#only discovered we HAD a planetarium last week

[acertainmoshke]

~ going to a planetarium toniiiiiight ~

[anonarat]

I've spent the last week or so in London doing a number of things, so I figured I'd do a quick rundown on here:

Saturday I went to see Dune part 2. Honestly, it was quite disappointing in that it was a 7/10 film where I hoped for a 9/10. It didn't really pay off the promises of part 1, and the changes from the book were far more noticeable.

I then went to the Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds Experience. This was another 7/10 where I hoped for a 9/10. It actually reminded me a lot of what York Dungeon is currently like, albeit with some VR bits (Thunderchild being a particular highlight). To my suprise it wasn't the VR that set off my motion sickness, but a sort of planetarium thing they did for Brave New World.

Sunday was spent with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and my nieces for Mothers Day. It was a nice get together.

Monday I went to the Natural History Museum. Thanks to the advice of a friend, I went in through the side entrance and there was no queuing at all. I was surprised to discover (to my delight), that about 1/3 was geology, and I spent about 2/3 of my time in the geology section. Land of the Lustrous has definitely warped my perception of such things. Speaking of, I did manage to see one piece of phosphophyllite, as well as many other major characters.

I also went to see Operation Mincemeat. This was a time when I was expecting a 9/10 show and it delivered. I'm pretty sure I laughed more in that 3 hour period than I had in the previous 6 months.

Tuesday I lay around and read in preparation for Wednesday.

Wednesday was why I was even down in London in the first place. Ado's world tour playing in Troxy. I arrived an hour before the merch line was due to open and it took about 3 1/2 hours, but I got the merch I wanted, so a win I guess. Rather than immediately queuing for entry, I went to a nice Turkish restaurant nearby. My back then reminded me that I'm no longer young and I'd just been standing outside in the cool for a while.

Next was (more) queuing for the concert. At least I'd sprung for a VIP ticket, so it was comparatively painless; plenty of other people have commented on the GA queue. The cloakroom was also pretty straightforward.

My feelings on the concert itself are complicated. Now I'll admit it was partly my fault as I later learned, but without earplugs, the audio wasn't the best. It was crowded and loud.

And yet it was the most overall positively memorable experience out of everything. Some highlights included:

I was in the 3rd row, so you can spot me in at least one of the promotional videos. I'm pretty sure I'm in the other as well, but it moves too fast to be sure.

Ado's outfit. While you could only make out the general shape, it looked sharp.

Tot Musica - it normally goes hard, but with an entire audience singing along, it was phenomenal

While Ado does sing in silhoutte, you can occaisionally catch a glimpse of her, not enough to make out her face, but... at the end of Kura Kura I think I saw a big smile (in profile). It was less than a second, but it was a reminder that Ado was enjoying this just as much as we were.

Ado's MC in English.

Odo.

The other fans. Even with all the queuing and waiting they brought some great energy and helped each other out.

Going forward, I'm not really sure concerts are for me. But perhaps now armed with further knowledge, I might consider it. At least I'd be sorely tempted to see Ado again.

When I left, my everything hurt, including getting a ringing in my right ear for about 24 hours. There was a moment on the DLR where I was facing another fan, and we nodded at each other in acknowledgement of how we were both wiped, but happy.

Thursday was scheduled for recovery, and I spent most of the morning lounging about, but I decided to go and do some London shopping. I basically walked up through Soho and ended at Forbidden Planet. During this time I managed to snag The Moon on a Rainy Night volume 2, which had been rather elusive.

Kuzushiro is probably my favourite yuri mangaka at present.

Friday I went to the Tate Britain, as I don't think I'd visited it before. It was fine. My personal preference was for the Turners where he did architectural scenes. Then I went to see the Frozen musical.

It was good. It painted Elsa's parents in a better light than the movie did, and I appreciated that they gave Kristoff more songs. However, they cut For the First Time in Forever (Reprise) and replaced it with a different song. Considering that's my favourite song on the soundtrack, I was disappointed. The replacement was fine.

Saturday I visited a friend who lives down South. It was really good to see her again. That evening I went up to Camden Town and had some good street food.

Sunday, I returned to my home.

[write-orflight]

Galileo. Prologue

**Gif Not Mine**

Next Chapter

Pairings: SpencerXReader, enemies to friends to lovers trope

Rating: M

Words: 1.5K (She’s a smol Prologue)

Warnings: None right now. but will eventually be smut. 

Request: OPEN/CLOSED

Summary: Y/N is an astronomer with her head constantly in the stars. But when a serial killer is threatening NASA’s top scientists, she is left in the protective custody of a man who’s gravitational pull threatens to pull her back down to earth.

A.N Hey, my children! This is an idea that’s been plaguing me for weeks and I just had to get at least the prologue out (This series is mainly just my excuse to get my pointless knowledge about space out there). I’m probably not going to update this until I finish ‘trouble’ which should be in this next coming week. I’m just really excited about this one and wanted to put it out there too. Message to be on the taglist! -Cia

                         Prologue: Mercury 

There are 400 billion stars in the galaxy. 

Some insignificant, some small, some large, and some with great potential. 

Humans were the same way. Though most were insignificant to you, which is why you didn’t indulge in the trifles of relationships and companionship. The stars were far more interesting to you. 

And you spent your life studying them. 

Ever since your dad bought you your first telescope at age 7, you knew exactly what your purpose was. To study and find out what else was out there. And for a while that was all you did, all through school, no time for boys, friendship and trivial prepubescent things, your mind was literally in the clouds. That carried you all the way to Yale where you graduated Summa cum Laude with 3 Phds in Astronomy, Engineering, and Physics. 

Getting the job at NASA wasn’t surprising to you at all. 

Meeting Jonathan was. 

Your first day together had been uneventful, you had been introduced and told your assignment which was to just track the movement of a comet that came every fifty years. A couple of months in and by pure accident you saw her. 

It couldn’t be. 

You immediately yelled at him to come over, to confirm that you were just crazy but he had seen it too. You had just discovered a planet. And not just any planet one that through your research could very well sustain human life. Jonathan, though not knowing you long, picked you up in a giant hug and swung you around. You couldn’t help the smiles and tears that had fallen from your eyes. This was exactly why you were doing this, for the art of discovery and the overwhelming feeling that came with it. 

