#magsnificent

[suminta]

title: a mags-nificent summer

character: mags romero

author’s notes: i just missed writing and i missed mags! i love mags. i realized while i was creating her character that i needed to be smart to show off her smartness so i just tend to focus on her emotions. she has a lot of em. anyway, this is a four-parter. five, if i’m not lazy. based off of this thing i made that i later realized i didn’t like as much as i did rip :/ 

June 2021.

On an old, faux-maple table that the Romeros had procured from an estate sale a few blocks over, Mags began to write away. Somewhat mindlessly, but her best sessions came from when she was feeling her lowest. So off she wrote!

About her school year. About people she loved, and people she might end up loving. Even people she’d think she could end up loving if the circumstances were right. It went down like a list: her parents, her grandparents, her cousin Nikki, then the people she had met at Gallagher. And that one was a table all on its’ own. There was Ria, there was Willow, Val, Sunny, Ruby…

“Mom, can I just help you put some dishes out or something?”

“No, honey. Just sit. Take a rest. You must be exhausted.” And the young girl looked up to her mother, Felicia, giving her a sly wink as the older woman moved around the kitchen to take care of this and that. Wafting through the air was the smell of fried lumpia, being pushed around by a sunny afternoon in Washington D.C. The family had opted to keep the windows open, heat emanating from the food frying, the rice cooking on the counter, and the warmth in Magdalena’s cheeks as she thought about the night before.

Being an only child can suck sometimes. Mags knows that her parents know that as a young woman of her age, attending college quite a distance away from them, away from their protectiveness...it was only normal to go to parties and drink.

And Beyonce’ was there, so if you asked Mags, there was no regret whatsoever. Even if she was as exhausted as her mother says she is.

“You know, your Lola had called me up this morning.” Miguel Romero had started to put the last of the lumpia on a bowl, ready to be served, as he went on. “She said she’ll be flying to the Philippines for two months. There’s some..family stuff that needs to be looked over.”

Felicia raised a brow, “Well, that’s the first I’ve heard of that. What kind of family stuff, my love?”

The older man shrugged. “It’s nothing too important. Well, that’s not true. Just..real estate. Some land that may or may not belong to us. Who knows? That’s the whole reason she needs to be there. And hey--” He set the bowl down on the table. “Maybe some of it does belong to our family and we’re lucky and we can say that we own land back there. And when I say ‘we’, I really mean my mom. But part of the family’s properties nonetheless.”

Mags could only nod, still scribbling away as she mentally notes to add some doodles and pictures to her journal pages after their late lunch was over. “I sure hope it’s ours. Otherwise, Lola would be wasting a trip. Also, at her age, I don’t think flying would be ideal. Especially flying commercial and cheap. It’s scary!” Cue the interesting times she had running from one terminal to another for her flights to the Berlin internship. “People can be rude too. Flying is not for the weak.”

“Mags, your grandmother is just pushing eighty. And your cousin Nikki is going with her, seeing as she has all those points saved up. I’m sure they’re as comfortable as they can be.” Miguel reassured her before taking his seat and sighing. “Of course, I would’ve loved to come. But there’s work to be done here. Your mom and I have a case that we need to tend to.”

Her ears perked up at that. She theorizes that the more time she spent at Gallagher, the more nosy she became. Though maybe she could class up the terminology just a bit. Nosy could be called observant. And easy as it came, she could put that down on her curriculum vitae and call it a day. “A case?”

Felicia sent her daughter a smile. Part comforting, part .. mystery, if you asked Mags. There were ways her mother could smile at her and she wouldn’t really know how to feel. “Nothing too big. But it is tedious, so we can’t spend as much time with you as we’d like, honey.”

Miguel grunted. “Part of me wishes I was retired so we could at least enjoy you during the summer. I mean, you might keep chugging along after you graduate from Gallagher and we wouldn’t even have spent a single month with you.” Though the older man knew that it is what it is; him and Felicia had things they needed to do while Mags could pretty much go wherever. Their only comfort was that, in the midst of all this, Mags could experience a normal life.

