Howdy!”

The boy had watched him approach but still jumped a little. “Hello.”

“What’s you doing over here all by yourself?” Not that Dell judged him for being alone, he’d been playing alone too after all. That’s because the other kids didn’t like him though. This guy was new and thus wouldn’t have had a chance to get on anyone’s nerves yet.

“I… not speak English good. Sorry.” His accent was French, maybe. Dell didn’t exactly have a lot of experience with foreigners. When he grew up he was going to go to all sorts of other countries and places and meet lots of different people like Dad did.

“That’s okay. Come build sand castles with me anyway.” He gestured for the French boy to follow him towards the sand pit.

The boy hesitated and shrugged before saying something that was definitely French… probably. Dell gestured again before miming digging with a shovel and bucket. He wasn’t about to let this kid sit here on the bench, watching. Especially since this was the bench that didn’t have much shade which is why it had been empty before he’d come along, presumably dropped off by a parent who wasn’t here anymore. All the parents over on the other bench were the same ones as always. Meaning this kid’s dad was like Dell’s; dropping him off in a place he’d be out of the way but watched by other parents. They were the same so they had to hang out. And it was much cooler over at the sandpit.

After a few seconds more, the boy glanced over there before looking at Dell again. Finally he slid off the bench and let Dell lead the way over. Settling down across from him, Dell handed him his extra bucket and shovel. The green ones that he didn’t like that much, meaning they were cleaner. Hopefully the boy would take that as a compliment.

The boy looked at them, his expression unsure. That was fine, Dell would show how to build a good sandcastle. They didn’t need words for that.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Demo/Spy - Unending Night

Summary: Ditto, but during polar night.

~

Upon hearing of it, Demo had found the idea of unending night pleasant. The sun was too bright, especially when he had a hangover – or during his occasional attempt to quit drinking, resulting in an entirely different worse kind of headache – so not having to deal with it for a while seemed like a good idea. Growing up, he’d always been a night owl. Night time was just better or all around… or so he’d thought. Turns out there were limits on that.

Unending darkness blanketed the base and the battlefield. The cold, eager to sink in even through one’s winter gear if given enough time to, added to that oppressive atmosphere. When not in battle everyone was basically trapped inside. Largely a mental trap but all the harder to break for that.

Even Scout and Soldier were starting to sleep in now; the strongest indicator of all that times were rough. Demo dealt with it the way he dealt with everything; drinking. More than usual though which was now coming back to bite him in the ass.

He closed the cupboard and opened it again as if that would somehow make his empty bottles full again. This was his third loop of his room and workshop. All his stashes were empty. He must’ve finished them off sometime last night. Hopefully it had been worth it but probably it hadn’t been.

Slamming the door closed, he stood and left his room. The base was small, probably the smallest they’d ever been stationed at, meaning the trip to the kitchen was quick. All the lights were on because it was supposed to be bloody midday. The window in the kitchen said otherwise of course; it might as well be a black void out there.

He checked the cupboard and then the fridge, pushing Medic’s mysterious cooler out of the way so he could check the back. There were a few cans of Bonk, a half empty bottle of apple juice and an basically empty jug of milk. Nothing alcoholic. As per Miss Pauling’s instruction though they had enough food and ration packs to last a year, far longer than they intended to be out here. Meaning no restock trip would be happening until after they’d left.

With a groan, Demo closed the door and pressed his forehead against it. He was already starting to feel the withdrawal. Or maybe that was just the hangover combined with the anticipation of withdrawal.

He’d known there wouldn’t be a restock trip while they were up here and thus he’d made sure to pack extra drink. Twice as much as he normally got, it had seemed like a lot at the time. That was before he’d known how awful this place was though. And now he’d have to spend the latter half of this enteral night posting sober. It was enough to almost make him want to…

“Is something the matter?”

Biting back on flinch, Demo snapped around. It was Spy because of course it was Spy. He was always skulking around. The unending darkness probably suited him. “What you want?”

