#like just thinking about it in this ask here gave me sooo many ideas hhhhhhh

[blindmagdalena]

I love Homelander so damn much that I'm jealous of this new character that apparently may be a love interest - the sparkler lady 😭 I'm so dumb lol But I just want him to stay single so I can self ship damnit She is super pretty tho and has a cool outfit but I want her over THERE so I can have Homie

aww darling, don't you fret! totally valid to have mixed or negative feelings. i don't think you're dumb. you're attached, and we already know that our brains don't efficiently differentiate between fictional and real crushes. if it makes you feel any better, i sincerely doubt any canonical love interest is going to go well for Homelander lol i hope there can at least be some excitement for the inevitable inspiration all us writers are gonna get from HL having a love interest again. i can't stomach any of the scenes with SF, so i'm really excited about the prospect of getting some food i can actually enjoy between him and Firecracker, however fucked up and weird it might be (fingers crossed for fucked up and weird in ways i specifically enjoy)

i agree with you in that i really like her design, and her accent is super cute. i'm practically vibrating at the thought of getting to see Homelander being a giddy boyfriend. i just know the whole fandom is gonna pop off when season 4 drops, and there will still be lots and LOTS of fic for the self shippers and x reader enjoyers 🖤

[faces-in-unexpected-places]

Do You Have the Time? Episode 016: Time Flies (in Which Direction?)

[April 18th, 2018, 20:35]

“Look right there, do you see it?” Leslie asked, and pointed to the sky.

“Hmmm, umm,” Jeremy hesitated.

“Right where my finger is pointing!”

“It’s pointed at… the sky, right?”

“A constellation! Look for the little rectangle. On one side, there are two branches of stars coming off of each corner. They trail off sort of like two handles.”

“Is the rectangle a little crooked? Right there?”

“Yes, yes! That’s it! Do you know what that one is?” Leslie probed.

“No, I don’t think so,” he replied bashfully.

“Ah, so that is Crater, the cup!” she clapped with excitement.

“The cup’s… name is Crater?”

“Ye— umm… hmmm,” Leslie thought, “Well, officially, I guess its the constellation’s name. I don’t know if the actual cup was ever named.”

“Was this based on a real cup?”

“I don’t know! But it’s based on the story of Greek God Apollo. Basically, Apollo tells his bird, a crow, to go get him some water with a two-handed chalice. That’s the cup. And the crow takes it away to get water, but gets distracted by a fig tree—”

“What?” Jeremy chuckled.

“I know!” Leslie laughed, “The crow waits days for the figs to ripen. To eat them, I guess? I don’t know. Anyway, the crow comes back eventually with water in the cup, and also brought back a water snake as an excuse for being so late.”

“What was the excuse?” he snorted, becoming more amused.

“I’m… not sure!”

“Maybe the crow… got in a fight? With the snake? For a few days?” Jeremy joked.

“Well, that’s just it!” Leslie continued, “Whatever excuse it was, it wasn’t a very good one. Sooo… in a fit of rage, Apollo casted the cup, crow and the snake into the sky to become the constellations Crater, Corvus, and Hydra, respectively. Because he didn’t believe the excuse, I guess,” she giggled.

“That seems like an overreaction. He didn’t even want to keep the cup?”

“It was tainted with lies, Jeremy!” she said in a playfully accusatory manner.

“It still had utility, Leslie! It’s not the cup’s fault the crow was a hedonistic piece of avian garbage!” he humorously argued with a sudden passion.

“Oh, my Greek God!” she snorted.

“And the snake did nothing wrong, either. It had nothing to do with the crow being late. At all! It—it—it was literally just dragged away from its home, and family, probably, with—with— zero involvement. And Apollo was like ‘guess I have to make you all constellations now,’” he imitated.

“But the lies, Jeremy! They were all tangled in the crow’s lies! They were contaminated by… by… something. Forever! Something bad, forever! You can’t drink out of a forever cursed chalice.”

“You’re such an Apollo apologist,” Jeremy shook his head in jest.

“An Apollogist,” they said in unison and burst into laughter.

“Oh, hey, hey, I found the handles on the chalice. I see it all, now!” Jeremy pointed and delighted in seeing its connection to the story, “Do you know any more stories?” he asked, eagerly.

“Oh, of course! I know plenty! It was the reason I took an interest in astronomy.”

“…Really?” Jeremy questioned.

“Yeah,” she said, “Granted, it didn’t play a very large role in the things I learned in lecture. But that was okay! Obviously the science was great, or else I wouldn’t have stuck with it. But I really enjoyed the stories, too.”

“That’s really interesting. Can, uh, can you see the other constellations from the story right now? Corpus and Hydra?”