One without near-fatal home invasions, people her age being poisoned and having their lives cut short, or fellow students dying from organizations that hunted people like her down. That last one was a doozy; Felicia had broken some oaths in telling him that one. A necessity and just plain common sense, as the two were married and would continue to be for the rest of their lives. Felicia tells Miguel, Miguel tells Felicia, and sometimes Mags would be told things. Sometimes. That’s how it worked.

Before he could pick up a piece of food, Miguel eyed his wife as she sat down. Felicia responded by giving him a puzzled look; Mags being none the wiser as she finished up the paragraph she had been writing. Miguel gave one knowing grunt and gestured towards their daughter.

As the realization dawned upon her, Felicia cleared her throat and waited until Mags had her journal closed before she spoke. “Honey, since we can’t spend time with you this summer, your dad and I were thinking that you could..stay over at your grandma’s farm.”

Mags blinked before taking a glance at her parents. One on each side of her, with her brain only running through multiple possible responses before uttering a single: “Huh?”

“To be fair, there are still some keepers left at the farm. You know, there’s the people that tend to the lands and the cattle, and the house. Just .. I – W-we, don’t really know of any other place that we feel you’d be safe in. Your mom and I know each and every one of your Lola’s farm keepers. They’re like family as well.”

“Well..--” “And before you ask, no, my side of the family..no. I mean, you’ve met them and they’re nice, but ..I just don’t want you wrapped up in what they’ve got going on. It’s..too much. Your uncle is trying to run for mayor in their little town and I just don’t want you within their circle. Politics can be very dangerous.”

Mags looked down at her journal, closed up and buckled. Worn over by the many times she’s opened it up to write, dropped it down in a hurry to get to her next class, thrown it down on floor of the science labs every time she got frustrated (to her mentor’s displeasure, she was sure), and the sleepless nights she’d studied for one or more tests. The droplets of tears that adorned both the cover and several paragraph-riddled pages as she thought of the worst when it came to her grades, to her friends, to the rejections she’d experienced, both professionally and personally.

Even through two whole years at Gallagher and the many times she’d picked up her head from the toilet after a night of drunken fun at one of Gallagher’s many events, Mags still felt like she did years ago. She was good, she followed the rules, and she could count the amount of tension-filled confrontations she’s had with one hand.

And maybe part of her was delusional, but it was her summer before her third year. Her first year at Gallagher after Laura Sutton had resigned, for better or for worse.

She could envision herself at her dorm window, looking down at the incoming class of first years and wonder where the last two years had went. Because she could swear it was just yesterday that she was arranging her plants by her dorm’s window, thinking about the many ways her first years could end. And how none of it lived up to what actually happened.

“Mags?” Her mother urged, a hand reached out to grasp her shoulder. “What do you think?”

She tapped her fingers on her journal’s buckle and gave a small smile. “I guess I could do months on my own at Lola’s farm. Could be a good experience for me.”

[janceezer]

this permanently altered my brain chemistry. everything about tbis is so magnificenr…magsnificent dare i say. its beautiful

4:00 AM

[kosmiklove]

Kos and Vinn's FIRST KISS. Let it be cute and slow and gentle. Let them be gazing at the stars through the windshield of Vinn's ship and they just lean in or something. Let Vinn be swept up by the sparkle in Kos' eyes when she watches planets from afar.

The stars always looked so wonderful from a ship, so all encompassing, that it was almost as though she was part of the Void Above, as though the entire universe was at her fingertips. Usually the stars would have her full attention, but tonight her nerves were shimmering beneath her skin, telling her over and over that Vinn, the super nice flyboy, was right there. She could feel his heat against her arm, as they’d pulled the two chairs closer together so that they could enjoy each other’s company, Kos’s legs pulled up and crossed beneath her and Vinn’s long long ones stretched out before him. She was so aware of him, of the rise and fall of his chest, of his arm carefully places around her shoulders, of the way he hung onto every word. 