“Well, I’d intended to ask why you were leaning your forehead against the fridge but if you’re going to snap at me for merely asking, I’ll just leave.” He started to turn back towards the exit.

“Wait, fuck.” Demo shouldn’t take his frustration out on Spy. Not this Spy at least, the enemy Spy was fair game, but this one was being uncharacteristically kind in asking if he was all right. Which meant he was either after something or Demo looked miserable enough to prompt pity from him. Maybe both. Regardless, they were friends and friends helped each other out. So it was Demo who wanted something from him this time.

“I’m outta drink. Didn’t pack enough ‘cause I didn’t think… you know,” he gestured to the dark window, “would be so bad.”

Spy settled back into fully facing him. “Ah, I see.”

“You’re a wine guy, right?” Demo preferred stuff like whiskey or scotch but at the end of the day, any alcohol would do.

“I see where this is going,” Spy interrupted before he could properly ask. “Yes, I still have wine stores. I don’t have nearly enough to last you more than a few days at your current drinking level. However because I struggle to find particularly good wine, I’m still willing to share. Ration it and it should be able to take the edge off your withdrawal for a while at least.”

That wasn’t ideal but he’s the one who’d run out of his own stuff. But what Spy after with the offer? Rarely were things given for free, no strings attached, amongst folk of their profession. “And in exchange?”

“One: you pay me back once we get out of this place. Either replacing the wine directly, or just giving the money.”

“Deal. I can do that.” Demo lifted a hand, holding it out for him to shake.

Spy didn’t take it. “And two: you at least consider cutting back on your alcohol consumption once this is over. You don’t have to quit but it’s… a bit excessive at times.”

Demo couldn’t exactly argue with that given that getting drunk enough to not remember hours upon hours of his life couldn’t be healthy. He didn’t want to quit though. Not that he was being asked to. Promising to consider cutting back wasn’t the same as actually doing so. This was forcing him into a situation in which he had to cut back for a bit anyway. Unless he was willing to risk stealing Medic’s rubbing alcohol stores anyway. Could one even get drunk off that stuff? Probably not, right? He might have to try it some time but preferably not via stealing it from Medic – pissing off the guy in charge of keeping one intact who was also quite bloodthirsty wasn’t something even Scout was dumb enough to do. Which left him with only one choice if he didn’t want to go cold turkey right now.

“Deal. I’ll pay ya back and will consider continuing to drink less after this nightmare’s over.”

This time Spy did accept his hand shake. “Good.”

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles Engie & Scout - A Feat For Sure

Summary: Hi I was wondering if you could do one where Scout is an animal guy? Like all kinds of animals are drawn to him and will accept pets. And you can do it from any of the other mercs' perspective?

~

“Yeah, yeah, I know and I’m working on it, okay?” Scout’s voice came from the kitchen. He’d didn’t sound the least bit tired despite how early in the morning it was. Granted Engie was up at this time too but not by choice and he certainly wasn’t happy about it.

No voice answered Scout but after a couple seconds, he responded to something anyway. “Patience is a virtue. One I’m bad at too but still, you can at least try.” Who the hell was he talking to?

Fueled by curiosity as well as anticipation for the coffee that would hopefully already be in the pot, depending on who else was up, Engie picked up his pace a little. Upon reaching the doorway he paused because Scout was in there alone.

He was bent over, placing something on the floor, his body blocking whatever it was from Engie’s line of sight. Straightening, he stepped back. “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Engie stepped in and to the side so he could see what Scout was talking to. A raccoon. She sat on the kitchen floor, eating what looked like an omelet off a plate. “That Lieutenant Bites or do we got even more raccoons than I thought?” The one was enough of a problem.

“Yep, it’s Bites. I’m in charge of feeding her in the mornings now so Soldier can do his weird patrol thing without stopping in the middle to feed her. She’s starting to like me.” Scout bent down again to pet her. Too busy eating, she let him. Or maybe she really was starting to like him too. A feat for sure if he’d really accomplished that.

