#connor says things

[boatemboys]

elon: are you saying all democrats are gay

connor: i think everyone is gay

elon: are you gay?

connor: no

[casscainturnedmegay]

I know he’s just lying to protect his secret identity but I’m sobbing over the idea of Jack Drake being the Tony Hawk of philanthropists in Gotham

[moeblob]

Friendship.

[bairdthereader]

Nick Nelson's Reluctant Yeah

It's well established that Charlie uses a blanket "it's fine" during many interactions in order to downplay troubling moments, mollify and comfort others, or conceal inner turmoil.

Nick, on the other hand, does the reluctant "yeah."

---

To confirm something he doesn't like, even if he's the one saying it.

To get a negative interaction to stop.

To try to convince himself (or Charlie) of something he doesn't believe.

To appease the crowd, even when he doesn't want to.

To make someone else happy, even if it's detrimental to him.

To agree, despite no real inner resolution.

To reassure, even when he's not okay.

To disguise his real stressors (and avoid stressing others).

To mask his regret.

Nick is a people pleaser, and this is how he does it when, deep down, he doesn't feel comfortable or in total agreement with the situation. Thankfully, we see a little less of this in S2 than S1. Let's hope for even less in S3. You can do it Nick!

Bonus: Nick's Genuine Yeah (most often present in Charlie's vicinity)

These are better 💕

[buffonias]

[luthqrs]

#“carla we slept together once and i’m not saying it wasn’t amazing because it was” not much sleeping or onceing happened ladies LISA SWAIN in CORONATION STREET ↝ 25.11.2024

[lesbiancosmicowl]

"People are impressed when you tell the truth, especially if it's not in your best interest to do so."

[starryeyedstray]

have a little rk1k fic bc i could not get @homunculusalphonse post about rk1k weather-related trauma out of my head. it's a rainy day in new jericho and markus just wants to hide. but connor finds him.

Markus didn’t like rainy days. It felt ridiculous. To let a little rain affect him. Usually, if more urgent problems garnered his attention, he could ignore the dread that came. He could focus on what was important and archive those memories as fast as they appeared. He could overcome it when he was busy and fully invested in something else. But on days like these when there were no pressing matters that forced him to be a leader of the deviants, to be a pillar of the revolution, he would hide. On days like these, he would tell the other leaders of Jericho that he needed some rest. Markus never asked for rest, so they never protested when he did. They just let him go.

It had been raining a lot lately. The icy pinpricks of water chilled him. The drizzling sound haunted him. Reminded him of the static and the mud and the reaching desperate hands. The blank faces. The desperate faces. His among them as he salvaged what he could from who he could. Digging through the dead.

He had to get away. Find some quiet place.

But he couldn’t escape the rain. Not here in New Jericho. The best place he could manage in the repurposed office building was a supply closet. But the rain was loud today. He could hear it heavy against the roof. Pounding against the windows.

He shut the door and made his way to the back of the closet sitting on the floor between two shelves. Markus clutched his right eye. Sometimes he could tell it didn’t belong to him. A discomfort lingering in his skull. Like a piece of that hellish junkyard had stayed with him. Followed him out. Haunted him. Like the memories of that place were imprinted into this eye. Everything he saw with it and everything it witnessed before.

The faces of those left behind flashed in his mind. He remembered their ghostly touches. The hands grasping for him. Desperate to live. They just wanted to live. Why were they discarded so easily? Why was he discarded so easily? Left to rot in the junkyard. To be forgotten. Left to die. He felt himself sinking. Sinking into the mud. He had left them in the junkyard. To be forgotten. To die.

“Markus?”

Markus’ head snapped to his left. He hadn't noticed someone come in. There was a figure standing between the shelves across the small room.

“Connor.” He dropped his hands that had been clutching the sides of his head. He tightened them into a fist. He had to be the strong leader. He couldn’t be vulnerable. “How did you find me?” He hoped his voice didn’t sound as shaky as he felt.

