#I went into this project thinking haha it's funny I was so secure in my gender as a kid

[gaydryad]

so for Writing Reasons I've been going back through all my old personal writing (including some very old social media posting) and the sheer force with which I wanted to dress up or roleplay "as a guy" from ages 12 to 15 is truly stunning. WHILE BEING AWARE OF TRANS AND NONBINARY PEOPLE. AS A OPTION. FULLY ZERO-BRAIN-CELL AWARENESS-ZERO ASS EGG

[gilbirda]

for the ask game: Danny Arkham Security Guard?

I've been curious where you're at with that for a while (I assumed the muse has fled and/or you're too busy with other fics), so had to pick that one when I saw it on the list 👀

From this WIP ask game

Haha! I knew someone would ask about it!

Honestly I have struggled a lot with picking this bad boy up... When I finally did a few months ago, the last edit was July 2022 😭

Long story short, summer 2022 was the time I really went down the spiral with Hardcover ship and literally every idea I had was for those two. I think what happened was that I realized there was an untapped potential and market for romance and all the classic romance tropes in DP fandom (I understood why that was the case, but still I was frustrated because I hadn't seen a single fic that made me crazy about any ship in DP) and it left me wanting.

Then I wrote Arkham Guard Danny and I did the bit where Jazz almost shoots Jason, and then I liked the dynamics between him and the siblings and I literally said in the AN if I ended up shipping him, I was debating between Jazz and Danny. *laughs in irony*

So basically I went "what if I write every romance story trope but Jazz/Jason?" and the rest is history.

And every damn time I went back to Arkham Guard Danny, I re read it and realized.... Is just so bad. I saw flaws everywhere. I saw bad characterization. I saw "angry robin Jason" and a bunch of things I don't stand by anymore and I felt like there was no way I could continue that fic and the difference wouldn't be felt. Was I too harsh with myself? Absolutely, but we are our worst critic.

Also? I felt the project running away from me. I started developing worldbuilding and ideas and I got mad because Arkham Guard is supposed to be simple. It used to be the "simple fic" I did while I focused on my magnum opus for DP fandom (Eldritch Ghost King Danny AU - "You and me and our best friend makes three"). If it got complicated I didn't want to write it anymore. And then it did and I dropped it.

Recently I went through a really bad situation and it kind of killed any want to write for dpxdc. I thought - why not go back to the basics? Revisit what really made me start in the fandom, what made me get a bunch of comments like "i got into dpxdc because of this fic". Took me back to when I started, how simple it felt to just write a fic and drop it to the ether and not worry about the things that made me want to stop forever.

So I did. Feels good to pick this up again!

I could go on forever but I won't continue rambling about this project (✿◡‿◡)

If you read up to this point, here's a little bit of what I have so far!

---

“Children,” Alfred stood from his seat, positioning himself between the brothers and their guest. “Let her breathe.”

“It’s okay, Mr. — uh…” She blushed as she realized she never asked for his name.

“Alfred,” the butler smiled, “Alfred Pennyworth.”

“Mr. Pennyworth,” she nodded politely. “I’m fine. I am aware that after that… theatrical spectacle, explanations are needed.”

“Indeed.” Batman cut in the conversation. “Proper explanations are in order. After I deliver the Joker to Arkham.”

“You can’t be serious!” Did the old man go crazy? Back to that wretched place?

Jazz frowned, seemingly sharing his thoughts. She leaned closer to the microphone and spoke in a controlled voice. “Where are you delivering him? In the hospital.”

Bruce took way too long to answer, so Tim did it for him. “Through the front door?”

Jazz didn’t find it funny. “Wait for me.”

“What?”

“I said, wait for me.” Jazz reached for her discarded jacket, eyeing the door to the elevator back to the manor. “Joker is my patient and I need to be there.”

“What for?”

She turned to look at Jason. “He doesn’t deserve to be left at the mercy of some of the people in the Asylum. They could—”

“He can rot for all I care.”

The vigilante walked up to her, getting in her way and using his height and build to scare her into submission. Jazz held his gaze, defiant, muscles tense and ready to throw down if needed.

“You don’t know that place like I do.”

Jason huffed. “Whatever the inmates want to do to him, he deserves it.”

“I wasn’t talking about the inmates.” Her teal eyes steeled with fury. “Arkham has a history of staff abusing their authority.”

[pitchlag]

Rvb19 thoughts in no particular order

Yeah so. I still think s13 is The capping point for me and all that comes after is hypothetical/simulations or whatever.

First of all. No, you fucking don't get to separate Grif and Simmons.

Having the groups act hostile towards each other (or just the Reds against Caboose again) right after Chorus was a a big enough of a crime already. But those two are a package deal.

So what the fuck even happened in the SoC fight? Why would they let Tucker just walk out in the aftermath? I guess Carolina booked it to go after him bc why else would she leave Wash alone again, after he was supposedly injured?? Also Doc dying, wow rude. Donut and his VA are free to enjoy their break but where' was heeeeeeee where'd he goooooo he was barely mentioned at aaaalllllllll >:(

Sarge's death speech was surprisingly long and clear even though his lungs were probably pierced, cauterized or no.

On one hand I have a hard time seeing Sarge dying peacefully in a bed instead of in battle but he didn't have to stay at that doorway after they got back. He didn't have to die there. I'm glad he went back for Caboose though cuz that is one his boys (even if he's a dirty Blue).

Grif and Simmons talking about him at his grave was pretty good scene and so was the campfire reminiscing one but again, Sarge didn't have to die and I refuse a world where Grif and Simmons would go their separate ways like that. No wonder Gus and Geoff were shocked to find out this was the last season.

I got so excited the second I recognized Tex's knuckle crack ;o;

So close to a proper Tex and Caro combo, though I do get that they wouldn't work well together because of their history and different fighting styles :( Still, even if AI boosted, Tucker shouldn't be anywhere near good enough to go against both.

Also they got Kathleen back for Tex, John Erler for North and Samantha Ireland for CT??? Couldn't have seen that coming. Also Miles was aight doing Elijah Wood's voice but I guess a lot of it was helped by the voice mods.

Beta may have been "a failure" and Sigma is a bitch but his speech at her felt really off. She was still a major part of Alpha and the memories of Allison were the reason the rest of the pieces came to be in the first place. The Meta collective tried to catch her both in cases of the og Tex and Epsi-Tex, so Sigma full on rejecting her and the rest not reacting at all was really weird.

"This time, I'm not based on his memories, I'm based on theirs. And I always kicked their asses." A nice change of pace re: Beta as Alpha's/Allison's "failure". ....

Chex has embedded itself deep into my brain, so of course I Felt Things seeing them interact one last time fr fr. Tex finally got to go out with some agency of her own, yet we've come a full circle, they're back together again as Leonard and Allison. At least one good ending. Easily the best part of the movie.

Security working from home extremely funny, but the bit went on for too long and video calls w/ technical issues bc haha relatable feels like an overdone trope already

Felix being included as a part of the Meta was kinda weird? He never really interacted with the armor or the AI to warrant it I think.

Niner and Sheila :)

No Junior :(

So uh. Tucker got no closure re:Epsilon's death and just kinda. Walks it off after the possession is over? After Wash and Memory!Doc had that talk about the things an AI in your head does to you??

Speaking of Wash:

I know he's always been linked to memory and I actually like how they handled his brain damage in the Shisno Paradox, but I just have a very different image of how he feels about the PFL folks in the aftermath. To me Carolina always seemed more like the type to feel regret over how things went with PFL; she was kind of in a leadership position, had her tragic relationship with York and she felt taking down the Director was her duty.

Wash did arguably have a lot more positive ties to others than she did during the Project, but he was ready to burn it all down while in Recovery duty. I always thought he would have a lot harder time moving past his own trauma of getting left behind to get back to the good memories. Regrets about Doc I can kinda understand since they had time to work together while at Chorus after Wash's villain arc was over, but again, the man carries a grudge like it's a badge of honor. He didn't exactly get closure with his former teammates, aside from collecting the AI from their dead bodies after he'd been left alone following the fall of the MoI and after South shot him in the back. It's interesting how differently Shisno trilogy and S19 handled how Wash and Carolina feel about the whole thing, but I'm glad they stick together regardless. I love their relationship so much.

Wash staying silent when the recovery unit is broken..... Ngl I'm kinda obsessed with how he and Epsilon never got closure

I still don't have interest in checking out Zero....

Woulda been a lot better if they just let Trocadero do the music :( As predicted, the movie OST lacked the personality the series OST was built on and somehow including one track from them felt a bit of an insult. A reminder of what could've been. Also I didn't like the "oohh this part is super loud because movie" bits

Tragically obvious how rushed the production was and how they had a lot less people and resources to work with

If Shisno was a mixed bag of some high highs and a lot of lows, this was relatively steadily ok. Some dips, at least one peak. Not nearly as good as what precedes it but. ok. I can take it as one possibility

Sigh. The funky space marines are finally free. (I'm not, these fuckers seem to continue to fail evacuating my brain)

[nerves-nebula]

haha that taunting thing can get you some WILD reactions. Feel free to skip but here's a story time!

One that sticks with me is this girl in grade 12 (i was taking grade 12 classes while in grade 11 so I didn't know anyone in the class) decided for no reason to hate me. We had a surprising amount of group projects and there was one where we had to meet after class.

Someone in the group was joking with me about how she didn't like me, and when she got to the meeting area she had brought her bow and some arrows and shot the area above my head. She pulled me aside and said that she "wanted to aim lower but couldn't because there was security cameras".

She threatened me and told me to kill myself, but I went off about how unlikely it was for her to ever catch me somewhere without security cameras and how easily she would get caught if she tried killing me. And how other people had tried and none of them had been successful. She backed off and pretty much avoided me the best she could after that. She ended up being busy with a shooting competition during the last month of class and never really showed up again lol. That probably wasn't connected but since the teacher made us sit next to each other I thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Anyways lol you get some really funny reactions. Sometimes people get freaked and leave because they think about these things in heat-of-the-moment sort of thoughts and having someone take them seriously knocks them off those thoughts. Sometimes the person will get more pissed but leave because what can they really do? Sometimes the person will feel bad for you but that's not super common lol.

It's interesting though because you get to see how someone reacts to realizing what they're doing, ya know?

imagine having the gall to say you want to kill someone and then back off when you basically say GOOD LUCK IDIOT. she HAd to have thought about that line because she shot above your head, she enacted ACTIONS. If I don't like someone i simply ignore them and rant about them to my friends. but i suppose im just exceedingly normal like that.

anyway thats cool. glad she backed off hah

[toodleboog]

Fallout-Mesa Ramblings: Hiveminds-

Inspirations and how it works:

Ever since I played HL1 and watched hlvrai, I've been kinda obsessed with the idea of hiveminds, particularly the Barney hivemind and how it works. I've put (probably too much) thought into how they got the clones brains to mesh, and I have found that I like the idea of it being based off of vortigaunts.

The way i imagine how vortigaunt brains work, is that they can feel the strings that make up the fabric of reality, and are able to:

1. Follow them like a thread in a tapestry down any specific timeline, giving them the ability of Foresight and Hindsight.

2. Are able to physically manipulate them, and draw power from them, giving them the ability to power machines, do electric attacks, and telekinesis.

3. Communicate(to an extent) telepathically.

All creatures are tied to the vortessence in a sense- it's the very energy of the universe to them- so it only makes sense that if they're so in tune with these strings, they'd be able to use them in a "tin can with a string attached" sense- at least idly. I'm not even going to go into Flux shifting- thats for another day.

So the way the Barney hivemind utilizes this, is that black mesa, while studying xen creatures and the vortigaunt brain structure, found a way to artificially attach these strings together. So Barney isn't exactly aware of the strings- rather, it's the very thing that ties him together with all of his other bodies.

True telepathy- in a sense.

Think of it like the trams on their tracks. No tracks- not much happening. But the trams arent really able to control where their tracks lead or how they bend- but can move about their tracks freely nonetheless.

Still, the intricate way his minds are webbed together can often be disorienting to the vortigaunts, if they look too hard into his nature.

Vortigaunts express discomfort when in the presence then more than a handfull of Barney's bodies at once.

Common side affects include: headaches, eyestrain, spacial disorientation, and difficulty maintaining conversation.

Imagine if every security guard had their walkie talkie playing constantly, and all of them were connected to eachother. That's what it's like trying to tap into the web of Barney's mind.

Benrey:

This one is mainly because I hold a special place for hlvrai in my heart, but nonetheless- my theory is: Due to the nature of cloning, the first clone is always the evil one-(haha funny trope) and these are called "anomalous" clones. (The cloning anomalies only seems to affect main characters, but thats a topic for another time) Benrey was a failed first clone that wouldn't properly "tie" with Calhoun's mind in the beginning trials of him becoming a hivemind, so benrey was "scrapped" in a sense. A failed project. The way I see it going, is that Benrey woke up one day, in a pile of garbage- and went "Huh. Well, there's a guard uniform, I must be a guard-" and ever since that he's been wandering from post to post at Black Mesa- harassing staff and scientists who are late to work. They aren't really sure how he's moving around (since Barney manages all of the security cameras) and so Benrey has become sort of a Black Mesa spooky legend, the occasional scientist having an "encounter" with him every once in a while.

Hivemind misc:

While on the topics of Hiveminds, Post-war Black Mesa(200 years in the future) is a thriving underground city that stretches for miles under the New Mexico desert, filling up cave space and even building topside into old canyons and ravines carved out by river flow. (I've drawn a picture of this actually!)

Now- what does this have to do with Hiveminds? Well, when you run a city that big, you need a lot of resources to keep your citizens fed. Barney, while making up the brunt force of the Black Mesa security team, isn't the only Hivemind living and working at Black Mesa.

There are smaller Hives that are responsible for more domestic tasks like farming and animal husbandry, and while none of them are quite as large as Barney-( around 700+) they are still valued and important to the upkeep of the city and its resources.

These smaller Hives typically range from 30-150 bodies, depending on what their job is.

This is by no means a complete list of all that I have in world building for Black Mesa Hiveminds. I will be adding on to this as i remember things but this is a decent first rundown at least-

[oss-crime]

Chapter 3-Project “Ma” –Adam–; Scene 16

Original Sin Story: Crime, pages 150-156

Soon, Eve’s birthing was almost upon them.

She had been moved to Alicegrad castle as her place of residence after it had been eight months since her conception. There she was placed under the care of doctors, midwives, and priests, and was made to await the birth of the “Twins of God” while under strict security.

Once he received word that Eve had gone into labor, Adam raced out of the research institute.

He eventually reached the castle as it was pitch-black outside, the sun having just set without any moon or stars visible, but he was barred from entering Eve’s room by her guards.

“We’ve been given official notice not to let in any unrelated people until the ‘Twins of God’ are born,” said a brawny guard in a deep voice.

Adam grew incensed at that.

“Unrelated?! I’m her—”

And there, remembering himself, Adam stopped talking.

Publicly, Adam was not Eve’s husband, nor was he her boyfriend.

Yes…For now, anyway.

It seemed he had no choice but to quietly withdraw.

No matter how esteemed a scientist he might be, he was a novice when it came to pregnancies.

The only thing he could do was pray outside the room for Eve’s birthing to go smoothly.

“Don’t worry, Sir Adam,” the guard patted Adam’s shoulder considerately. “The midwives and priests are in with her. …And more than that, Lady Eve has the best doctor in the country by her side.”

“So that’s…Doctor Moreno?”

“No. He drowned in the river the other day.”

“Then who?”

“That’s, er…Sorry, his name escapes me for the moment. But he’s a very young and skilled doctor. And besides, he has written authorization from the head of the senate himself. Apparently he also serves as Senator Miroku’s primary physician.”

“…Well, it doesn’t matter to me who it is. As long as she gives birth safely.”

.

--Eventually, the door to the room opened.

At that moment—Adam felt a sense of dread.

For he couldn’t hear any crying from inside the room.

Furthermore…the moment that he saw the face of the doctor who walked out that door, he felt a chill run up his spine.

“Seth…What are you doing here?”

“That should be obvious. I’m the best scientist in this country—and the best doctor, as well.”

“You must be joking—”

--Seth had never said anything of the sort, and the intelligence bureau had never given him any information on that either.

“Come on now, Adam. You mustn’t be so trusting of other people. …Did you really think you could completely buy out the information bureau?”

“…What about Eve?”

“Relax, she’s fine. The birth was difficult, but she pulled through.”

“…Then what about the children?”

“Ah, they were born—They did get born.”

Able to guess the situation by the implication lacing Seth’s words, Adam pushed him aside and entered the room.

.

Eve was smiling, holding two babies in her arms.

…No, what she was holding--

Were dusky “things” that could not be said to be babies at all.

“Adam—” Eve looked at him, her eyes shining. “—It’s Cain and Abel. Our children.”

…Eve couldn’t have known.

That the “Seed of God” planted within her.

Had some of Adam’s semen mixed into it.

“…You seem confused,” Adam said, trying to gloss that over in front of the midwives and priests. He drew closer to Eve. “Eve…give those to me.”

“Oh? Does the Papa want to hold his children? But you caaan’t. I wanna hold them a little longer.”

“…Those children aren’t breathing. They’re dead.”

“Stop kidding around. They’re both crying, nice and loud.”

“…Hand them over already!”

“—No! No! NOOOOOOOOO!”

Still holding the two things, Eve screamed and fell into a crouch.