“And so you made her an omelet.”

“Of course! It’s breakfast so I gotta make her breakfast food. And besides, omelets are one of the few things I can make without burning… or uh, without burning it so bad it’s inedible or whatever. By the way,” he turned fully to face Engie now, “you still up or you did you just get up?”

“Just got up.” Though he had stayed up later than he probably should’ve last night, resulting in only a handful of hours asleep. He wasn’t about to admit that and risk a lecture from someone half his age though.

“Good. Especially since I also made coffee because I’m a cool guy like that.” He gestured to the pot that was indeed already full. “Feel free to go ahead and thank me.”

Last time he’d made coffee it had been the worst coffee Engie had ever tasted – a feat for sure – and thus thanking him for it wasn’t exactly an appealing idea. On the flip side though, maybe it was better this time and Engie was too tired to be difficult about it. And so he went over and poured himself a cup. “Thanks.” He took a sip and… had to hold back a grimace. It wasn’t quite as bad as last time but it was close, meaning it was still sludge just less thick than last time. Did Scout put the grounds directly in the carafe? That was the only way it could be so damn bad, right?

“I ain’t making you an omelet though,” Scout said. “That’s just for Bites because she’s good girl. Right? You’re a good girl, aren’t you Bites?”

Almost done with her omelet by now, she didn’t respond.

“I wouldn’t expect you to.” Wouldn’t want him to either as chances were by human standards, it’d be barely edible. “Thanks of the coffee though and good luck with the pet sitting.” Engie saluted him with his mug of hot coffee sludge before leaving. He’d just make his own pot of coffee in the workshop. It would take longer to brew than the one in the kitchen did but it’d be better by far.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles Engie/Spy - Midnight Sun

Summary: Mercs are stationed somewhere within the Arctic Circle during midnight sun.

~

It was just past midnight, supposedly. That’s what the clock said. Keeping the base’s main clock accurate was a priority as it dictated quite a bit of their job related activities so chances of it being wrong were low. The sun was just up at midnight. Despite having been warned of this and knowing about it even before then prior to coming here, it still felt wrong.

Spy had traveled far and wide in his time as a mercenary. And thus he was familiar with a wide range of ways the sun could behave at different times of year in various parts of the world. This was something else entirely though. The sun never properly set. The calm quiet of nighttime wouldn’t settle on this place for a couple months yet.

It messed up his internal clock so bad he was up at midnight, sitting in the common room. Sunlight came in through the windows, lighting it up as if it were day time. Coming out here had been a mistake. He should’ve stayed in his room and kept trying to sleep. Now he was more awake than ever.

“We really should’ve brought thicker curtains for the windows. This midnight sun shit ain’t do my sleeping schedule any favors.”

Spy turn in his chair to look at Engie. He had a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“Next time, we’ll keep that in mind.” Hopefully there wouldn’t be a next time though. This place was unpleasant to live in for more reasons than just the unsetting sun. “But since we’re both up anyway, how ‘bout a game of chess?” Something to focus on that wasn’t connected to the basically non-existent day/night cycle.

“Sure, why not? I got nothing better to do.”

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 'Drabbles' RED Pyro/BLU Pyro - Neon Annihilator

Prompt: May i request something with blu pyro and red pyro ship by chance ?

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: RED Spy/BLU Spy - You're an Idiot

Summary: If it's not too much of a trouble, could I get a sequel to chapter 49? Something along the lines of the RED spy sacrificing himself to save the BLU spy and dying in the process. BLU spy thinks he's dead permanently but the engineers managed to get the respawn working just in time to save him. Cue an emotional breakdown from BLU when they reunite.

[A/N] One of my resolutions this year is to catch up on drabble requests because I am VERY far behind. And this is one of the fics that has the most requests so expect frequent updates as i do scheduled drabbles as well one here and there as I find the time to do more. Also, I intend to do something special for the 100th chapter, I have an idea for it, no promises though, it depends on a lot of things.