After weeks of convincing the boards and getting funding, you and Jonathan were now heads of your own department solely designed for tracking and finding new information on Gaia, the planet the two of you graciously named. Now your nights were filled with solving equations and trying to get more than a glimmer of Gaia from your telescope. Alas, as much as you loved her, she was very slow. Jonathan would play his old jazz records and sing off-key dancing around the planetarium gifted by NASA. You didn’t know exactly when they happened, but you started to feel like maybe all humans weren’t insignificant and you started to feel like that about Jonathan. You found yourself watching his bright smile as he danced and singed around, often asking you to please dance with him, which you always declined. 

Now you wish you had. 

If you knew it’d be the last time, you for sure would have. 

But no one could’ve predicted a serial killer coming after NASA scientists. 

And no one could’ve predicted you walking into work and seeing your best friends throat slit ear to ear. 

————————————————— 

The months following Maeve’s death were hard on Spencer. He was a man of science, he knew probability and often relied on statistics for his job. The predictability of it was what made it easy to cope.  

But sometimes it wasn’t. And sometimes he hated the unpredictability of his job. 

Losing Maeve had definitely been one of those days. 

On one of his first couple weeks back, he’s called into the briefing room. 

“We don’t have to go far for this case.” JJ says manning the slides to show the team “Four NASA scientists at the Goddard Flight Center in Maryland have been found in their offices, throat slit and hands bound with duct tape behind the back.”

“Execution style…” Morgan says with a grimace. “Brutal.” 

“Obviously someone angry too.”  Emily adds. “To just do it like that, no sign of remorse. But the jaggedness of it makes it look passionate.” 

“The police and NASA believe they know who the next target is as well.” JJ adds moving to the next slide which showed a beautiful girl standing in front of a whiteboard of equations. Long silky hair tied up in a bun, glasses on her face and bright white teeth shown through the smile. You could obviously tell the picture was taken for an article or sort. Spencer thought she was cute but didn’t dwell on it long. “This is Dr. Y/N Y/L/N. She worked alongside Victim #4, Jonathan Brewer as co-head scientists of the Terra-Mora project.” 

“They think the Unsub is specifically targeting her department and people who have done work for her department. And if he’s already killed the partner...” Hotch trails off. 

“He’s escalating…” Spencer adds. 

“Which puts her under extreme risk. Which is why I’m putting her in protective custody.” Hotch adds. “Reid, I’d like you to do that.” 

Spencer looks confused. “Why me? Shouldn’t someone like Morgan or Prentiss go?” 

“I’ve been told Dr. Y/L/N is very reluctant about having security. I figured having someone as intelligent as her would cushion the blow.” 

Spencer leaned back in his chair. Great… just what he needed. 

————————————— 

“No, Clifton.” 

“It’s not up for discussion, Y/N.” Cliff says walking away from you down the hall. You speed up to catch up with him. 

“I’m 31 years old! I don’t need a babysitter.” You said, angrily. 

“You’re not getting a babysitter, Y/N. The FBI is being gracious enough to provide you extra security. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you people are dying.” 

“You know you don’t have to remind me! I lost Jon!” 

“Then you know why you have to take protection, Y/N. You know what important work you and Jonathan were doing. You’re the only one left to finish it. Please just let someone take care of you while they catch the sick man who’s doing this.” You sigh, Cliff takes that as compliance. “Now get to work. I’ll show him to your office when he gets here.” 

You walk into work and look at the time, 10:30 PM, peak time for planets to be seen. And if you were lucky, you’d probably get a glimmer of her again. You were right because just as soon as you stepped up to the telescope there she was, or more like there was a sliver of her. You’ve never been able to get a full look at Gaia, but just past Saturn was the curvature of the dwarf planet you adored so much. You pick up your tape recorder, and begin to speak into it.

“January 16th, Terra-Mora logs. This is Dr. Y/N Y/L/N. Dr. Jonathan Brewer has passed and will no longer be making logs.” You choke up a bit but clear your throat and keep going. “Gaia’s Southwest region is visible from earth tonight. Seems her clouds are finally dissipating, and you can see some of her icy plains, I am pretty positive it’s a lake. Hopefully with the Approval of SPOT, we’ll be able to know for sure what’s up there.” You look at your door to see your boss, Dr. Clifton and a man standing watching you. “Y/L/N out.” You say into the tape recorder. 

You get up to walk over the two men. 

“You know everyone does their logs into the computers now, no one uses an actual tape anymore.” Clifton says. 

“I’m old fashioned.” You cross your arms. 

“This is Dr. Spencer Reid with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. He will be watching you while we figure out what’s happening.” 

“This is who’s supposed to be protecting me?” You ask. “You look like a strong wind would blow you over.” 

The man looks at you annoyed. “I can assure you, I’m more than capable of doing my job, Miss--” 

“Doctor.” You say. 

“Excuse me.” 

“It’s Dr. Y/N Y/L/N. And I worked very hard and paid a lot of debt for the title so I’d prefer it if you used it.” You looked annoyed right back at him. Something about the man rubbed you the wrong way. 

Dr. Clifton looks at the both of you uncomfortable. “Well I’ll leave you both to it.” He nods at you both before leaving you alone.  

“I think we got off on the wrong--” 

“Listen Dr. Reid.” You cut him off. “This is probably going to be hell for the both of us. I expressed heavily to my boss about not needing protective custody which of course fell on deaf ears, so I’m going to make one thing clear. We’re not here to be friends. I’m here to do important work that I now have to do single-handedly because you guys failed to do your work in the first place and my coworker had to die because of it.” Tears threatened to choke you but you didn’t let them. “And to be frank, I don’t know what exactly you’re here for besides being a pain in my ass so I suggest staying out of my way and not fucking touching anything. Keep that in mind and we’ll get along swimmingly.” You say, turning your back to him, heading back to the telescope and looking at him as if daring him to challenge you. For a second it looks like he might, he’s standing trying very hard not to look like he’s completely fuming. Then he just blows a frustrated breath and sits in a chair halfway across the room. 