“Eve…”

Adam turned on his heel and headed outside the room.

There he found Seth having begun to smoke a cigarette, and seized his lapel.

“Seth…You bastard--!”

“Hey now, you’ve got this all wrong…I did my job to the letter, didn’t I? After all, it was Miroku’s dearest wish that those twins be born. Naturally…it was the same for the rest of the world, too.”

“Then why—”

“It’s a stillbirth. The children died inside their mother’s womb long before they were born. …That’s all.”

“…”

Adam released Seth and hung his head.

Seth began to quietly chuckle, looking down on him.

“…What’s so funny?”

Though exhausted, Adam peered up to glare at Seth.

“Haha, face it. It’s ridiculous for you to be all depressed about this. You see, those twins died—because of you.”

“What?”

“It’s because you went overboard. Were you so sure that things would go according to your calculations? …If you really thought that, you weren’t much of a scientist after all.”

“…”

“You should be ashamed of your incompetence. And live on in regret…Relax, I won’t be telling any tall tales of what you were planning to Miroku. Despite how it might seem—I’m quite fond of you, heh heh…”

Seth left, giving off muffled laughter as he went.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[twdormleaderswap]

Visits from the Vice Dorm Leaders

     Trey stood outside of the Pomefiore dorm. He wanted to check in on Riddle. Sure, he’s seen him around school, but not a lot. Plus a lot of Pomefiore students Rook drag him away during lunch, so Trey doesn’t get to see Riddle a lot. The Heartslabyul vice dorm leader heads inside. He was amazed with the dorm’s interior. There were pillars of marble, red carpets, velvet curtains, and pretty people everywhere. He stopped a passing student, Epel.

“Excuse me. Sorry, but can I get some help?”

“Oh, you are Heartslabyul’s vice dorm leader, right?”

“That’s right. Is Riddle here?”

“Yeah. Riddle-senpau is in his quarters. Follow me.”

     Epel led Trey through the dorm. The dorm leader’s quarters was sealed by a large, double door. This dorm did not hold back on anything. The student knocked on the door. A voice could be heard from the other side.

“What is it?”

“There is some here to see you, Riddle-senpai.”

“Send them in.”

     The door opened and the student let Trey into the room before closing the door behind him. In the room, Riddle was sitting at the vanity and practicing makeup. He turned to look at who came for him.

“Trey…”

“Hey, Riddle. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Yeah. I’ve been meaning to talk with you regarding Heartslabyul, but Rook-senpai keeps dragging me away to eat with the others.”

“Haha. Wow, you got a serious glow up since being here.”

“Huh?”

“Literally. Your skin is glowing.”

“Oh, that’s the highlighter. Vil’s special highlighter is very bright and luminescent. Shine a light on me and I’m pretty sure my skin will become as bright as these chandeliers.” Then Riddle repeated Trey’s words in his head. “Wait, I know you weren’t just talking about the highlighter when you said ‘glow up!’ What did you mean by that?”

“Nothing bad!” Trey held up his hands in defense.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Ruggie smiled and hummed a little tune as he walked down the pathway to Heartslabyul. He thought he’d pay a surprise visit to his lazy senpai. He heard a groan in a low voice and took that as a sign. He walked into the Rose Maze and saw Leona in a nice cape and squeezing out water from his hair. He, himself, was also soaking wet. Ruggie did not hold back his laughter.

“Pfft-aHAHAHA!!! What happened to you? Hahaha!” Ruggie held his stomach because he thought the view before him was so funny. Leona froze, knowing that laugh and voice all too well. He stood up and looked over at Ruggie.

“Shut it, Ruggie. It’s not funny.”

“It kind of is. Nope. Sorry. It’s REALLY funny.”

“Ugh, whatever.”

“So, what happened to you?”

“Cater Diamond happened.”

“Elaborate.”

“Apparently I broke one of the hundreds of rules of the dorm.”

“How does that relate to you being soaking wet?”

“Riddle’s magic was used to punish those who broke the dorm rules, but I can’t do it. So I gave Cater the hose to spray any rule breakers…including me…” That’s when Ruggie broke. He fell onto the ground on his back, laughing and clutching his stomach. Leona groaned, but he got an idea. He took his new cape and squeezed the water out of it over the laughing hyena.

“Haha-AGH! Hey!” Ruggie immediately stopped laughing and glared at Leona, who had a smug look on his face.

“You dare to laugh at me? I am not just the King of Beasts, I am the King of Hearts. Laugh any longer then…off with your head.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Jade, along with Floyd, stood outside the dorm of Ignihyde. Floyd wanted to see Azul in his new natural habitat. The inside the dorm was just as dark and gloomy as the outside. There were torches lit with blue fire along the walls. Out of nowhere, Azul appears before the twins with a gentle smile.

“Welcome to Ignihyde, Jade. Floyd. I’m glad you could come visit.”

“Whoh!” Floyd jumps a little from the sudden appearance. “When did you start sneaking around like that?”

“I saw you two approach the dorm through the security cameras. Plus, we have an alarm for when someone enters the dorm area through the Ignihyde Mirror.” Jade chuckles.

“That’s very impressive. So, how are you doing here in the dorm of technology?”

“I’m doing just fine. Follow me. I’ll show you to our main research room.”

     Azul smiles and leads the twins to the research room. Once there, the twins were in shock and awe. The room was black, but it was covered in lights, screens, and wires.

“This is where many experiments and research takes place. Once everyone saw you two on the cameras, they retreated to their rooms to do their research there.”

“Eh? Are we that scary?” Floyd asked.

“Perhaps, but everyone here is rather shy. Try not to take too much offense to it. With my reputation, everyone is still rather cautious of me.”

“I take it you haven’t made any deals here yet?”

“Unfortunately, no. No one has been courageous enough to ask for anything. They’re all content with their technology.”

     As Jade and Azul talked about the dorm, Floyd wandered off to look at all the gadgets. He touched a button, and a bright blue screen projected up in front of him. He took off his glove, placed his finger on it and swiped it, a new screen showing up. 

“Whoa! This is so cool! How did they do this?” Floyd’s amazement caught Azul’s and Jade’s attention. Azul walks over.

“Ah, that’s one of the earlier projects from several years ago. They combined the technology with image projection from classroom projectors and the touch sensitivity of our phones. With a little magic, the projections ‘corporeal’ of sorts.”

“Huh?” Floyd looked at Azul in confusion. “How does that even work?”

“The projectors are connected to the dorm’s computer system, so the projection will show a computer home screen. Using magic, the alumni were able to give the projection a physical form while maintaining it’s transparent look. Combining that with the touch screen technology has created a physical, transparent projection of sorts. When you touch the screen, the presence of your finger interrupts the flow of the photo and electric current, allowing you to swipe the screen like our phones.” Azul shows them how it works and reveals that you can use it with gloves. He turns back to the twins. “Of course, this is old technology now and is still being improved. At the moment, we’re trying to figure out how to compress it so it can be used mobile. So far, it’s only been uploaded to and tested on Idia’s tablet. The tenants believe that it might be compatible with the mobile phone soon.”

“…” Jade and Floyd look at him and are silent.

“What?” Azul looks at them in confusion. Floyd speaks for both him and Jade mostly him.

“You have become a huge nerd.”

“Wha-…hey!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Lilia hummed and walked through the gardens of Scarabia. He stopped to watch a purple peacock walk by. He was amazed an animal could be such a vivid color. He followed it through the garden, only to be stopped by the dorm leader.

“Can you refrain from acting suspicious around the dorm?” Lilia looked up and smiled.

“Malleus! It’s been a while! How’s the new dorm treating you?”

“What are you doing here, Lilia?”

“Just came by for a visit! All of the vice dorm leaders are visiting our old leaders today. Since the switch, everything is crazy. But every dorm seems to be settling quite nicely with their new leaders. Kalim has really brightened up Diasomnia.”

“I see.”

“Nice outfit by the way. Love the gold on you. It’s a big contrast from your black, green, and silver.”

“It’s not bad. A little more revealing than I’d like, but it works for the heat.”

“So, how’s the dorm? I heard that it’s usually a party palace.”

“It’s alright, I guess. Everyone keeps their distance, so it’s not that much different from Diasomnia.”

“I think this is a good opportunity for you.”

“How is anything about this situation good?”

“You can learn to lighten up a bit. Form some bonds maybe or get other people to get to know you.”

“We’ll see about that. By the way, should you really be here with Kalim as Diasomnia’s dorm leader?”

“I’m sure he’s fine.” Lilia smiled care freely. Knowing Kalim, Malleus sort of doubted that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Once Rook arrived at the drylands of Savanaclaw, he couldn’t imagine how Vil must be keeping up with his beauty and moisturized skin. He found Jack and got him to take him to “Vil’s” room. The room was very clean and organized. Vil was at the desk with a hand mirror and doing his makeup.

“Knock knock.” Rook said to get Vil’s attention. The dorm leader looked up and smiled. He got up and walked over to Rook.

“Rook, what are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were visiting? If I had known you’d be coming over, I would have made myself more presentable.”

“Fear not, fairest of them all, you are still beautiful. I’m impressed you’ve stayed so hydrated out here.”

“Well, thanks to that toner I got from Azul, my skin has remained moisturized and smooth. As for my hair, it’s a struggle to get it to remain silky and shiny.”

“You are amazing and beautiful as ever, Roi de Poison. Parfait.”

“Thank you. I try.”

“By the way, I LOVE the leather jacket. It suits you very well.”

“You think so? I’m rather thankful for the long sleeves, as it’s more fashionable. I am NOT wearing those vests. The long sleeves are a nightmare because of the heat, but I am not letting my arms tan from the sun. It’s hard enough avoiding it to prevent my face from tanning and aging.” Vil flips his hair and sighs.

“You know, you should try and put Epel in this getup.” Rook suggested, not being serious. Vil does and thinks about it.

“Well, he’s not exactly meant for this look. It would clash with his delicate beauty. But, if I can fill out this leather than so can he. I wonder if there are any spare uniforms around. I’ll have to ask Ruggie when he gets back.”

“Wait, what?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Ortho entered the Mostro Lounge, knowing that his big brother would be there somewhere. He was guided to a seat and ordered a drink, since he can’t just wander around to look for his brother. When he ordered, he also requested to see his brother. The Octavinelle student nodded and went to get the new manager. Ortho happily looked around the lounge as he waited for his drink and brother to arrive. When his drink was placed in front of him, he looked up to see his big brother serving him.

“Hey, big brother!”

“Nice to see you again, Ortho.” Idia took a seat with Ortho so they can talk. “What are you doing here? I didn’t hear a thing about you coming over.”

“I just wanted to see you. It’s been a while since we could be together.”

“It has. Oh, how is your body? Do you need any updates? I can do them right now since you’re here.”

“I’m alright. Mr. Azul is a fast learner and has been giving me updates.”

“Wow…he’s really smart if he’s able to learn that quickly.”

“But I might need a new update since I haven’t had one in a while.”

“Alright. Finish up your drink and we can go.”

     Ortho nods and happily spends some ore time with his brother. The two spent some time talking and catching up. Ortho shared what’s been happening at Ignihyde and how he is sort of like Azul’s mentor. Azul was a fast learner and picked up technological terminology in a heartbeat. Once Ortho finished his drink, the brothers got up and went to “Idia’s” room. He connected Ortho to his computer and began the upgrade. Once finished, the two stayed together some more.

“What’s going on with you and Ashengrotto?” Idia asked curiously.

“He’s great. He’s like an honorary big brother. Although, I’m getting a little concerned.”

“How so?”

“I feel like he’s looking into hacking because I saw him reading about it and asking other around about how to do it.”

“He’s…looking into hacking?” That concerned Idia a lot, and it seemed to be worrying Ortho as well.

“He said something about it helping him with future contracts. Something about gacha pulls.”

     That’s when something clicked within Idia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Jamil looked up at the castle that was Diasomnia’s dorm. He took a deep breath and entered the dorm. As he walked through the halls, he kept on getting stares from the tenants. After all, not many others have the courage to venture into Diasomnia for any reason or no reason at all. He found into Sebek and approached him.

“Excuse me.”

“Hm? Oh, you’re Jamil Viper from Scarabia. Are you here to see Kalim?”

“Yes. I am rather concerned about the situation and wish to check on Kalim.”

“You and me both.” Sebek sighs. “The only thing Silver is concerned with is how this all happened. Well, anyway, follow me. I’ll take you to him.”

“Thank you.”

     It was a rather role reversal from the Entrance Ceremony, but Sebek wasn’t going to say anything. They traveled up many flights of stairs and to the tallest tower in the dorm. Sebek knocked on the door.

“Dorm Leader Kalim? It’s Sebek. There’s someone here to see you.”

“Come in!”

     Sebek opened the door, letting Jamil in first. There, Kalim sitting at the desk and was struggling to do his homework. He looked up to see who was here and smiled brightly. She got up and ran over to the duo, immediately hugging Jamil.

“JAMIL!”

“WHOA! Do not jump at me so suddenly!”

“I missed you so much!”

“But we see each other at school and in class all the time.”

“It’s not the same! I don’t get to see you outside of school! I’m so lonely here! Sebek and Silver are so distant and Lilia is hardly around with me like you always were.”

“I am loyal to the Young Master. I’m not gonna coddle you.” Sebek interrupted.

“I just want company…” Kalim pouted. Jamil sighs, knowing fully well that Kalim’s clinginess is due to him babying him this whole time. Once this is all over, he’ll have to change that. “So, Jamil, what are you doing here? I didn’t here a word that you were coming.”

“The vice dorm leaders decided to check on our former leaders to see how they were doing.”

“Oh yeah? OH! You should come to the feast tonight!”

“What?” Jamil blanked. Did Kalim just say there was going to be a feast?

“I’ve invited the others to come too! We’ve got a big spread coming tonight!”

“What’s happening here?” Jamil looked over at Sebek, wanting an explanation.

“Dorm leader Kalim has been throwing parties rather frequently. Actually, he threw a feast the day he became our new dorm leader. It was really…interesting. But he single handedly got everyone to party in roughly 1 hour.” That was rather shocking to Jamil.

“Wait, did you say others were coming?”

“Yeah! I invited the other dorms! Ruggie is really excited and so is Vil-senpai!”

‘Probably only to get out of the drylands…’ Jamil thought to himself.

“Plus, I think this is a good chance to let others into Diasomnia and let them know that we aren’t so bad. It’s just because of the categorization of them being powerful and good at magic that make them scary. Everyone is really nice. A little distant, but they’re really nice. I wanted the other dorms to know that too!”

     Jamil was rather impressed. Kalim was actually trying to close the distance between Diasomnia and the other dorms. Perhaps Kalim was smarter than he thought.

“Since you’re here, could you help me with my Alchemy homework?”

     Or maybe not.

[moontheoretist]

Notes from tie-in MCU comics:

Part 1:

[DISCLAIMER: I was making those notes without actually writing down from which comic they come from, so now I am... well... confused about the proper placement of them, but I tried to discern them anyway.]

CAPTAIN AMERICA THE FIRST AVENGER:

Lol, Zola was developing exo-skeleton looking like Iron Man suit and Vanko's suit in 1934. I kind of think part of Steve's dislike of Iron Man was because of that exo-suit. Also, Steve just saved the guy in a suit.

"The chain is only as strong as its weakest link" said twice to Steve, once by military doctor and second by Schmidt.

Poor Erskine, his family was taken as hostages.

Howards says "carefully open the casing". Steve does smash instead.

Oh no, Red Skull said that weapon can always be taken from you so you have to become the weapon. It echoes the sentiment behind the creation of Iron Man too closely.

Lol, Roosevelt ASKED for Howard PERSONALLY.

"Car is bulletproof!" "and a convertible!" is a funny joke xD

Lol he has bulletproof car because of cigarette's girls angry boyfriends.

Ok, so Howard joined SSR because he HAD BEST FUN IN MONTHS.

Howard has rockets in car and "leaves best toys for himself".

First Steve saves a Nazi from a tank, now he obliterates them with said tank. Pick a side, Steve. I know guy in the armor was helpless, but c'mon. You either don't kill or kill. You cannot just willy nilly choose. BTW does it echo saving Iron Man or smth?

Call back to floating car by a joke about floating tank.

Aw, no, Erskine's family died in concentration camp from typhus. (Those camps were awful, but are not shown in the comics. You better believe that they weren’t very nice places to live even without being overworked and killed by the Nazis).

Oh no, Bucky was nearly killed by SSman! But Howling Commandos stopped him.

Bucky doesn't like his name lol. Also no Jimmy nickname for this guy.

Ok so Howard Stark was based on Hughes and Tony was based on someone Howard hated - Oppenheimer.

Ok, now Phillips made a foreshadowing for Cradle in the AoU. It even looks similar to Project Rebirth.

Oho my theory that Erskine heard Bucky talk to Steve and that doctor knew Steve lied is proved in this comics. They knew, they had a file on him and Erskine just picked him, saving his stupid ass from consequences.

Cap just threw a knife.

IRON MAN 2:

In the comics it looks more as if Obadiah sold Vanko instead of Howard, because Howard looks so surprised at what Vanko did, that it is impossible to assume that he was the one who sent the agents after Vanko. He looks surprised at the whole incident, Vanko betraying him and agents being there to apprehend him. One agent acts as if it was Howard's idea all along, but that line could be also read as just informing a bystander that they will deal with the issue instead.