~

Louis’ right leg hurt, every little motion sending a fresh stab through it. Likely broken but no warm wetness, indicating the bone had broken through skin. Breathing hurt too. Not bad enough to indicate broken ribs though, he was very familiar with that feeling. He was just badly bruised. Meaning overall, he was basically fine. He would survive this with little issue especially once he got a medi-beam on him.

Another situation in which he should’ve by all rights died but came out on the other side virtually unscathed. Good. Not dying was a good thing. For a while it had been the only thing he cared about it. Now though…

He couldn’t stop himself from looking at Pierre’s body again. It lay broken and twisted in front of where Louis had initially fallen. Blood pooled on the ground around it, no longer spreading. He could’ve survived too… or more like instead of Louis if he’d just stayed hidden. But no, he’d just had to be a hero. Stupid idiot.

“What about your son, huh?” Louis’ voice was rough in his throat, making him end in a cough. “You were finally starting to fix things with him and now you’re dead. Why would you chose to save me over that? It was stupid illogical thing to do.”

Unable to easily go anyway with a broken leg, he would’ve said more but he sound of rubble shifting had him flinching as he drew his knife. His damn gun was gone, his hand still hurting from when it had been knocked out. Thankfully, as he turned to face the potential danger, it was just the RED Pyro, nicknamed Firebug upon the teams’ merge.

He paused as he neared Louis. The ever present gas mask made him impossible to read but the tilt of it indicated he was looking at Pierre’s body.

“I’m sorry,” Louis said. “It’s my fault. I fucked up and got found out. He chose to save me instead of doing the smart thing and leaving me to die.” And he wasn’t going to come back. Their entire mission had been to try to stall the robots from attacking to give the Engineers more time to fix Respawn. Louis had fucked it all up.

Firebug mumbled something undecipherable and he wrung his hands. He then walked over and crouched down to nudge Pierre’s body with one of his fingers. Nothing happened of course. The two of them had been friends for about as long as Louis and Pierre had been – long before the teams had merged they’d started hanging out, at first to spy on each other before realizing they enjoyed each other’s company. Now wasn’t the best time to grieve though. The robots in the immediate area had been killed but there would be more because there were always more.

Before Louis could say that though, Firebug straightened abruptly and turned towards him. He marched over and scooped him up into a fireman’s carry, earning a hiss of pain from him instead as it jostled his broken leg. Firebug paid him no mind though and started moving. Leaving Pierre’s body just lying on the ground like that felt wrong but… what else could they do? They needed to get out of here before he robots came.

~

First, Firebug carried him to the Medic that had joined their mission; Herbert the RED one. After a few seconds under his medi-gun, Louis was fully healed. Truly a miracle invention. Too bad it couldn’t bring people back from the dead though.

After that, they set to walking back to base. Just the three of them when it should’ve been four. Either way it would’ve been three because Louis had fucked up and should’ve died for that. Instead Pierre had.

Not the first time he’d lost someone he cared about. Nor was it going to be the last, especially with Respawn busted. But it had been a while, years and years. First he’d stopped caring about people and then Respawn had come along, protecting those he’d grown to love despite his best efforts not to. And now this. Maybe he should’ve left. At least that way his fuck up wouldn’t have gotten anyone killed. … That would’ve meant leaving the rest of them to die though. Damn it.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Herbert said about halfway there.

Louis didn’t respond.

“Thinking about going back for his body? I am. I have a few ideas for it. I might even be able to…”

“No,” Louis interrupted. “We don’t have time to go back for it.” And he didn’t think he could sit quietly back and let either of the Medics experiment on Pierre’s corpse. Pierre couldn’t care of course so it didn’t really matter but… it just felt wrong. More wrong than leaving his body to rot did.

“Fair enough.”