“I was looking through every unoccupied room in New Jericho. I was lucky to find you after the tenth one.”

Markus straightened. Blinking his memories away. He was unable to stand, however. He was caught off-guard. He hadn’t expected anyone to find him. He couldn’t be falling apart in front of Connor. “Did you need something from me?”

Connor seemed to study him. Head slightly tilting before he walked deeper into the room. He sat with Markus on the floor. Brown eyes regarded him one more time before looking away as he began to speak, “I noticed a pattern. You only seem to want to take breaks on rainy days. I asked the others about it. They hadn’t noticed until I pointed it out.” He paused before asking, “Can I ask you a personal question?”

Connor’s eyes were now riveted on him. Markus could never look away whenever Connor stared at him. The inquisitive brown eyes always seemed to draw him in. “Sure.”

“Do you not like the rain?”

Markus frowned. He didn’t like lying to people, so he opted to not tell the whole truth. “I’m not fond of it. I prefer to stay dry.”

Connor was still looking at him intently. He wondered what Connor could see.

The deviant finally broke his gaze to stare ahead. “Does it scare you?”

“That would be ridiculous,” Markus asserted. He wasn’t lying. It was ridiculous to be scared of rain. It wasn’t like the rain had done anything to him. It just happened to be raining. He closed his eyes as he felt the pull of his memories before he quickly opened them to refocus on Connor.

Connor’s eyes were locked forward a bit unfocused. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous. I don’t like the snow.” His LED flashed red for the briefest of moments. That got Markus’ full attention.

“Does it scare you?” he repeated Connor’s question back at him.

“Yes.” Connor turned to him with a sad smile. “You must think I’m ridiculous.”

Markus immediately regretted his previous statement; his head automatically shaking. “No, I don’t think that. I just think it would be ridiculous for me to be scared of rain.”

“Why would it be ridiculous for you and not for me?”

Markus hesitated. Connor was a master at pointing out logical fallacies. Markus was a great debater, but no one could beat Connor when it came to a battle of logic and words. And he knew what ever excuse he came up with, Connor would easily poke holes in his argument. So he either had to admit that Connor was ridiculous or that he wasn’t being ridiculous.

He opted to avoid the question. “Why were you looking for me, Connor?”

Connor’s eyebrows furrowed at Markus’ clear avoidance of the question, but he didn’t mention it. His brows relaxed as he became pensive. “Sometimes when it snows heavily, I get what humans refer to as a flashback. A memory will be pulled up suddenly. A memory I rather forget. It isn’t pleasant. Hank has helped me snap out of them. We talk about it and sometimes that helps. Sometimes it helps to share the burden with someone else.”

Markus looked down at his hands. He had never told anyone about his experience in the junkyard. Not Simon. Not Josh. Not North. Not even Carl. Could he tell Connor?

“I understand you might be hesitant to trust me.”

That wasn’t true. Markus trusted Connor with his life.

“But, even if it’s not me. If you are having flashbacks, it can be helpful to talk about them to someone. I know you have a reputation to uphold. You have to appear strong and unbreakable. But there is strength in vulnerability, too, Markus.”

Strength in vulnerability. Connor was right. It took courage to be vulnerable. Maybe he could be vulnerable. At least in front of one person. In front of Connor.

“I really don’t like the rain. It reminds me of…” Markus trailed off his eyes becoming distant as he felt the pull of the memories. The rain was so loud. Beating against the plastic bodies of discarded androids.

“Markus, look at me.”

Markus’ eyes flickered to Connor’s. Warm brown eyes. Those eyes had changed so much since he first saw them in Jericho. They were still the same brown full of life though.

“You don’t have to talk about it now, Markus. I’m sure it’s difficult while it’s raining. But I want to help you. What do you need?”

Before Markus could even contemplate an answer, the rain intensified. Thunder cracking. The rain slamming against the windows. Markus closed his eyes. It felt too real suddenly. He was back crawling in the mud. Looking to fill the missing pieces of himself. Filling them with the dying pieces of those abandoned in the junkyard.