You didn’t know why, and you didn’t have a real reason. 

But you decided that you hated Dr. Spencer Reid. 

Which you guessed was another thing humans could be.   

Message to be tagged!

[ohshcscenerios]

Neighbors

Chapter Three

Poll Result: Skip Class

Haruhi looked at her friends’ curious faces as they waited on her answer and saw the sadness underlining their smiles. She began to feel guilty, realizing they truly have missed her. A month can be a long time depending on how you’re hoping to spend your time. For them, this previous month must have felt like a whole semester as they waited for her to prioritize them for once. 

She sighed, knowing there really wasn’t another option. If her professors docked her grade percentage because of her absence then she’ll make it up with extra credit. If that doesn’t work, at least she is very close to the chairman’s son - although she wouldn’t want to resort to her connections if she could help it.

“Fine,” she succumbed to their puppy eyes and pouty lips, “I’ll skip today - but only this once!” She raised a finger to solidify her point, narrowing her eyes for good measure. 

Kaoru nearly squealed when he pulled her into another shoulder crushing hug. 

“Mori-senpai,” Haruhi choked out, “Help..”

“Kaoru.” Takashi warned before leaning over the table and swiftly pulling Haruhi from his grasp.

She settled back into her chair and took a deep breath, “Thanks senpai, I can always count on you for that.”

Takashi returned her thanks with a smile before sitting down and adjusting his shirt. 

Kaoru was about to say something when the waitress returned with their tea and mochi. 

About an hour later Hikaru paid for their meal, much to Haruhi’s protest, and left the Lotus. As they walked along the wooden walkway they began talking about how they should plan their day. 

“What is there to do around here?” Haruhi asked, wondering what other campus jewels she hasn’t discovered yet. The only places she visited were her professor’s buildings and the convenience store across from her apartment. Now she regretted not taking the time to look around first, she should have known a prestigious university like Ouran would act as a college student’s playground. 

“There’s a zoo nearby that’s still open for the season.” Mitsukuni suggested. 

Haruhi just now noticed he didn’t have Usa-chan with him. She figured it must be one of the days he has to leave the bunny at home. She looked at Takashi and wondered if he was still strictly enforcing this rule. They weren’t sharing an apartment so he probably has to trust Mitsukuni to stay true to his word. 

Has she noticed him carrying Usa-chan at all? She cursed herself for truly not knowing what her friends had been up to. All this time she completely shut everyone out to dive into her studies. What was she thinking? All this time she could have been enjoying her first year in college with her amazing friends instead of suffering through homework and all-nighters by herself. 

“The zoo isn’t a bad idea but it’s pretty chilly out. Some of the animals might have been moved to their indoor habitats.” Kaoru said. 

“Oh that’s true.” Mitsukuni responded sadly. 

“What about the art gallery by the theater?” Hikaru asked, pointing toward a winding paved pathway to their right.

Takashi shrugged, “Mitsukuni and I went there yesterday.”

“You did?” Haruhi asked, looking between her tall and short seniors. 

“Yeah we did, “Mitsukuni said as he walked beside her, “We asked you if you wanted to come but you didn’t say anything so we figured you were busy.” 

“Oh I’m sorry senpai, I guess I didn’t hear you…” Haruhi admitted, embarrassed. 

Mitsukuni noticed her downcast gaze and grabbed her hand, “How about we go somewhere nice? You’re skipping class for this after all, might as well do something extra special.”

Hikaru snapped his fingers and stopped walking, causing everyone to stumble to a halt behind him. “I think I know what we should do,” he said, turning to face them, “we should go to the planetarium later. I know it’s cloudy now but it’s supposed to clear up by tonight.” He waved his arms toward the sky, “Imagine lying underneath the stars, just us.” 

An image of him and Haruhi cuddled together underneath the milky way flashed before his eyes. In that split second he could feel her body nestled under his arm, her soft breaths brushing against his neck. 

“That actually sounds really nice,” Haruhi confessed. 

Kaoru nodded, “Alright we can do that tonight but what about right now?”

“A farmer turned his field into a corn maze not too far from here.” Takashi said, looking toward the treeline on their left. 

“A corn maze? Isn’t that an American activity?” Haruhi asked, looking up at him. 

Mitsukuni clapped his hands in excitement, “Yeah! It is an American activity but he was inspired to make one himself. I read about him in Ouran’s newspaper last week. We should try it!”

Hikaru rubbed his chin in thought, “That’s a good idea but isn’t it in Koyo? That’s a 45 minute drive.”

“I’m fine with that,” Haruhi offered, “I don’t mind a long drive.” 

Mitsukuni squeezed Haruhi’s hand before letting go, “Alright, Takashi and I need to head back to our apartments to change clothes so we’ll meet you there.”

“Good idea, I’ll text tono and let him know about tonight. He and Kyoya-senpai have class so they can’t join us for the corn maze.” Kaoru said as he pulled out his cell phone.

“Who do you want to ride with Haruhi?” Hikaru asked.

Who should Haruhi ride with? 

Vote Here - (poll will end 10:00am ETS)

Next chapter update should be up by 12:00pm ETS

I sincerely apologize for the late chapter update. We didn’t have anything defrosted for dinner so we had to do a late-night grocery store run and make ourselves something to eat. I’m going to try really hard to stay on top of schedule.

[starshineandbooks]

Come away with me, One last adventure? Chapter four

In which they open gifts and manage to completely miss Logan’s soulmark

Chapter one   Chapter Two   Chapter Three 

AO3

Spotify playlist for cD roman is given

words - 1644

Roman wakes to a cold bed and a missing Logan, that is upsetting to his gay disaster heart and friend senses. He sits up quickly, to listen for any sign of logan, instead finding a note on his nightstand.

‘Roman, I have gone out on a walk after a series of bad dreams, I will likely be back by the time you wake up but if not feel free to text me. I’ll grab breakfast while I am out.’

Roman does feel free to text Logan, “Hey where are you?”

