#combining my interests like a scientist in the lab squeezing one drop out of an eyedropper into the beaker and the lab explodes in flames

[wtfforged]

i think my jump between favs and interests wasnt too strange at all

[stilloutofmyvulcanmind]

Masquerade

Pairing: Earth-2 Harrison “Harry” Wells x Gender Neutral!Reader

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: Brief mentions of violence and injuries

Summary: A chance meeting with a handsome masked stranger takes an unexpected turn

A/N: Just a little something to celebrate the Spooky Season. Happy Halloween! 

The CCPD’s Halloween charity event had been one of your favorite nights of the year since you were a teen attending with your parents. And though you weren’t an official member of the force, you were still invited every year, and every year you couldn’t wait. 

The theme this Halloween was ‘masquerade’. Wear whatever costume you desire, but pair it with a mask. You’d chosen to stick with a classic vampire costume, wearing a black and deep red outfit with a matching red mask that was trimmed with shining black sequins, even going so far as to coat your hair in a sparkly wash out dye so you practically looked unrecognizable.

Roaming the hall that had been hired out, you sipped the toxic green fruity drink that was being served and mingled with the other party-goers. Some you were able to recognize, like Barry and Iris, others you had no idea about. It didn’t matter. Half the fun was in not knowing, and like this everyone was free to speak to anyone, regardless of role or rank. 

It was a couple of hours in when you spotted a man lurking by himself near the buffet table. Going by the cloak draped over his shoulders, he was channeling his inner vampire too, though instead of black and red, his colors of choice were black and a beautiful silver. With his dark hair and pale skin, he looked almost ethereal. And miserable if the scowl plastered to his face had anything to go by.

“Tonight isn’t meant to be painful, you know,” you said, coming to stand next to him and offering a glass.

He looked at the glass like you were giving him poison, and for a moment you thought he was just going to walk away, but then he raised his gaze to your face, eyes mostly hidden behind the black mask, and seemed to change his mind. He accepted the drink, “Easy enough to say when you’re a social butterfly.”

Laughing softly, you watched him take a long sip of the fruity cocktail, making a face at the sugary taste. “I don’t know if I’d say I’m that. I just like Halloween, and combining that with raising money for a good cause, what’s not to like?”

“Nothing. Unless money gets skimmed off the top.”

“No one does that.”

“Can you be certain?”

“Yes.”

“Are you always this positive?”

“I try to be. Are you always this cynical?”

“Yes.”

You laughed again, hard enough this time that you had to clutch at your ribs. He didn’t seem impressed. “Sorry. You just remind me of someone I know.”

The man huffed, the corner of his lips quirking up. “It’s fine. You remind me of someone I know too. They’re always almost annoyingly upbeat about everything.”

“They sound like my kind of person.”

“Of course they do.”

You smiled, moving around to him to pick up one of the tinily cut sandwiches. “So, if you really don’t want to be here, then why come?”

“I was...coerced. A friend said that it’d be ‘good for me to get out and attempt to be sociable for once in my life and maybe learn not to be a jackass’.”

Nearly choking on the food, you covered your mouth as you coughed and spluttered. He was next to you instantly, a large hand coming to rub your back. “Are you okay?” He asked.

You nodded, taking a drink to clear your throat. “Yeah. Just...I wasn’t expecting you to say that.”

“If you knew the guy who said it, you wouldn’t be.”

“I don’t doubt it.” You were recovered now, but his hand was still a warm presence on your back. Any other time you’d be uncomfortable having a strange man so close like that, but for whatever reason, you weren’t this time. It wasn’t just that he reminded you of someone, it felt like you actually knew him. Like you could trust him. Looking past him, you saw that more people had moved to the centre of the hall to dance. You motioned to them with a nod of your head. “Well, since you are here, care to join me on the dancefloor?”

He followed your gaze, grimacing. “I’m not much of a dancer.”

Tutting, you grabbed his hand. “C’mon! Don’t be a jackass and live a little!” 

You were grinning as you tugged him forward, and after a long sigh, he returned the smile. “Fine.

He let you guide him into the crowd and stayed close as you began to move to the music. He tried to join in but he hadn’t been lying when he claimed not to be a dancer. He was awkward and stiff in his movements and focusing so much it was nearly hilarious. Unable to help yourself you giggled a little, a decision you instantly regretted. He scowled and stopped. 

“This was a bad idea,” he said, already starting to move away.

“No, wait!” You grabbed his wrist to stop him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you, honest. You were...you were just kinda cute, trying so hard like that.” You pulled him back towards you, happy when he allowed it. “Look, come here.” You stepped closer into his space, placing his hands on your hips while you wrapped yours around his shoulders. “You’re thinking too much about it. Just...feel the beat, sway with it. Like this.” You started dancing again, beaming when he followed your motions, still tense, but a little smoother. 

As close as you were now, it was easier to get a better look at him. Even with half his face hidden under the mask, it was easy to see he was handsome. His hair was a little lighter than you’d first thought, his face a little smoother too. In a way it was a relief. With the way he’d been speaking and acting, you were starting to think he was actually the grumpy scientist he reminded you of. Which would’ve been a problem. Because you would absolutely not be able to get away with dancing with him. Not without losing your dignity at least. With it not being him, you could relax and just enjoy yourself.

The music slowed, but rather than pull away, the mystery man closed what little distance was left between you until you were pressed flush together. He seemed even more at ease now, smiling softly as you swayed to the music.

“This is nice,” you said quietly, smiling back at him.

“It is. Thank you...for forcing me.”

“Sometimes we need a little push to leave our comfort zone.”

He hummed, inclining his head a little in agreement. He licked his lips and despite yourself, you couldn’t help but follow the motion. “Since I’m already well outside mine...can I say that I think you look beautiful?”

Cheeks heating, you chuckled nervously. “Thank you. You...you look really good too. That silver is gorgeous. I haven’t seen that shade before.”