“Not Corvus, no,” she corrected, “Corvus will come out in May. So, maybe we should come back in a few weeks for more sand!” she suggested happily, “But Hydra is here! Actually, I’d love to tell you about the other stories of Hydra!”

[April 18th, 2018, 21:08]

“My mother, she took a special interest in my education because my test scores were very high for my age, as a child. Just like her,” Jeremy explained, “She supplemented my learning with a lot of other programs, too. I didn’t have much time for anything other than academic work.”

“And what about Madison?” Leslie asked, “If I can ask that, of course!”

“Yeah, it’s okay. Madison struggled. She spent a lot more time with our dad, who was much less strict with her.”

“So you two had much different experiences, growing up,” Leslie inferred.

“We did. My mother was so determined to turn me into a successful, machine-like executive of some kind; she denounced anything that she considered impractical. She pushed me towards chemical engineering, at first. That’s what she did at my age.”

“A lot of people might say you’ve strayed from the practical areas of science,” Leslie added.

“That’s precisely why I approached Leopold. And you. Close to a year ago, now, actually. I don’t have to answer to my mother anymore. I can choose any path in life that I want. I have missed out on many things because of the way I was raised. But I also have unique opportunities because of it. If I really am as brilliant as some people seem to think, then I don’t want to use that knowledge to only accumulate money and power. I want to do something new. There is more to science than how much it can benefit the person wielding it. It can solve problems. It can help. Time travel. We could uncover so many mysteries within history. Understand things we previously did not. We could protect ourselves and each other from disasters. We could create a safer, and more peaceful place to live. You and Leopold represented that chance to use what was given to me in the way that I wanted to.”

“You sound a lot like Leopold, you know,” Leslie commented, “His whole thing was always ‘revolutionise, think differently, push the limits of what you know.’ He never cared about the money. It was always about what kind of greater impact on the world he would be having. He hired me to work for him right when I got accepted to CVU because of my dedication. Because I was focused on my cause, not on the compensation. And,” she chuckled, “as a result, he actually ended up paying for my tuition, so that I could pursue my cause with him!”

“He did?” Jeremy jumped in shock.

“Yeah, he did!” Leslie laughed, still astonished herself, “And I’ll let you in on a little secret, Jeremy. I think that’s why he hired you, too.”

“You do?”

She faced him and noticed an expression she’d never seen on him before. He usually appeared severe, or blank, at best. Something about the situation, he no longer looked guarded. It was almost as if Leslie was just then seeing and meeting him for the first time. That was what it felt like it to her. She’d never heard him talk so much before. His reserved and standoffish demeanour allowed Leslie to forget that Jeremy was just as human as anyone else.

“Yeah, I really do,” she said with a smile, “And I think that our research will uncover something wonderful, one day.”

With his eyes staying on hers, Jeremy slowly beamed with a half-open smile. To his surprise, Leslie’s eyes widened suddenly and she stepped forward with her arms out.

“Watch out!” she yelled.

He glanced down and squawked.

A four-year-old boy who was running and playing without looking, came barrelling into Jeremy. He and Leslie both stooped down with their arms out and caught him before he ran straight into Jeremy’s knees. The child laughed and sputtered at the sudden lift off the ground. His mother jogged toward them along the shoreline and waved her hands in the air.

“Hello! Sorry! That’s my son! I didn’t expect him to take off running, I’m so sorry!” she babbled.

“Oh, that’s okay!” Leslie called back, “Phew, that was a close call,” she murmured to Jeremy.

“Yes, it was,” he replied, “Be careful, there, boy. Go to your mom,” he said and gave the boy a push in the opposite direction.

“‘Boy!’” Leslie quoted.

“Oh, now, I really sound like Leopold,” Jeremy said, astonished.

“You come with me, mister,” the mother ordered, “Sorry, again! Thank you for looking out for him!” she said as she walked away.

“It’s no problem!” Leslie responded.

“Have a nice night,” Jeremy waved.

[April 18th, 2018, 22:37]

“And then I— pppthhhbbb,” Leslie wheezed, “I swear to God, hhhhhhh—”

“What happened?!” Jeremy asked, red in the face with laughter.

“The lady who gave the presentation— hhnngggg— after everyone else left—ffffffff— she reaches into her blazer and goes ‘WANNA—’” Leslie broke into hysterical laughter again.

“Tell me! You have to tell me, now!” Jeremy gasped for air.

“She said ‘WANNA SEE MY LIZARD?’”

“FFFFF, what?!”

“And she just pulls out this big-ass chameleon from her shirt. Jeremy, it was IN THERE the whole time! Like, an hour and a half!”

“Is that even SAFE? For ANYBODY? Is that LEGAL?” he asked, his face hurting from laughing.

“I don’t know but it was so fun—ny!” Leslie cried, “Oh, goodness it was so weird, I had no idea what to do— oh—oh my!” she glanced around the beach. She and Jeremy were some of the only people left.