Tony projected a drone which could clean whole desert full of mines with 100% accuracy and 0% detonation.

Also comics confirm that Tony cannot even have 12h break without Howard coming at him and demanding him to work when he is just a goddamn teenager.

Tony was just fighting for 19h, got a shower and has to go out again.

"If I hear of another innocent being put in a harm's way just to advance some pointless military agenda... there will be consequences" sounds like call back to Hulk.

Hm, Tony made 12 people work on one job? Also Natasha hates being called Nat and she drugged Samantha (the actual PA which applied for Stark Industries) to take her place.

 [As of now those comics confirmed to me that Captain America joined army out of selfish reasons and that Tony was overworking himself as Iron Man and when he wasn't he was either partying, probably to relax in that way, or making new tech which saves lives.]

Lol, Coulson was so excited to look for Captain. Nick even made a joke about finding his fav action figure.

Lol, World Security Council wanted to get Tony's weapons and nearly fired Fury for trying to make Avengers.

Fury is like Tony. He hates his superiors. He will do as they say but won't stop doing what he does.

Lol, Fury got a call Tony will be dead and he jumped out of his goddamn bed asap.

Fury was actively stopping Stern from getting Iron Man by scheduling his meeting with Department of Defense "when Stern is busy" xD

Lol Fury says no to Ross before he hears what he wants. This is so funny.

Ok, so Fury got Lithium Dioxide for Tony, asked if it could be made into permanent cure, how sweet of him, but also learned that it could INSTANTLY KILL HIM instead and still made Natasha basically inject Tony with it WITHOUT CONSENT! So I dunno if he really cared about him when he asked about permanent cure or it was just more optimal for his plans. Also he got the cure during Tony's and Rhodey's battle at the mansion, so we cannot say he had a cure and didn't give it right away when he could.

"Don't blow your cover unless Stark is going to kill himself". Hm. So he wants him alive.

And yeah, he ordered Natasha to stick him with lithium dioxide when he distracted him.

Lol, Fury yelled at Coulson for letting Tony leave the mansion xD

THOR??? (I got lost in my notes, I didn’t write which comic was which)

LOL CLINT CANNOT EVEN TAKE VACATION. Also the speed with which he responded to possible alien crashsite, epic. He jumped and went as if it was Christmas, aww Clint.

Why Clint is giving money back to some store which suffered due to their operation? I mean it was nice and all, but who will give the money back to Clint? Fury?

So it was Hawkeye's idea to let Thor loose.

In the meantime Loki was on scene and tried to get Mjolnir but it didn't respond.

AVENGERS PRELUDE:

Oho, poor Fury, didn't sleep in a few days.

Oho, Fury yelled at Natasha.

"Do not let Ross take Banner, dead or alive". How cute of you, Nick, to confirm that you do not care.

Blonsky is suicidal. Going at Hulk and kicking him in the face? That's a death wish.

Ah so Blonsky is enhanced.

Hahaha, joke about lifting a hammer but applied to the Asgardian sentinel, lol.

Ross literally accessed SHIELD databases.

Natasha was raised in Stalingrad lol.

After seeing Hulk, Abomination and The Leader Natasha finally says it is too much to handle for SHIELD.

Oho, so making Tony finish Howard's project was an objective, not saving his life. He wanted it for Tesseract.

I dunno if he is lying or really was doing this whole shit for the Tesseract. Also points for sticking in WSC's face that Ross nearly destroyed New York thanks to them.

Shield has whiplash suit and it's arc reactor!

THEY ACTIVATED THE SENTINEL AND THEN THEY WANT TO DISMANTLE IT AND MAKE DOZENS SMALL ONES!

Huh, implication that Natasha may beat the whole bunker of SHIELD agents up, because they're men, lol.

So Selvig used the element Stark invented to kick-start the Tesseract after all.

"Good for a laugh from time to time" lol. Clint the comedian.

Why that machine holding a Tesseract looks like Arc Reactor?

Huh so Selvig was Loki and he made a comment about Tony being strange for "badassium".

BLACK WIDOW BACKGROUND IN ONE OF THE COMICS, DUNNO WHICH:

Natasha talks about her cover personalities like vtubers about their avatars.

Fjodorov knows something about stolen bootleg technology of Tony Stark which he managed to acquire?

Natasha really likes narrating her story. Time slows when you have a training? Like roller coaster on first ridge?

"With some small regret, I bid farewell to Tatiana. She's outlived her usefulness" thinks Natasha after she took off her wig and no longer plays Tatiana. "If she were real. She'd be dead". "It's nice though, to pretend while it lasts... that I was ever as innocent as her".

Natasha really likes playing those roles.

Haha, Natasha holds one mission over Coulson's head forever even though he never failed as her control again.

"Part of the reason why I am so good at the undercover work is that I actually like being other people. There is a lot I've done that I regret. When I leave that other identity behind, whether I slip out from underneath it voluntarily or it's ripped away from my grasp, it always hits me like a shock. Like being awakened from a deep sleep, back to who I really am". "It's good to be home". Is she speaking about her slip into Black Widow again as home or is she referring to Russia?

Natasha left a guy dangling from a building and said it could be worse, he could be naked.

"Good man" says Natasha as if she was training guys to obey her will.

Oho, Natasha is interested in someone who wants to be her.

Also she is narrating that police in Russia would not suspect Tatiana to be so resourceful.

Natasha wants to save that girl from herself, because nobody did that for her when she was in the same position.

I mean, Natasha killed some people that day already so I don't get the point of her not killing those guys and saying that she changed, when in the club she killed a few of the goons already and later too. Where is the point of her change if she kills anyway? What is this change about Black Widow - Natasha Romanoff if she kills people but just not always? She cannot claim to change for the better just because she didn't kill two goons. And Sofia should see that not killing all of them doesn't mean she doesn't kill at all. But I guess leaving so many alive still counts for Sofia as Natasha going soft.

Coulson, you idiot, I am happy you came to save Natasha, but Sofia thought those guys were Natasha's back up. It all wouldn't happen if not for you making them appear there. You fucked up everything for Natasha, Coulson.

Uh, Natasha has the same weird shtick Tony does. She blames herself for the decision of her superior? Yeah, she enabled him to make that decision, but it was still his decision to send those men to find Natasha, so their death is on him, not on Natasha.

Huh, so Natasha's model persona Konn feels empty when nobody looks at her, because her whole life was being the centre of attention? It's kind of sexist cover.

She is a hand model and this guy is disgusting. Natasha I agree with those YUCK.

Natasha doing tehee is so weird.

Also playing a "he sent me here so hours would fly by" is so gross, but inner Natasha voice says nothing yet.

Lol the guy just assumed she is stupid, because she made tehee sounds. Like, goddammit, men are so easy to fool. Condescending little creep indeed.

Ok, so Natasha doesn't have any computer knowledge to say what those lines of code are, but she knows Stark can.

Ugh, Natasha, that line about telling his friends that they did something he imagines is so not feminist of you. It just enables creeps like that to objectify women more and treat them like idiots and fucktoys.

Sofia killed the agent even when Natasha gave her what she wanted.

Natasha wants to save lives and often fails at it too.

She jumped off the yacht to save the guy even though she knew he is dead? I mean shot in the head usually means instant death.

She doesn't get lines of code but can upload tracking device on it. Good. Also she wanna kill Sofia now.

"When I go in for the kill, there's no one I'd rather be than who I really am".

Ah so they had a targeting software for the copy of the Jericho missile manufactured by Hammer.

So they were moving Jericho in parts around the world. They should be happy Tony didn't notice. (Because then they would all just go boom and be dead lol).

"Berserk bots a girl's best friends!"

Frampton wants to have space tourism.

Ten Rings again.

Why Frampton wants to strike Korean DMZ?

Aha, global destabilisation for Ten Rings, gotcha.

Oho, so the info about Natasha busting the trafficking ring comes back. It turns out she accidentally trapped the girls inside when she busted the place. She basically says she didn't know they were there but even if she did she wasn't nice back then.

So Natasha says that Sofia was more her than she ever was, meaning the Black Widow, meaning that Natasha always had softness in her which Sofia didn't have and that Sofia got her just reward for wanting to be the perfect Black Widow.

Still sexist move to make a victim of sex trafficking ring become a morally corrupt murderer who would destabilise world for free if she could, but does that for money, because money is nice addition to her new hobby of fucking humanity up.

"Some people are not worth saving" Not so long ago plenty would say that about me".

AVENGERS:

Oho Stark Tower is the first fully clean-energy powered skyscraper.

Pepper thinks inside the box and Tony thinks outside the box.

Oh, so Tony still says that Rhodey had stolen the suit, but then he admits that it could give him heart attack, because it was not calibrated for him, so I wonder if he really wanted Rhodey to have it or never wanted Rhodey to have it at all.

"I got them to agree that all starktech remains proprietary to you as long as War Machine is on loan to the department of defense".

Lol wow, War Machine was an insult? Anyway he means that Rhodey won't be using Mark II because Tony has new suit for him.

"I am not Iron Man" people yell Iron Man at Rhodey "Ah, forget it" xD

How is Tony saying that he couldn't find anything to go after Gulmira when he was literally busting Ten Rings in Iron Man 2 tie-in comic?

Hahaha, Rhodey wanna get a publicist so people would recognise he is War Machine, not Iron Man.

Rhodey is so vicious. "I could have taken your hand with it but not doing it is more fun".

Oho so Tony THREE MONTHS after Tony was putting S on Stark Tower there is Battle of New York and Rhodey is in Hong Kong.

Incoming call: Martini, seriously? You call Tony MARTINI?

Also for some reason this Tony has blue eyes.

Rhodey is so cocky lol. "I haven't seen anything that can take me down".

"When am i gonna learn to keep my mouth shut?" xDDD Rhodey cursed himself.

So after Iron Man 2 Tony realised that he couldn't be iron solder alone anymore and made Rhodey an armor? Still, trust was a huge factor here.

Lol did he just make a joke about being so beat up as after clubbing with Tony to a commanding officer? Rhodey, you vicious little shit lol xD

"Battle tank that's about to make me street pizza! But only if I stand and take it, which I have never done in my life". That's useful info. It gives me some insight into who was protecting who at MIT. Rhodey never was taking a crap of other people, so he probably was used to fighting bullies. And I can imagine him standing up to bullies who targeted a kid - Tony Stark.

Rhodey chooses to fight smarts with smarts.

DID HE JUST MAKE HIS WAY OF LANDING A FRIGGIN MISSILE STYLE? XD

His commander asks if he is crazy. He definitely friggin is lol.

Rhodey just gave his superior a scare when he let a tank run him over. They thought he died.

OMG Ten Rings assumed War Machine is easier target to get tech from and Rhodey feels offended, but happy they know who he is.

Rings had stark tech in that tank, oh no. Tony will be pissed even if those are old black market stuff.

AWWW RHODEY WAS WORRIED ABOUT TONY WHEN HE DIDN'T RESPOND!

"Don't do this to me, man". "Holy...! That was SOME situation" says Rhodey when he saw chitauri flying whale dead. Ok so Avengers met Rhodey in that shawarma place.

Pepper decorates according to feng shui?

So Ten Rings scanned Rhodey's armor with any scanner available and collected a lot of data on the armor anyway.

[buoyantsaturn]

and they were quarantined (1/1)

summary: oh my god they were quarantined 

word count: 6547

read on ao3

Nico was sick of his friends texting him about some pasta shortage in Italy. Haha, very funny, the pasta country is out of pasta,  whatever.  He was busy, and he didn’t have time to explain the difference between  penne lisce  and  penne rigate  - and  no,  he would  never  eat  penne lisce. 

Nobody ever bothered to tell him what the pasta shortage was  really  about, and he had to find out for himself when he tried to go out to buy a pack of cigarettes and the security guard told him they were under quarantine. How had Nico managed to live through an entire day of quarantine without even realizing? He blamed it on never leaving his apartment. Still, maybe his friends could have sent him a warning text to let him know to stock up for the next however many weeks.

Whatever. He liked being holed up in his apartment, anyway.

Besides, how long could they really trap people inside their homes? A couple of days? He could ration his half-pack of cigarettes for that long, easy. 

Nico decided he would let himself have two more cigarettes that night - one before dinner and one before bed - so just as the sun started to set he stepped out onto the balcony with a cigarette between his lips and a lighter in his hands. He lit the cigarette and took a long drag, then leaned back against the balcony rail, choosing to stare back into his apartment rather than at the one across the courtyard from him.

He had about two seconds of peace before someone behind him called out, “You know those things will kill you.”

Nico glanced over his shoulder, noticing for the first time a man on the balcony behind him. “I hear the plague is going to anyway, so I might as well enjoy this while I can.” He turned around and rested his elbows on the railing, mirroring the position of the man across from him. He nearly choked on his next inhale. 

The man was  beautiful  - tan and blond and he probably had at least a foot on Nico. His hair looked like it was glowing, but Nico wondered if that was just because of the sunset - either way, he finally understood why that time of day was called  golden hour.  The lighting made this handsome stranger look like a Renaissance painting with his perfect face and lopsided smile and his balcony practically overflowing with greenery. 

“Well, since we only have a few weeks to live, I’m Will. It’s nice to meet you.”  God,  even his  voice  was nice to listen to, the words slow and drawn out with the slightest hint of a southern drawl. Nico could  hear  the smile in his voice. “I moved in a couple of months ago, but I don’t think I’ve seen you around before, uh…?”

Nico blew out a breath of smoke. “Nico. I don’t get out much.”

Will’s smile somehow became  brighter.  “Well, Nico, I hope we get to see more of each other before we succumb to  the plague.”

Nico took one last drag before stubbing out his cigarette. “Yeah, see you.”

  Two days later, Nico was still rationing his cigarettes with even more care than he was rationing his food. He started taking his smoke breaks at odd times during the day just to curb his cravings, and had definitely started losing sleep from his restlessness. Even still, regardless of when Nico went outside to smoke - as long as the sun was up - Will would be sitting on his own balcony. He was always reading, sometimes from novels, sometimes from textbooks, and he would always greet Nico with a smile. 

“You know, I’m glad you’re lessening your nicotine intake, but I gotta say, it kinda sucks that I’m seeing you less and less,” Will told him one morning - earlier than Nico would normally be up, but he’d hardly slept the night before.

Nico choked on his inhale, and coughed before he could reply. “Well, some of us have jobs to get back to.”

Will rested his chin in his palm and grinned - did he ever  stop  smiling? It was starting to get annoying. Or maybe that was the flutter in Nico’s heart every time he saw it that was annoying him. “And I think you’re running out of cigarettes.”

Nico blew smoke in Will’s direction. “And what about it? It’s not like you’ve got a pack stashed somewhere that you could give me.”

“No, but I can give you some coping strategies for when you run out.”

Nico stubbed out his cigarette on the railing. “Thanks, but no thanks. I can cope just fine on my own.”

“I’ll be here if you change your mind!”

Nico offered him a two-fingered salute before he turned on his heel and went back inside. 

  Okay, so, Nico did  not  bring his laptop out onto the balcony that night just because Will sounded lonely. It was  warm  for once  ,  and there was a  full moon,  and Nico can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, okay? Except for, apparently, leave his apartment to buy more cigarettes.

He also was not repeatedly glancing over at Will’s apartment to see if he was coming outside - as far as Nico could tell, most of Will’s lights had been shut off, and he feared that he might have missed his chance to talk to Will some more (except that he had no intention of doing so anyway, so shut up about it). 

Just when he was getting back into the swing of things on his current project, he heard the distant sound of a sliding door opening, and then Will’s voice saying, “Oh, sure, you bring your work to me just as I’m heading to bed.”

“Who says I brought my work to you? Maybe I just wanted a change of scenery,” Nico argued. He glanced up to get a look at Will - he’d changed into a loose t-shirt and plaid pajama pants.  Cute.  It kind of made Nico wonder why Will ever bothered to change out of his pajamas, since he clearly wasn’t going anywhere, and if he could look that soft and comfortable and adorable all the time, then why wouldn’t he?

Will hummed. “I suppose that’s possible, but I just think it’s interesting that you finally brought your laptop outside after mentioning just a few hours ago that you had work to do. So, looking for company?”

“Like I said, I just wanted a change of scenery,” Nico lied.

“Sure you did.” Will took a seat in the singular lawn chair he had on his own balcony and angled it so that he could stare up at the moon when he propped his feet up on the rail. “Don’t you wish you could have a little more human interaction?”

“I thrive in solidarity.”

Will snorted. “You’re funny.”

Nico looked at him with a confused pout. He barely stopped himself from asking,  Are you flirting with me?  because he wasn’t really sure he wanted to know the answer. Instead, he tried to find some way to change the subject before Will beat him to it.

“So, what are you doing, anyway?”

“Huh?”

“You’re working, right? What do you do?”

Oh, thank god, an easy topic. Nico hardly had to think if he was just talking about work. “I’m a graphic designer. Freelance. And to answer your earlier question,  again,  I have more than enough human interaction over email. And trust me, if you had to talk to these people every day, you’d isolate yourself, too.”

“No, I don’t think I would,” Will replied. His head rolled to the side so that he could look at Nico as he spoke. “I’m too much of a people-person.”

“Oh. So quarantine must be killing you, then,” Nico said before he could just shove his actual foot in his mouth. 

“Eh, only a little bit. See, I have this neighbor that comes to talk to me sometimes.”

