Bran The Time Traveling Toddler
Yes that IS a reference to the Tyrion the time traveling fetus theory. The thing about MY insane theories is that they actually make sense and I’m right. Follow me please down the worm hole!!
There’s very clearly Someone Influencing things when it comes to the Starklings and even the overreaching plot in general - there’s enough weird magic surrounding them, whispering in the wind, that it’s a no brainer they’re being watched over. The question is WHO and WHEN. For me, personally, I think it’s Bran, and I think it’s an older Bran from the future (whether it be Bran In TWOW and ADOS or Bran post canon) trying to lead his siblings to safety.
Now, like my Harrenhal meta, I don’t think I’m saying anything new so much as compiling what people have said scattered across the interwebs. There’s a lot of theories about whether Bran can time travel, time travel in general in the series, how george has dealt with time travel before, and about the three eyed crow’s identity and I agree with bits and pieces of what other people have said - preston jacobs is a more famous example of this theory for example. But I don't want to get caught up on things like time travel paradoxes because, like, i don’t care about that, and george has talked about how time travel is more fantasy than scifi bc it’s just not really scientifically possible. do you know what that means? it means there’s no weird physical paradoxes because it’s ✨magic✨ and Bran isn't literally going through space and time. It's as Jojen says-
With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you can see that oak tree there. With three you could see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become. With two you see no farther than your walls. With three you would gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall
Through his greenseeing abilities, Bran can see the whole of a lifespan, from conception to burial, and can pop out at any point in that lifespan, because a span of 100, 1000, or 1,000,000 years is all the same to the weirwood. So I don't think it's in the realm of Crazy Ass Theories to say that Bran is capable of a more magic based form of time travel. That he can whisper in people's dreams, on the wind, taking on the voice of the old gods themselves and doing his best to nudge things the way he needs them to be in order to keep the people he loves safe.
I also don't think Bloodraven is Three Eyed Crow (though I do think he also uses this metaphor of "flying" wrt magic, and that's why Euron also has a comment about flying in his dreams - I just don't believe that metaphor originates with Brynden himself. Rather, I think he picked it up from somewhere else), but instead, it's Bran, using the weirwood network to get all the pieces on the board he needs where he needs them to be for the endgame. Notice that Brynden doesn't seem to know what Bran is talking about when he mentions the Three Eyed Crow-
"Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
"A … crow?" The pale lord's voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. "Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood."
Brynden mentions the watch, but doesn't mention the three eyed crow. Everyone simply refers to Brynden as the greenseer, not the three eyed crow, except for Bran himself, who simply assumes Brynden is the three eyed crow (and we know magical assumptions in this series are generally wrong!).
What’s double interesting to me about this “bloodraven is the three eyed crow” assumption is brynden himself makes his “a thousand eyes and one” comment - but doesn’t mention a third eye. Meanwhile, Bran’s narrative is obviously filled with bird references and the opening of his third eye from Bran feeding the crows on the towers before he falls then longing to go back to the crows afterwards, of a crow sending Jojen to “the winged wolf,” of his dreams of living as a bird in maester luwin’s rookery with his siblings - Jon Snow even compares him to a bird in their final scene face to face when he thinks bran has “fingers like the bones of birds.”
And notable that though both Rickon and Bran have a greendream where they talk to Ned in the crypts of Winterfell just before Ned is executed, Rickon makes no mention of a three eyed crow, but Bran explicitly sees him-
The mention of dreams reminded him. "I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad."
"Shaggy," a small voice called. When Bran looked up, his little brother was standing in the mouth of Father's tomb. With one final snap at Summer's face, Shaggydog broke off and bounded to Rickon's side. "You let my father be," Rickon warned Luwin. "You let him be."
"Rickon," Bran said softly. "Father's not here."
"Yes he is. I saw him." Tears glistened on Rickon's face. "I saw him last night."
What that says to me is that the Three Eyed Crow has the ability to speak directly to only Bran and can only otherwise appear in a more ephemeral way to others. With the established rules about not being able to communicate properly with the past, I think this makes sense - being able to use the weirwood hivemind/greenseeing powers to appear in a different form to yourself but unable to appear in a concrete form to anyone else.