“What time is it?” she inquired.

“It’s uh, oh, wow. Almost eleven,” Jeremy replied, looking at the camcorder that was still on.

“Oh! I did NOT expect to be here for so long! I guess time got away from us.”

“Let’s pack up. We can finish this on the way back to the lab,” he chuckled, and walked towards their buckets of sand that were still sitting out on the beach.

[04-18-2018; 22:39_Research_Video_Log_005_END]

[April 18th, 2018, 23:11]

Leslie scanned her keycard to open the locked front doors of the Centre for the Advancement of Technology and Science. The doors dinged and the two of them lugged their capped buckets of sand inside. The lights were all turned off, but those in the lobby flicked on with the motion of them entering the room. Martha’s desk was empty. They headed down the hall to the right, which housed Leopold’s lab. The lights in each section of the hallway illuminated as they progressed further. Leslie used her second keycard to open the doors to their lab; Jeremy followed closely behind her inside. Though the lights were dimmed to save energy, they were oddly not shut off like all the others in the building. They both set their backpacks around the lab meeting table. Afterwards, Leslie huffed and waddled over to the corner of the work bench that they did the first trial at. She abruptly released the buckets. Jeremy mimicked her.

“I didn’t think about how heavy the sand would be,” she puffed.

“Yeah, we’ll have to make these buckets last,” Jeremy said.

They both snickered, out of breath.

“It looks like IO… went to sleep for the night?” she pointed into her office. IO sat, huddled down next to her desk, “Does… does IO sleep?” she asked.

“Yes, it does,” Jeremy snorted.

“Does it always sleep in my office?” she prodded.

“Hmm… I don’t really know. I’m not usually here this late,” Jeremy thought out loud, then jolted, “U-UH, but I could wake it up and move it, if you want. Would you prefer IO sleep somewhere else?”

“Oh, no, no, I don’t mind! I was just curious!”

Jeremy gently sighed in relief.

“Okay. Well. Um, I suppose we’ll start experiment one, trial two… soon?”

“Yes!” Leslie replied happily, “If not tomorrow, then within the week, I’m sure. We’ll have to keep a quick move on, if we want to be ready in time.”

“Yes, we will…” he paused and cleared his throat, “Anyway. I— uh, good work, today. I think we accomplished a lot. It was productive and— I enjoyed it,” he stammered. He retraced his steps to the meeting table, and Leslie followed behind him.

“Hey, Jeremy,” Leslie enunciated. He glanced up at her while he bent over to pick up his bag, “We really should go back to the lake one day. We’ll run out of sand eventually, and, well, I had a lot of fun, too. I’m really glad you came with me. Thank you.”

He faintly smiled up at her.

“Um, yeah,” he responded, modestly, “We’re probably the most fit for the job, anyway,” he jested, “I… I’m really glad I went with you, too. And I will look forward to the next time we can go together.”

Leslie smiled openly.

“I can’t wait! I need to grab something from my office, but you should go home. Get some sleep,” she chuckled, “You look tired!”

“Yeah, it’s been a long day. Lot’s of new things happening,” he murmured almost in a daze, “I’ll leave this here, just in case anyone wants to record more and Madison and I aren’t around,” he said and placed the camcorder on the meeting table. Leslie acknowledged his idea with a quick nod.

“Good night, Jeremy. I’ll see you soon,” she smiled and waved him away. He nodded vaguely and idly waved as he walked out of the lab.

“Good night, Leslie.”

After Jeremy left, Leslie slipped away and tiptoed into her office. She intended to stealthily rifle through her drawers to not wake up IO — in the event that she actually could wake IO— but she was stopped in her tracks. It was sitting plain as day in the middle of her desk. Her pocket-sized constellation booklet. She hadn’t touched it in at least a year, and expected it to be buried under pages of notes in her drawers. How it wound up in the middle of her desk was beyond her. Leslie wearily retrieved the booklet and gently grinned. Perhaps it was a sign to return to the lake one day. Or to simply take up her old interests again. She yawned and pocketed the booklet. With Jeremy gone, her drowsiness finally crept up on her.

Leslie lazily shook herself awake and trudged back to the meeting table to lug her backpack out with her. Just as she donned it on her back, something caught her attention. She picked up a pack of opened orange sticky notes and frowned at it. Her head was fuzzy and her body was tired, but she couldn’t keep herself from staring at it. Did she bring it from home? She couldn’t remember, but, she felt as if she should, somehow. Like it was in the back of her mind. She eyed the camcorder, snatched it up, and set the open pack back on the table. She zoomed in on the notes on the table and hit record.

[04-18-2018; 23:25_Research_Video_Log_006_START]

“Déjà vu?”

[04-18-2018; 23:25_Research_Video_Log_006_END]