Cause she was talking, yes, but she wasn’t quite sure what she was saying. 

Kos could point out constellations in her sleep, ones like Maahno mountain and Alhn’s thunderbolt, and explain where they were in relation to Sakroem, and how that changed the shapes... it was something she thought about often, almost as often as she thought about the man beside her, and the way his hair tickled her shoulder when he nodded, and the way his fingers absentmindedly traced along her arm. 

“We’re actually in Silvertongue.” she was saying, smiling slightly at the sun  that could be seen just a few planets away. “By my calculation that’s its annex, and its brightest star. On Sakroem you could see the entire shape, but here...” She glanced at him, and was startled to find his gaze on her, deep brown eyes warm and attentive. It made her wonder, briefly, if he’d even heard a word she’d said.

“Beautiful.” Vinn said, breathless, and she was going to ask, going to wonder if it was the stars he was talking about, or if- if-

They were so close, now. She could feel her nerves tingling beneath her skin, feel the innate desire to shiver at the unfamiliar sensation, smell his scent of oil and musk and boy, and then they were together, their lips brushing against each others as soft as a butterfly wing. He was gentle, so gentle it kindled a fire in her stomach, warm and soft and strong, Then she was leaning into it, parting her lips, and suddenly it was heat, and tongues and slow slow slow, so slow it made her gasp.

It ended much too soon, Kos’s eyes fluttering open only to see Vinn’s still closed, his tongue running over his lips over and over, like he was trying to memorize the sensation.

Kos swallowed slightly, unable to take her focus from his lips.

Her eyes didn’t need to glow for her to see many more kisses in her future. She didn’t need to glance at her reflection to know that her hair was as bright orange as the morning sun.

[sunnyxxmartin]

☏ sunny - magsnificent

sunny: guess what i have???? MORE FARM ANIMAL PICS!!!!

sunny: [sends pictures of uh,,,,, a cow and her,,,, baby OIAJGIAG]

sunny: that's lady and her new baby!!! vvvv happy about her

[peachytwink]

i just realized u follow a piece of shit like me??? i'm honored??? but i don't understand??? thank you???? i feel great™??? but feel free to unfollow lol sry u had to put up w me but thank you ily

you’re rly great tho ?? i’m v glad i followed you ily alot !! 💖💖

[kosmiklove]

K

K is mine, Stix is @caezsucksdangs, Rhell and Rux are @rhellacious

She was not panicking.

Panic was Stix’s pacing back and forth. Panic was his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. Panic was him rambling, the way his body trembled like a finger that had held a trigger down for too long, the way he’d thrown off his helmet and demanded that they do something, Khayi.

K was not panicking. She was standing. She was carefully unclenched fists holding Stix’s helmet, she was perfectly still, not a shiver despite the snow. She was immaculate in full armor, her helmet still on as she scanned the treeline. She was rational. She was the voice of reason. She was the forest is too large for us to sweep alone. and we should wait at the rendezvous. 

She could see the movement of Rux reaching for the inquisitor, see them both falling away from them.

K was not thinking about Ty, was not thinking about this nightmare scenario repeated all over again, because Ty had lived. 

But Ty had the bones of a predator. Ty had wings. Rux was devastatingly, undeniably human.

She was not panicking. She was not panicking.

“Khayi.” Stix ranted, his hands moving as fast as a land speeder. “We should have gone.We should have jumped after them-”

“We wouldn’t have come out unscathed.” K’s tone was cool, calm, collected. Stix’s eyes when he paused to regard her were suspicious, but she made no move to confirm nor deny his gaze. The panic was making his hair stick to his forehead for the brief moment before his fingers were raking through it, has pacing path still visible in the newly fallen snow. He kept staring, so K kept talking. “Expecting that Rux took the brunt of the fall-” Stix’s eyes snapped down to her hands, and she consciously loosened her grip on his helmet, one hand, then the other. “-your inquisitor is going to have to deal with moving him-” he was looking at her shoulders, she was forcing them to stay down. “-and do you really think she’d have more of a chance dragging three of us than just one?” 