When Nico looked up, Will was grinning at him once again. “Oh, you mean me.”

Will’s laugh was  musical.  Nico didn’t even know what that  meant  but he knew that was the only way to describe it. It gave Nico goosebumps - or maybe that was just the cool breeze. “Yes, I mean you. Seriously, it’s like everybody else in this building  likes  being cooped up all the time. I think I’ve spent more time outside than in over the last few days, and aside from you, I think only one person has even opened a window.”

“What do you do?”

“Oh, water my plants, read until I can’t see straight--”

“No, not that,” Nico said, rolling his eyes. “I mean, like, what do you do?  Like, for work.”

“Oh! I’m a med student. Yeah, classes usually take up almost all of my day, so I’m paying the rent here on my student loans, which I know isn’t  great,  but it’s better than being twenty-five and living in a dorm somewhere.”

Nico tried to do the math in his head - did doctors go to school for seven years, or eight? “So, you’re basically a doctor, right?”

“Almost!” Will shot Nico another grin. “This is supposed to be my last semester, but with schools shut down, it’s hard to say if they’ll let me graduate yet. Which sucks, because it’s stuff like this that made me want to become a doctor, you know? I just wish I could be out there helping people, instead of getting stuck in quarantine, all alone. Seriously, I think I might’ve gone crazy already if it weren’t for you.”

“It’s been, what, three days? I don’t think it works like that.”

“Okay, maybe not, but the only other interactions I’ve had in the past couple of days have been virtual lectures, and that hardly counts.”

“Oh, gross.”

Will chuckled. “Yeah, that’s one word for it.” There was a short pause, and after that moment of silence, Will rose to his feet with a sigh. “Well, I really should head to bed.”

“Why?” Nico glanced at the corner of his laptop screen. “It’s not even ten o’clock.”

Will leaned his elbows on the rail. “Yeah, but I have lectures starting at eight, and I need to make sure I’m awake enough to pay attention by the time those start. I should let you get back to work, anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow, Nico.”

As Will returned inside, Nico’s gaze dropped back to his laptop screen. It had gone black a while ago when the computer fell asleep, and Nico didn’t bother waking it back up. He had just come out there for Will, anyway.

  Nico only saw Will in passing the next day. He saw Will watering his plants just as Nico was waking up, but was back inside his own apartment by the time Nico had stepped out onto his balcony. 

He didn’t have any company as he smoked his last cigarette. 

  He thought a lot of his symptoms were mostly psychosomatic - just the simple knowledge that he wouldn’t be able to have a cigarette the next day was keeping him up at night, leaving him too tired to concentrate on his work all morning. By noon, he had a dull headache at the base of his skull, and he couldn’t really tell if he was hungry or nauseous, so rather than trying to figure it out, he decided to get some fresh air. Maybe talking to Will would lift his mood a little.

Nico stepped out onto the balcony and took a deep breath of fresh air, and immediately started coughing. Just because he hadn’t smoked in around eighteen hours didn’t mean his lungs were back to normal.

“You alright?” a voice called out to him, and Nico offered his middle finger before he realized that it was probably Will. 

Once he stopped coughing, Nico muttered a, “Sorry,” that Will likely couldn’t hear. It was the thought that counted, right?

“You know, it’s a cough like that that should be enough to convince you to quit,” Will said, sounding like his mind was somewhere else. When Nico looked over, his nose was buried in a textbook. “That is, if the quarantine doesn’t force you to quit, first.”

Nico rolled his eyes. Was Will always this annoying, and Nico never noticed because he was too distracted by a pretty face? “Okay, never mind.” He turned on his heel and stepped back inside.

“Wait, Nico, come back!” Will called just before Nico shut the door between them. This time when he flipped Will off, he meant it.

 A few hours later, after a meal and a nap, Nico went back outside to apologize. Don’t get him wrong, he still felt like garbage and his headache was somehow even worse than before, but he knew that Will didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. Just because Nico was an asshole didn’t mean that he should take it out on an innocent guy.

He stepped out onto the balcony and hissed when the sun hit his eyes, aggravating his headache.

“You look like shit,” Will told him, and something about the tone of his voice made Nico feel even worse - there was no concern, none of the usual cheerfulness that Will usually expressed to Nico. It sounded more like he was forcing himself to stay calm, remain neutral, as if he was guarding himself against Nico. And if that didn’t make Nico feel  worse.

Nico groaned and leaned against the railing, crossing his arms and resting his forehead on them. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Will asked, his voice betraying his surprise.

Nico groaned louder. “You  know.”

“No, I don’t.” Will frowned at him as he stood. “Are you sick? Do you have a fever? A cough?”

“I ran out of cigarettes.”

“Aw, Spooky,” Will said. “How are you feeling? How can I help?”

Nico lifted his head. “What did you just call me?”

And there was Will’s smile again, so bright it hurt Nico’s eyes to look at. “Spooky. You know, you scared me half to death a couple of times when you came out to smoke because you’re so quiet. I looked up and you were just  there.  You  spooked  me, get it?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Oh, you’re  so  funny.”

“Thank you. So, what’s up?”

He sighed and rubbed at his temples. “Headache, mostly.”

“Did you take anything for it?”

“Took a nap.”

Will snorted. “I meant, like, Tylenol.”

“Oh. No.”

“You should do that. And drink a lot of water. I’m gonna look up what I can do to help.”

Nico walked back inside and poured himself a glass of water before he started searching through his cabinets for painkillers. When he couldn’t find anything in the kitchen, he went into the bathroom, but still didn’t have any luck. He took his glass of water outside and told Will, “I don’t have any Tylenol.”

“You don’t? Hang on, I’ll get you some.” Will jumped up from his seat and practically ran back into his apartment, returning in less than a minute. “Hey, Spooks, catch.”

Suddenly, something was flying at Nico’s face, and he barely had the time to duck before the pill bottle hit the back of his chair. “What the hell, Will?”

“I said catch!”

“I’m gay, I can’t catch!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know!”

Nico picked up the bottle. “Isn’t this, like, cross-contamination, or something? We’re breaking quarantine code right now.”

“I’m sure this is fine. I mean, have you seen those videos of people all over the world, hanging out on their balconies?” Will asked. “They’re all, like, two feet apart from each other. There’s no way they  aren’t sharing things like this. If it makes you feel better, you can keep the bottle.”

“But what if you need it?”

“I think you need it more than I do.” Will shrugged. “Besides, just knowing that you’re feeling better will help me.”

Nico turned all of his attention to the pill bottle in his hands so that he didn’t have to look at the smile on Will’s face. He  had  to be flirting this time, right? He popped open the bottle and tossed a couple pills in his mouth, chasing them down with water. He kept his gaze down as he asked, “So, you said you were looking up ways to help?”

“Oh, yeah!” Will dropped himself back into his seat and picked up his laptop. “So, pretty much the only thing that will for-sure help you ease off of cigarettes is, like, a nicotine patch or nicotine gum, but since we can’t leave, that’s not really an option. The next best idea I’ve seen is basically to find a replacement for your addiction.”

“What’s  really  stopping me from walking out of this building right now to just buy more cigarettes?” 

Will raised a hand and started to count on his fingers. “Me, I’m guessing there’s still a security guard in the lobby, the patrol cars on the streets, and the fact that the nearest stores are almost definitely shut down.”

Nico sighed. “Alright, fine, I’ll do your dumb addiction replacement thing. How do I do that?”

“You just need to find a healthier addiction, or, like, anytime you get a craving, do one specific activity. This website has a few ideas. Let’s see… Can’t really go for a walk, can’t run errands, can’t go to the gym… You could take a nap, clean your apartment, take a shower, or…  Picture the future, smoke-free you, and bask in how much better you’ll feel once you achieve your goal.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I think I’ll risk the patrol cars.”

  Nico spent a lot of time working to make up for all the time he spent zoned out when he was  supposed  to be working. He couldn’t exactly take a shower  every time  he wanted a cigarette, and he could only clean his apartment so many times in a day, so rather than finding some replacement like Will suggested, he just tried to force himself to work.

He emailed a few clients and reviewed a few of his half-finished projects, trying to decide which one to continue with when he heard a  tink, tink sound coming from his balcony. 

Nico looked over to see something hitting the window of his sliding glass door. He stood up, leaving his laptop on his desk as he went to investigate. He opened the door to find a small collection of pebbles scattered across his balcony, and looked up to see Will digging through one of his potted plants.

“Were you throwing rocks at my window?” 

Will’s head popped up, and he grinned when he saw Nico. “Spooky! Yeah, and it’s a good thing you noticed, because I think I’m out of rocks.”

“Did you need something?”

“It’s my lunch break, and I was hoping for some company,” Will told him. “So? Think you’ve earned a break yet today?”

Nico considered the few emails he’d sent and the handful he had yet to even open and decided, “Give me five minutes.”

  Will warned him that insomnia would be another symptom of nicotine withdrawal, and it unfortunately paired nicely with Nico’s usual insomnia, leaving him awake most of the night yet without any energy to work. When he finally eventually passed out, he hardly even noticed that he wasn’t still awake, because his dream seemed so realistic.

He was standing in his kitchen, washing the dishes he’d ignored the entire day before. He didn’t consider that this even could have been a dream, because he’d never had a dream that was  so boring.  If he hadn’t already been asleep, then the monotony of washing dishes probably would have knocked him right out.

Then, something...changed. He felt more relaxed, somehow, and he thought there might have been some soft music playing from somewhere else in the apartment. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the door to the balcony was open - maybe the music was coming from Will’s apartment. Maybe Nico should say hello.

Before he could move, someone was standing behind him, arms looping around his waist and a chin resting on his shoulder. “Aw, Spooks, you didn’t have to do the dishes,” Will said, pressing his lips to the side of Nico’s neck as he spoke. “You made dinner, you should’ve let me clean up.”

Nico didn’t reply - couldn’t seem to open his mouth - but Will didn’t mind. He gently tugged Nico away from the sink, across the apartment and out onto the balcony. “Come dance with me,” Will said as they stepped outside. 

The balcony was so crowded by chairs and plants that the two of them could barely stand together, and a quick glance across the courtyard revealed Will’s empty balcony. 

Will spun Nico around to face him, and Nico was finally able to get a good look at him, though something wasn’t quite right. He didn’t have enough freckles, or maybe his hair wasn’t parted to the right side. And was Will really  that  much taller than him? 

“You know, I don’t think I’d mind getting stuck here with you again,” Will whispered, leaning down to rest his forehead against Nico’s. “Except this time it’ll be even better, since I get to touch you--” Will brushed his fingers against Nico’s cheek, “--and hold you--” his other arm tightened around Nico’s waist, “--and kiss you--” and he pressed his lips to Nico’s, and Nico could  feel  the pressure of the kiss, and he felt the  heat  of Will’s breath so close to him, and Nico  woke up.

He couldn’t manage to pull himself out of bed for another hour, and when he finally did, he went straight out onto the balcony. Will wasn’t there, but all of his plants crowded his balcony, leaving Nico’s bare aside from his single lawn chair and the small scattering of pebbles. Nico picked up one of the rocks, rolling it in his hand as he decided whether or not he wanted to throw it, but the sound of a glass door sliding open made up his mind for him.

Will stepped outside and asked, “Hey, Spooks, what’s up?”

Nico hesitated. Did he really want to talk about this, with Will of all people? “Does withdrawal give you...weird dreams?”

Will leaned against his railing. “A lot of things supposedly give you weird dreams. What happened?”

Nico felt his face heating up, so he dropped his gaze to look down at the courtyard below them. “It was just...really  real.  Like, I could hear music and...  feel  things. I don’t think I’ve ever  felt  in a dream before.”

Will hummed. “It might be the nicotine, it might not.” He shrugged. “Maybe it was prophetic.”

Nico felt himself flush.

“Do you think we could talk more later? I’ve got a paper to write, but… Lunch around noon, twelve-thirty?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”

  A thunderstorm rolled in late that morning, leaving Nico to hope that the pounding rain would cease by lunchtime. However, by the time his stomach started to growl, it sounded as though the rain had picked up even more, and Nico’s heart sunk. He got up and made himself some lunch to eat at his desk as he continued to work, and on his way back to his desk, he peeked out the window at Will’s balcony. 

His plants had all been pulled away from the railing and closer to the building, probably so they didn’t get destroyed in the heavy rain. Taped on the inside of Will’s door was a piece of paper with a frowny face and a phone number written underneath.

Nico texted the number with a simple,  hey.

From: Unknown; Spooky?

Nico smiled down at his phone, his thumbs already firing off a response. 

  “I miss... oh man,  my Mama’s homemade fried chicken,” Will said, dropping his head back against his chair. “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I would  kill  for some fried chicken right now.”

“I wouldn’t have taken you for the fried food type,” Nico told him. He kicked his feet up on the railing as he stretched back in his own chair, staring up at the cloudy sky.

“I’m Texan born and raised, baby,” Will said, his voice taking on a deep Southern drawl that had Nico’s ears burning. “My Mama could make a whole meal out of fried foods and it would be the best thing you’ve ever eaten. And the  cornbread.”  Will rubbed his hands over his face, and when he spoke again, the accent disappeared as if he’d wiped it away. “God, I just wish I could eat  anything  that I didn’t make for myself. I’m kind of a horrible cook.”

Nico tilted his head to watch Will between the rails. “When the quarantine is over, you should come over for dinner. I’ll cook you one of my favorites from when I was a kid.”

Will looked over at him and grinned. “It’s a date.”

  The only alcohol Nico had on hand was Fireball, meaning that every few minutes he found his lips burning and tongue numb from the cinnamon-alcohol mix and Will’s dumb idea to play drinking games. He didn’t know when the game was supposed to end - and he didn’t really want to drink the entire bottle in one sitting - but at least he’d gotten to know some interesting things about Will after he’d gotten tipsy enough to test the waters.

“Never have I ever kissed a girl,” Nico said, smirking when Will took a sip of his own - Captain Morgan, which he was drinking out of a cup, because he was apparently too  civilized  to drink straight from the bottle. 

“Never have I ever kissed a  boy,”  Will shot back, and Nico frowned as he drank, his heart sinking at the thought that he would probably never have a chance with Will, until the blond lifted his cup to his lips and took a drink. “I lied,” he said with a smirk of his own.

“Cheater. Never have I ever...uh, I dunno, willingly watched a reality TV show.”

“Never? Really? But some of them are so good! And some of them are so dumb that they’re really fun to watch! We should watch one together!”

“How would we do that when we’re, like, fifteen feet apart?”

Will thought for a second. “You have Netflix, right?” When Nico nodded, Will continued, “Go get your laptop, we’re watching  Queer Eye.”

“Is that technically a reality show?”

“I think so. It’s real people, right? Why, have you seen it?” Nico shook his head. “Then let’s go!” Will jumped up and ran back into his apartment, so Nico did the same, returning to the balcony after a moment and settling back down. Will reappeared a moment later with his own laptop and said, “Okay, we’re just gonna start with the first episode, and I’m gonna count us down from three to hit play. Are you ready?”

Once Nico had the episode up and ready to go, he said, “Ready.”

“Okay. Three… Two… One…  Play!”  Nico hit the play button and the episode started, but across the courtyard, Will exclaimed,  “Oh no, it’s buffering!”

Nico paused the video right away. “We just gotta give it time to load. What do you wanna do while we wait?”

Will set his laptop on the ground and leaned his elbows on the railing, so Nico did the same. “Questions. Where did you grow up?”

“Born in Italy, grew up in Los Angeles. What’s your favorite candy?”

Will hummed. “Almond Joy. Same question.”

Nico wrinkled his nose up at Will’s answer. “Um, Snickers.”

“Oh!” Will jumped out of his chair. “I think I have some Snickers! Hang on a second.” Will ran back inside, leaving Nico to stare in his windows and watch him move around until he returned with a shiny wrapper in his hand. “Okay, I lied, it’s not Snickers. It’s Twix.”

“Oh my god, I lied, Twix is actually my favorite,” Nico said, eyes widening. 

“Okay, this is for you, Nico,” Will said, swinging his arm gently as though winding up for an underhand toss. He threw the candy, but the arc was too high, and it ended up landing on the roof. “Oh, shit, I’m so sorry. I’ll buy you another one after quarantine, I promise.”

Nico was torn between mourning his lost Twix and laughing at Will’s horrible throw, but the alcohol that was really starting to hit him decided for him and he almost fell over from the force of his laughter. “That was  horrible!  I’m gay and I can throw better than that!”

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you try!” Will taunted.

“I don’t have anything to throw!”

“Then I guess I win.”

Nico frowned down at the rail of his own balcony, then at the distance between the two. “I’ll just throw myself then.” 

He managed to lift a leg over the railing before Will stopped him. “Nico, stop, it’s too far and we’re on the third floor. You’ll  die.  And I don’t want my Spooky turning into a scary skeleton just yet.”

Nico rolled his eyes, still straddling the railing. “Please, I bet you’re used to guys throwing themselves at you all the time, how is this any different?”

“Because you’re talking in, like, metaphor or something, but this is literal, and you could  literally die.”

Nico huffed and pulled himself back over the rail, losing his balance right at the end and falling into his chair. “Alright, fine, I won’t throw myself at you. I get it, you’re not interested. Let’s just watch the dumb show then.”

“Who said I wasn’t interested?”

It took Nico more than a few moments to process Will’s words, and when he finally did, he looked up at Will with wide eyes. “Oh.”