Logan doesn’t respond, but the door opens two minutes later, revealing Logan holding a drink carrier and a pastry bag, “Good morning Roman.”

“Happy birthday!” Roman smiles, “Did you discover your soulmark?”

“Nothing.” Logan says swiftly, “I woke up at midnight, and I found nothing, no mark at all.”

“O-oh.” Roman blinks, “That’s uh-”

“It’s fine. Just- Don’t touch me right now. Bad sensory day.” Logan sighs, shaking his dark, black hair out of his face.

“Okay.”

“I have caffine and breakfast.” Logan sighs, “And a lack of apparent soulmate.”

“Logan-”

“It’s fine,” Logan shakes his head, “I suppose I am just a little bitter.”

Roman’s lips purse, almost a pout, and Logan can’t find it in himself to chide himself for wanting to kiss those unfairly pretty lips. Logan sighs, setting the bag down and handing Roman a coffee, not meeting his friend’s eyes, careful to make sure he doesn't touch Roman’s hand at all, saving himself the pain for today.

Roman can’t help letting his eyes roe over all of Logan’s exposed skin, he’s never been able to, but he desperately wants to find where someone else will take away what Roman loves so dearly, where a soulmate will mark Logan as theirs forever.

Roman hates to think of that, but he hates even more to think that Logan, who deserves the world, wouldn’t get the exact soulmate he wants. Roman also hates the idea that if likely factual, that when Logan finds his soulmate -because surely the beautiful nerd has one- that he will leave for college and forget about Roman.

Roman knows Logan will promise not to if it was brought up, but Roman also knows that when you fall in love the rest of the world, no matter how bright, isn’t as important.

“Stop your moping Roman, it’s a lack of soulmate, not a lack of soul.”

“That can’t be right.” Roman counters, “Everyone has a soulmate!”

“That’s what Disney says, that’s what the cards say Roman, but this is real life, not everything works out perfect.”

“I know that!” Roman sighs, softening his voice, “I know that okay, God above do I know that L.”

“Well… Good. Now, drink your caffeinated death before it gets cold.” Logan’s voice is distant, as he moves to drink from his own styrofoam cup.

Roman sighs, following suit, “How long were you out?”

“Since midnight.”

“Specs it’s seven in the morning. What-”

“Bad dream, nothing important.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah…” Logan sighs, “I- It wasn’t great.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“You died.”

“I what?!”

“You died, in my dream Roman. It was rather upsetting.” Logan sighs, shaking his ead, “But it is okay, you are breathing and that- that is enough.”

Roman can’t find the words, but the way Logan looks so upset- he sighs, reaching and pulling a wrapped rectangle of the ground, “Open it for me?”

Logan sighs, setting his cup down and reaching for the gift, before moving to grab Roman’s.

“Wait!” Roman says, then his alarm goes off, “HAppy birthday Specs, welcome to being officially eighteen!”

Logan snorts, “Thank you.”

Roman pulls the gift Logan made for him off the bed stand, “Open them together?”

“Yes, if that’s amicable to you?”

“I suggested it didn’t I?”

Logan does not dignify that with a response, instead nodding slightly, before he turns to the gift as he sits on the bed, moving the blue wrapped object to his lap.

Roman stares down at the red paper, “Go!”

The two begin to tear at the paper, brows knit to see who can open it faster. Competitive as always but in a fun way.

Roman wins, because the gift he’s opening is smaller. He grins, “A CD case specs, did you make me a mixtape?”

“Listen to it and find out.”

Roman just grabs Logan’s laptop, booting it up and logging in.

Logan stares down at the scrap book on his lap, a galaxy print cover and beautiful calligraphy reading ‘Logan memories for the ages Part one of many’. He chuckles softly to himself, “A scrapbook?”

“Look through it, Specs, I spent- a long time.”

“Is that why your hands were covered in blue and silver glitter for a week and a half?”

“Maybe.” Roman pills up the CD room and goes to hit play.

“Wait! Headphones, and- listen to the whole thing first?”

“Uh- sure?”

Logan nods, “After this we should buy tickets to disney for tomorrow.”

“We should.”

Logan turns to rifle through the scrapbook, finidning shades of blues and black, and galaxies, stars, and a nasa logo on different pages. Roman must have spent hours on this, weeks probably longer.

The first page is a picture of Roman and Logan when they were probably five, Roman sits on the counter with a bandaged knee and e teary smile as Logan holds out an otter pop to his injured friend. ‘My hero’ It reads.

A second picture sits on the same page, this time Roman and Logan appear to be sixteen if the blue streak in Roman’s hair is any indicator. Roman and Logan stand arm in arm for homecoming, Roman’s date had ditched him the night before for some pretty boy or other. Logan had stepped in and broken off from the group the nerd had planned on attending with just to make sure Roman had a fun night. The second picture seems to continue the message of the first, ‘Forever and ever.’

Soft silver glitter is on the second page, a large picture of Logan and Virgil takes up the majority of the page, the two are hunched together watching conspiracies on the laptop they’d borrowed from their triplet Bia, said girl in the background threatening Roman with a curling iron.

The message for that page is silly and looping as ever, ‘Except when the conspiracies rot your brain and your sister threatens to straighten my hair with her curler if I scare you.’

Logan laughs softly, turning the page and gasping.

Roman glances over but just smiles at the picture on the third page.

Logan stares down at a picture of Logan and Roman with their moms, the boys are probably eight, and dressed in almost matching outfits. Black pants, dress shoes, and button up shirts in white. Except, they both wear bow ties, Logan’s is a dark red while Roman’s is a dark blue. ‘Sometimes, we steal each other's color.’

The next page is Logan at the planetarium, alone in the shot but looking starstruck as he stares up at constellations, pointing them out to someone out of view, probably Roman or one of their friends. ‘As stunning as the stars you so love.’

The next page is a picture of Logan with his siblings.

Remy stands with his- they were a he at the time of photo- arms about Logan and Virgil’s shoulders, sunglasses ever in place and a smirk. Virgil’s got one arm hanging loseley and the other about the youngest sibling, and the only blonde. Anne, the blonde, smiles at the camera. Logan has his pinkies hooked with his female triplet, the two identical, save for Logan wears glasses where Bia wears contacts. The group stands in matching print swimsuits on the beach.