Stix’s eyes swept her, and she stayed still, kept herself from showing the signs she knew he was looking for, kept her eyes on him, watching his calculating expression through her visor like passing a test.

Perhaps she failed, perhaps she didn’t know what he was looking for, because he took his helmet from her hands and dropped it in the snow, and suddenly her brother had her hands in his, gloves against gloves as always, and was speaking in a tone much different from what he’d been using before. A tone with a purpose, with panic still laced beneath, but a coolness and calm overtop.

She wondered, fleetingly, if that’s what her voice had sounded like.

“Rux is coming back, Khayi.” His hands tightened on hers, and it took her a moment to realize that it had been reactionary. Her grip had done it first. “Both of them are going to walk out of those trees any moment.”

“I know that.” K said, her voice sharp in all the wrong places. “I’ve been telling you that for-” 

“I know.” Stix said, his voice smoothing over the emotion that had begun to show in her own. “I want you to hear it too. Rux is coming back.”

If she was shivering, it was because of the cold. She was not panicking. She was not panicking.

He let go of one of her hands and stood beside her, and there they waited, shoulder to shoulder, fingers clenched together like they had when they were younger, sneaking into the commander’s offices to get the best desserts, hiding behind cover with their backs against the wall as someone walked by, sure they would be caught, sure they would be punished, ready to take that punishment together.

But the person had kept walking, and they’d taken as much ice cream as their arms could carry, so much that most of it had melted even after their squadron had gotten sick on it. so much that they’d had to scrub the sticky stuff off the floors so that no one would see their guilt. So much that they’d scattered the empty containers throughout the other squadron buildings and training facilities so no one knew who was to blame.

They had been fine then, and they’d be fine now. She was not panicking. She was not panicking.

[kosmiklove]

How does K react to people flirting with her boys? Does she have the same problem with people showing interest in Stix that she does with people showing interest in Ty and Rux? Is it more of a "nobody is worthy of you" thing or an "I'm not sure how I feel about having less of your attention because you'll be spending time with someone else" thing? Does K have issues with a Rhell because Rhell takes interest in Stix, or is it for all the other reasons exclusively?

K reacts with a raised eyebrow, most times. Depending on how into it her boys are, her reaction goes from completely ignoring and quite smugness, to a slight downturn of the lips and looking away, to furiously staring the person down with their death in her eyes. It’s not a good internal reaction unless either of them ignore the other person, or they tell them that they already have a partnership. 

For Stix it’s a bit different. K wants everyone to know just how great Stix is, and in fact has, on multiple occasions, flirted for Stix, just because she’s a bit quicker with pick up lines than he is. However, her standards for her entire squadron are through the roof. She wants him to be happy, and not to just settle for the first thing that comes along. Now, she and Stix talk A LOT about everything and anything. They even talk about (glances around. whispers) feelings. They’re good bros. 

I think it’s more of the latter. K is not great with sharing the attention she gets, and that is, in part, because she asks for so little of it. Sure, there are times when she wants undivided attention, but most of the time she is aware that everyone lives their own lives and has other obligations. She knows that they live lives that are dangerous from one second to the next. But when she gets bro time, when she gets attention and finally gets her boys alone, she doesn’t want to share. She wants to be selfish in this one thing, and she’ll fight anyone who wants to take that from her.