Eventually, finally, they reached base. For some reason a group of them came out to greet them, presumably after having seen their approach in the cameras. Louis would’ve gone invisible and slunk off but alas, his invis-watch was busted – medi-fluid couldn’t fix that. And so he was forced to continue towards the greeting party where he’d have to explain his fuck up again. Why would they chose to start doing greeting parties for folk returning form a mission now of all…

“Bonjour.”

With a flinch, he looked up. Pierre was part of that greeting party. He stood next to the two Engineers looking hale and hearty as if nothing had ever happened. There was even a lit cigarette in his hand, burnt down almost to the butt as if he’d been here for a while.

Firebug broke the half second of silence as he ran over to hug him. Pierre grunted as Firebug lifted him off his feet, his cigarette falling to the ground. “Good to see you too.”

“But… but how?” Louis had been so sure Respawn was still broken. The whole point of their mission had been to draw the robots’ attention away from their base because it was still so broken.

Dell stepped forward. “It was the craziest thing. We got Respawn fixed…”

“Or were thinking we might’ve,” Con added, “we weren’t sure yet.”

“Yep. We was debating on whether or not to test it and who was gonna be that test subject or if we was gonna ask for volunteers when he,” he pointed back towards Pierre with his thumb, “popped through.”

“So it looks like we fixed it just in time. He’s been pacing around smoking, waiting for you to come back ever since.”

“I… I see.” Louis hands shook as he put them in his pockets to hide it. “Thank you.”

Pierre, having freed himself from Firebug’s excited embrace, stepped towards him next. “That was rather harrowing, huh? Let’s agree to never do anything like that again.”

“Yes, never again.” Louis’ old heart couldn’t take it. “That was a bit too close for comfort.” He tried to make it sound casual, like everything was okay now because it was – Respawn was back up and running, making them all immortal in a way once more. Apparently he failed though based off the worried looked, only partially obscured by the ski mask, that came over Pierre’s face.

Pierre reached out a hand to put on his shoulder. “I apologize if I made you worry.” He’d switched to speaking French, making their conversation somewhat private.

“You’re an idiot.”

Before he could respond, Louis hugged him. Not a fan of public displays of affection or emotion in general, he would make it quick, breathing in Pierre’s scent and taking in the warm solidness of his living body. Later when they were in private, he’d hold him for longer. For now though, just a few seconds would do to really hammer home the reality that he wasn’t dead. He was alive and well.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Scout & Scout & Lil' Pootis - Pet

Summary: Quick, show Scout the Lil' Pootis version of him!

[A/N] This was in response to the first Emesis Blue chapter (53) in which Scout 'meets' the version of himself from that movie. I finally got around to watching Lil' Pootis in order to write this drabble. I'd been meaning to for ages and been following the creator (Quaz) here on Tumblr, also for ages, but somehow just kept not doing it. I'm glad I finally did though because it's very cute, go watch it if you haven't. Also, in reference to there being no proper dialogue in the cartoon, I had the fun idea of this version of the team mostly communicating non-verbally, meaning mostly sign language for this drabble in particular.

~

After the last alternate universe, Scout had considered not joining in on going to the next one. The others might’ve thought him a coward if he backed out though and faking illness never fooled Medic. And so he’d kept quiet, determined to face whatever horror he might encounter this time with stoic bravery and less frozen staring.

There were no horrors to be found though. Just a version of himself and his pals who were varying degrees of deaf and/or mute. Which put him in the super important position of translator – his sign language was a bit rusty after so long in the desert and away from his deaf brother, only seeing him on the holidays, but he was still more than up for the job. It was a bit boring but at least it meant everyone was paying positive attention to him and he got to talk a lot.

The real fun started when the other Scout split off to go get Pootis. His pet apparently. Never one to stand around and wait, especially when it came to meeting a pet, Scout followed. Besides it was him so they were basically automatic buddies so going to his room was fine. A him that had a pet on base, how cool was that? Scout’s own attempts at doing the same always ended in getting caught or problems arising with Soldier’s raccoon necessitating one of them go and the raccoon was there first and seemingly impossible to get rid of short of shooting it and Scout couldn’t bring himself to go that far. So no on base pet for Scout.