“It’s a special one from my...home.”

“Your home must be stunning.”

“Not as much as it is here.”

“There must be something really special about Central City in that case.”

“There is.”

He had a certain look on his face. You knew it well from your own reflection. The man was smitten. “Or is it a special someone?”

He huffed a laugh, “Guilty. They’re...exceptional.”

“I get the feeling that’s high praise coming from you.”

“Depends on who you ask.”

“Do they know? How you feel?”

“No. If I have it my way they never will either.”

“Why?”

“You’ve met me. I’m cynical, brusque, grumpy-”

“A jackass?”

He laughed, nodding. “A jackass. And they’re...they’re like you.”

“Annoyingly upbeat?”

“And kind, hopeful. My antithesis. They wouldn’t be interested.”

You shrugged, “You never know, but...I understand.”

“You do?”

“Mmm. There’s a guy...a scientist. He’s...he’s a genius. Literally. He’s kinda like you too, but he’s also brave and he’d never admit it, but his heart is pure gold. He’d do anything for the ones he loves. And he’s...Harry is completely out of my league.”

He didn’t answer you. Instead, he just stared, mouth slightly agape. You were about to ask what was wrong when all hell broke loose.

A deafening white blast tore through the hall, smashing the windows in, blowing the furniture to smithereens, shattering the crystal chandeliers above your head. You were knocked back with everyone else, thrown across the debris coated floor until you hit a splintered table hard. 

The man you’d been dancing with groaned next to you. “Are you okay?” He asked, voice raised to be heard over the shouts and chaos. He was hovering over you, mask gone.

You nodded slowly. Your head hurt, but it didn’t feel like anything was broken. There was a flash of yellow lightning behind him. It nearly masked the way his face glitched. Glitched and changed from an unknown figure to...someone you knew all too well. 

Oh, shit.

There was another rumbling blast and Harry threw himself over you, shielding your body with his own. Clutching the soft material of his jacket was instinct, squeezing your eyes shut as you hid your face in his shirt, heart thundering in your chest.

“They’re gone!” Joe shouted somewhere to your left. “We need to get people out of here.”

Harry pulled back, breathing hard as he looked down at you. You stared back. Between the fear and the adrenaline, any thoughts on what to say, how to explain yourself vanished. His gaze dropped. “You’re bleeding.”

“What?”

“Your arm.”

You followed his eyes and sure enough the sleeve of your costume had been torn, revealing an ugly looking gash slicing across your bicep. You hadn’t felt it at first, but now, now the pain was setting in harsh and throbbing. Harry was already tearing the sleeve of his jacket, tying the material tightly around the injury.

“We need to get you medical help,” he said.

“We need to get back to the Labs. Barry is gonna need us.”

“The injury-”

“Caitlin can take care of it.”

Harry didn’t look happy, but he nodded, getting to his feet and helping you up too. It was easy to find Cisco, and once you were all somewhere private enough, he breached you back to the Labs before rushing to help Barry with the meta. 

A couple of hours, some improvised tech and a bit of teamwork later, you had the meta caught and locked up, and you were perched on one of the beds in the med area while Caitlin finished stitching and dressing your arm properly. 

Just as she was done, and you were carefully rolling down the sleeve of the S.T.A.R Labs sweatshirt you’d borrowed, Harry, who’d disappeared soon after Barry and Cisco returned, reappeared dressed in his usual all black ensemble. He hovered in the doorway, frowning as Caitlin gave you some pain meds. 

“Thanks, Cait.”

“No problem,” she smiled, looking between you and Harry. You hadn’t said anything to her, but you got the feeling she knew. “I’ll leave you two alone, but get some rest soon, okay?”

“Yeah. I will.”

She left then, and Harry waited until he was sure no one else was around before approaching the bed slowly. “Are you alright?”

You nodded. “Physically, I’ll be fine. Emotionally, I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the embarrassment.”

“You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. This was my fault. I shouldn’t have even been there. Ramon insisted I be his ‘plus one’, and set up the facial transmogrification device just in case I was recognized.” 

You nodded again, avoiding his eyes in favor of playing with the hem of your sweater. “Did you know it was me?”

“Not at first. When you said my name it all clicked.”

“So if I’d just kept my mouth shut, things could’ve gone on as normal. Great.”

“Y/N, what you said-”

“I know, and I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I won’t mention anything about it again, especially now I know that there’s someone else who’s caught your eye.”

You heard rather than saw as Harry grabbed a chair and pulled it around so he was sitting level in front of you. “I thought you would’ve figured it out by now.”

“Figured what out? That I’m an idiot who fell for someone I’ve no right falling for? I got that.”

“No.” Fingers were under your chin, gently coaxing your gaze back up. “Figured out that I was talking about you.”

You stared at him, “You were?”

“Yes. You’re the reason I love this Earth so much.”

“Oh.” Not the smartest reply you’d ever come up with, but you weren’t entirely sure what else to say either especially when Harry’s thumb was stroking your cheek. 

“When you said my name...I almost didn’t believe it at first.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t believe that I deserved your affection.”

“Harry...you’re...you’re everything I could want.”

“As are you.”

You smiled, bringing your hand up to cover his own. “See? I told you Halloween was the best.”

Harry chuckled softly, nodding. “I’ll give you this one.”

“Good.”

Harry leaned in. You met him halfway. 

Best Halloween ever.

Like what you read? Consider buying me a coffee! I’ll love you forever!

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Halloween Coutdown - A Bump in the Night

Summary: Victoria Van Gale is a serious scientist even after her laboratory and workplace is destroyed, she remains the sort of person to look for the reasons behind everything. She likes being in control, she makes stern analyses and important experiments, and she… goes trick or treating with a bunch of kids?

Notes: 3 days until Halloween, you guys!!! This is the irst time i actually try to make something I write feel like an episode, I hope you enjoy it! I thought it would be hard to write something with no sketchbook (and no librarian either!!) but it was actually so fun! Love this little unhinged scientist

Read it on ao3

Spooky song rec: HYPNOTIZED by AViVA

Victoria Van Gale did not like things she could not control.