K is wary of Rhell because she is a Sith Inquisitor. Everyone that K has seen Stix guard has treated him like shit. (lookin at you, Caez.) She knows how little the higher ups care about stormtroopers. She knows how the Order works. And she doesn’t want to see Stix fall hard for someone who just sees him as cannon fodder, someone who is perfectly fine with pulling him in the way of a bullet that was meant for themself. She knows that that is sort of the job description, but he’s her brother, and that means caring even when it’s irrational. Even when it might make him upset. She’s seen Rhell be ruthless, she’s seen Rhell make hard decisions that call for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers like her and her squadron. and it’s not until she sees the other side of Rhell that she starts to relax, ever so slightly. 

That isn’t to say that K didn’t threaten Rhell at the Rhellstix wedding though. She’s more accepting and slightly more trusting of the other woman, but she’s still K. 

[kosmiklove]

What is Cisco and Del's dynamic like? Is it very buddycop or more father/daughter? Does Cisco accommodate for Del's disabilities a lot? What's his "No, you aren't doing that" point with Delmire? With Ty? Does Cisco feel any specific bond with the Toydarian siblings? In an AU where Cisco adopts Del and Ty as kids, how would everything be? What are some of Cisco's pet peeves? Does he feel/act more open around Ty and Del? How does Cisco feel about Ghalos? Tybee? How does he feel about Tigelle?

Del and Cisco’s dynamic is very sibling like. At least in my mind, Cisco acts a lot like an older brother for both Ty and Del. He’s like that brother you have that was born a full ten years before you, so he’s already off in college by the time you’re in middleschool. His age gap with Del isn’t that severe (he’s only a year older than Ty, if that), but the way their dynamic seems to work is that he’s supposedly older and wiser than her. Which. Isn’t exactly true. He’s older, sure, but the wiseness mostly seems to come because he’s calmer by a long shot. It takes a lot more to ruffle Cisco’s feathers than it does the rest of the Liberator crew, and he’s very good at seeing a solution long before the others, simply because his brain works a bit differently than theirs. I really do think that Cisco considers Del like a younger sister, but he’d never really vocalize that because of a slight fear that it would alienate Ty a bit. 

Cisco also has a crazy massive criminal streak. He comes from a crime family, which is something that most of his friends tend to forget simply because he doesn’t mention it much. But, where Del and Ty are both mostly chaotic, Cisco is neutral, and that neutrality leans toward a lot of casual crime. In this vein he will sometimes encourage in Del what would otherwise be seen as bad habits to Ty. Where Ty would say “no, Mire. We try to negotiate and don’t steal from our allies.” Cisco is flat out like “We have to talk to keep them happy, but if they can’t catch us stealing, they aren’t allies to be had anyway.”

Cisco accommodates for Del’s disabilities as much as Ty does, he’s just quieter about it. Cisco and Ty learned sign language right next to each other in the modern timeline, and they both worked together to make sure it was something they both knew backwards and forwards as Del grew up. Now, in the Baby Dels, they do this along with both K and Rux, but in the universe where Ty plans to adopt her, it’s a big deal for Cisco to make the house acceptable by adoption standards, and it was actually Cisco’s idea to have the whole house learn sign language. Ty was more focused on knowing it himself, it was Cisco who insisted that the entire home needed to be a welcoming environment. 

On the Liberator that just means that once Cisco learned that Del was deaf, he spent countless hours learning how to sign from holos and videos and while it was difficult and kind of rocky to start, he stuck with it until he could communicate with her in a way that didn’t require her hearing aids. Because it was important to him that, once Ty decided that she was a member of the crew, she was as comfortable as possible, because people on the Liberator aren’t just assets, they’re family.

Cisco’s main “no, stop” points happen when Del is making a decision that will ultimately hurt her. And I don’t mean like, “oh no you can’t date him because he’s bad for you”, I’m talking Cisco walking into her room and flushing her drug supply, not even caring that she’s yelling at him and telling him that he’s completely out of line. And it wouldn’t even be the first time, it would be after something happens, like Del stumbling with no memory of where she’d been, smiling a ditsy smile and unable to find her room without him. He thinks about how heartbroken Ty would be to see her this way, and does his best to put a stop to it. Cisco always seems to deal with the things he doesn’t want Ty to see, because he knows how perfect Del is in Ty’s eyes, and he doesn’t want to see that image shatter if he can help it.