I think it's even likely we'll see Bran doing some of this nudging and whispering on page in ADOS or maybe as early as TWOW, but it won't be the exact same sort of "Bran can literally reach out and touch someone in a weirwood dream" that they had in the show with the later scenes. It'll be more like that very first scene in the show where we see Bran influence the past slightly - you know, when he calls out "father!" and young Ned turns around, having heard a voice on the wind-
And there's a direct parallel to ADWD here, where Bran is certain Ned heard him speaking in the godswood but Brynden says it's not possible (not possible for Brynden perhaps!)-
Lord Eddard Stark sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the godswood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's gnarled arms. The greatsword Ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap, and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth.
"Winterfell," Bran whispered.
His father looked up. "Who's there?" he asked, turning …
… and Bran, frightened, pulled away. His father and the black pool and the godswood faded and were gone and he was back in the cavern, the pale thick roots of his weirwood throne cradling his limbs as a mother does a child.
It's not quite time travel. It's like the acorn and stump metaphor - Bran can't appear in his physical body in the past but he can make a bit of noise, perhaps even be mistaken for one of the old gods.
As TWOW and ADOS go on, I think we'll see Bran's powers grow (likely in ways that frighten him and horrify the reader), and we'll see the very beginnings of him influencing the plot that happens during the previous books, showing up in scenes we've already experienced, similar to the Ned scene above. I think this because, well...he's already done it!
Now, as for What Time Traveling Bran Has Already Done - it’s tricky because we have a LOT of magic users waking and shaking. I’m not including every single instance of weird whispering or funny birds here, just the moments I think are more likely to be Bran than anyone else because I think Bran mostly deals with his siblings. I imagine they're easiest to reach out to magically because they already have the ability to access magic, and they're also the people he cares most about. The most obvious to me is in A Clash of Kings, when Jon hears a voice on the wind, very similar to the young Ned scene in the show-
Jon VII in A Clash of Kings
The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only … A weirwood. It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes?
Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow. He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.
Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.
This moment was when I really started paying attention to Weird Shit Bran Might Be Doing because of that line "not before the crow." Now, we know Bran mentions talking with Jon later on, in the very last chapter of the book, here-
He could reach Summer whenever he wanted, and once he had even touched Ghost and talked to Jon. Though maybe he had only dreamed that.
But I think it's both Bran in the present and Bran in ADOS speaking here - brothers reaching out to each other in their fear, and future Bran piggybacking off that connection to send a warning (this is back in Jon VII, during the shared Jon-Bran dream as before)-
Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it. There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war...This is no army, no more than it is a town. This is a whole people come together.
Bran warns Jon of the wildling army headed their way because he needs the Night’s Watch to stop fighting the wildlings, get them safely out of the True North (so they can’t be reanimated as wights), and focus on the Long Night. When you read the passage, it seems as if Bran is trying to awaken Jon’s third eye - something present baby Bran isn’t concerned with, because he barely understands his own third eye awakening. But a Bran in ADOS or beyond would know exactly what to say and do to get Jon and himself to wake up! Not just because of the paradox, but because of his connection to his brother and his vast understanding of his own magic. Similar to the idea that “who would know how to motivate Bran better than Bran himself” who would know how to motivate Jon better than one of his beloved siblings?
Arya X in A Clash of Kings
In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. "Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed.
For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said.
“But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."
"You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."
"The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.
Once again, we have a voice - it seemed as if it was her father's voice - telling a Starkling to do something specific, reminding that Starkling of their ties to Winterfell, the north, and home. The voice she hears, speaking her true name, is the kick in the pants Arya needs to grab Gendry and Hot Pie and get out of Harrenhal. There's something interesting, engaging, heartbreaking, that when Arya is at one of her lowest points, lamenting the loss of her pack, and out comes the voice of one of her pack urging her to keep faith, and helping to inspire one of her best moments - I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. Again, we have a voice trying to get the Starklings to wake up and face their reality!
Sansa in A Storm of Swords
That night Sansa scarcely slept at all, but tossed and turned just as she had aboard the Merling King. She dreamt of Joffrey dying, but as he clawed at his throat and the blood ran down across his fingers she saw with horror that it was her brother Robb. And she dreamed of her wedding night too, of Tyrion's eyes devouring her as she undressed. Only then he was bigger than Tyrion had any right to be, and when he climbed into the bed his face was scarred only on one side. "I'll have a song from you," he rasped, and Sansa woke and found the old blind dog beside her once again. "I wish that you were Lady," she said.