She took her coffee black, she liked to read biographies, she was an early riser and she didn’t like things she couldn’t control. It was just one more part of her personality like any other, and she’d never really seen a reason to fight it. Granted, she supposed that it had been partially to blame for the fact that her observatory was now destructed, and she had to work a dull nine to five job to pay for the apartment she’d managed to rent. But she hadn’t been the only one involved in that mess. The responsibility could hardly be given to her, she’d been perfectly fine  before those kids and their talking bird arrived. Or at least she told herself.

But the fact was that, out of her distaste for things she couldn’t understand and command, was born a revulsion against that one night of the year.

Halloween. What a bunch of nonsense.

She did her best to forget the night every year. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in ghosts, witches and monsters. She’d seen enough to know there was much in this world that she couldn’t understand. It just made her uncomfortable to have to face a whole celebration dedicated to the incomprehensible. Why should they revel in it when they could analyze it? If humans had superior intellect, only their silly superstitions stopped them from being the absolute rulers of the world.

It seemed that, in her efforts, Victoria did manage to forget about Halloween, because she gasped as soon as she stepped outside and was faced with a crowd of children dressed in colourful costumes, running around and knocking on people's doors. A group of kids nearby noticed her leaving the building in which her apartment was, and ran towards her.

“Trick or treat!” They exclaimed, raising their pumpkin shaped buckets at her. Victoria tried not to feel too guilty as she gently told them he had nothing to give them and watched them walk away crestfallen.

Her plan had been to go to the nearest convenience store, pick something to snack on since she felt like it, and return home just as quickly. With all the tumult the celebrations caused, however, she was just considering giving up on her task to head back home when she felt something bump against her leg. Looking down, she saw a white figure, much smaller than a child. As it realized it had bumped on her in its haste, it looked at her and Victoria could see the glimmer of the lamp post light on its dark eyes. It ran away, and she took off after it.

By the way the creature ran, with white linen trailing behind it, Victoria could only come to one conclusion: she’d found a ghost. And if she managed to catch it, the amount of information she could get was unimaginable! How did ghosts come back to the earth? Was it true that there were more ghosts around on Halloween? What was the afterlife like? How did a ghost even work? The excitement at the prospect of asking those questions, combined with the running which she didn’t do often left her breathless.

As she dodged them, her chase attracted the odd stares of many children, and even their complaints when she accidently hit one in the shoulder, but she didn’t care, all that mattered was getting to the ghost and taking it to somewhere where she could study it. Nevermind that this would probably be her apartment.

She came to a halt, however, when a large group of children who were crossing the street together blocked her path. She tried to squeeze her way past it, but when she had finally crossed the crowd, the ghost was nowhere in sight. 

“Oh, no” She whispered, looking around frantically. She jogged forward, coming to the end of the street, and looked into the two other streets that the one she was in led into, seeing nothing but more children. There was a fifty per cent chance she’d pick the right road, and she was about to try her luck on the path to her right when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Victoria… what are you doing?”

Startled, Victoria looked behind her shoulder to see the same blue haired girl who had set her weather spirit free. Her face had been painted green with black drawings that mimicked stitches, and the hair bow she was wearing had screws in its ends to make it look like they were coming out of her skull. She was accompanied by the boy Victoria also remembered, who wore dark clothes and fake fangs, and a girl Victoria hadn’t met yet, a witch hat on top of her head and wearing a black dress.

She didn’t exactly still have hard feelings towards Hilda, though she wasn’t over the fact that her interference in private matters had left her homeless and jobless. For her part, however, Hilda looked like she didn’t trust Victoria in the least.

“Oh! Hilda! You won’t believe this, I just saw a <em>ghost</em>. I’m, uh, happy to see you’re fine, by the way. With the nasty fall you took from the bureau and all.”

“Are you really?” David muttered, making Hilda elbow him softly so as to tell him not to pick on her.

Hilda asked her what the ghost she saw was like, while Frida whispered to her friends questioning who this woman was. Though she couldn’t hear what he was saying, Victoria noticed David answering in her ear.

“It was very small.” She informed, placing her hands apart from each other in order to show her esteemed measurement of it. The girl that was dressed as a witch looked at her with suspicion as her friend talked to her, but she tried to ignore the two of them and focus on Hilda. “And it really did wear a white cloth like the tales say. Pretty quick, too.”

Frida was about to refute something she said when Hilda lifted her hand, asking her not to.

“A ghost!” Hilda exclaimed, the hint of a smile on her lips. “That’s interesting. But why were you running after it?”

Victoria fidgeted, rubbing her thumb and index finger in circles. “Well, I… I’d never seen a ghost before, is all. I just wanted to try and take a look! See what they’re made of!”

Looking disappointed with the answer, Hilda sighed and shook her head negatively. “Still trying to control everything, Victoria? Haven’t you learned already?”

“That’s… that’s not it…” Victoria tried to defend herself, looking down at her feet.

“You know what?” Hilda said suddenly, her tone changing abruptly to a more joyful one. “You are not going to find anything in this crowd by yourself. Not only that, but all three of us have actual experiences with ghosts. We’ll help you with it.”

“Really?” Both Victoria and the two other children gasped.

“Really, under one condition.” She put a finger up, looking serious. “This is my first Halloween in Trolberg, and I don’t want to miss out on it. You’ll come with us and after we’re done trick or treating, we’ll help.”

“Huh?” Victoria frowned, thinking that perhaps the girl had hit her head hard after that explosion in the bureau. If she ran, she still might catch up with her ghost, but if she spent the night trick or treating, she was certain to never see it again.

“Hilda, I don’t have time-” She tried to argue, but the girl cut her off.