He will also stop most other self distructive behaviors, but he does this more subtly in the form of going “hey it’s time to eat” or “I’m trying something new want to help me taste test?” which of course always works on both Ty AND Del, because they’re perpetually hungry gross people.

With Ty, Cisco’s “no stop” is less specific. Ty is a...very very tough cookie to figure out, if he doesn’t want you to. And he doesn’t. His trauma is very real and very visceral for him, so he developed a lot of really bad habits to deal with it instead of, like, talking about it. So, on the Liberator, he paces the corridors and checks the hangars and cockpit and double checks to make sure he can hear everyone breathing behind their doors. He doesn’t sleep on fabrics that are too soft, and sometimes can be found sleeping on the floor, no blankets or pillows or sheets or anything. He has issues sleeping alone, and on a certain day of the year, he can be found piss drunk to the point that he doesn’t remember his name. So, Cisco keeps an eye for these behaviors and sort of... gently herds Ty back to more healthy things.

When he has insomnia, Cisco will walk and talk with him, and then talk him into sitting in the kitchen as he makes something warm and filling so that Ty starts to drift off. They’ll keep talking, and Cisco will lead Ty to his room and help him into bed, though Cisco doesn’t get in himself. He might sit at his bedside and drift off there instead. When cisco finds him sleeping just wherever, he’ll toss a blanket over him and sit by him to read or do inventory reports or plan the meal until Ty wakes up. And when he comes back drunk? He’ll fill him with water and bread and lie him down, listening to all his ramblings and nodding and speaking softly back. If he can catch Ty before that day and fill his schedule, he will, that was the man forgets to drink his memories away. but it doesnt’ always work out that way. It translates mostly into Cisco going “no,Ty.You aren’t doing this to yourself anymore. You deserve so much better.”

As stated, Cisco really feels a brotherly bond with Ty and Del. He cares a lot for them both, but he also knows that they worked so hard to bring their family back together, and he would never dream of getting in the way of that. He is content with just being an outsider, a friend to go to when they need to talk. But in that way he doesn’t really comprehend how important to each of them he is in turn. Cisco is super important to both siblings, even if he can’t always see it. And that’s why when they showed him the kitchen on the Liberator II and explained that they had  to show him because it was important that he know about it he teared up and hugged them. Because Cisco is generally used to his family not giving a shit how he feels about things one way or the other, and he’s used to the people who are important to him using him as a crutch and a support but not feeling any inclination to give that sort of feeling back. And then there are these two people who barely know what family is themselves, just so eager to show him this kitchen because it’s the first thing they wanted to renovate on their new ship, and they put it first just for him. It’s a lot for Cisco. It means a lot to him.

An AU where Cisco adopts both Toydarikids would be LIT. And I mean, there would be a lot of similarities, but the main thing in this AU is that NOTHING BAD HAPPENS TO ANY OF THEM!!! Like. Cisco is aged up, so both Ty and Del get full childhoods, with plenty of food to eat and clothes on their backs and always, 100% knowing that they are loved. And yes, Cisco is not always the most vocal of people, but he is a great listener and he gives great advice. He is very very carefully about their education and making sure they’re happy, and while Cisco is not exactly wealthy, he’s well off enough that they could get new clothes maybe once a year for school. Plus, Cisco is scary and would narrow his eyes and scare away any bullies his children have. I just. This AU is a very dear one to my heart because it’s like Everyone Is Happy And No One Gets Traumatized And These Characters Deserve That.