“Markus.”

Markus had forgotten Connor was there. His hands were now covering his own ears, but it did little to dampen the noise. He couldn’t keep up the façade anymore, he just wanted it to stop. A pained expression crossed his face. His eyes filled with a tinge of desperation. “I just wish I could be somewhere quiet.”

For Connor, getting out of the snow was enough for him to feel safe again. But Markus couldn’t escape just from hiding inside. The sound of the rain was omnipresent in the building. Connor’s short-lived experience only had memories of a snowy or rainy Detroit, but there was one place he knew that was quiet.

“Maybe I can help you find some quiet.” Connor offered his hand to interface. Connor didn’t like interfacing. But he wanted to help Markus. After everything Markus had done for his people, for him, he wanted to give him at least a little bit of solace.

Markus would have been more surprised by the offer if he wasn’t being plagued by the past. He knew Connor didn’t like interfacing. But in his current state, he simply retracted his skin and placed his hand on Connor’s.

It was finally quiet.

Memories of a peaceful garden flooded him. A stone path winding around a lake. Artfully placed plants and trees. A fragrant cherry blossom tree. A blue sky. Flowers blooming and a soft breeze. It was so quiet. Just the warble of birds occasionally decorating the peaceful soundscape. He felt calm. He wondered when Connor had gone to a place so beautiful.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed of him wandering the garden through Connor’s memories. But after a while, he sensed something was off. The memories weren’t connected. Connor was purposely cutting parts of his memories out. Keeping parts of it away from Markus.

Connor broke the interface when he noticed the sky getting cloudy in the garden. Despite the sudden cut-off, Markus was still replaying those memories in his mind. It was so beautiful. Too perfect even. Unreal. He stared off a bit distantly. The memories of that place were so vivid and clear. It didn’t feel natural.

“Where is that place?” Markus asked. His gaze still unfocused. There was something else he was barely able to detect about the garden. “And why does it make you feel…” Uncomfortable? Uncertain? Tense? He couldn’t finish the question. But he knew Connor felt something that wasn’t pleasant about the garden.

“Are you feeling better?” Connor asked. His LED casting a yellow amber glow across the room.

The rain had lightened. It’s pitter patter against the pavement and the window outside could still be heard. But Markus couldn’t hear them anymore. All his attention was on Connor.

“Yes, much better. But what was that place?”

Connor dropped to look at his hands. He rubbed them together before placing them on his knees. Strength in vulnerability. Talking about it helps. “It’s the Zen Garden. It’s a virtual place that Cyberlife created for me to go to monitor my actions. To see if I was deviating. It almost became my prison when Amanda tried to take complete control over me.”

Amanda. Connor had told them about Amanda. About how Cyberlife almost regained control over him. It had caused a rift between them for a while, but Connor has more than proved that he wasn’t a danger to New Jericho. Connor hadn’t gotten into explicit details about the experience before though.

“It must be painful to remember that place. Why were you willing to share that with me?”

“I used to find comfort in there. I liked the Zen Garden. It was calming. I think a part of me wanted to go back to when that’s all it was. A quiet place for me. I also wanted to help you, Markus. For you to find a quiet place. But I don’t have many quiet places in my memories. At least, not ones not associated with Cyberlife. But you deserve to have the peace you’re fighting for, too.”

Markus’ thirium pump sped up. Something in him stirring. Connor was willing to open old wounds just for his sake. So he could find comfort and peace. It felt like more than he deserved from Connor.

“Connor.” Markus lifted his hand up, but didn’t retract his skin.

Curiously, Connor stared at the hand before he mirrored the gesture. Their palms touching. Markus intertwined their fingers. It felt warm and firm.

“Thank you for sharing that with me. Can I show you some of the quiet places in my memory?”