“Don’t you know the lore of Halloween? These ghosts will be walking around town the whole night. In fact, if you come with us, there is an even greater chance of you finding a ghost, even if not the one you just saw. But it’s all the same to science, right?”

“Yes…” Victoria rubbed her chin. “I suppose you’re right.”

“But Hilda.” David whispered to his friend, probably thinking he was being a lot more discreet than he was in reality. “She’s an adult. Adults can’t go trick or treating.”

The look Hilda gave her scared Victoria more than any child should be able to.

“They can if they’re part of our costume.”

_#_#_#_

Victoria all but dragged herself behind them, attempting not to feel like a fool.

“Is this really necessary?” she groaned, being met with Hilda’s fierce affirmation that yes, it was necessary. After they’d struck their agreement, the trio had made her take them to her apartment, where they found her lab gloves and coat and made her wear it. They hadn’t even stopped there, finding her black rain boots and asking her to put them on too.

When they began going to the first houses, she’d felt awkward standing near the children as they asked for candy. Most people ignored her, until one woman, with bright red curly hair and a sweet face chuckled at her.

“Who would you be?” She asked, not mockingly but with curiosity after dropping a large amount of sweets into the children's pumpkins.

Hilda was fast to answer. “She’s Victor Frankenstein!”

“Oh, what a lovely pair you two make!” The woman said, her eyes going back and forth between Hilda and Victoria. “You must be such a dedicated auntie. Here, have some candie as well, you deserve it.”

After putting candies in Victoria’s shelled hands, she wished them a good Halloween and closed her door. The children climbed down from her porch, but Victoria remained where she was, looking awestruck as she stared at her hands.

“Are you okay?” Frida asked, the first to realize Victoria hadn’t moved.

“Yeah, I’m alright. It’s just been a lot of time since I received candy from anyone.”

David tilted his head to the side. “You haven’t eaten candy in a long time?”

“What? No!” Victoria assured him. “I eat more candy than I should, honestly. But it’s different when you get it from someone. Everything is more special when it’s a gift, I suppose.”

“Hey, why don’t we stop and eat some of what we got tonight?” Hilda suggested, and the rest of them agreed eagerly. There was a bench nearby, and they all sat on it. As the kids dug into their pumpkin buckets, making their choice of which sweet to eat first, Victoria unwrapped a sour candy.

“Did you know that sour candies are sour because of the citric acid?” She asked, drawing the kids’ attention. “Like all acids, it has hydrogen ions which activate our tongue’s sour taste receptors! Isn’t this interesting? Of course, this is the same acid we have in some fruits, but to use it in candy you need to make it by fermenting sugar with microorganisms! Not as simple as it seems at first, I’m certain.”

“I thought you were a meteorologist.” David said after a beat.

“I am! But that doesn’t stop me from liking the other sciences as well.”

“That’s so cool, miss Van Gale!” Frida gasped, and Hilda nodded in agreement. “I hope this is not rude to ask… but there are so many things about the science books I read that I don’t understand, and our teacher can never really answer all of them. I was wondering if one day you’d be willing to help me with that?”

“Of course!” Excited at the prospect of having someone to discuss science with, Victoria nodded, happy when the girl looked joyful with her acceptance. “It's always good to revisit topics one hasn’t studied for long. Keeps the brain sharp.”

There was a pen in her labcoat’s pocket, and the woman used it to write her landline’s number on the candy wrap and give it to Frida, so she could call her for them to arrange a day.

“I think we should go.” Hilda sighed, tired because of the late hour but very happy about how her first Halloween in the city was going. “We still have many houses to visit, and I have an idea that might get us even more candy.”

_#_#_#_

“It’s moving…” Victoria uttered in the moment when Hilda, lying down in front of the house’s door, began lifting her hand. The couple that lived in the house watched them with curiosity and wonderment at their makeshift theatre. “It’s alive! It’s moving, it’s alive! In the name of God, now I know what it is like to be God! IT’S ALIVE!”

Abruptly, Hilda lifted her whole torso up, groaning as monstrously as she could. Her two friends giggled, already having received their candy, and the couple clapped at them.

“How frightening!” the woman said, dropping candy into Hilda’s pumpkin. “Happy Halloween and keep up the good work!”

The group left, laughing about how good their acting had been. They’d done it for all the past houses, and everyone who had seen it had loved it, even fellow trick or treaters. Now knowing that they were her favourite, Hilda always gave the sour candies she received to Victoria, and as she separated them from the others David complimented how genuine Victoria had sounded.

“Thank you, David. I have a talent for the dramatic arts, don’t you think?” She boasted mockingly, swiping her hand across her shoulder to push her wild hair back. The boy giggled, the apprehension he’d had of her in the beginning of the night all but gone. Without them even noticing, the resentment each of them had towards the other seemed to have melted away with the time they spent together.

“I just think ‘mad scientist’ comes to you naturally, Victoria.” He retorted, and she brought her hand to her heart in fake outrage, making them all laugh.

“It’s getting really late.” Frida said unwillingly. “I think I’ve got to go home.”

They all looked at the wrist clock Frida was wearing, and Victoria was surprised to find herself sad that her time with the children had come to an end. It made her even more surprised, when she remembered the ghost, that her first thought had been about the children and not about what they’d promised her.

After that, David also sighed and mumbled that he had to go, otherwise his parents might get worried. Hilda didn’t say anything, nor did she look at Victoria.

“I still…” Victoria began. She didn’t want to force kids to stay out past the time they should just to help her, but it seemed like they had forgotten. “I still need to look for the ghost.”

Hilda sighed, the same sigh from hours ago, when they’d found her running around like mad, and she finally looked at Victoria. The woman didn’t like the resignation in her eyes.

Unlike Hilda, when the two other kids looked at her, she could see that the ghost really had slipped from their minds, and that they even felt guilty about it.

“You two go home. I’ll help Victoria find her ‘ghost’.”