To be clear I think there’s a large change this is nothing. BUT. Considering Bran seems to be reaching out to his siblings, I like the idea that Bran, and magic in general, is trying to talk to Sansa but she can’t quite hear it. Winterfell and it’s magic and it’s family is calling it’s daughter home, even torn from her magical guide as she is, still trying to reach out through her dreams and through the animals around her. I’m desperately hoping that at some point in Sansa’s early TWOW chapters, we’ll start to see birds acting and speaking funny around her as Bran tries harder to reach his lost sister.
Theon Greyjoy in A Dance With Dragons
BUT. I don't think it's just the Starklings that get these messages from Bran - it's everyone he cares about, everyone he loves or will love. One of the other more obvious examples of this is Theon Greyjoy, himself clearly capable of some degree of magic, just like the Starklings-
The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. “Theon,” they seemed to whisper, “Theon.”
The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children.
“Please.” He fell to his knees. “A sword, that’s all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek.” Tears trickled down his cheeks, impossibly warm. “I was ironborn. A son … a son of Pyke, of the islands.”
A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool. It floated on the water, red, five-fingered, like a bloody hand. “… Bran,” the tree murmured.
They know. The gods know. They saw what I did. And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad. Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness. Why should Bran want to haunt him? He had been fond of the boy, had never done him any harm. It was not Bran we killed. It was not Rickon. They were only miller’s sons, from the mill by the Acorn Water.
“he had been fond of the boy” please allow me this moment to contemplate killing myself thanks.
okay back on track but this is very self explanatory - we know Theon has some sort of capacity for magic because he had a vision of the Red Wedding in ACOK and unlike Jaime who just fell asleep on a weirweed tree, Theon was just up in bed. We see it again here, where Theon can hear a voice on the wind and then seems to see Bran’s own face in the face of the weirwood tree. Once again, the voice on the wind is trying to help a loved one of Bran’s find their way back to themselves, back to home. And Theon, for all the harm he has done, is still so so loved by Bran, and loves Bran in return.
Samwell Tarly III in A Storm of Swords
Sam made a whimpery sound. “It’s not fair …”
“Fair.” The raven landed on his shoulder. “Fair, far, fear.” It flapped its wings, and screamed along with Gilly. The wights were almost on her. He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. The starlight itself seemed to stir, and all around them the trees groaned and creaked. Sam Tarly turned the color of curdled milk, and his eyes went wide as plates. Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands, perched on the bone-white branches, peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings. Shrieking, flapping, they descended on the wights in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chett’s face and pecked at his blue eyes, they covered the Sisterman like flies, they plucked gobbets from inside Hake’s shattered head. There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon. “Go,” said the bird on his shoulder. “Go, go, go.”
Whoever this is - it's Bran!!!! - helps to save Sam and Gilly's lives, actively tells them to run for it, and just a little bit later, Sam is around to help save Bran in turn. I think there's also something to be said for the brotherhood connection here. They refer to each other as brothers in the book because of their connection to Jon; that connection to Jon, and therefore each other, means a lot to both Sam and Bran. There's a practical reason for saving Sam here in that he can help Bran in the "present" timeline, will likely help in the future, but more than that there's an emotional bond here and it seems to me that magic runs off emotions just as assuredly as it runs off of other important stuff like blood and and sacrifice and weirwoods.
Jon Snow XII in A Storm of Swords
With a raucous scream and a clap of wings, a huge raven burst out of the kettle. It flapped upward, seeking the rafters perhaps, or a window to make its escape, but there were no rafters in the vault, nor windows either. The raven was trapped. Cawing loudly, it circled the hall, once, twice, three times. And Jon heard Samwell Tarly shout, “I know that bird! That’s Lord Mormont’s raven!” The raven landed on the table nearest Jon.
“Snow,” it cawed. It was an old bird, dirty and bedraggled. “Snow,” it said again, “Snow, snow, snow.” It walked to the end of the table, spread its wings again, and flew to Jon’s shoulder.