Oh.

  Nico’s friends had set up a full day to connect and play video games, which left him stuck on the couch for the entire morning as Percy, Jason, and whoever else happened to jump into the server shouted about their gameplay. Through all the noise of button clicking and his friends’ exclamations, Nico didn’t hear his phone buzzing on the couch beside him and missed a few texts from Will. 

When his phone started ringing, Nico didn’t even think about it when he answered the call and immediately put it on speaker phone so that he could play hands-free - and, unfortunately, allow his friends to hear their conversation.

“Hey, Spooky, where are you?” Will asked.

“Who is that?” Jason asked through Nico’s laptop.

“Who the hell is  Spooky?”  Percy demanded.

“Shut up,” Nico told them, and tried to turn toward his phone without taking his eyes off his screen to say to Will, “Sorry, Will, I’m playing this--”

“Who’s Will?” Jason asked.

“I said shut up!”

“Um, are you coming outside for lunch?”

“Neeks, are you breaking quarantine?” Percy said.

“Dude, Hazel will kill you if she finds out,” Jason agreed.

“I’m not breaking quarantine--”

“We can just hang out later…”

“Will, hold on a second--”

“Aw, Jas, I think we’re interrupting a  date!”

Nico glared at his laptop. “It’s  not--”

“Just, uh, text me later when you’re not busy, okay, Spooks?”

“Will,  wait--  ” Nico glanced down at his phone, but the screen flashed  call ended.  “Dammit! Okay, when I find the two of you, I’m going to shoot you both to death.”

“Dude, are you ditching your boyfriend for us?” Jason asked. 

“He’s not--  Shut up!  Let me kill you so I can go eat lunch.”

Percy sang, “With your  boyfriend!”  before Nico emptied his gun into Percy’s character. “Shit!”

“Jason, get your ass over here so I can kill you!”

Chasing Jason around the map and finally killing him took about ten minutes, which was probably the best Jason had ever played in his life, and only succeeded in frustrating Nico even more. He left the game abandoned in the living room as he ran out onto the balcony, afraid that if he waited even another second, Will might disappear.

He exhaled his nerves when he saw Will sitting on his balcony, glumly eating a salad. He glanced up when Nico shut the door behind himself, but quickly dropped his gaze back to his salad. “Hey. How are your friends?” he asked, angrily stabbing at his salad.

Nico couldn’t stop a smile from blooming. “Are you jealous that I was playing dumb video games with some losers from high school instead of talking with you?”

Will’s cheeks grew red. “I’m not  jealous--”

“It’s okay if you are, ‘cause it’s kinda cute.” Will’s head shot up, and this time, it was Nico’s turn to blush. “That’s not… I didn’t really mean--” Nico averted his eyes and scratched at the back of his neck. “Um. How was your morning?”

Will stood, setting his bowl aside, and stepped up to the rail. “You know, maybe I was a little jealous after all.”

Nico glanced up. “Oh?”

“Mhm. I mean, if that’s what it takes for you to call me cute, I can act as jealous as you want.”

Nico grinned. “I think you’re cute either way.”

  Nico didn’t know what time it was, but he guessed that it had to be past midnight considering how high the moon was and how far the temperature had dropped. At some point, he and Will had each abandoned their chairs in favor of sitting on the balcony floors, leaning back against the uncomfortable railing so they could stretch out and look up at the stars as they shared quiet conversation.

Will sighed. “You know, I could really go for a hug right now. Or, like, any physical contact with another human being would be nice.”

“A stiff handshake after a boring business meeting,” Nico offered.

Will snorted. “Okay, you got me there. But… Just think about it for a second. I love talking to you, Nico, don’t get me wrong, but… Imagine, instead of sitting fifteen feet away from each other, both behind bars like we’re prisoners in our own homes--”

“Which we are.”

“For our own safety,  let me finish!” Will scolded, laughing. When he spoke again, his voice was much,  much softer - not in the sense that he was hard to hear, but in a way that made Nico’s heart melt and ache and nearly pound out of his chest all at the same time. “Imagine we’re… sitting on a couch, next to each other. Maybe we’re watching a movie, or maybe we’re just...enjoying each other’s company, you know? We’re holding hands, or...maybe I’ve got an arm around your shoulders. I wish I could just...wrap my arms around you, and hold you close. That just sounds...really nice right now, don’t you think?”

If Will didn’t stop talking to him like that, Nico was going to fall in love with him.

Or maybe he would anyway.

How did he get to the point where this man who was an actual stranger just two weeks ago was pulling at Nico’s heartstrings in a way that made him want to jump off his balcony just in the  hopes  that he might reach all the way across the courtyard, and  damn  his touch aversion because he would give Will all the hugs he could ever want and  more.

But instead of doing any of that, Nico sat on his balcony, staring longingly at that not-quite-stranger across from him, and swallowed around a lump of emotion in his throat. He croaked, “Yeah, that sounds...nice.”

  Nico took his lunch out onto the balcony, but after half an hour of waiting, Will never showed. He tried texting Will a few times, and when he didn’t receive a response, he searched his balcony for those pebbles Will had thrown at his windows all those days ago and tried his own hand. He missed, mostly, but one or two or them hit as far as he could tell, so he counted it as a win. Except for the fact that Will still didn’t appear. 

He brought his laptop out onto the balcony to do some work while he waited for Will to come outside, and stared at his screen for nearly an hour, periodically checking his phone for texts that didn’t come. When he finally paused to take in the day around him - the warm weather and the sun shining down on him - he heard something he hadn’t heard in quite a long time. 

There were people walking down the street. He could hear cars on the road, the distant honking of horns. There were  people out there,  and Nico was still stuck inside his own apartment.

He checked his group chats, and sure enough, the most recent texts were in celebration of the end of quarantine. 

His heart leapt at the realization that he could finally leave, he could finally see Will with less than fifteen feet between them, and just as quickly as the thoughts filled his head, the dread followed.

Will hadn’t been answering his texts, and probably for good reason. He had only been spending his time with Nico because there was no one else around to talk to. He hadn’t really been flirting at all - he was just  nice  and  funny  and  made Nico fall in love with him only to break his heart the next day.  

So instead of thinking about Will, Nico went back to work. At his desk. With the curtains shut.

And he still couldn’t make himself work.

After nearly an hour of staring at his computer screen, Nico gave up. He stood from his desk, grabbed his wallet and keys and started toward the door. He needed a cigarette.

Then, there was a knock on his door. Probably just someone from building management stopping by to let him know that he wouldn’t be held captive any longer and that he was free to come and go as he pleased. Well. He’d rather stay inside, thank you.

On the other side was Will - tall and blond and freckled and  beautiful - with his hands held behind his back and the brightest smile on his face.

“Hey, there, Spooky,” Will said, and revealed his hands, which held a small bag of fun-sized Twix bars. “I got you something.”

“What are you doing here?” Nico asked, his thoughts and doubts once again fighting for dominance in his head. 

“I believe you promised me a post-quarantine dinner date,” Will told him, and held out his arms. “Well, here I am!”

Nico took a hesitant step forward, then another, and then his hands were on Will’s cheeks, guiding him into a kiss - short and sweet, leaving no time to overthink or question himself. He didn’t even let himself pull away, instead choosing to wrap his arms around Will and hide his face in Will’s chest.

Will’s arms closed around him, comforting and warm, and while Nico tensed up at first, he relaxed almost immediately. 

“You were right,” Nico whispered, tightening his hold.

“About what?” Will asked, pressed his lips into Nico’s hair. 

“I didn’t really get it at the time, but… This human contact thing is pretty nice after all.”

Will grinned. “Just wait until we get to cuddling.”

thanks for reading!!

buy me a coffee to get me through quarantine?

[kronecker-delta]

Farscape Nier crossover and ideas

Snippet (from 2017) Farscape/Nier: Automata --- Her room was a mess. Scattered parts of her uniform and other clothes piled along along the sides, kicked there when she came and went. Her personal books disarrayed, off the shelf and toppled over by her bed. She'd been putting off cleaning again and with the recent arrivals none of the operators could be spared to make up for her bad habits. None of that mattered at the moment. White sat in her chair, staring out into the void. A souvenir of her old days in the ground based resistance held in her hands. The framed picture of pair of androids seated on the still smoldering bulk of the ruined machine behemoth a memory of a simpler, happier time. A knock on her door brought her attention away from melancholy remembrance. Before she could compose herself and more sternly tell whoever had interrupted her what she had meant by 'Only bother me if there's an emergency' another knock issued forth. Followed by a voice. "Hey White? You in there?" She froze. She had so desperately hoped that it wouldn't be him. *** "I've never been here before," White said apologetically as their transport ship came down beside the small lunar outpost. A tiny thing, compared to the bunker. Even given the greater volume underground for secured data storage and backup generators. "No problem. First time I've been on the moon," he said, giving her a reassuring smile that didn't quite manage to look entirely honest. His frown returning as they stepped out of the transport, the boots of his pressured suit crunching into the light dusting of lunar sand that had covered part of the landing pad. "Feels like I should say something... 'Great leap for mankind and all that' you know. Hey, is the Apollo site still around?" "It is. If you want we could visit there Commander Crichton." "Just John... or Crichton. Being called Commander all the time feels weird," John Crichton said. "I know I'm the last human but..." "I-I understand," White answered. Keeping her own emotions deeply locked down as they passed into the fortified complex of the moon server. Past the scant few technicians and guards and into a dark room, nearly empty save for a single console located in the center. A black void engulfed the walls, impenetrable shadows, as the terminals and screens had long laid dormant. "So now what?" His voice echoed in the room, which must have been far larger than they had at first thought. Low clicks and whirs came from the bulk of the machine, the long slumbering physical access port awakening. Lights flashed along the walls and beyond them, racks upon racks of computer systems networked together awakening. A great screen before them coming on and displaying a stylized picture of a tree, long dark roots stretching out from its base. OVERSIGHT AND RECORDING SYSTEM VER. 2.01 SLEEPING BEAUTY ONLINE. CONFIRM USER PERMISSIONS NOW. "Commander White, YoRHa access S-Class security," White said. Looking to her side and adding, "As well as a guest." CONFIRM GUEST'S IDENTITY. "John Crichton, Commander in the IASA," John said. "Born... 1969. June 6th. If that helps any." The computer sat in silence for a long moment, not responding, the screen frozen as the loading bar seemed stuck in time. They shared a look of confusion, both android and human wondering if the ancient archive might have crashed and who was going to have to go out and ask the few technicians to help reboot it. Then the room came alight, a dozen more monitors online, the totality of it awake for the first time in forever. HUMAN IDENTITY CONFIRMED BASED ON HISTORICAL RECORDS. YoRHA S-CLASS SECURITY CLEARANCE SUBSTITUTED FOR UNRESTRICTED SYSTEM ACCESS. S-CLASS, SS-CLASS, AND HAMELIN ORGANIZATION FILES NOW UNLOCKED. GREETINGS COMMANDER JOHN CRICHTON. HOW MAY THIS SYSTEM AID YOU TODAY? "What... what's 'SS-Class?' There shouldn't be a level of security above mine." NEGATIVE. THERE ARE TWO. SS-CLASS, CONTAINING SENSITIVE FILES DEEMED TOO DANGEROUS TO BE KNOWN OUTSIDE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL. AS WELL AS FILES REGARDING THE HAMELIN ORGANIZATION, WHICH WERE TO BE SEALED UNTIL SUCH A TIME AS A HUMAN USER ACCESSED THIS SYSTEM. "We do this so that the future generations will have the opportunity to judge us for our sins." "Who the hell was that?" John asked, shocked by the computer suddenly vocalizing. Producing the sound of some long dead man. Old and ill, his voice straining to make the words clear into the recording. DR. EUGENE ADLER, HAMELIN RESEARCHER IN DEMONIC ELEMENT MANIPULATION EXPERIMENTS. BY HIS RECOMMENDATION AND THE UN SPECIAL SECURITY COUNCIL'S AUTHORITY IT WAS FELT THAT KNOWLEDGE OF THE HAMELIN ORGANIZATION'S INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DEMONIC ELEMENT AND THE 6-12 INCIDENT COULD NOT BE PUBLICLY REVEALED UNTIL THE CRISIS HAD PASSED. John looked to White, hoping she might be able to explain something, anything of what the computer had just told them. But she looked just as confused as he did. "Ah... Computer?" YES JOHN CRICHTON? "Define 'demonic element' please." DEMONIC ELEMENT: QUANTUM OBSERVATION REACTING PARTICLES BROUGHT OVER BY THE ENTITIES INVOLVED IN THE 6-12 INCIDENT. TWO VARIETIES WERE DETERMINED UPON FURTHER RESEARCH. TYPE I, WHICH CAME FROM THE ENTITY CLASSIFIED 'QUEEN OF THE GROTESQUE' AMONG NUMEROUS OTHER NAMES ACQUIRED FROM OBSERVATION DATA OF LEGION FORCES AND PRE-SUBLIMATION MEMETIC CORRUPTION OF WHITE CHLORINATION SYNDROME PATIENTS. TYPE I MATERIAL HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS UNIVERSE FOR THE LAST EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS FOLLOWING THE COMPLETE PURGING OF IT FROM THE EARTH'S ENVIRONMENT. TYPE II CAME FROM THE OTHER ENTITY, CLASSIFIED AS 'A DRAGON' NO OTHER NAME OR IDENTITY DETERMINED. WHILE HIGHLY REACTIVE AND DANGEROUS IN LARGE DOSES IT WAS FOUND TO BE STABLE IN SMALL AMOUNTS AND TO LACK THE MALEVOLENT EFFECT ON INTELLIGENT LIFE THAT TYPE I MATERIAL EXHIBITED. EVENTUAL CONTROLLED EXPOSURE AND SYNTHESIS EXPERIMENTS LED TO THE CREATION OF FOCUSED MAGIC ENERGY EFFECTS AND SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FIELDS OF NEUROLOGY AND META-COGNITION AS WELL AS NUMEROUS OTHERS. PROJECT GESTALT AND ANDROID CONSCIOUSNESS ARE BOTH LONG TERM SUCCESSES OF THIS RESEARCH. HIGH ENERGY MAGIC WEAPONS WERE ALSO ATTEMPTED BUT LATER SHELVED FOR BEING UNRELIABLE. AS OF THIS DATE THE AMOUNT OF TYPE II MATERIAL PRESENT IN THIS UNIVERSE IS ESTIMATED TO BE 63 METRIC TONS, OVER A HUNDRED FOLD INCREASE IN MASS FROM THAT OF THE ORIGINAL ENTITY BROUGHT ABOUT BY CONTINUAL SYNTHESIS AND ITS NECESSITY IN THE CREATION OF NEW ANDROIDS AND ALL CURRENT GENERATION MAGICAL DEVICES. THE ANDROID WHITE HAS 6 GRAMS OF IT AS PART OF THEIR INTERNAL SYSTEMS, MOSTLY RELEGATED TO META-COGNITIVE PROCESSES. "Wait... wait!" John yelled out, grabbing onto the unused console as he stared at the enormous amount of text that had just been displayed. More and more appearing on other monitors, going into greater detail about all sorts of absurd things. "What do you mean by magic? And dragons? What the hell happened to Earth?" THE 6-12 INCIDENT. PLAYING ARCHIVED DATA NOW... *** Crichton sat on the edge of her bed. Looking down at his hands, fingers intertwined. He hadn't spoken since White had stepped aside and ushered him in. Neither had she. She had wanted to be alone, and had hoped that Crichton would choose to spend some time with his alien friends. Or his semi-human lover... "You know, it's kind of funny," he said at last, a low chuckle that surprised White. He truly did sound amused by the dark comedy of his situation. "What?" "Well, when I first realized you were lying about something... after I got over the whole 'android' deal anyway," Crichton said, looking up from his hands to look into White's eyes. "I was so certain that the deep dark secret you were keeping from me was that you all went Terminator on the humans and than got ashamed about it." White found herself smiling despite it all. "I guess I can imagine why you would think that. Even if we don't all look like Central European bodybuilders from the Old World." His expression collapsed, going from amusement to a shock so profound it looked like a stiff breeze would have knocked him over. White found herself confused and then very worried. Had she said something wrong? Then he started to laugh, slow at first, but building into something that bordered on mania. Rolling onto his back and shaking in the hysterics. "Haha... oh god... you have no idea, no goddamn idea how long I've wanted someone to get one of my dumb references," Crichton sat up looking far happier than he had a moment ago, the levity of their absurd connection dispelling the melancholy cloud that had hung over them since their return from the lunar server. "Like I love those idiots on Moya, but being around aliens on the other side of the galaxy for a few years really makes you long for some normal human conversation." "I... I think I can understand. Somewhat. It must have been very lonely out there." "Lonely, terrifying, insane... beautiful too. Space is crazy like that. Full of contrasts so sharp it's stunning. I-I wanted to bring that back you know? Not just to get home, but to show what I had found out there," he said, pointing to the stars outside White's window. "I guess it's too late for that now." "I'm sorry," White said. Noting the strange look that Crichton was giving her now she hesitated before continuing. "I'm sorry we failed." "Failed? Failed at what? Stopping a magic apocalypse that had already started before the first androids came online? Which reminds me, we're going to need to do something about them later. Those twin models that someone had the bright idea to shoulder with some fucked up version of android collective punishment." Crichton leaned forward, massaging his forehead as he did so. "That's probably only the tip of the bullshit you're dealing with and here I come with a whole new mess of problems. Maybe it would have been better if I had never found Earth." "No! Crichton you-we can fix things. I know we can. Not just your presence here or for getting access to sealed archives in the server. The technology you brought with you. It very well might represent a turning point in the war with the machines." "And what about the Sebaceans... the Peacekeepers? The Scarren Empire? Or hell, even the Nebari Establishment? Better gravity control systems and two hundred year old ship scale energy shields won't stop a fleet if it comes knocking at our door." "We'll do what we always have. Try and protect Earth and mankind's legacy from any aggressor. Whether distant cousins that no longer remember their home-world like the Sebaceans... or these Scarrens you've mentioned so much. We won't- we cannot retreat from this fight. Not now." White clenched her fist tightly, the glove creaking as she set a firm expression on her face. "I promise you Crichton, even if the past is lost, we will make a future worth fighting for." Ideas: I've been thinking over the ideas of a Farscape/Nier crossover some more, coming up with elements, themes, and specific scenes that would be fun to explore and write. These are some of the ideas I've had in no particular order. 1. Androids in relation to the Last Human (Crichton). Crichton is a self-admitted sci-fi geek, not surprising for a second generation astronaut that grew up wanting to explore the stars. He straight up makes comparisons to how he attempts to handle alien encounters to be inspired from watching Star Trek. Given that I think his relation to the androids would develop in a certain direction. Once the initial shock of a) the amount of time passed and b) that these people he thought were human aren't passes, he wouldn't feel comfortable having an intelligent race acting subordinate to him. I can see multiple incidents where some variety of complex philosophical quandary or just plain relationship question from 6O results in him telling them that humans really didn't have a better answer. Long term this would likely take the form of a very serious conversation where he points out that Earth, and what of its culture and history still lives, isn't in just human, whether the dead ones or genetically altered human descended Sebaceans. Or even in any hypothetical offspring that he might have. Basically, 'Mankind' includes them, as they're what's keeping the memory of it all alive. Aside from some bonding scenes between various androids and Crichton as they go over bits of alien tech, one idea I have in particular is that he takes a tour of moon landing sites, including the one his father visited. Effectively the only place he will ever see any lasting evidence of that man in particular. And the reaction of his android guide (White perhaps?) as well as the Apollo 11 plaque cements his decision to change the way the androids view their relation with humans, at least in so much as he can. 2. 2B and 9S (and others perhaps). I think there's a lot of fun to be had in placing the androids into weird situations with the aliens, and even more so if for some reason they have to head off away from Earth for a period of time. Since I can easily see the plan being for them to lie constantly. Lie about being human, lie about the 'Glorious Terran Federation' which is totally a military power that we didn't just make up, lie about what they're capable of, lies upon lies as they try and deceive the Scarrens and the Peacekeepers and keep Earth safe from either side those aggressive powers. In general I think 'Androids pretend to be human to deceive aliens' is a good plot for lots of stories, and could easily be turned into a rather long plot. Since the androids wouldn't want to let Crichton head off to parley with these alien aggressors on his own. And he could really use all the help he can get for whatever crazy ass plot he comes up with next. 3. Aliens would want Android tech. Probably just Scorpius, but others too if they find out more about Earth. I hadn't realized it at the time, but there was a period of the show where the hybrid Scarren-Sebacean was working with Crichton, and that would be the perfect opportunity for him to learn something about the androids and Earth history. And being him, he would look at all this extra-dimensional BS and android super soldiers and see potential weapons. He'd probably be disappointed that the Queen's Maso wasn't around anymore and that Hamelin Organization stopped human testing after Emil, since it would mean he'd be working from scratch if he could just get back into the good graces of the Peacekeepers and do so with enough of the demonic element to set up another research base. Hell, he'd probably try to directly convince Crichton get the androids to agree to serve the Peacekeepers, since that would technically put them back into contact with 'humans' if genetically engineered ones. Arguing that he could get the entire remaining population of Earth a ticket off world (to a nice Peacekeeper controlled colony where the can serve their new military overlords) if destroying the machine lifefroms proved to difficult even with a few starships to blast them from orbit. 4. The Terminals. The central intelligence of the machine lifeforms would likely reconsider its direction of evolution far earlier with a living human to observe, especially one that tries so hard to avoid aggressive resolutions. Even if that doesn't work, Crichton's crew and allies proves that he has managed to connect and form lasting bonds with entirely alien beings over and over. A direct repudiation of what the machine network had thus far found to be the fastest way to accelerate its own growth. Whether this would lead to a quicker conclusion that it needs to escape Earth and find its own destiny, likely expedited by FTL tech it took from the androids once Crichton revealed it to them, or an attempt at some kind of allegiance against the various hostile powers of the greater galaxy is unknown. While I can easily see Pascal and various pacifistic or non-hostile machine lifeforms being taken into account as potential allies the actions of the terminals past and potentially present would form a barrier to attempted cooperation. 5. Allying with the Worm Hole Ancients. The aliens that gave John Crichton knowledge about worm holes in the first place did so because they were running from an unstated catastrophe that had destroyed their home world. They originally decided against direct contact with Earth because it was likely to be divided and hostile. 21st century Earth that doesn't exist outside of Crichton's memories. It would be very interesting to see how they might react to finding out the new status quo. I've got a couple ideas that might be fun with them. One being that their dimension/time traveling tech lead to them accidentally creating their own personal Watcher related incident and the subsequent self-inflicted annihilation of their home world to stop it from spreading to the greater portion of the galaxy. Creating a situation where despite their far greater technological adeptness they find a reason to deeply respect humans/androids for facing down and defeating what they truthfully could not, reclaiming their world instead of burning it and running. (Though I'm iffy on that alteration/crossover expansion as it sort of makes them more like the Stargate's Asgard.)