They nodded and said good night to both Hilda and Victoria, beginning their walk on the direction they had come from. Something about the way Hilda had said the word “ghost” didn’t sit right with her. If she was being honest, the fact that she’d apparently taken the girl from her happy mood to this silent one didn’t either. She told herself it didn’t matter, they had struck a deal and it wasn’t like she was the girl’s “auntie” like some of the people they saw seemed to think. But even though it didn’t matter, it still made her feel a pang in her chest when the most energetic, positive person she’d seen in years sat down on the concrete edge of the sidewalk.

“I thought you’d let this go.” She muttered, looking at a point in the distance. “I thought that maybe you’d have fun and realize that there’s so much beauty around, especially in te things you can’t control. But I suppose it would be asking for too much, to change a person in a night.”

She whistled suddenly, and Victoria heard the tip-tap of something small coming their way.

“Come here boy!” Hilda exclaimed, and when Victoria looked at the spot Hilda was watching, she saw the same creature she’d seen hours before running her way, and gasped when it happily came into Hilda’s arms.

After picking it up, Hilda turned to her, her face serious. “Is this your ghost?”“It is!” Victoria nodded, her mouth wide in surprise. The biggest surprise, however, came when Hilda lifted the veil from the creature, revealing a white, fluffy looking deerfox.

“Frida wanted to tell you in the beginning of the night. What I said was true, we have had experiences with ghosts, and we know that ghosts don’t wear veils like in the tales. I had dressed Twig up to come with me tonight, but I gave him the command to follow us from afar when I saw you. He must have bumped into you when he was bringing back the stick I threw him. Though he didn’t give me anything, so he mustn’t have been able to find it.” “What?” She gasped, watching Hilda shake her head and get up. “I don’t understand.”

“I know I’m young, Victoria, and I’m still getting used to the whole living in society thing. But there’s one thing I do know that you need to understand. If you keep believing life is a battle, you’ll never stop seeing enemies all around.”

After saying that, she walked away down the same road Frida and David had too. Disappointed, confused and guilty all at the same time, Victoria let herself fall down to the ground, sitting on the edge of the sidewalk.

Though it was the most dangerous night of the year, she was beginning to think she was the only monster around.

[starlightwrites]

Are you still doing those prompts? Because if you are- 41 for cori and gage would be hella fluffy

Hi Nonny!

Sorry it took me a bit to get to this, but thank you so much for asking! I liked this one, though I think the spirit took me down an angsty-er road. That said, I hope you like it!

For the Angst/Fluff prompts!

Favorable Results

Corinne was inthe process of making a list in her head.

Pack? Fine. Shehadn’t expected trouble from them, and they hadn’t surprised her with itanyways, which was ideal.

Mason? In goodspirits. Having the time of his life with Cito and the gorillas, downrightdelighted by the whole situation. It had been a fifty-fifty chance, knowingwhat she did about the Pack and their leader. They’d either try to tear Cito topieces or adopt him as one of their own. All-in-all, everyone seemed to get akick out of the local Wildman and his family, and hell, if they were allgetting along so famously, that worked perfectly fine for her.

Nisha was stillbitter about how things had shaken out but, at least for now, she seemed to bekeeping to herself. Construction continued at the Red Rocket, though what thefinal product would look like was anyone’s guess. It was a lot of land and, fornow, she had a lot of supplies.

Otherwise, theDisciples seemed to be doing well. They were busy enough rebuilding and didn’tseem to have the time or energy for half the delinquency they were known for—betweenfortifying the station and transferring people to and from the Mansion, theyhad their hands full. While they leered at Cori and Gage as they walked throughthe station, they were less trouble than Cori had expected.

All in all? Sofar, so good.

(Continued under the cut!)

Since theyweren’t heading up to the Mansion for now, she decided to end the day checkingon the Operators at the Galactic Zone and the Gulch. She’d wrap up quick, mostlikely, since Mags and William tended to fall in-line pretty fast.

Overall,everything seemed in order. William spotted them as soon as they’d passedthrough the gates and led them up to Mags’ temporary base of operations in theStarport ground floor, near where she’d seen that old suit of Power Armor.

It seemed allwas running as usual; Mags didn’t have any complaints or any suggestions whenthey chatted, offering a glass of wine and a pack of cigarettes almost as soonas Corinne stepped into her “office” by the wall of terminals. No to both, butthanks. Mags eyed her, but didn’t say a word about it. After running throughher list of questions about repairs, supplies, and morale, Mags mentioned thatthe Operators weren’t just settling in. No, as her top gang (a presumptuousassertion, but she let it slide), the Operators had their top scientist workingon something new.

With a viper’ssmile, Mags sent them up to the second floor of the Starport, to where the woman,Lizzie something-or-other, had a little lab set up.

“Ah! Overboss. Itake it Mags mentioned my new project?” A petite brunette woman looked up froma ramshackle chem lab, tweaking her skirt and holding out a hand. Lizzie, then.

The floor, whichhad been a glorified elevator landing when she and Gage had cleared the place, wasnow covered in desks topped with notes, beakers, and at least three functioningterminals. Whatever Lizzie was doing, Mags had enough interest to see to itthat Lizzie had the space to function. Corinne made a mental note to keep aneye on this situation. If Mags thought it was worth the time, space, and caps,then it was probably dangerous.

Lizzie’s eyestrained in on hers with a laser-focus. She ushered them into the new labgraciously enough, offering them a seat.

“I,” Lizziestarted, hands clasped together in her lap, “have been working on diffusingdifficult sitations. Stationed between the Pack animals and Nisha’s monsters,it only seemed wise to focus some attention on maintaining this peace you’vegiven us.”

“Soundsinteresting,” Cori responded. Best to remain neutral just now, in case this wassomething horrific. Lizzie’s tone was friendly enough, however, though her eyesmoved from Cori to Gage like she was watching a showdown. Waiting. Deciding. Shereached behind her and grabbed a couple of gas masks off the table. Gage’s handtightened around the gun on his hip.