What kind of pet was it though? He’d ask but while walking with someone in a hallway too narrow to comfortably walk side by side made sign language conversations difficult. So he held off and practiced patience until finally they reached other-Scout’s room.

Naturally he led the way in. It was a mess, much like Scout’s own room. The biggest difference was that some of that mess was made up of toys and paper that had been drawn on. It didn’t look like Scout’s art but this one might have a different art style and be less against the idea of others seeing, resulting in it be scattered about the floor.

Other-Scout picked something up from the rumpled bed sheets. Turning around, he held it up for Scout to see, grinning wide with pride. It was a bird. Not just any bird though but an orange one with clothes that looked an awful lot like Heavy’s. And even more than that, it looked just like Heavy had after Merasmus’ curse last Halloween, turning him into an orange bird with clothes. The biggest difference was that this one was smaller and thus cuter. Topping off that cuteness was the squeak it… or maybe he since he looked like Heavy, made. It was one of the cutest sounds Scout had ever heard, one he never would’ve thought would come from a bird.

“Holy shit!” he signed to other-Scout. “He’s so cute. Where’d you get him?” And what were the chances Scout could get one too before leaving? Would he be allowed to keep it if he did or would some ‘you can’t permanently bring a being from one universe into another or the world would end’ rule stop him?

Other-Scout pulled Pootis closer to his chest, allowing him to switch to a one-handed hold so he could respond with his other hand. “I bought him. I figured Soldier’s got his raccoons, so it should be okay if I have a pet too.”

“And he gets along with them?” No attempted battles to the death or one of them deciding the other was prey and refusing to budge on that stance.

“Yep. They’re not friends but they get along. He does have a friend though.” He looked around before looking back at Scout. “Somewhere. He might have already made his way back to the others, he gets out a lot.”

“All right. But before we start heading back, I gotta tell you a thing. You might not believe it but it’s a crazy coincidence.” He launched into explaining Merasmus’ bird curse on Heavy. This universe was so much better than the last one. The exact kind of thing he’d been hoping for.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 'Drabbles': Pyro - Gävle Goat

'Summary': Gävlebocken (that Swedish straw goat statue, built every Christmas and destroyed more often than not) has been around since 1966. There is no way that the mercs weren't responsible for its destruction at least once. (It's usually burned, once with a flaming arrow by someone in a gingerbread-man costume and someone else dressed as Father Christmas, but occasionally rammed in the legs with a car to make it collapse. The most recent one was destroyed by jackdaws: the straw used contained large amounts of seeds, and through December the jackdaws gradually tore the statue apart while foraging.)

[kellanved-ammanas]

I got to read the 7th issue of the TF2 comics last night. I didn't read it right away because I wanted to make time to read the whole series again. Which I'm glad I did because there were several little things that I'd forgotten about, such as Pyro's dalmatian puppy.

I wasn't expecting to be disappointed by the ending but I was prepared to be. I'm glad to say I wasn't though. If they'd put this issue out when it was initially supposed to have been put out, I might've been more disappointed with it. But after the 7 year wait (even if I was only personally waiting for like 3 of those years) it's a fitting ending. I like that they acknowledged that wait too and basically thanked the fans for sticking with them. It was a lovely sentiment.

I've would've liked to see more with Demo and Pyro specifically but also I understand that giving equal attention to everyone would've either dragged on a lot or resulted in everyone getting very little time. So it makes sense that they chose to focus on only a few of them, especially since others got focused on more in prior issues.

When looking at the series as a whole though, I'm a bit disappointed that Demo didn't get more page time focused on him. I feel like the only one who got focused on less was Pyro but for him it makes sense since they're supposed to be a mystery. I guess Engie got less too but that's because he was somewhere else entirely during the main events of the story. But that's a fairly minor complaint that is also balanced by the fact that there are nine of them plus Miss Pauling being a main character, making ten. That's a lot of characters to balance. I just have been really liking Demo a lot lately (this is the only fandom that my fav character changes so often in) so I would've personally liked to see more of him.