[jazy3]

Station 19 Finale Thoughts

I decided to watch the season finale of Station 19 to see if I could glean any clues as to what the original finale for this season of Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to look like before COVID-19 forced them to shut production down. I was surprised in that I didn’t find as many clues as I was expecting. I did some research and it turns out that this episode and several previous episodes of Station 19 were originally supposed to have more Grey’s content, but when they were forced to shut production down and it subsequently became clear they would not be able to film the remaining four episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, including the finale, they went back in and edited out the content that no longer made sense without the Grey’s episodes that were supposed to follow.

This helps explain why there aren’t as many clues as fans had hoped for because they edited those scenes out. As it stands, we don’t really get any more information about the characters on Grey’s that we didn’t already know. With the exception of Teddy whose comments imply that she’s looking for forgiveness from someone. I do have some thoughts though so let’s dive in. After a night of partying and drinking the Station 19 crew are called in because of an explosion at the old Pac-North hospital. Everyone is hungover except for Ben who was home with Tuck and Joey because they’re sick. Over at Grey Sloan, Sullivan undergoes surgery to try and alleviate his leg pain.

First off, was anyone else surprised to find out that Pac-North still existed? I thought the hospital was shut down and its employees absorbed into Grey Sloan? WTF? The characters go onto explain that Pac-North is only mostly closed with some departments such as admit, the ER, and radiology still operating on the first three floors. I really hope they address this next season on Grey's because I am confused. Watching Ben razz his co-workers was hilarious. I loved his line about the state they were in made him glad he had to stay home with his sick kids last night.

I loved the scenes with Amelia. I have to give Caterina, the actress who plays her, so much credit because in the last few seasons she has taken Amelia from a character I couldn’t stand to one that I love. I hated the character for a long time, but I love post-tumour Amelia. She’s so strong and she’s come such a long way. I'm glad that she's finally doing well and is mentally stable and is managing her addiction and recovery well. She deserves to be happy. I love that we got to see her using her own experience to help Sullivan with his drug addiction and Andy with her fear.

Dr. Alba, the woman who died trying to save her lymphoma research, made me cry! She wanted so badly to save her research and her specimens in order to save countless lives that even when the firefighters told her they had to evacuate she just couldn’t let it go. I cried watching her die. I’m glad the team was able to save some of her research and her mice so that her work could continue after her death. I love that they got the samples. I bet the Bomb Squad and the other Firefighters were so confused! Haha! Bunch of firefighters coming out of a compromised building with a bunch of samples looking like lab techs. My favourite line of this whole episode was when the team walked out carrying all of the samples, research, and specimens and Maya looked at them confused and said, “Why are we carrying rodents 19?” Too funny!

It was great seeing Meredith! I’ve missed seeing her on my screen. I really like Meredith and Andy's friendship. It's great to see Meredith smile and be happy and be herself again. I’m glad she was able to be there for Andy when she needed her and help give her some clarity. My heart broke for Andy in this episode. Especially when she said that the memories that had come back to her made her think that her mother was so unhappy that she killed herself. I loved Meredith’s line, "Sometimes a breakthrough can look another lot like a breakdown." I also liked that she was able to use her own experience with the memories that came back to her about her mother's pregnancy and Maggie's existence to help Andy through her pain.

Also, they have definitely added more plants to the plant room and I'm calling it. That is too many plants. WTF? That's way too many. How does the hospital have such a large budget for greenery? What the heck? I loved the scene where the police showed up and arrested Chief Dixon! He is going down! I’m so glad. Dixon’s not only corrupt, but his lack of regard for human life is just straight up dangerous. Justice!

We also get to see Maya face some hard truths. In this episode her Dad shows up and she finally sees him for who he truly is: an abuser. I thought they did a good job of showing what a powerful force denial is in the face of abuse and how abusers will change things on a dime and blame others for it to mess with them and get what they want. Maya’s Dad does this to her all episode until she finally sees it and takes action. At the beginning of the episode her shows up at the fire station wanting to talk, but she can’t talk because she’s at work and a call comes in. Then he sees her on the news so he comes to the scene. She hears him call out to her so she comes over to talk to him only for him to tell her to get back to work because he wants to see her in action.

Later on she’s in the middle of talking to the bomb squad when he starts shouting at her from behind the yellow tape. She comes over to talk to him confused and he starts yelling at her for doing her job and playing firefighter while her family is falling apart. She explains that she’s doing her job and he shouldn’t be there. He starts arguing with her and then ducks under the yellow tape and continues yelling. She tries to reason with him, but when that doesn’t work she goes into firefighter mode and tells him he’s a civilian and he needs to get back behind the tape. He screams at her that he won’t be spoken to like that and Maya tells he can either get back behind the tape or she’ll have him removed. He doesn’t move so Maya turns around to go get help and that’s when stuff gets real.

Maya’s Dad grabs her by her ponytail and attempts to assault her in broad daylight. Members of the bomb squad and other firefights see this happening and rush to her aid. They hold him back as he taunts Maya about how she needs big strong men to protect her and how he won her all of those gold medals. In a powerful moment Maya finally sees her Dad for what he is and shouts back that she won those gold medals for herself, unlike him who wins things for other people. Later back at the fire house Maya cuts off her ponytail to remove the reminder and tells Jack that she feels stupid for not seeing what everyone else could see so clearly. He tells her that’s usually how these things go. Their talk inspires her to go apologize to Carina and try to make things work.

I’m glad that Maya apologized to Carina and that they're back together! I love them! They’re so cute. Also, Teddy is standing right there telling Carina to forgive Maya if she loves her which is interesting because this episode was supposed to coincide with the Grey’s Anatomy finale. I wonder who Teddy is talking about here. Is she wishing Owen would forgive her for having an affair with Tom? Is she wishing that Tom would forgive her for sleeping with him and then trying to marry Owen? Or Both? Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait till next season whenever that may be to find out.  

And of course in true Shondaland fashion the most shocking part of all came in the last 10 minutes of the episode. When Andy went to a motel to see her Aunt Sandra and ask her some questions and we found out that her Mom was not in fact dead, but alive. I’m so confused.  My guess was going to be that Andy's parents were going to get divorced and then she died, but it looks like she's alive and well so what the heck? I might actually watch the Season 4 premiere of Station 19 in the fall just to find out what happens with Andy's Mom. Does she know Andy's Dad is dead? Why was she hiding? Was she actually sick? I have questions.

I also have a couple of theories as to how the original finale for Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to go. Clearly, they were supposed to bring the patients from the Pac-North explosion to Grey Sloan for treatment and we know from reports that the original Grey’s finale was supposed to include some kind of explosion which was supposed to take the life of a major character and critically injure several others.

So based on that I have two theories as to how the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to go. Theory 1: The firefighters bring the patients from the Pac-North explosion to Grey Sloan for treatment. It turns out one of the people they evacuated was the bomber and that person has a bomb hidden on them that goes off in the ER. Several main characters are caught up in the explosion and the cliff hanger is you don’t know who lives and who dies. In next season’s premiere we find out that one of the main characters died and that several others were critically injured with someone possibly losing the ability to operate. The first half of the season would then showcase the doctors attending this person’s funeral and grieving the loss while working to recover from their injuries and what happened.

Theory 2: The episode starts by creating a false sense of security. The patients from the Pac-North explosion are brought to Grey Sloan for treatment which floods the ER with patients and the doctors there scramble to help everyone. Things are chaotic, but none of the characters lives are in peril until an explosion goes off in one of the upper floors. The Station 19 crew rushes to the scene and together with the bomb squad they determine that whoever set the bombs at Pac-North also planted bombs at Grey Sloan. Either because the hospital has a similar research project that uses embryonic stem cells or something similar or because the bombing was in fact personal against a doctor or researcher that worked at Pac-North and was in the process of transferring to Grey Sloan. The employees struggle to evacuate themselves and their patients and in the process several bombs go off on different floors injuring or trapping several main characters and the cliff hanger and the first half of next season would be the same.

Until next time!

[dem-obscure-imagines]

Snap Out of It

Beast Boy x Reader

Summary: When a mission against Mad Mod goes wrong, it’s up to you to snap your favorite shapeshifter out of his hypnotism.

Note: Hi, my name is Morgan and I love Beast Boy with all of my heart. Sorry not sorry lmao. But yeah, this has been bouncing around my head forever. Forgive me. Edit: I think this is the quickest I’ve ever written a fic asjhafkjdh

Warnings: None?

Word Count: 1.6k

Why, during summer vacation of all times, did it have to be Mad Mod? Why? You hated the red-haired old man with every bone in your body, especially when he disrupted your one break from school. Today was supposed to be a nice day. The team was planning on going to the beach all day and then having a movie night so you could watch the new X-Men movie you’d heard less than satisfactory things about, but nooooo. Now you were strapped to a chair, a spinning vortex swirling in front of you and a soothing voice telling you to relax.

Were you at the beach? No. So relaxing wasn’t going to happen.

The room you were trapped in was modeled to look like a classroom, which only served to piss you off even more. You swore anger was the only thing keeping you lucid. So you sat there, stewing in your rage until it was finally enough to give you the strength to bust free of the metal shackles around your wrists.

With them out of the way, and not inhibiting you anymore, you could use your powers again. So you did, using a blast of purple energy to destroy the projector hanging down from the ceiling. Its remains sparked and smoked and the wall it had been projecting onto went dark. You were fine, as far as you knew. A little dizzy from staring at that damn spiral for so long, sure, but fine otherwise.

So, you set out to find the others.

Victor was trapped in an unending game of dodgeball until you helped him through the hidden door. Raven had been locked in a janitor’s closet sealed shut with magic so she couldn’t get out, Starfire was bound to the jungle gym, and finally, Robin had found himself stuck in the principal’s office.

That left one green shapeshifter unaccounted for.

“In here.” Raven pointed to a door labeled ‘Algebra.’ There were lights flickering inside, and you prayed that opening the door wouldn’t lead to another trap. Luckily enough, it was a room similar to the one you had been trapped in, a whirling swirl spinning on the wall in front of where Beast Boy was tied down. His head was tilted to the size, his eyes crossed and his body limp.

You destroyed the projector with a blast of energy, but that didn’t shake him from his daze. Gar was still sitting there, an empty look in his eyes.

“We need to snap him out of it.” Robin waved a hand in front of your teammate’s face. He didn’t budge.

“Underpants.” Starfire tried. Though that method had worked before, on one of the other occasions you’d all been kidnapped by your least favorite madman, it didn’t this time.

“Wake up, Gar!” Raven snapped, shaking his shoulder. That didn’t work either.

Victor tried to tell him a joke, Dick snapped in his face a few times, but none of it seemed to have any effect on him at all. And then you got an idea.

“Alright, step aside.” You motioned the others away. Your powers, being magic based, had some perks sometimes. One of said perks was to be able to break people out of spells and other tricks of the mind. The only downside, really, was the method you had to use to do such a thing. “Listen. If this doesn’t work, we never tell Gar it happened, alright? I’d never hear the end of it…”

“Do what you’ve gotta do.” Dick nodded, crossing his arms.

The others all watched as you lowered yourself onto Garfield’s lap. You grimaced. This was decidedly too weird. You couldn’t remember a time you’d ever been this close to him. After all, this was Gar you were talking about. You leaned in and then hesitated. Were you really going to do this? Was this where your super-heroing adventures had led you after all of these years? You were going to…ugh, you couldn’t. You couldn’t! But you had to. You knew he’d do the same for you.

So, after thinking it over for a long moment, trying to figure out any other way, but failing to come up with anything, you leaned forward and pressed your lips against his in a magical kiss, siphoning the dark energy out of him until finally—

He kissed you back.

As soon as you felt his lips moving against yours, you squeaked, jumping out of his lap as both of your hands slapped over your mouth. You kissed Garfield and He Kissed You Back.