“I have ademonstration for you. Here, you will want these. I will let you know when toput them on.” She handed them each a mask and then grabbed a third for herself.With the mask in her lap, she slid a drawer open in the desk behind her andpulled out a small canister—a smoke grenade, if she was seeing right.

“See, I’ve founda combination of psychoactive chemicals that, combined with a common smokegrenade, can release into the air and create a sort of calm in most life. I’vetested this on molerats primarily, but I did have one human subject whoresponded favorably. The results,” she added, “are promising.”

Lizzie’s smilewidened and she dropped the smoke grenade before giving them any kind ofwarning.  Gage managed to get his gasmask on in time, but Cori hadn’t been so lucky. She just. Hadn’t expectedLizzie to try something. Not with the gangs working together, not with Gage byher side, and not with Mags and William kept complacent with the influx interritory space. Corinne wasn’t used to miscalculating like that.

Before she couldget the mask up, she tasted the gas on the air. Sweet? Almost? Likemarshmallow, but starchier. It felt like there was a film on her tongue, andeven though she could feel the distress mounting at the distraction, shecouldn’t stop herself from opening and closing her mouth, trying to shake thefeeling.

Her head washazy. Breathing was hard��thick air, not quite like smoke anymore. More likefoam? No, not that either. A slight panic spasmed in her chest, but pinpointingits cause was getting harder and harder as she slipped in and out offocus.  

“Overboss?”Lizzie’s voice floated to her, soft and melodic. Something about that thoughtwas funny? Made her laugh, just a little, and then she was short of breathagain. Gasping.

Gage grabbed herarm, fingers digging into her skin.

“What was that?”His voice was terse, but that made her laugh a little too, because it soundedfunny, like he was talking through a radio. Some part of her realized thatwasn’t really all that funny, but she couldn’t stop? Panic again, but duller.Not so much a stab as a poke.

Everything feltkinda nice, now. Light. Warm. Fuzzy.

“Of course, I’vealready inoculated myself just in case, but as you can see, the gas creates aeuphoric state in those who inhale it. Makes them quite suggestible.”Lizzie crossed to the doorway. “Overboss? Stand up straight.”

Corinne didn’tknow why she did it, but she did, straightening her shoulders and tipping herchin up. And that felt good too.

“Very good. Now,if you will, walk over to that railing.”

Railing? Herfeet were moving before she’d even fully processed the sentence, tugging herout of Gage’s hold and shuffling towards the railing around the Starport’ssecond floor. Her eyes were unfocused and she couldn’t make them hone in onanything, but her hip hit the metal rail and she stopped, waiting.

Waiting? Yes.Waiting.

There was alittle voice in the back of her head whispering that this was very bad, but shecouldn’t make out its reasoning.

“Overboss, wouldyou please stand on the railing? Top rung, if you don’t mind.”

The voice glidedthrough her but Corinne could barely assemble the words into a sentence in herhead. Still, her feet moved again, hands gripping the metal as she climbed up.One rung. Two. She wobbled. How funny! Back and forth, swaying. Finally, sheplanted her feet on the top rung and straightened out. Every breeze caressedher skin with cool fingers, pulling her. There was no way she was moving asmuch as she felt, but it was almost like she was on a swing, rocking.

“That’s enough!”Gage’s voice cut through, sharp and almost painful. Uncomfortable?

“I wouldn’t takeanother step, Gage. She’s pretty high up and could fall at any moment.”

“You don’t knowwho you’re fucking with, Lizzie,” Gage growled. “If Mags doesn’t kill you forupsetting the balance of power, the other gangs sure as shit will.”

“Speaking ofbalance.”

Lizzie’s voicewas so comforting. So soft. And when she gently urged Cori to lift one foot?Cori did it. Everything tipped, tilting, colors rushing around her like awatercolor painting in the rain. Falling? But she didn’t have the energy toworry about it.

Two strong armslocked around her waist, squeezing tight, pinning her arms to her sides andhauling her back from the railing. Metal bars pressed against her back,suddenly sharp and painful though she couldn’t force herself to squirm away.

“She’scompletely compliant now. Nice, isn’t it?” Lizzie’s voice was a light humdrifting towards her as if she was under water or floating high above. “As I said,human studies have returned highly favorable results.”

“Fix it. Now.”She could feel the thrum of Gage’s voice against her, baritone.

Something waswrong. He was upset; his teeth ground together with a low grating sound shecould only barely hear through the gas mask on his face. Gas mask. Wasn’t shesupposed to be wearing one of those? The thought was too hazy to latch onto,but it felt important. She missed whatever he said next, trying to figure outwhat she was supposed to do with it, but whatever he’d ground out, Lizzielooked different. Lips downturned and pursed. Eyebrows furrowed. Arms crossed? Disappointed?Mad? She couldn’t tell, but something must be wrong. Corinne tried to saysomething to diffuse the situation, but she couldn’t get the words right. Hertongue felt heavy and too thick, and the sounds that came out were all tangled.

“Regardless, itwill wear off.” Lizzie waved a hand dismissively, the grin coming back to herface. All better.

“How long?”

“An hour, maybeless,” she shrugged. “I have no intention of irritating Mags or our dearOverboss. Just demonstrating my worth, if you will. I hope that, when she comesaround, she remembers how valuable my research is. Especially moving forward.”

Gage stiffenedbehind her and then, shifting to let go, grabbed her elbow and steered heraway. She stumbled alongside, passed raiders and old rides, until they were atthe entrance to the park. When she faltered, Gage urged her forward quietly,half under his breath. Right. Moving. She followed before even processing thecommand. The frown etched into his mouth deepened, but she couldn’t think ofwhy he’d be so upset.

On their waythrough the gates, she looked back to see Mags Black standing high up in aguard post, watching over the rims of her dark sunglasses. Corinne tried tostick out a hand to wave but found that she really couldn’t figure out how tomove her arm. All of her energy went towards moving her feet, keeping pace withGage. He didn’t slow until they were well out of the park and out of sights.