Overall, the comics are great and the 7th comic is good. I'm glad they came back and finished it, especially since there was no real obligation for them to do so. And they gave us a good solid happy ending (there is a possible implication that Scout is gonna die and orphan his kids but God only said he'd seen him again at that date, which doesn't necessarily have to mean he dies. He could just have some kind of spiritual or near death experience. Or if he does die again, doesn't mean it's gotta be for good this time, he's already come back once after all. I am personally choosing to headcannon that something else happens on that date or he gets sent back again, this time for his kids.) And I'm a sucker for happy endings so I'm glad they gave us one.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Solider - The Best for the Job

Summary: Soldier guards the base alone during the Christmas break.

~

Everyone left for the Christmas and New Year’s season. It was the only time of year they were all allowed to leave base at the same time. Pyro used to stay but this year he was going home with Engie and Spy. Leaving Soldier alone.

But someone needed to keep an eye on the base lest the enemy take advantage of it being unguarded and break the sacred Christmas truce. He was the best person for the job. The only downside was that he was only one person now and someone needed to keep the night watch; normally Pyro’s job. He rigged the place with traps and noise makers, stuff that would wake him should a would be intruder try to break in. Not a perfect solution but the longest he’d ever managed to stay up without sleep was just short of four days. Extending that to two full weeks would be a tall ask.

With no one to disrupt it, his routine became even more set in stone. Wake up, eat breakfast, patrol for intruders, blow up any that came, eat lunch, patrol again, eat dinner, patrol again, sleep. No war or proper battle unfortunately. But that was fine. He was fine.

A look at the calendar during breakfast revealed he’d been at it for one… two… three days now. Today was the fourth. There were seven days in a week and thus two weeks was… he looked down at his fingers to count it out… fourteen days. He’d made it three out of fourteen days. That meant there were… he looked down at his fingers again, four minus three was one, so… eleven days. He had eleven days left. More than a week. Not a long time but… time was going so slow. Merasmus must’ve cast a time curse on him. He’d have to hunt the bastard down once he was no longer the base’s sole guard.

With a grunt, he returned to his breakfast. It was a MRE. There wasn’t anything left in the kitchen to cook with even if he’d known how. That was fine though. He liked MRE’s. They could be eaten quickly because he had to get back to guarding the base… alone.

Pyro had told him he should go home with someone had even invited him to join him, Engie and Spy. He’d declined and he didn’t regret it. Not one bit. He was fine as he was. Someone needed to keep the base safe. The enemy were commies after all and thus they lacked American honor. Yeah, they hadn’t broken the Christmas truce in any prior years but that’s because Soldier was always here to deter them with his mere presence. He was the perfect man for the job and he could do it alone. This situation was perfectly fine.

He quickly finished eating and tossed the empty container into the trash before heading to patrol. … Hopefully there would be an intruder today. Someone to blow up… something to do that wasn’t watching and waiting for enemies to come. But even if there wasn’t and today would be another day spent entirely alone, he was fine with that because somebody needed to do this and he was the best for the job. He didn’t need anyone’s help.

[kellanved-ammanas]

I did a Harvest Ghost Jack'o'lantern!

I know it's not actually called 'Harvest Ghost' but that's what I think of it as. It just feels like the Harvest Event map is it's home so it's named Harvest Ghost to me.

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles Demo & Scout - Medic's Making a Frankenstein

Summary: Scout wakes Demo to share news on Medic's latest medical atrocity.

[A/N] Special Halloween drabble, yay!

~

A frantic knocking jerked Demo out of sleep. It sounded urgent, clearly it was important. He stumbled out of the bed to answer it.

It was Scout. “Medic’s making a Frankenstein.” Never one to mumble, his words were perfectly audible if spoken a bit fast and yet… Demo had no idea what he meant. It was too early in the morning and he was too hungover for whatever this was.