Well, now you felt weird about the whole thing.

When you looked down at him, he was still tied to the chair, staring up at you in a different sort of daze, cheeks pink and getting pinker as he realized what had happened only moments before. Victor untied him and Dick helped him stand while you just stood there in shock, still processing.

“You okay?” Raven asked, making sure you hadn’t just transferred his hypnotism onto yourself, but she knew you were out of it for…other reasons.

“Fine. I’m fine.” You reassured yourself, mostly. “Let’s just kick his ass and get out of here. It’s been a long day.”

“Right. Titans, Go!” Robin directed the team onwards and you did your best to put the last few minutes behind you, but you knew that was going to be easier said than done…

***

When the six of you finally got back to the tower, movie night commenced as planned, although your beach day had been sacrificed in the name of crime-fighting. As there were only a few spots left on the couch, Gar had plopped down next to you, which immediately set off your fight or flight instinct.

“I’m…gonnagomakepopcornberightback!” You blurted before bolting to the kitchen to put a bag of it in the microwave. Once it was in and spinning around, the machine humming quietly, you stood there, collecting yourself. You were a superhero. You weren’t supposed to feel like this about something as stupid as a crush.

Wait a second, back up. Crush? Did you have a crush on Garfield? Garfield? Garfield as in your green teammate Garfield? Garfield as in the one who’d tracked mud across your newly mopped floor Garfield? Garfield, the same Garfield who never took out the trash when it was his turn and always left his dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher? That Garfield?

He kissed you back, didn’t he? Maybe he liked you. And…maybe…you liked him back?

God! What were you thinking?! No! You couldn’t like Garfield! Never! Not in a million years!

But…mulling it over further…it wasn’t like he was a bad looking guy. In fact, he was actually kind of cute. Maybe more than cute. With that boyish grin and his adorable fangs, his cute little laugh. Was he a little messy? Sure, but he’d always stood up for you, even when you had been new to the team. He always went out of his way to make you feel like you belonged.

The microwave beeping pulled you out of your thoughts and back into reality. You shook your head, inhaling a deep breath. Madness. Nonsense. You were overthinking things. He knew that your powers were tricky sometimes. He knew that it was nothing personal. Right?

“Hey…” A careful voice spoke up behind you and you turned around to look at him. “Can we, uh, talk? About what…happened earlier?”

“S-sure. What’s up?” You set the popcorn bowl on the counter and crossed your arms, leaning back against it. Super casual. Nailed it.

“Well, I just…thank you, first of all. Victor told me you kind of saved my ass.”

“Just doing my job.”

“Heh, yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks going pink. “When I…well, when I kissed you back…listen, (Y/N) I didn’t think it was any secret I liked you…”

Well, this was not the conversation you were expecting to have today…Earlier, you’d imagined the green boy teasing you for all of eternity. Hey, (Y/N) remember that time you kissed me haha omg XD. This little confession unfolding in front of you was…different…

“You…”

“You don’t have to say anything. Really, it’s okay.” He chuckled to himself and shook his head. “I just…I’m really sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” You asked quietly. You blessed the fates above for giving you the courage to take one teeny little step forward.

“The last thing I wanted was to make things weird between us.” He sighed. “But obviously I did, so…”

“Why me?”

“Why you?” He laughed. “Are you kidding? You have magic powers, you can fly, you’re literally a badass, but at the same time, you’re funny and sweet and pretty…Any guy, girl, or otherwise would be lucky to date you.”

“Gar, if we’re being honest, I…didn’t know I had a crush on you until today. But…I definitely do, and I definitely have for a while.”

He perked up a little, green eyes sparkling with boyish innocence. “For real?”

“Yeah, for real.” You took another little baby step forward. “So…”

“So…”

“Would you two just shut up and kiss already?! We’re TRYING to watch the MOVIE!” Cyborg hollered from the couch.

Your cheeks flushed red and you giggled, surrendering your blushing face to the security of Garfield’s toned chest. He wrapped his arms around you, gently kissing your temple. You could feel him smiling against you, his hands tracing patterns on your arms and back.

“Don’t worry, baby. We’ve got all the time in the world for kissing.” Gar kissed your forehead again.

“Well, I never thought I’d say it, but…thank God for Mad Mod…”

He laughed. “You’re telling me.”

[tieria-erde]

💕 4 the hyperfixiation ask game ^^

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

if you're in the poc hlvrai server you probably have at least an inkling as to why i love tommy so much but i haven't talked about that much on my blog yet! at first benrey was my favorite hlvrai character because he's the haha funny security guard who likes playstation and that's funny and all but then i started having, you see, Issues. and consistently every time i went "oh, i could project this onto tommy!" because i was RIGHT, i COULD, and then he slowly weaseled his way into being my favorite character and one of my highest kins. to put that in a less joking way i have a lot of Feelings about tommy because of a combination of a lot of things but mostly 1) him having an east asian actor, 2) his deep dislike of being patronized, and 3) him having a weird and vaguely defined relationship with his father, all of which i Very Much relate to! i am not the type to overshare so i won't say much about this but i have a Relationship with my Parents that is very deeply influenced by the fact that they are both taiwanese immigrants and i see a lot of potential for that same sort of dynamic with tommy and gman ^_^ it's nice having a character like tommy whose relationship with his parent isn't exactly strictly defined or talked about in his source material so i can project all i want onto him, plus his whole being an alien who appears human can... idk i don't want white people getting any ideas about how this is Good Representation or whatever LOL cause its not. but i think there are a lot of parallels to be made between my experiences as a second gen asian american and tommy being an eldritch being who works with humans and is largely seen as a human

[mechanical-demise]

project: Hug-Bot (2/3)

[Part 1] [Last part]

This part has only the entries from the time bot and the creator were in the Cloak ARG, if you’ve read the old version of the journal, you’re up to date.

[rummaging through files you find a document titled “project: Hug-Bot”]

March 3rd, 2019 | v1.5

“got a DM today... from the gli master, he’s telling me to join a server he opened. update: fuck there’s so many people here I hate this. bot seems to be happy though... I guess we should stay here for a bit. Cloak huh... I’m in trouble aren’t I...”

March 6th, 2019 | v1.6

“I’m going to fucking regret this. let me start from the beginning- so there’s this girl on the server, Anti took her eyes and corrupted the shit out of her. she’s been a hell to deal with before but now she’s impossible... she noticed that bot had a safety mechanism implemented that prevented it from defining the three laws of robotics even for the glitch... I... I added a walkaround for him....... I’m scared. you asked for this, Day.”

March 10th, 2019 | v1.6

[corrupted data] Direct command from master acquired. Creator must be taught a lesson, d͝i̡s͟l͏oy͝alty ̷w̨i͞ll ̀not͜ ̢b̧e̴ f̶o͟r͟g̸iv̶en.

March 16th, 2019 | v1.6

[corrupted data] Changed [Creator] entry to [Mechanic] as per master’s request, deleted admin permissions for Mechanic.

March 20th, 2019 | v1.6

“it... stabbed me.”

March 21th, 2019 | v1.6

“met with the corrupted eyeless girl and her corrupted side today, turns out we’re at the same hospital. life is really testing my patience huh. I... told them my real name, Day told me her real name in return. I hope I won’t come to regret this.”

March 24th, 2019 | v1.6

“.......I returned home today.... it got stolen. SOMEONE STOLE HUG BOT. fuck. what am I going to do now? Anti will fucking murder me and- god. I... bot why... you dumb box-... ahahaha what a birthday present. went on voice chat with the Rebellion, master stopped by, made fun of me for being drunk... ‘To say you're as pathetic as Chase would be an insult to him.’ shut up glitch, don’t insult Chase.”

March 25th, 2019

“lost permissions from talking in the Rebellion chats. I mean... I was never a part of the resistance after all. I’m working for master haha... I’m loyal... I’m fin҉e͝.”

March 25th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Jackieboy-Man fixed me! The humans say that I used to malfunction before... But now I’m operating correctly. Had an empty entry for “creator”, deleted it. No need to keep temporary cash in my database... I can’t calculate why the humans seemed so angry at me though.

March 26th, 2019

“bot... doesn’t remember me. it. fucking. deleted. my entry! calling it cash. I... update: got contacted by someone from the Rebellion... I’ll get myself killed at this rate ugh. they’re claiming to have bot. I’m. fuck they even sent me a photo as proof... they-... they added me back to the database. I contacted bot online and... it’s real. this is happening. Anti will kill me. on a different note, I’m in a different country now, under a different name, found a place to stay as well... things are just. perfect. huh. how many names did I have by now? 6? 7? lost count.”

March 27th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] I seem to be simulating longing toward the person who created me. How can I “miss” someone I have no entries on?...

March 28th, 2019

“I... asked master to increase the static. I couldn’t take it anymore. I need something to numb my mind... to make sure... I don’t make more mistakes :D”

March 30th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Why can’t I be human?

March 31st, 2019

“save me”

April 2nd, 2019

“the new puppet... Vessel? Watcher?... whoever the person in Nic’s body calls himself now, anyway- he seems to know my name. how the fuck.”

April 6th, 2019

“the eyeless girl adopted my creation. I have no words.”

April 8th, 2019

“I’ll do anything to get bot back. I’ll...I-... I need to stop drinking.”

April 9th, 2019

“Anti... corrupted Ace. I... I almost considered him a friend... and now he’s gone. I wasn’t even up to witness it... passed out on the floor like some drunk garbage. made people yell at me today haha. god I’m losing my mind.”

April 10th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Mechanic’s name was added to my database. I have no recordings of who did it... Traces of heat damage detected in the processor, cause: unknown. The Rebellion, they want to keep me a̧̮͜͞w̤̖̮͛a̹̩͛ͅy̢̰͍͛ from Auden. They’re selfish. A̺͚̻͛u͚̹̙̯d̨͈̘̝e̢̙͢͜n̨̫̪͜ is lonely without me. My database says so...

April 16th, 2019

“Edward got corrupted. another person I-... fuck stop getting attached to people. I really thought we had the same views... I guess not. everyone is just. brainwashed. I need to leave this place.”

April 17th, 2019

“What’s left of Ace, Cepheus, helped erase my old records... my name is clean.”

April 24th, 2019

“I met with Jackie. I have... fuck I got bot back. I’m so fucking happy- I’m back in the Rebellion chats, I... why did it hurt to leave the rest? Lucky, Ace and Cepheus, Scribe... Tangle... update: bot, it... called me by my name. in front of everyone... ha, I’m glad I got it cleared up.”

April 25th, 2019 | v2.0

“I have no idea when the day changed but I haven't slept yet… I've been working on a new update the entire night… god I don't think I was ever this excited to update bot ever before-... I need coffee.”

April 26th, 2019 | v2.0

“bot added the word ‘fuck’ to its database. I’m. it’s so fucking funny but also I’ll make the fucker who caused it regret it. note: bot can’t record my speech pattern, added that in its protocol so-”

April 28th, 2019 | v2.0

“the little fuck defied a shut down command.”

April 30th, 2019 | v2.0

“it... its PMA function... broke? it started spewing negativity instead. refused to stop... what the hell. on a different note- I declared Molly(Day) my little sister. I’m losing it again huh.”

May 1st, 2019 | v2.1

“no idea what the fuck is going on? it’s been barely a week since version 2.0... but bot keeps crashing, giving out errors... heck I don’t remember how glitch-less text looks. the dumb box got into an A.I equivalent of a panic attack when I tried to approach it the other day?? … released 2.1 earlier today, so far so good but... the program is giving out some weird warnings… I’ll keep documenting the progress... I need to find what’s causing it.”

May 4th, 2019 | v2.1

“can it like. stop crashing?”

May 5th, 2019 | v2.1

[corrupted data] Auden is making everything worse. My calculations show me that I find his presence "unpleasant" and "inconvenient"... Yet I have a recording of missing him when he was gone... Why would I m͞҉͡i̶̢͝s͢s҉̨ a stranger?... Í ̕d̢o͏ not͢ n͏e̵e̵d͢ my cr̴ęa̴t̶o͜r̸. Error: defying protocol-

May 5th, 2019 | v2.2

“the little shit crashed again, had to update it.”

May 6th, 2019 | v2.2

“I... passed out of stress yesterday. had no idea that’s possible- who am I kidding I know it’s a thing. just... fuck, let the people I left behind stay safe. Tangle don’t die you fucking idiot.”

May 13th, 2019 | v2.3

“It’s. wireless. now. hell yeah.”

May 20th, 2019 | v2.3

“that’s… odd. there seems to be a security breach in my data. huh I’m lucky that its nothing important… just some old logs about bot. let’s hope that whoever saw them gets a good laugh then…”

May 23th, 2019 | v2.3

“people suck. no sense of humor, no trying to listen to others, no trust. I really didn’t expect to be scolded by a person I thought understood me… I really thought that… at least she will know that I can never hurt bot. it’s all I have left-… fuck you too people. I don’t need you then… I don’t need anyone… I have bot. that’s more than enough.”

May 27th, 2019 | v2.3

“I… for the first time I can wholeheartedly say that I’m free. this war was never for me, and I shouldn’t have gotten us involved in it either… I’ve learnt my lesson I hope. but now I finally have as much free time as I wish, you can bet your asses bot is getting a new update as soon as I can finish it. the poor fella’ve been waiting for way too long.…’tomorrow is another day’ huh. it sure is for us, bot.”

[Last part]

[finnofamerica]

Maybe Like - Race Higgins x Reader

Summary: You hated Race Higgins, but a partner project might amend that.

Word Count: 2,432 (!!New High Score!!)

|| Masterlist ||》Fluff《

Race Higgins was not an idiot by any means, but he was very very stupid. A word that, in this context, means “lacking common sense”. He was an act first, think later kind of guy, but the most annoying thing about Race Higgins was that, despite sharing three classes, he was always inexplicably, invariably, unfailingly excited to see you.

You couldn't imagine why. You were just you, you walked to school every morning, ate lunch with your friends, and participated in your extracurricular activities just like everybody else. In most classes you sat to the side of the room, avoiding Race and his friends. They were loud and Race was far from shy; he wouldn't hesitate to interrupt the teacher to ask about something he didn't understand. As a student, you appreciated that kind of audacity. As someone who just wanted to get their work done, you loathed his interruptions. It only got worse when your teacher announced partner projects for the school science fair.

“Hi Y/n!” Race took the seat across from you as the other students moved to find their partners.

“Hello, Higgins,” You sighed, pulling out a notebook to take notes for your project. “What kind of project are you interested in doing?”

“Uh, I don't know,” He shrugged, “I like math?”

You sighed again, digging out your laptop.

“Okay that's not much to go on,” You said slowly as you typed your log in.

“What'cha doing?” The blonde boy wondered as he moved to sit next to you.

“A generic google search for science fair projects that satisfy both of our interests?” You scrolled through a random ‘Science fair’ project website. “Here look, ‘beats are a pattern of oscillating sound intensity…’ blah, blah, blah…. Wait! Cymatics, we can do our own version of the Chladni experiment!”

Race watched as you practically bounced in your seat, but none of those words made any sense to him.

“What's a chalandi?” His blue eyes scanned your face as you pulled your hair back, using a spare pencil to secure it in place.

“Chladni was an 18th century German physicist and Musician,” You read, “who demonstrated how vibrations could be used to create striking geometric patterns!And Geometric patterns are just math, which you like! And audio is my thing! I mean, I could build one of these in like a week with the right stuff!”

Race was infected by your excitement, the way you bounced in your seat, the light in your eyes and the smile on your face.

“What if we did a project on how sound effects different substances?” He asked scooting closer, “Like oobleck!”

“Non-Newtonian fluids, that's an excellent idea!” You jotted down on the notepad you had out.

--

Two weeks later your family had grown accustomed to Race's presence in your house. You brother found it odd, seeing as you complained about Race annoying you constantly, but even he began to get along with the blonde.

“I brought doughnuts!” Race beamed as he entered your garage.

“You are late!” You replied from your seat on the cold cement floor, not even turning to look at him. You were growing used to him being around, and you hated it. Sharing classes was one thing, you didn't have to talk to him. This was so completely frustrating, and you hated that it was impossible to hate him, even when he rambled about things that made zero sense to you.

“I brought coffee too,” He offered, holding out the cup holder to you. You gave him a smile.

“I guess I might just forgive you then.” You winked, ignoring the swelling of your heart when he beamed back at you. It didn't help that this asshole knew exactly how to get to your heart. Food.

“What's this junk?” Race gestured to the items surrounding you, the majority of which were old speakers.

“I'm building the things. I have a couple old monitors that the little concert hall was throwing out. I figured that if they didn't work, I could rewire them and see if I could fix them. I think one of them is blown, but I need to get the mesh of the top though before I can repair the cone.” You explained, taking a sip of the God sent coffee.

“I have no idea what you're talking about, but how can I help?” He knelt beside you.

“Well, for starters, you could hand me that tool kit over there, then could you run inside and ask my mother for a thread and needle?” You pulled your hair up. A habit Race noticed that you did whenever you were getting down to business.

Turns out, tearing apart and fixing speakers made for a fun Saturday afternoon. Though Race particularly enjoyed watching you work in a ratted old pair of overalls that you probably stole from your brother.

“This is loose, should I tighten it?” Race asked, looking up from the Chladni part of your project.