In the badlandsbetween the Galactic Zone and Nuka Town, he stopped short and turned so quickthat she walked right into him and almost toppled over backwards.

“Princess? Cori,are you still in there?”

What a funnyquestion! Where else would she be? She opened her mouth to tell him as much,but again, the words wouldn’t form. Worse, this time. She couldn’t figure outhow to make sound at all. Her dry throat rasped, but there wasn’t a real sound.Nothing came out.

“Can you talk?”

Her mouth movedbut she couldn’t remember the shapes now either? She opened her mouth wider,snapped it shut, tried to move her lips, but it all felt numb. Her handsscrambled for purchase on his shirt, gripping the fabric tight through the barsof his armor. He wanted her to talk. She had to talk. She tried again, but hertongue was frozen? Or maybe it wasn’t even there? Panic spiked through her andthat was when it occurred to her that she couldn’t remember how to breathe.

Her lungsweren’t working. Nothing was working right. Spots bloomed across her vision andshe clenched her fists tighter, pulling Gage closer to show him, to make himunderstand that she couldn’t breathe. That she was going to die.

That thought waslike the toll of a bell in her gut. Dizzy. Gasping. Ink eked in on the edges ofher vision like it had spilled somewhere behind her eyelids.

“Corinne. Take adeep breath. S’alright. You’re gonna be alright.” His voice didn’t soundalright, though. Strained. Rough.

“That’sit.”

She must havetaken a breath, because the tight feeling in her chest eased a bit.

“Take anotherbreath. Breathe in, Princess.”

She did as shewas told, and his face swam in front of her, getting clearer by the second. Adizzy, sleepy feeling washed through her and she swayed on her feet.

“We’re gonna getyou home, alright? I’ll carry you back to Fizztop so you can sleep it off.We’ll figure out what to do when you’re back in your head.”

Gage strippedoff the bulky frame of his armor, cinched it to his ruck, and slid her pack offher shoulders. When he had situated his own gear, he looped an arm through herpack as well and then leaned forward. Very gently, one arm curled behind herback while the other swept under her knees. In a second, she was floating,light as air and curled comfortably against the expanse of his chest; the heatfrom his skin soaked into hers and her eyelids dragged, almost shutting. Withher head rested against his skin, she could hear the steady thump of hisheartbeat. She still couldn’t talk right, but she tried to say his nameanyways. The sound that came out was barely more than a groggy whimper.

“Don’t beafraid,” he mumbled. He adjusted his hold and set off as her eyes finallyfluttered shut.  So quiet she almost didn’thear him, he added, “I’m here.”

[ishadyfartcollector-blog]

Immersive technologies toy with your senses and have the unique ability to catapult you into a new reality. Inside a virtual reality (VR) headset, like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, we become fully immersed in a computer-generated environment, while augmented and mixed reality (AR and MR) blend real and virtual worlds; they overlay, or mix, our physical surroundings with digital content. Each technology finds a way to turn the seemingly impossible into the possible.

Immersion can already put you inside a giant redwood and a cell in Maine State Prison, and developers are building ways to holographically transport us into 3D digital worlds and allow us to live the experiences of another person. But how far can this go—and how will it change us?

We talked to five immersive technology pioneers working across journalism, filmmaking, storytelling, and scientific research. Their ideas offer a range of perspectives about the potential of immersive technologies. What they all have in common, however, is the belief that immersive technology can be a positive force for the future — depending on what the rest of us choose to do with it.

Nonny de la Peña is an American journalist and co-founder of Emblematic Group, an immersive VR and MR media group. Forbes described her as the “godmother of VR.”

Luis Miguel Samperio is the co-founder of EmpaticaXR, a group of European and U.S. VR storytellers. The team is currently developing virtual avatars encoded with inner thoughts.

Mavi Sanchez-Vives is a neuroscientist and co-director of Event Lab, a project that builds experimental VR environments.

Ethan Shaftel films and directs VR, immersive media, and interactive projects. His VR film Extravaganza premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Carl H. Smith is director of the Learning Technology Research Centre (LTRC) in London. Among other things, he is developing wearable experiences and investigating the ethics of immersive technologies.

It will not just be about becoming other people. It will be about entering the planet’s consciousness.

Medium: Why did you decide to use immersive technologies in your work, and how are you currently using them?

Nonny de la Peña: I want to do what any good journalist does: tell important stories in a way that brings them to life as much as possible, and help the audience find out about, better understand, or feel more strongly about a particular situation.

In Greenland Melting, our second Frontline collaboration, we use the spatial, embodied nature of walk-around VR to let viewers see how far and fast the glaciers have shrunk or how rapidly warm-water currents are eroding the underneath of the ice cap. If we can get people to have a similarly strong emotional reaction to what they see and to get fired up by what scientists are showing them in that piece, then we’re really advancing the medium.

Luis Miguel Samperio: I’ve always realized how difficult it is for people to understand each other and decided that I wanted to dedicate myself to solving this problem using technology, art, and psychology. We are currently encoding different personality patterns and designing ways to represent the inner reality of our minds. We’re doing this through visual and musical representations that users will be able to see and hear when they are immersed in virtual avatars.

Mavi Sanchez-Vives: As a neuroscientist, my first interest was in using immersive virtual reality as a tool to better understand perception. For the past decade, I’ve been interested in virtual “embodiment,” or how we feel a virtual body as our own, and what are the mechanisms and the implications of this. I am currently exploring whether virtual embodiment can be useful to modulate pain and whether it can change behavior—in particular within violent populations.

Ethan Shaftel: Though my background is in cinema, I worked for years creating video content for live spaces — graphics on giant screens for Beyoncé and Rihanna concerts, animations at Disneyland, and 3D pixel displays in a Nike store. In these spaces, you must think about the point of view of the audience in a very different way than in cinema — they participate in the space and in your media. VR struck me as a great medium to combine what I’d learned in immersive design with my love of more cinematic storytelling.