Lord Janos Slynt sat down so heavily he made a thump, but Ser Alliser filled the vault with mocking laughter. “Ser Piggy thinks we’re all fools, brothers,” he said. “He’s taught the bird this little trick. They all say snow, go up to the rookery and hear for yourselves. Mormont’s bird had more words than that.”
The raven cocked its head and looked at Jon. “Corn?” it said hopefully. When it got neither corn nor answer, it quorked and muttered, “Kettle? Kettle? Kettle?”
The rest was arrowheads, a torrent of arrowheads, a flood of arrowheads, arrowheads enough to drown the last few stones and shells, and all the copper pennies too.
The Night's Watch seem to take this as some sort of divine sign, and Jon's friends take it as an excellent ploy from Samwell Tarly. But when Pyp confronts Sam over it a page later, Sam completely denies it -
“I had nothing to do with the bird,” Sam insisted. “When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself.”
Everyone has their theories about people warging Mormont's crow of course. I think what's interesting to me here is that Jon is really wrestling with the idea of leaving the Watch for Winterfell, in which case Janos Slynt was likely to take over command. Someone like Slynt being in charge when the Long Night is coming is a bad idea, and here, Mormont's bird directly contributes to Jon staying where he needs to be - watching over the wildlings and making sure they aren't turning into Wights.
(And this is getting into my other theories here, but IF Sansa as the Girl In Grey is true, I think this is a neat sort of timeline fixing - almost as if Bran is saying “no, not yet, the pieces aren’t aligned, Jon can’t leave yet, Brienne isn’t at the Vale to get Sansa, I haven’t trained enough, Jon still keeps slapping his hands over his third eye so he can’t see, I need to give myself more time here.”)
Bran II in A Game of Thrones
But...it's not just his family and friends that I think Bran is trying to help here, and of course, if he IS the Three-Eyed Crow, he isn’t YET. What I think is going to be a big climactic part of Bran's story is self sacrifice, giving up some of his own power, his own happiness, to save others. Yes, part of this is my absolute refusal to accept Borg Hivemind Fantasy Police State King Bran in that he will say NO to the hivemind, but I think there's something magical here as well!
I think in order to access great power you need to be willing to put your own body on the line.
Jojen mentions having gotten sick with "greywater fever" shortly before his greendreams started
Dany experiences a miscarriage then literally walks into fire in order to hatch her dragons
both Beric and Catelyn have to quite literally be gruesomely murdered in order for Thoros' fire magic to work to bring them back to life
Melisandre has to physically give birth in order for her shadow assassination to work
on and on it goes. In order to be capable of great power, you can’t just have a willingness to throw someone ELSE onto the pyre but yourself as well. But Bran is pushed out of the window instead of willingly jumping. Or...
The wolfling was smarter than any of the hounds in his father’s kennel and Bran would have sworn he understood every word that was said to him, but he showed very little interest in chasing sticks…Finally he got tired of the stick game and decided to go climbing….
The wolf did as he was told. Bran scratched him behind the ears, then turned away, jumped, grabbed a low branch, and pulled himself up. He was halfway up the tree, moving easily from limb to limb, when the wolf got to his feet and began to howl.
Bran looked back down. His wolf fell silent, staring up at him through slitted yellow eyes. A strange chill went through him. He began to climb again. Once more the wolf howled. “Quiet,” he yelled. “Sit down. Stay. You’re worse than Mother.” The howling chased him all the way up the tree, until finally he jumped off onto the armory roof and out of sight.
I think this is future Bran, finally becoming the Three Eyed Crow, inside Summer. Summer shows no interest in the game and it’s only then that Bran decides to go climbing. Future Bran is sacrificing himself for the greater good - but can’t stop his mournful cry of the fate that awaits his own young self.
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Just A Moment : Chapter 29 : Fireworks
All Starz | FFN Rating: T (underage drinking, minor language) | FFN Link
❖
“Did you guys have fun clapping for Max and Rick, because I sure did,” Eddy said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He took a swig from the bottle in his hand. It was nearly empty, despite containing the wateriest, cheapest beer Michael could get a hold of. He sighed and finished it anyway.