‘You have more fun and emotion and love than you’d let most people know but you’re a big softie.’

Logan continues to rifle through his favorite memories, most of them with Roman himself or Logan’s own siblings. His eyes sting, Roman put so much thought and love into this project, and Logan is going to keep it forever.

When he is done reading he turns to watch Roman shut the laptop and turn to Logan as well, almost in sync. Logan will miss this, the easy everything he has with Roman.

“Thank you Roman.” Logan says simply, “This means a lot to me, I- It’s beautiful.” Logan manages to bite back the quip Roman would love to hear, just not from Logan. Manages to keep from saying, ‘Almost as beautiful as you are.’

“I’m glad you liked it!” Roman grins, going to ruffle Logan’s hair but stopping as he remembers Logan asked to not be touched, Roman drops his hand, “Sorry I was just so excited I blinked for a moment.”

“It is okay Roman, You stopped and you remembered, and then apologized. That is all I can ask for.”

“I mean, you could ask me for anything.” Roman shrugs, and his voice isn’t teasing like he’d meant, it’s soft and vulnerable and earnest.

Logan shakes his head, “Not anything.” Logan sighs, shaking his head.

“Anything. But uh- Thank you for the music Logan.”

“Of course.”

“I like all of the songs, of course! But uh- they were all love songs?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Roman nods, “Well, Thank you very much, it was- a beautiful playlist.”

Roman stares only a little besottedly at eyes of stormy depth in Logan’s green gaze, and he can’t help but wish the playlist was a confession, but it isn’t, Roman knows this.

Logan wishes Roman hadn't just rejected him so outright with ignoring that the playlist is a confession, but here he is.

“I’m glad you liked it.” Logan smiles as best he can around what feels as if his heart is stabbing itself violently. “We should take a walk around dinner time, after is ideal.”

Master post    Chapter five

[choicesenthusiast]

Open Heart 2, Ch. 14 AKA Oh, Hey, Our LIs!

What happened this week:

Our favourite hospital may or may not be in even deeper financial trouble due to Esme’s oopsie last chapter, but while she’s away being interrogated giving her report, we can move on to one of the 3957 other plots for this chapter.

You and Bryce (who has been given permission to perform a hemicorporectomy, good for him!) meet Sienna and Mitch in the caf, where full grown big-brain medical professional adults tease him and call him Puddle after Sienna told him to stop slacking off the other day.

Help Raf with his physical therapy, and discover that not all of his body parts have been entirely affected by the toxin, if you know what I mean. Now imagine if the trainer walked back in early. They only had thirty minutes after all.

Jackie’s been wallowing in a little too much self-pity for selling out to Panacea, so take her out to lunch to cheer her up. Eat the sushi, then plot her imaginary revenge plan to eat the rich. It involves Cough Syrup, except Uno Reverse style where it gives you a cough instead. She gets points for creativity but I’m deducting some points because apparently she’s not into cantaloupe. That’s the true crime.

The diagnostics team takes a trip to the local ski mountain to diagnose a woman who’s been in a ski accident. Unfortunately, a storm outside prevents you from returning to the hospital that night.

Ethan takes advantage of the opportunity, inviting you to stay with him, which comes off as really romantic or creepy, but either way, very unlike him. After imagining what life would be like if you weren’t doctors, have a round of the good old two-person in-bed snow shoveling. Seems like he’s really starting to open up to the idea of a proper relationship.

Back at the hospital the next day, Bryce shows up late to his very important surgery because of a misbehaving Keiki. Remember her? Bryce’s runaway sister? She lives up to the title, because after misunderstanding Bryce talking about their parents’ mistakes, she runs, or more like drives, away from the hospital in Bryce’s car. Find her in a planetarium and have a heart-to-heart with the two of them, as a “friend” apparently, according to Bryce. More like heart-to-heart-breaking-in-half.

Our ski patient is our patient because her son illegally medicated her. Seems to be an ongoing trend in Edenbrook.

Jackie knows a way to get rid of Declan’s nasty clutch on the hospitals, and it involves Vegas. Now the last time we were in Vegas we went on a wild goose chase for a tiara in a briefcase, so what could be worse than that?

Thoughts:

Seeing all 4 LIs get diamond scenes gave me whiplash and was not good for everyone’s in-game bank account. But this is progress! We’re touching up more of the subplots! Still to be covered: what’ll happen to Esme? What’ll happen to the hospitals? What of Aurora’s plan to merge? How’s Kyra been doing?

The residents bullying Mitch out of the hospital was not cool? Like, he definitely deserved Sienna’s callout but the grown adults name-calling was a little immature. One would think that they trust in Sienna to call him out again if his behaviour doesn’t change instead of unnecessarily poking at him to stay in line.

Apparently everyone got Ethan’s request to stay no matter if you’ve been romancing him or not? He used to be my LI so I thought it was just because of that but that is super creepy if you haven’t been interested at all.

I will not complain. Given OH2’s track record, this chapter was actually really good. Unfortunately this also sparked up some of the old LI discourse and toxicity, so maybe that’s why it took me so long to complete. I didn’t want another headache. Also, I hope you don’t mind that this is 4 days late. Been really busy and tired lately.

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Pillars of Creation ch. 3 (baon)

Summary: It’s not a date, thank you. Edge only agreed to take Stretch to the planetarium, that was all. That doesn’t make it a date.

Prequel to the series, set after “Seeing Stars Through Clouds’

If you were ever curious how these two got together, well, here you go, their first date outing together! It’s super!

Note: Everyone’s been enjoying the fluff, right? Excellent! Hold that thought, read the tags! It’s not THAT bad but I don’t like to surprise people.

Tags: Spicyhoney, First Time, Pre-Relationship, Some Angst Regarding Past Memories, Implications of Depression, Brothers Can Be Pains, Underfell Was Not a Nice Place, Neither was Underswap Really, They Were Both In a Not Good Place, But Never Fear, Good Ending!

part of the ‘by any other name’ series.