Cisco doesn’t have all that many pet peeves. The #1 way to annoy the shit out of him is to badmouth Ty, though. I don’t really have much of an explanation for this except that Cisco has seen Ty grow from the moment he got on the Liberator to the caring Captain he is now, and he really REALLY appreciates the way that Ty is still able to trust people and bring them in if he think their in need, despite his paranoia and all that he’s been through. So, if you’re one of the people who have been brought in, or if you’re just a crew member butthurt about something, well. Cisco’s not going to take you talking shit. You wanna complain? You wanna say that Ty is being unfair and shitty and that he’s a shit captain and that you could do better? You better be prepared for Cisco to get in your face and tell you that you are walking a very thin line and that if you have any issues the air lock is over there.

In that one AU where Del was shit talking Ty because she’d been raised by Tybee and had never been on the Liberator before wooooooo Cisco was this close. She is so lucky that no version of Ty would be okay with her death, okay. That’s what I’m saying.

Cisco is a bit more open around Ty and Del. I say this because Cisco is an extremely private person. He doesn’t talk about his past, no one has been in his room ((not even me, lmao)), and he in general will listen to you speak, but he doesn’t care enough to speak back. This changes when it comes to Ty and Del (and Tigelle as well, but that’s something else). He will smile more and tell jokes more often when they’re around. He also is actively more in the conversation when it’s those two, and that includes Tybee and Tigelle as well. He still doesn’t talk about his past much, not counting to Tigelle, who is a part of his past technically. 

Cisco is pretty indifferent about Ghalos. He wants to say that he doesn’t care one way or the other about the man, but as someone who has grown to care about Del, he care about Ghalos as a person who shows a bit of why Del is the way she is. He doesn’t trust him, really, and I doubt he ever will. But that’s more because Cisco is a fundamentally untrusting person. If he doesn’t see something that makes a person seem more real to him (read: a criminal background or some sort of ex-ill intent) he either finds them unrealistic or boring.

He is sort of iffy when it comes to Tybee. He doesn’t really know what to do with himself when Tybee is around. He feels kind of awkward, like maybe Ty and Del’s dad will see that he’s been masquerading as a family member, when he knows very well that that’s not what he is. However, he also isn’t quite buying what Tybee is selling. He’s the one who’s skeptical about their long lost dad only showing up at this point. Where was he when Ty was sold into slavery, or when Del’s wings were cut off? Why is he only reappearing when things aren’t going as bad? And in fact, the only thing that made his suspicions abate is when Tybee himself started asking these questions. Demanding where he was and saying that he felt he had failed. It was this conversation that helped humanize Tybee to Cisco a bit, and made him... well, not trust him, but not downright despise him either.

Cisco is also very taken to the way Tybee grieves. There’s something very honest about it, something very open, and Cisco respects that about the older man. Which is why the two of them can get up to shananigans like mildly poisoning Triis with hallucinogenic worm venom.

Tigelle is an entirely different story. As someone who knows Cisco from Before, when his family and her crime organization did business, he regards Tigelle with some combination of suspicion and, suprisingly, relief. She is a woman who is open about her criminal nature, and it’s refreshing to have someone else onboard like that, seeing as most of the Liberator crew are clawing their way tooth and nail for redemption. Cisco has never once claimed to be something he isn’t. He’s a criminal, he’s a cook, and he’s a pirate, in that order, and it’s really nice to have someone aboard who counts themselves a criminal as well. 

Tigelle is also someone who doesn’t take anyone’s bullshit, and after his initial asking about his sister (the only person in the family Cisco actually gave a shit about) it was easy to fall into a rhythm. Tigelle has expensive taste the same way that he does, and they forge a quick friendship based less on trust and more on understanding. They know of each other well enough to gauge how the other is from a strategic standpoint, and as criminal masterminds (or, a mastermind and an ex-mastermind, accordingly) they can problem solve and challenge each other the way that no one else on the crew is really trained to do quite in the same way.

It’s not unusual to pass by the kitchen in the Liberator II and see Cisco and Tigelle, companionably cooking something  together as they debate the rising price of illegal goods, and really I think that Tigelle might evolve into something of a really good friend for Cisco.