“What?”

“Medic’s making a Frankenstein,” Scout repeated, speaking slower this time.

“He’s making a…” Demo cut himself off as it finally clicked. Of course Scout would make that mistake. “You mean he’s making a guy outta corpses?”

“Yeah, a Frankenstein! And it’s important because what if it does what Frankensteins do and goes on a rampage? Not that I’m like scared of it or nothing but it’s Medic so he’s probably gonna buff it. What if he gives it like permanent uber or something so we can’t kill it? So I was gonna destroy it before it’s even finished but Medic caught me and kicked me out. But with two people one us could distract him while the other destroys the Frankenstein. And you’re the best guy here at destroying shit. So that’s the plan; I give the doc the run around while you blow up the Frankenstein before it becomes a real threat.”

Demo barely held back a groan as he lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. He hadn’t had as much to drink last night as he could’ve had, resulting in his hangover being relatively light as far as hangovers went. But that didn’t mean he wanted to be woken up at the asscrack of dawn for this bullshit.

“First off laddie, why the bloody hell you gotta wake me up for this? Medic’s always doing weird shit with corpses, this ain’t nothing new. It easily could’ve waited. Second, Frankenstein is the doctor’s name so if anything Medic’s doing a Frankenstein, not making one.”

“Nah, his name’s Ludwig, isn’t it?”

“I meant Frankenstein’s the doctor that made the corpse monster. It doesn’t have a name… I think.” Demo had read the book but that had been a while ago and he’d since had more black out drunk episodes than he cared to count so his recall of its specifics was spotty at best.

“Whatever. All that doesn’t matter. What matters is I don’t wanna face the possibility of an ubered Frankenstein. You know what I mean? So you down to cooperate or not? I’ll go ask Pyro if you aren’t ‘cause he’ll probably be happy to burn the thing to the ground.”

Demo could try to correct him again about the monster’s name and/or about how said monster actually wasn’t prone towards violence – though admittedly in a real life scenario and with Medic at the helm, such wasn’t out of the question – but he was just too dang tired. Correcting Scout on anything almost always took more effort than it was worth. And destroying it before it as finished just in case might be wise but… if anyone could pull off such a feat, it was Medic and Demo wouldn’t mind seeing it.

“How ‘bout instead we just make Medic promise not to uber it or whatever? ‘Cause if we destroy it he’s gonna be right bloody pissed at us and that’s scarier than any ubered monster.”

Scout grimaced. “I guess that’s true. But still, I don’t like it. I watched that movie when I was kid and… and nothing ‘cause I ain’t scared of nothing. Not even Medic when he’s mad. I just think blowing it up would be funny.”

If the pounding in Demo’s skull wasn’t starting to grow more insistent with every moment the bright hall light pierced his eye, he would’ve poked at Scout for more. Scared of Frankenstein’s monster was not what he would’ve expected from him. It was kind of cute; loud brash hired killer was frightened of misunderstood fictional monster. He must’ve been real young when he’d watched that movie, perhaps something do to with being the youngest of however many brothers he had.

“Look, here’s the deal lad, I’m gonna head back to bed. We’ll chat with Medic ‘bout making sure he contains his monster properly later, ‘kay? And if he refuses, we’ll blow it up.”

Scout glared at him at him for a couple seconds before rolling his eyes. “Fine. Long as we do it before he ubers it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Soon as I wake up properly, promise.” More like after he’d had at least a coffee if not breakfast but close enough.

“Got it. I’ll keep an eye on it in the meantime.”

Demo shut the door with a relieved sigh, shutting out the wretched light. In payback for being woken so early he was going to tell everyone Scout was scared of Frankenstein’s monster. … Or maybe he’d be merciful and keep it a secret. He’d decide when he woke up. For now, he just crawled back into his bed.

[kellanved-ammanas]

As is Halloween tradition, I've drawn and painted another Merasmus for a new profile pic here.

Happy 5th day of Halloween!