Carl H. Smith: The big project that we’re just about to complete is WEKIT—Wearable Experience for Knowledge Intensive Training. We’ve also got the Seeing I project with [artist] Mark Farid, who’s going to wear the Oculus Rift for 28 days and be somebody else. He’s going to look through their eyes and listen through their ears. He’s chosen 28 days because that’s how long it takes to form habits; he wants to see if he can dissolve his own identity to a certain extent and adopt somebody else’s.

  Some technologists believe that because immersion lets us see the world through another person’s eyes, it gives us deeper insight into perspectives that are different from our own. As filmmaker Chris Milk lays out in his TED Talk, this is how virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine. Do you think immersive technologies build human empathy?

De la Peña: VR has a unique ability to make you feel present on scene, and that in turn generates a very powerful feeling of empathy. I saw this so clearly with my first piece, Hunger in L.A., about a diabetic man who collapsed and went into a coma while waiting in line at a food bank downtown. When we put audiences through it for the first time, at Sundance, the response was overwhelming: People came out in tears, and even more important, they reacted to the man on the ground as if he were real. They literally got down on their knees to help him.

Samperio: Absolutely. There’s a ton of different examples in the world already, but most of them are based on just embodying someone in a virtual body, putting them in a different environment to become another person, which is fascinating, but we want it to go a step beyond that. We want that to represent the inner reality of a person through their inner voices.

Sanchez-Vives: By experiencing, in a virtual world, the perspectives of others, we can learn to feel how others feel, to be more tolerant and respectful to others. For example, we have given people the experience of changing race or changing age, and the impacts on racial bias and other behavioral responses have been measured. These experiments have had a positive impact on people.

Shaftel: I think empathy is actually a unique weakness of immersive technologies, relative to traditional cinema, and I find it sort of bewildering that it’s discussed as a strength at all. Traditional cinema is a giant “empathy funnel” that uses many sophisticated techniques to take the wildly disparate members of the audience and squeeze them down into the emotional point of view of a single protagonist. When we put on a VR headset, however, we are changing our physical point of view, and most of the empathy-hijacking techniques of traditional cinema don’t apply.

Smith: All this stuff around empathy could really take off when we have more of the context involved. This question of how you get into somebody’s subjective state is at the core of whether you can create empathic technology.

That line between you and the story dissolves.

How does this technology blur the boundaries between us and the people around us? How far do you think humans will push these boundaries in the future?

De la Peña: It’s the embodied experience. When you feel that bomb go off in Aleppo, you flinch, and you come out feeling shaken. That line between you and the story dissolves.

Samperio: Technology is moving exponentially in the direction of really picking into the inner contents of our minds. There are two researchers who I think are going to be make a huge impact in this area: Marvin Chun from Yale University and Jack Gallant from Berkeley, who are using technology to decode the visuals in peoples’ imagination. Once these technologies are made more accessible and permeate the industry, which is going to end up happening, the phrase “Hey! Would you like to view the things that I’m viewing in my mind?” is going to become real for the first time.

Sanchez-Vives: We are, each one of us, already “many people” in one in physical reality. Virtual reality provides a technology that can expand this, because we can experience “life” from the point of view of another person. We are able to experience different human — or nonhuman — beings from a first-person perspective, share spaces with remotely located people, even share a virtual body. Why not?

Shaftel: Immersive technologies can blur boundaries and build empathy — just as travel, meeting new people, and experiencing places outside our comfort area builds empathy. The promise of VR is “travel” to both real and imagined lands and a breadth of experience that right now is impossible to imagine.

Will humans ever be able to essentially become another personusing technology, perhaps from a philosophical or neurological point of view?

Samperio: Rumi said, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” Interpreting this through current technological points of view, I would say that we are all the same entity; we are all the same ocean. We share the same consciousness, but you think you are this little drop and I think I am this little drop. Those drops are going to disintegrate once we embody them through immersive headsets and technologies.

Shaftel: As we’ve seen from social media, interacting through an interface seems to affect our behavior — I might write something in a comment that I would never say to someone’s face — so I think the issue is less about becoming another person, but instead that we become a different version of ourselves.

Smith: It will not just be about becoming other people. It will be about entering the planet’s consciousness, like Moon Ribas from Cyborg Nest does. She has a prosthetic device that shakes every time there’s an earthquake. She’s got a direct relationship with the planet that not many people have yet. It’s not just about wanting to merge with other humans—I think it’s about wanting to merge with other animals, with plants, with the planet.

How do you think humans will use immersive technologies in the future?

De la Peña: Web VR will become the natural way we experience content in the near future. Volumetric storytelling in the browser — no downloads or siloed apps — will make both VR and AR readily created and readily experienced.

Samperio: I’ve just become a dad, and I’ve been thinking about how I would love my daughter to develop empathy, to not feel the sense of disconnection that we all end up feeling once we develop ego. For me, the question is can we create a technological, empathic membrane — through virtual reality — that responds to the needs of our subtle, inner world in the same way as the uterus responds and nurtures?

Don’t get me wrong, my intention is not to put people in virtual worlds so we don’t connect. My intention is to create technology that is very human because it combines psychology and art, through stories, and addresses the inner aspects of our reality, a technology that helps us realize that we are not alone.

Shaftel: It is incredibly difficult to say because we are so early in the development of these technologies. I certainly want to build worlds for people to inhabit that have immediacy and impact and the possibility for catharsis.

Smith: I think the outcome is almost certainly not going to be positive, and that’s why we need to be shouting about it now. That’s why my work is so focused on the ethics of this technology: where it’s going to end up and in whose hands. I’m trying to create narratives around the technology that it’s good for society, that it is going to bring a positive change to your life — instead of the way Facebook wants to use VR, which is to addict you into a virtual space even more than you’ve been addicted into a 2D flat space.