“Sorry, man, I know it sucks.” Michael opened another bottle with his teeth and spat the cap out somewhere to the right. Ignoring the scoff from behind them that followed, he handed it to Eddy.
“Shitty beer for a shitty day.” Eddy shrugged and added his empty to the line they’d started on the wall. There were fireworks reflecting in the glass. He scowled.
Normally the All Starz celebratory send-off was more fun than this. Normally, he and Steve and Michael were the ones being congratulated and cheered on. Normally, Judy looked to them, her top brass, to bring America its World Championship victory instead of her precious baby boy and a bully from the street.
This year, Steve was injured and the rest of them couldn’t get away from the party fast enough. While Max and Rick watched the fireworks outside in front of the cameras, the rest of them retreated to the roof to sulk.
“I hate this.”
Michael downed half of his beer in a few gulps, then said, “I think I’m having a midlife crisis.”
“Oh, please,” Emily groaned, apparently done with staring on in silent disapproval. “You’re eighteen, Michael, not forty. And stop using your teeth to open those, because I’ll be the one stuck finding you a dentist before the tournament tomorrow if you break a tooth.”
“Emily,” Michael said, turning around to lean against the wall with the city to his back, “if you can’t get in the spirit of misery, you can always join the others.”
“Yeah, maybe they need someone to hold Rick’s boombox or calibrate Max’s launcher or something.”
Michael chuckled. He and Eddy clinked their bottles together.
Emily slammed her laptop shut and sent them an icy glare. She was perched on one of the building’s AC units and practically vibrating with anger. Eddy suspected most of it wasn’t because of their jokes.
“Neither of you are old enough to be drinking those,” she pointed out while forcefully shoving her computer into its bag. “I should report you to the director.”
“Ha, please,” Michael scoffed and took another drink.
“You know, Emily,” Eddy interjected with a playful grin, “if you want one, all you have to do is ask. No need to be grouchy.”
“No, thank you.”
Eddy shrugged and went back to nursing his drink.
Shortly after, Emily gave in and joined him and Michael at the edge of the roof. The three of them stood in companionable silence and watched the fireworks crack and shimmer across the sky. It would have been peaceful if there weren’t such strong feelings of injustice stewing in each of them.
“This really bites,” Eddy said when he couldn’t hold it in anymore.
His teammates made noises of agreement.
“Emily, you shoulda lied when Judy had you go over Rick’s intake data,” Michael said, twirling his bottle between his hands and scowling into the distance. “Max is whatever, mommy’s favorite and all that shit, but Rick’s a giant bag of dicks.”
Eddy snorted into his beer.
Emily bristled.
“She never had me review it.” There was a poorly-concealed bitterness in her voice. She crossed her arms in front of her.
Eddy exchanged a look with Michael. He could see his friend’s eyes widen in the flickering light of another firework.
“No wonder you’re pissed,” Eddy said, and took a drink. He didn’t even taste it going down, too preoccupied with wondering why Judy was keeping secrets from Emily, of all people. It wasn’t like she would have skewed the data – she was too academically proud for that. Probably would have cautioned Judy about Rick’s lousy attitude and been done with it.
“I trust Director Judy’s calculations!” Emily said defensively.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to like them,” Michael pointed out. He tipped the neck of his bottle in her direction and wiggled it, one more offer.
Emily huffed, then snatched the bottle and took a drink like she’d lose her nerve if she didn’t do it fast. She hadn’t even swallowed the whole way when she made a noise of disgust and shoved it back into Michael’s hands.
“Not many parties on weekends?” Michael quipped.
Most days Emily would deliver a witty retort that let them know, in no uncertain terms, how pointless that would be for the development of her brain and her career. This time she got mad.
“No!” she exclaimed waspishly. Her eyes gleamed with emotion as they darted between Eddy and Michael. Eddy recognized that look – she was debating whether or not to say something that she desperately wanted to because she knew it would make her sound her age for once. Her anger won out in the end. “You haven’t either! None of us have done anything but train on weekends for months!
“And I don’t know about you two, but I turned down dozens of opportunities for the sake of the World Championships and I’m not even going to get to beyblade!” she finished, wiping away tears of frustration and knocking her glasses askew in the process. She yanked them off forcefully and turned away to clean them, successfully hiding any lingering tears.