“Okay,” he said softly. He was still hesitant to interface, but the earnestness in Markus’ eyes made him want to give in. The blue and green eyes no longer had the pained look to them. They seemed to glimmer with an emotion Connor had a hard time identifying.

The interface opened between them and memories of a warm opulent house were shared. Of long hours watching Carl paint. Of Markus playing the piano. So many moments of calm and peace. Of the life when Markus’ eyes were only green, and he hadn’t know the pain of the freedom he lacked. It was idyllic. And naïve.

Connor interrupted the interface. All of Markus’ memories had been before deviating. “Markus, have you been able to find quiet places after deviating?” It would be too tragic, if Markus had completely lost those quiet moments.

He paused as he considered the question and nodded. “Yes. I can show you.”

And the interface opened again. There were memories of Markus in front of a blank canvas in his own studio at New Jericho. Of light conversations between Leo and Carl. Of laughter shared with Simon, North, and Josh.

Connor was surprised to see himself. The companionable silence they shared on the rooftop terrace. Was that how Markus saw him? What he looked like to Markus? It was so… different than how he viewed himself. He felt a heaviness in his chest. How could someone possibly see him in such a positive light? More memories took him away from those thoughts of himself.

Markus’ definition of a quiet place wasn’t strictly one that lacked noise. It was moments of relief and peace. Where even if there was music and conversation, it was calm. Maybe Connor did have memories of other quiet places.

And with a bit of tentativeness, Connor shared them with Markus. The rare car rides where Hank wasn’t blasting music. Walks with Sumo. Cooking for Hank. Late night patrols at New Jericho. The moment with Markus on the rooftop terrace. He wondered if Markus was like him. Didn’t see himself the way others did. He wanted Markus to know how he saw him.

The two continued sharing quiet places in their memories as the rainy day progressed. And continued to interface well after the sky cleared. Time felt lost to them. They weren’t in New Jericho sitting on the floor of a supply closet. They were revisiting the parts of peace they had carved out for themselves in their turbulent lives.

For at least for today, the quiet place they found was in each other.

-end-

whew, it took awhile to get this out (more than a few hours) but i HAD to bc it was plaguing my mind. definitely planning on incorporating it into the long wip i'm working on but here's the scene!!! hope you enjoyed it. it's a bit long for tumblr hahah. EDIT: @elle-prix made beautiful fanart for this fic!!!! go check it out and reblog it!!!!!! it's beautiful and amazing <3333

[jeynearrynofthevale]

[thornescratch]

John Carlson, 700 career points tribute.

[wackpedion]

(guy who keeps admiring himself in mirrors at every single opportunity) yeah i would fuck my double why do you ask.

bonus

[moeblob]

[dykespence]

Lisa : *just talking*

Carla : blah blah blah.... proper name place name backstory stuff....

[cake-emu]

seen ppl on Twitter all "Carla doesn't cook but here she is chopping veggies for Lisa" and I will not be hearing this, no no no, Carla does cook, she's just frequently bad at it, and what I find so mind-bendingly endearing about that is that she doesn't let that stop her. she always keeps trying at it (except on Christmas Day), and sod what anyone says about it

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 82

Lex Luthor is admittedly, a very petty man. A very petty man who absolutely despises a certain kryptonian. So what if he made a clone- the alien got mind controlled practically every other week, could anyone blame him for being concerned?!

He’s more than a little annoyed that said clone was stolen from Cadmus, even though they had assured him repeatedly that they knew what they were doing. Trying to steal Gotham’s cryptid’s child was not a good idea- even he knew that! So of course they take the clone and the kryptonian discovers said clone and… rejects it. Huh. He should probably take advantage of that. 

But he is a petty man. 

If the alien is going to reject the child then he’ll just have to prove to be the better father. He’ll of course be the best father, if only to shove it in the other’s face. Really, how hard could it be?

[if-we-are-free-tell-me-why]

every time I hear someone say "oh you have to listen to Dear Evan Hansen it has such good mental health representation" I cry in Next to Normal