Read it on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

The trip back to New New Home seemed to be much shorter with Stretch chattering next to him. The pause at the security gate only took as long as swiping their ID’s and in no time, he was pulling up to the Swap brother’s house again.

There was a light on downstairs, Blue was probably downstairs watching the new Mettaton special. It was a little too early yet to say he was waiting up for his brother, even if there was likely some truth to it.

Stretch didn’t open his door immediately when they came to a stop. He fiddled with the strap of his bag and his smile was hesitant, “hope you didn't have too awful a time. deb’s a sales shark, but it’s worth it, they have damn good coffee and—"

“Why do you do that?" Edge broke in. He kept his voice low, even, using the same care that worked on his group at the Y.

Stretch only blinked in startled confusion, “do what?"

Edge turned off the car and the quiet was stark. Coupled with the darkness, it was an illusion of privacy even with the top down. “Belittle things like that. I didn't have an awful time, at all, so why would you suggest I did?"

Had he always done that, disparaged himself? Edge couldn’t remember.

"i...uh…" Stretch shrugged. His lighter was in his bag, along with his cigarettes, but that strap was wound haphazardly around his fingers, clenched briefly tight. "better to get it out there before anyone else does, right? cast the first bone and all that.”

Edge sighed. “Stop.”

“sorry, sorry,” Stretch chuckled, “had to get it out of my system.”

He still didn’t get out of car and Edge…found that he didn’t want to ask. He hadn’t wanted to admit it the whole night but now—

“Is this supposed to be a date?” Edge asked aloud. It sounded strange, not wrong exactly, but almost forbidden, nothing he’d ever expected to say.

Stretch’s eye lights went wide, and a flood of color filled his cheekbones, tinting them ruddy orange. There were no cracks or divots in his skull, no visible injuries. Much like Papyrus and perhaps they’d all shared a name once but to Edge’s gaze, they didn’t really look that much alike.

The curves of Stretch’s skull were slightly softer, less angular and a touch slimmer, and he was—

“hey, you asked me out,” Stretch said lightly. And before Edge could revert to the childish retort of ‘you did it first’, Stretch added with hesitant care. “but. only if you want it to be? if not, it’s only two guys who could maybe be friends. i could do friends. what do you want this to be?”

Part of him wanted to push back against that, protest the unfairness of putting that choice on him.

But.

Friends. None of their previous interactions could ever be called ‘friendly’.

It brought to mind an argument they’d had some months ago. Everyone had been there, all of the skeletons in their group; Edge no longer remembered the context, but he recalled that much. They had only just arrived at the surface, everything was still in turmoil, yet Papyrus and Blue were determined to build relationships between them, and Edge agreed. Allies were necessary in this new world and he would do what needed to be done to get them.

Red and Sans were simply uncaring; they followed where their brothers led without protest, offering laconic comments and puns and little else. Stretch often did the same, but somehow, he always grated in a way that the Sanses did not. Any pointed comments about laziness beaded off Red and Sans like water from a particularly lethargic duck.

Stretch would return any insult with one of his own and his retribution was swift. He and Edge been sniping at each other all day despite Blue and Papyrus’s increasingly exhausted and pleading attempts to interfere, and the tension between them was poised to snap when Stretch waited until the others were out of earshot to murmur.

“tell you what, why don’t you wash the dust from your hands before you get back to me on what a piece of shit i am. better scrub hard, killer.”

They could joke about idiocy all they wanted but in truth Stretch was exceptionally clever; no warrior but he knew how to make words a weapon, finding chinks in armor and using them with brutal efficiency.

The others never made references to Edge’s LV; they knew, of course they knew, and past any fumbling attempts at consolation, they let it be. To have it so pointedly dragged out, a reminder of something he didn’t, couldn’t, forget, but he tried—

Crimson had washed over his vision, coupled with something very close to hate, and Stretch knew, he knew. He’d smiled lazily, not even glancing at where their brothers had yet to notice them, a lit cigarette dangling from his fingers. “go ahead,” he said, softly, singsong sweet. “what’s a little murder between friends?”

He’d thought at the time Stretch knew he wouldn’t hurt him. Looking back, he wondered if Stretch hadn’t cared if he did.

In the end, Edge walked away from him and never had he been more grateful for his iron control. They hadn’t spoken much after that, not really, certainly never alone, nothing past a little sneering at movie nights and dinners, but even that had dulled, their insults eventually losing their sharpened points, and Edge never questioned why. They simply stayed away from each other and Edge hadn’t thought anything of it.

Until Stretch walked into his office last week. Tonight was the longest they’d ever been alone together, much less managed to be civil to each other and Edge was having a difficult time reconciling how this Stretch fit on top of the one he’d known before, trying to line up those edges and failing.

But he also remembered a few children from his group at the Y, the way they sometimes snarled and slapped away any kindness offered them at the beginning. Their jibes had been less unerringly accurate, but they’d been meant to wound in the same fashion.

And Edge had sent more than his share of verbal barbs back then as well.

i wasn't exactly at my best when we first got here. i'm kind of hoping people don't hold me to that first impression for the rest of my life.

Stretch was looking at him, waiting patiently, and only the way he was clutching his bag gave away any of his anxiety.

“I don’t know,” Edge said finally, the words coming slowly. The Stretch he’d seen tonight was far different than his previous experiences, but it didn’t nullify them.

Stretch nodded. “that’s fair. think about it and let me know what you decide?” He finally opened the door and slid out, and he was waving even as it swung shut, “‘night.”

He was gone in a flash and pop of teleportation.

Edge sat a moment longer, waiting. The upstairs window opened and there was a brief flicker of flame from a lighter, the tiny glow of a cigarette. Convenient to be able to bypass the questions his brother would surely have.

Blue had been less than amused when he’d discovered Edge managed to get around him to talk to Stretch by sneaking into his room. It was disconcerting how much he could suddenly appreciate Stretch’s exasperation with the way his brother tried to interfere with his life; he’d never given it a thought before, always thought Blue was in the right when he dealt with his brother—

He couldn’t tell if Stretch was looking at him and he turned the car back on, backing out of the driveway to head home.