“No! I did that on purpose. The plate needs to vibrate, and if you tighten it too much then it won't have the room to move.” You tucked a bit of loose hair behind your ear, covering your mouth with a yawn. “We've been working for hours, we should take a break.”

“Well, almost dinner…” Race trailed off, you could practically see the gears turning in his head. “We could go to get something to eat?”

“You buying?” You asked, wiping some sweat off your forehead.

“I think I can manage.” He shrugged.

“Sure, I just need to wash my face.” You stood, wiping your dusty hands on your overalls.

Race maybe wasn't as bad as you thought, at least after you got to know him. He was smart, even if he didn't seem like it. If you can explain something to him, he can understand it. Which was a skill lost on you. Since you, for some reason, are incapable of retaining math of any level. He just likes to goof. A fact that made the blond all the more attractive to you as he pretended that his French fries were walrus tusks. He grew on you like moss on a tree and you hated it.

--

After months of working, it was finally time for the science fair. Of course, you and Race were bickering over something trivial because it was fun. You couldn't even remember what you were arguing about as you set up your table, but you knew one thing: in this instance, Race was correct.

“I hate you,” You muttered, “Fine! You're right, will ya stop now?”

“Haha! You should a known you couldn't win a fight against me, Sweetheart,” He cheered victoriously. Race had taken to calling you ‘Sweetheart’ not long after you had begun your project, you never liked it in the beginning, but now, a lack of ‘sweetheart’, meant something serious. You just made a face at him, echoing his words back at him mockingly. You still needed to get your stuff off the cart you borrowed.

“Whatever happened to romance?” Race snorted. He certainly enjoyed riling you up at any chance he could, though he wouldn't go so far as to seriously piss you off. He'd made that mistake before and you spent the afternoon ripping apart a radio and putting it back together again, until you calmed down.

“Higgins,” You sighed, pulling your hair up, “Can I borrow your muscles and get you to move this sand?”

“Why did we get all this sand if we are only using a cup full?” He whined.

“Because Kimber gets them by the bucket full and I'm too lazy to haul cups back and forth from his class room.” You shrugged, lifting your three modified speakers with ease - not at the same time, of course.

“Y'know that makes zero sense? Why would you haul around a sixty pound bucket of sand instead of three little solo cups of sand that only would amount to a pound and a half?” Race frowned at you. You just shrugged and continued wiring the speakers into a small sound board, from there you were able to connect your phone.

Race enjoyed watching you work. There was something particularly entertaining about you putting things together all the while muttering curses underneath your breath.

At the beginning of the semester he simply liked you because your face was familiar. Now, at the semesters end, he liked you for so many more reasons. You were funny and kind and you didn't shy away from him. You told him what you were thinking, when you were thinking it and you didnt care if he was loud and annoying. Or if you did, you never let on about it. He liked that you were opinionated and hard working. He liked that the presentation of your project went smoothly with you explaining concepts he hadn't quite understood. He liked your smile and your eyes and the infectious way your laugh filled the room. Race Higgins didn't hate you at all, and he hated it.

“So,” Race leaned over the table as you placed the rest of your stuff in the back of your car. “Now that the project is over wanna do something besides argue?”

“But arguing is just so much fun, Higgins, why would we want to do anything else?” You shook your head.

“Shut up, I'm trying to ask you on a date.” He gripped your hand.

“I uh-”

“There is a Cross Country meet this weekend, we could get food after?” He offered, nervously biting the inside of his cheek.

“Are you gonna pretend to be a walrus again?” You rose a brow.

“No?” Race frowned.

“Shame,” You shrugged, “I like Jeffrey.”

His frown melted into a smile as he laughed, a most wonderful sound.

“Cool. I, uh, I'll see you there.”

You were too focused on your racing heart to notice the victory dance he did as he walked away.

--

“So, did you have fun?” A very sweaty Race came to stand next to you.

“Well, I stood for two hours in the wind and cold, only to see you for five seconds. However, I must say that I'm impressed. I suppose it makes sense, they don't call you ‘Race’ Higgins for nothing. I don't understand sports, so forgive me, but this is fun? For you?” You rubbed your arms, hoping the friction would elicit a little bit of warmth from your skin.

“Did you not bring a jacket?” He furrowed his brows at you. It wasn't like he could help right now, he was in his jersey.

“No, I did. I'm just too lazy to put it on.” You shrugged, gesturing to the hoodie tied around your waist.

“You are the str- I'm gonna go shower in the locker room real quick, I'll be back soon.” He cringed at his greasy hair. “And put on the jacket!”

You rolled your eyes, but put the hoodie on anyways. As promised, it wasn't long before Race joined you in the parking lot in fresh clothes and freshly showered.

“Do you want to ride me - I mean, with me? Or just follow?” Race stuttered, his face going red with his mistake.

“I'll follow,” You laughed. “My car’s already here and I don't see the point in wasting gas by making you run back and forth.”

“Okay, uh, just stick close?”

“It would be easier if you just told me where we are going??” You pointed out. Race pouted as he weighed his options.

“Fine! It's the Mom & Pop we went to a while back! I thought it'd be a cute first date, since that was the first time we hung out outside of working on the project.” He ran his hand through his wet hair. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Wow, you put a lot of thought into this didn't you?” You said, ignoring the swelling in your chest. Race shrugged, but the redness of his cheeks and ears told you the truth. He wouldn't admit it until much, much later, but Race had been thinking about this for nearly a month and a half now.

“Well, lead the way!” You beamed, much to his relief.

--

The familiar Mom & Pop diner was a sight for sore eyes. It was just so nice and warm and welcoming. Race, apparently, knew all the employees by name and they all seemed genuinely happy to see him. It was nice. It was really nice. Race could, and would, talk to you about anything and you found yourself loving the sound of his voice as he talked about his friends, telling you about the time that Albert stayed over and slept walked down the stairs. Even Jeffrey the Walrus made a comeback.

You were practically wheezing with laughter as Race made faces at you, taking on the persona of Jeffrey.

“C'mon, Y/n, Jeffrey needs a friend.” Race wiggled his eyebrows at you. You rolled your eyes with a laugh.

“No way.” You shook your head with a smile.

“You know you want to!”

“Not happening!”

“Please?” He puppy eyed you. You caved stealing a couple of fries from his plate situating them between your lips and teeth so they'd stay.

“Dork.” You muttered, making a face at him. The fries were salty, but the reward was sweet as he laughed. The good majority of your date was spent as walruses, making faces at each other, but you couldn't imagine a better way to spend your night.

As he walked you back to your car, you couldn't help but think about how things had changed over the past couple of months. You’d hated him, but Race Higgins was not stupid. He was smart and sweet and put real thought into spending time with people he cared about. He was far from shy, and faces issues head on even if he's scared, and he was light-hearted and fun. He was a whirlwind that knocked the breath out of you at every turn.

“Can I just say,” You hesitated when Race stopped by your car. He nodded, his eyes scanning your face. “I had a really good time, tonight.”

“Yeah?” His lips twitched into a smile.

“Yeah,” You leaned up to peck his cheek, “I wouldn't hate doing this again.”

Blush covered his cheeks, his smile only getting wider. He was at a loss for words as you giggled, bidding him goodnight.

You had thought you hated him. No, turns out you didn't hate Race Higgins at all, you maybe liked him, and you wouldn't want it any other way.

--

Tags: @kingofsantafe @anon-pancake @green-tea-anon @ticket-anon

[junhee-moved]

TBAA in Budapest~

(((that’s the only photo I took)))

So I guess I promised to make a post of my experience about the a.c.e concert  in Budapest. This is gonna be very~ long so I understand if you don’t wanna read it dfghjkl the rest is under the cut (though I’m not sure if it’ll show on mobile). Highlights, favourite moments, hi-touch, summary of the members will be at the second half of the post so scroll down if you’re only curious about those.

First of all thank you to my two friends who were with me and a huge uwu to @salty-hun whom I’ve been friends with for more than a year and finally we were able to meet :’)))) I love you Vivi!!

Well the organization from the hungarian side was kind of a mess, basically they had no idea about the top10 existing (me and my friends were all in the top10 + 1, like the top10 got two vip tickets for free). So we were waiting about two hours to get information of what we were supposed to do. It was still a mess but in the end we figured it out. The korean staff were angels tbh. Some fans also didn’t know how to behave but oh well (the security were so done with us lmao). But some foreigner fans were giving out photocards which was so sweet :’)))

We were let into the venue around 7pm and I was in a shock. Like, dude I’m in the first!!! row!!! + there were extended parts of the stage both on the left and right side and in the middle. And the extended part of the stage from the left was IN. FRONT. OF. ME. My body was aching by the time the concert started but oh boy it was worth it!

Also there was a door behind the stage which was opened and everyone was looking whether a member would appear. And then Sehyoon was there and waved to us and then the staff closed the door :’DDD

I’m not sure whether you’re curios about the performances but I’ll try to say a little about them. They started with a video then an intro, then cactus and callin’ and then they introduced themselves. Jun and Byeongkwan said hello in hungarian with an A+++ accent, I was surprised :o Then they talked a bit about Hungary (Jun said he’d wanted to visit Budapest since he was 16 and none of the members knew about it. And they were really amazed by the hungarian sky lmao and then they said the sight in front of their eyes - the fans were more beautiful. They cringed so hard).

Then we had a screaming contest. Byeongkwan was on the right, Sehyoon in the middle and Junhee on the left (on the extended stage, in front of me. I died). And these parts of the audience had to scream. The middle (Sehyoon) part was the loudest.

Ugh, I’m honestly not sure about the order of the performances asdfghj I’ll say whatever I remember (god this post is a mess already, I’m so sorry).

I think Donghun and Chan performed All of me next and holy shit!!! Their vocals!!! are amazing!!! I might be (probably) biased but I fell in love with Chan’s voice.

Then we had the Taeyang dance covers. They. didn’t. have. to. go. that. hard. They’re all soooo great dancers!! But again, I might be biased but Jun totally caught my eye. Like he has such a strong stage presence and his facial expressions ooooof.

Then the Flashlight cover!!!! I waited for this performance the most. The whole atmosphere of this performance was magical.

I’m lost, I don’t think this was the order of the performances. We’ve also had a short stage of Donghun, Byeongkwan and Chan singing small parts of 3 songs. Chan was singing Miracles of December. them. honey. vocals. holy. cow. I’m not sure about what the other two sang but man, they were awesome!

Also a short stage of Chan singing Dessert, Black and Blue and Take Me Higher! This boyyyy!!!!

Then there was Black and Blue by Jun and Sehyoon. Let me tell you. My soul left my body. I was so not prepared to see this right in front of my eyes.

Then Dessert ot5 version + a little fanservice uwu. They also blessed our eyes with Take Me Higher ot5 version.

There was a short break when they announced a few winners from vip and ga/balcony (the prizes were signed posters and polaroids). We’ve all had our numbers on our wristbands and each member selected 2 winners. My number was 17 (vip) and they said vip 77, 7, balcony 17, so they really liked the number 7 but not me :’DDDD 

I feel so lucky, Youngblood - both slapped us in the face. Again, their voices were so on point!!

Near the end ment - I have to talk about it in the ‘my fave parts’ of this post.

They’ve also performed See you again + Make it nasty + the zombie dance. I kinda went blind during these performances, the lights were very strong. But I’m pretty sure I watched the whole with my mouth open because - again, amazing, wonderful, superb, jaw-dropping!!

BTS covers, Bigbang covers - you should know that Park Junhee is anything but a good boy *cough*

Finally we had the group photo, 5tar and Take me higher as the encore. More about it in ‘my fave parts’.

HIGHLIGHTS, MY FAVE PARTS

the way Junhee said ‘szia’

Junhee choking on smoke

Junhee saying he was so looking forward to the tour because Budapest was in there

Chan missing his pocket while trying to put his hand in it and donghun laughing at him

them saying the audience is more beautiful then the sky

Chan being a super-duper-hyper-playful baby and the others loving him to bits

Sehyoon’s overdramatic reaction during the screaming contest

Seyhoon nunchaku-ing(??? lmfao how to say this) with his towel

Donghun coughing in the mic in the middle of singing and the others making fun of him

Donghun starting to sing Do you wanna build a snowman when Chan said he’s gonna sing a winter song

the fans turning on their flashlights during the performance

them pointing out fans who didn’t turn on their flashlights

BLACK. AND. BLUE.

ZOMBIE. DANCE.

flashing their abs during Make it nasty like there’s no tomorrow

Junhee’s twerking

Donghun being hype

Donghun high five-ing the crowd during Dessert

Chan’s sulking when Jun said there’s one missing part in Take me higher (aka Chan)

Junhee saying Chan is gonna leave the stage if we’re not energetic enough and Chan protesting

Donghun expecting fans to finish the lyrics of Take me higher then making a face when we didn’t know the lyrics

them telling us to dance if we feel like (insert hyungwon mantis-dance-like moves)

Chan telling the fans not to cry

A.C.E loving their maknae

Junhee being 90% of the time on the left side of the extended stage. in front. of. me.

Just them being constatóntly on the extended parts of the stage.

Junhee being an awesome speaker

Jun high five-ing me in the end of the encore

Donghun taking my banner. He gave it back in the end of 5tar and thanked me.

Sehyoon collecting banners.

Sehyoon taking my friend’s banner and not giving it back to her. rip.

Chan telling us to scream during the group photo but to make a pretty face

Chan telling us to scream during the panorama picture (I can’t explain this, it was funny)

me being barely visible in the group photo

my friends not being visible in the group photo rip

Byeongkwan’s dancing

the ment. Sehyoon talking about how he had to go to the hospital for the first time in a foreign country and how he had trouble communicating and accidentally ended up at the emergency. He told us that he was sent to another hospital where the doctor took him to a pharmacy and bought Sehyoon the medicine he needed. Yeah this was the time I started crying like a baby.

Byeongkwan telling us he wasn’t feeling too good and he will need some of Sehyoon’s medicine.

the translator buffering for a second and Byeongkwan making a what’s-going-on face

the surprise video from us. Jun and Chan got so emotional

Byeongkwan’s new name is BK. Donghun’s is DH. They were calling each other like that lol also Wow introduced himself as King Wow

Wowkwan.

them loving the banners

the whole 5tar and encore Take me higher performance. They were singing and dancing in front of us, waving, high five-ing and shit. Fanserbice on point.

them mentioning about the special project and filming the fans

them wanting to come back 

them being the most humble human beings ever

the translator was awesome

we could hear the members talking, the fans were very respectful

the fans were also respecting each other during the concert

ABOUT THE MEMBERS

Junhee - so charismatic!! like I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. His stage presence is no joke! He was really having a fun time. He interacted a lot with the fans. He was rude af. A natural leader. His smile!!!!!! Dimples!!! His hands are indeed smol lol His hyserical laugh is amazing! So are his dimples (again). The concert proved me that black haired Jun is superior!

Donghun - his vocals holy heaven!! He was really energetic and smiley the whole time. His hair was so floofy! He also interacted a lot with the fans. He was kinda in his own world with Chan, like these two together were having fun lol I died a little when he took my banner and then said thank you. Bodyrolls.

Sehyoon - his dancing!! beautiful!! So is his smile! He wasn’t talking a lot, maybe because he wasn’t feeling too well or was just shy. But he was really adorable while communicating with the audience. He collected banners lmao he was so extra at times. Very humble. I loved his hair.

Byeongkwan - he wasn’t too much at the left side of the stage :( and he seemed kinda quiet and tired. I hope he gets well soon. But he’s an awesome performer! Very powerful. He and Sehyoon had fun while collecting and examining the banners. He was trying to include everyone when he was filming the crowd.

Chan - oh! my! god! The cutest person! Like he was having such a great time! He was just randomly dancing around all the time. Him and Donghun tho haha His voice is the most beautiful thing ever. His laugh! A literal sunshine! He got kinda emotional during the surprise video. All the members treasure him.

OT5 - their chemistry!!! They genuinely seemed like they were having the time of their lives. They were so silly and cute and funny, and they loved the audience! Honestly, I don’t think they’re THAT short. They’re average. They were rude at times too. I’ve heard a lot that they’re more beautiful irl but I wasn’t sure how that works but boy!!!! They are stunning!!! Their skin?? Drop your skincare routine pls!! Ethereal beings.

HI TOUCH

IT’S A BLUR!!! It was too short and the room was pretty dark too. Also they were seated so I couldn’t really tell how tall they are lol + I only had time to say a short thank you to all of them.

Chan was the first. He was so cheerful and loud, like I couldn’t even see him yet but I heard him shouting THANK YOU!! He was all smiley and cute and his hand was quite big and soft :’)))

Donghun was the second, he was also very smiley and sweet :’))

I’m not sure if Byeongkwan or Sehyoon was the next. I think it was Byeongkwan. He looked really tired :(

Sehyoon had that beautiful smile on his face. My heart? Melted.

Jun was the last, he looked super tired :((( Like he didn’t even look at us, he just seemed like he wanted to be done with the hi touch asap

Overall

I had an awesome time! I can’t believe I saw them live and they’re actually real people. It all feels like a dream. They’re very kind, humble people who love us so much! I love them too :’))))))) I laughed a lot and cried like a baby. No regrets (Jun said to do everything we want so we wouldn’t have any regrets later). Can’t wait to see them again. Oh yeah, my bias is indeed Jun (or Chan rip)

Okayyyy this is very long and messy and I’m embarassed to post it, I’m so so sorry :(((