“At least you’ll get to process data,” Eddy pointed out, both to cheer her up and to complain. “Michael and I are gonna be stuck twiddling our thumbs on the bench.”
“Yeah, Emily,” Michael chimed in begrudgingly, “Max’ll probably even let you blade if you act upset enough. Judy always says he’s such a gentleman.” He made a show of gagging at the thought and Eddy raised his drink in a mock toast. “Save some of those tears for Maxie.”
“You two don’t get it!” Emily rounded on them. “I was just looking at Judy’s data – she’s been compiling it for almost a year!”
Judging by her tone that was supposed to mean something to them. Eddy looked at Michael to see if he was following and got a shrug in return.
Emily rolled her eyes and clarified: “She’s known for a long time what was going to happen with the Championships this year and the three of us were never part of her plans.”
A heavy silence fell over their group. Eddy thought it seemed suddenly cold on the rooftop and set his beer aside in favor of shoving his hands into the pockets of his team jacket. If it were up to Judy, he probably wouldn’t even be wearing it. The thought made his blood begin to boil.
It made sense now why she didn’t seem concerned about Steve’s injury sidelining him. Probably made her life a hell of a lot easier not having to force one of them off the team entirely. And, with the new tournament format, she could still claim the rest of them as a successful pet project, all the while giving the spotlight to Rick the Barbarian and Max the Nepotism Baby.
The sound of a bottle smashing against concrete interrupted his thoughts. Michael had thrown the remains of his drink on the ground in anger. Hundreds of pieces of glass scattered across the roof, a sour mimicry of the fireworks scattering across the sky above them.
“Michael!” Emily scolded.
“Bullshit!” Michael shouted, ignoring her. “She can’t do this to us!”
Eddy nodded fiercely, throat too constricted to say anything. Trades happened in sports every day, but it was underhanded and cruel of Judy to train them for positions she never had any intention of letting them play.
“She already did!” Emily shot back, voice high and hollow like she was fighting more angry tears.
“Well we aren’t gonna let her!”
Michael grabbed the sleeve of Eddy’s jacket and dragged him over to Emily, the All Starz logo bunched up in his fist. The three of them stood in a huddle, Michael and Emily glaring at each other with separate challenges in their eyes. Eddy waited with bated breath for one of them to snap. His hands were clenched to tightly in his pockets that he could feel blunt nails digging into his palms.
With a resolute nod, Michael clapped both Emily and Eddy on the shoulder. He left his hands there, a solid connection, and surveyed their group.
“We’re still in this,” he said, sounding more like the captain he was than usual. “They can try to bench us all they want, but we don’t have to sit back and take it. We’re the original All Starz. We built this team. Nobody is gonna make us feel like we aren’t good enough for it.” His grip on their shoulders tightened.
Eddy grinned, in spite of himself, and stretched his arms out over his teammates’ shoulders.
“Damn right.”
Then came the finale of the fireworks show. Eddy could feel every explosion in his chest as the brightest starbursts yet cast a blinding light on their rooftop huddle. The wind carried the cheers of their home crowd on an updraft. It had a bolstering effect, even if it wasn’t solely for them.
Soon Judy would be ushering Max and Rick off of their pedestal to rest up for the first round of battles. Max would listen to her and Rick would disappear to wherever he disappeared to. The rest of them would be lucky if Judy wondered where they were before the cameras came back on and she needed her set dressing.
“Emily?” Michael prompted, giving her a shake. She’d been quiet for too long. “You gonna give ‘em hell with us? Or do you wanna hold the boombox?”
Emily stared past them pensively, the light show reflecting in her glasses and masking her thoughts.
“C’mon, Em.” Eddy felt some of the tension in her shoulders ebb away at the nickname. “All for one and one for all.”
“Except Max and Rick,” Michael added.
Emily snorted and shrugged them off. When she looked at them, she was almost smiling.
“Clean up this glass,” she ordered, slinging the laptop with Judy’s stupid data over her shoulder and making for the stairs, “and then get some sleep. We can’t give anyone hell if you’re zombies in the morning.” She paused with her hand on the doorknob and shot a smirk over her shoulder, glasses glinting. “More so than usual, I mean.”
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