His headlights flashed over the porch as he pulled into the drive of his own house, giving him a glimpse of Red sitting on the steps, like a sudden prophecy come true concerning controlling brothers.

Edge sighed. It was still early but he was tired, and this night out left plenty for him to think about. Dealing with Red could be exhausting when he was at his best.

There was nothing for it. Edge climbed out of the car and walked up to where Red was sprawling against the stairs. He was smoking one of the foul little cigars he’d discovered on the surface; the smell was reminiscent of a burning trash dump and Edge wondered at times if he’d chosen them specifically for that trait. Smoking had been an unaffordable luxury in Underfell, but here he could happily annoy others with passive revulsion if he wanted to.

“What do you want?” Edge asked in resignation, stepping past him to open the door.

"nothin’.” Red crushed the cigar out on the cement step, leaving a mark that Edge would be scrubbing away tomorrow.

“I don’t understand why you won’t simply move in if you’re only going to stop by to harass me daily.” Edge held open the door to allow Red inside, waiting with exaggerated patience as he shuffled through the door.

“nah,” Red said lazily. He must have been in a decent enough mood, toeing off his shoes on the front mat without being reminded. “we’re all grown up now, ain’t we, boss, we need our space. and like i want to end up like those other codependent fuckers?” Red shook his head as he wandered into the kitchen. “papyrus and his shitheel brother have that covered. you should be grateful you have me as a bro and not that piece of shit.”

Edge never quite understood the problem his brother had with Sans, but watching his brother paw through his refrigerator didn’t give him confidence in that assessment.

“bet you like having your own place.” Red took out a container and held it to the light, studying the contents.

“I might if it was ever simply mine.” Edge took the container away, pulling out a plate and dumping the contents on it, sticking it in the microwave. His brother was the only reason he even owned one and Edge leaned back against the counter to watch the plate turning within it.

Since they’d come to the surface, Edge was slowly experimenting more with cooking, moving past the simple pasta meals he’d made in Underfell, utilizing the wonder that was YouTube with mixed results. At least with his brother constantly devouring the leftovers he didn’t have to worry about his cooking attempts going to waste.

Red climbed up on a stool, propping his chin on a hand, and his grin was too wide to be comforting. “heard about your date with the honey bun, came by to see how it went."

"It wasn't…" Edge started automatically, then hesitated and shook his head.

A mistake. Red’s grin widened into something vicious. "well, come on, do we have to hide a pile of dust or not?"

"That isn't funny." The microwave beeped and Edge yanked open the door, dropping the plate in front of his brother hard enough that a little spilled off onto the counter.

Red only wiped it up with his fingers, licking them clean. "oh, it ain’t, that right? you had a good time.” It sounded like an accusation.

"He managed to not be completely unbearable for a handful of hours." Edge pointedly set a fork next to the plate.

"you had a good time!" Red crowed, plate and fork rattling as he pounded on the counter. "i knew it! why the fuck do you think i gave him that flyer?"

Thinking of that soured some of Edge’s already tumultuous mood. “Yes, I’m sure you only had my best interests at heart.”

“not very friendly, bro,” Red sighed, shaking his head sadly even as he finally gave up trying to eat curry with his bare hands and picked up the fork. “i raised you, clothed you—“

“Left me alone for days at a time. Beat me when I disobeyed you.”

That got him a hint of a glare, tainted with sardonic amusement. “i slapped you one time and you were about to get your ass in a dustpan sassing off to a guard. you call that a beating?”

“When it was the best you could have mustered, yes. And I never said I didn’t deserve it.”

“bet I could mustard something a little better now.”

Edge closed his sockets, pained. "Enough. What do you mean you ‘knew it’? Knew what?"

"oh, come on, bro, no one hates on someone the way you two do without wanting to fuck them." Red leered at him. With his mouth full, the effect was more grotesque than normal. "did you nail him in the back seat of that cockmobile of yours, or did he invite you in like a ‘civilized person’." His fork trailed sauce on the counter as he made finger quotes.

"We went to the planetarium and had coffee," Edge snapped. "There was no fucking, in the car or otherwise. I dropped him off at his own house and came home after an acceptable evening. That’s all."

"uh huh," Red studied him. "when you going out again?"

"We aren’t."

"you mean you haven't asked him yet?"

"No, I mean we aren't.” Edge wet a cloth, wiping up some of his brother’s mess. “I have enough to do without spending my time babysitting an emotional toddler."

Red snorted loudly. “you’re one to talk.”

That gave him a pause. He gave his brother a narrow look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“nothin’ i want to explain. look.” There were few things quite as unnerving as Red looking at him seriously. "he'd be a liability, you know that. but he'd be a pretty one. you think you can protect what's yours? then i say go for it. or what's the fucking point of being up here?" That seriousness faded and his brother licked his teeth, winking, “ever seen him without that sweatshirt?”

“And he asks me these things as if I could possibly be interested,” Edge said to no one in particular. He took away his brother’s empty plate and turned on the hot water, scrubbing it harder than necessary.

“paps.”

That was enough to make him still, leaning against the side of the sink, the running water a low gurgle. Red had readily set aside their previous names when they’d come to this universe and these days, they used them only rarely.

Behind him, Red sighed. "never thought i'd get the chance to say this, bro, but you're allowed to be happy, if you want. otherwise, why the fuck am i even doing all this?"

"I am perfectly happy,” Edge said, calmly. He returned to washing the dish, cleaning away any lingering sauce. “I have a job I enjoy, I no longer live with you, and I have my volunteer work. I don't need anything else."

"you probably don't. but it's okay to want something else,” he hopped down from the chair, his grubby socks scuffling against the floor. Deliberately, Edge knew, Red was only heard when he wanted to be. “now if you’ll excuse me, i'm gonna go puke. a little tip? make up your mind over the honey bun. stretch is an okay guy, but he's got issues, don't jerk him around. besides, he might not kill you over it, but i wouldn't put bets on blue."

There didn’t seem to be anything he could say to that, no protest that his brother would hear. Instead, Edge asked, “Are you staying to watch Mettaton or not?”

That got him a snort and a truly amused one at that. “you still watching that shit? c’mon, i’ll add my netflix account to your tv. they’ve got some real cooking shows.”

The door swung on its hinges as Red walked out and left Edge alone. Slowly, he set the plate into the drainer, not really meaning to think of Stretch. But he couldn’t stop remembered his hands, those slim, delicate fingers, the way he gestured when he was excited, describing the heavenly bodies above them. The soft flush in his cheekbones, the sparkle in his eye lights while he watched Edge sampling coffee, and that strange warmth rose in his soul again with the memory, lingering in his chest.

It was late after a long day. Stretch was probably asleep. One thing he’d learned since coming to the surface was that low HP Monsters weren’t necessarily lazy, they needed their sleep, although he wasn’t completely convinced where his brother was concerned.

A liability, Red called him. But a pretty one.

The Stretch of tonight was not the same as the one he’d first met. Which one was the truth?

There was only one way to find out.

Before he could think too much about it, Edge took out his phone, pulling up a contact that was only there in case of an emergency, and sent a text.

Would you like to go out again?

Almost immediately a smileyface emoticon came back in reply, followed with, yeah, i'd like that. where we going?

Edge hesitated, then sent back. I'll let you know

sounds good, i like a surprise!

He probably would like a surprise. Edge needed to think about it. Someplace else that would draw out that excitement, bring the sparkle back to those eye lights. Let him see all that bright enthusiasm again, to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

For now, he shook that thought away and went to join his brother, reluctantly curious about these cooking shows. He supposed they couldn’t be too terrible, and it was possible he’d learn something new.

It was worth a try.

~~*~~

Read Chapter Two

Read Chapter Four

[prvncesswrath]

( orion ) ( text. ) Hello, baby. Hope your classes are not bogging you down too much. 💕 ( text. ) Taking a smoke break outside the shop and I was wondering if you wanted to blow off your homework tonight and perhaps do some sneaking around the planetarium? ( text. ) Je t'aime. 💘

( text ) Classes are well, mon prince. Rehearsals are delayed until this weekend so I’ll have to really only focus on the streaming later. You’ll be tuning in, no? The listeners miss you so much. ( text ) Share me a pack, baby, I could use some extra relaxation though I do believe that planetarium trip is just equally as tempting ;) ( text ) See you soon. Je t'aime aussi xoxo

A wide grin settles on the rim of plump, red lips – the podcaster has been ridiculously drained these past couple of weeks courtesy to the hectic preparations for her written finals and juries, which should come about in a couple of months or so. Nerve-racked as she is, with how pitter-pattering the rest of her classmates have been with their practices, she’s almost confident she’ll perform out there just fine. Helps that her lovely spouse often accompanies her in stringing a few melodies, all behind the curtains, though it would be a terrible lie to say she had never pictured them mounting on a big stage together — regardless, she’s understanding of his anxieties and restrictions, despite the brimful of confidence the philosopher has garnered over the last several years, there a few things that are not prepared to be probed just yet.

Despite the exhaustion, the branching simper stays and she collects her books like a blackhole, quick and trippy but efficient. Evening classes commonly don’t end until the next hour, but after reading the texts and knowing that her husband is enshrouded in one of his pleasantly whimsical states, Micah wraps the remaining of her daily assignments and submits them faster, granting her early hours of freedom before she has to answer to her duty calls at the studio. She thinks it would be pleasant to give him a small surprise, at least when she’s still accorded with freedom and not yet soaked in last-minute necessities – it’s not like she’d not gotten beyond sufficient amount of voyages from their honeymoon, but when she has the time, she desires to take advantage of it to fool about with him. Nothing is ever tedious when they’re together.

Swifly hitching an Uber, the blonde is brought to her destination in no time. From the corner of her eyes, she could discover her love of four years perched outside and she grins so wide her cheeks tremble in anticipation. She manuvers over to him, golden locks tied up in high-ponytail, tattooed flesh coming into the view as she greets him with a chuckle, a skip of her feet, and two fingers to slip the cigarette off his lips so she could replace it with her own. A chaste but loving peck, she’s quick to grin upward at her loved one, taking a short-lived drag herself before she returns the cigarette to him.

“Surprise,” she beams, albeit her brief tiredness, “I thought I’d come home early since there wasn’t much to do in class today,” she places a hand on his chest and nods, “homework should be done fast and then we can venture later, mon bien-aimé. How about we browse through some of your designs for now, hm?” she hums, guffawing softly as she leads him back into the store.

[its-jwang2017]

Part 2: Wherein Jackson is the Damsel Trying His Best Not to be in Distress

A/N: I should probably not write so much so I can space out the chapters... whatever. Heed the additional tags and, as always, LMK of any spelling mistakes. Pic is of the Adler Planetarium, for your imagery needs.

More notes @ the end

TW: Panic attacks and moderately vague descriptions of violence

The first thing Jackson sensed upon waking up in a dark, circular area was the throbbing pain in his skull and matted blood sticking to the right side of his neck. A fluorescent light shone down the front of Jackson’s face, forcing him to squint his eyes in a vain effort to decrease his oncoming migraine. Tucking his chin into his chest forces his half closed eyes to focus on the frayed ropes wrapped around him, keeping him pinned to a cold, metal chair. With is hands tied to the arms of the chair and his legs wrapped together in front of him, Jackson was barely able to move any part of his body. The white of his fencing uniform was stained with a mixture of blood and dust, creating a Pollock-like design on the once pristine suit. I am literally never getting that out...

For a split second, Jackson forgot the connotation to this wonderful awakening in a mysterious location. As his brain slowly filled in the gaps to his memory, his body began to ache as it remembered the force at which it was flung into the solid ground of the gym. As the pain made itself known, Jackson winced as his ribs protested against the tight rope that wound around his chest. Realizing there was no comfortable position while being stuck to a metal chair, Jackson forced his head up and eyes open to try to survey his surroundings.

“Hello? Any bad guys in the area?” Jackson tentatively called out in what proved to be a regrettable move. The volume of his own voice seemed to be the last straw for his concussion, starting a percussive symphony of pulsing heat inside his head. The pounding in his brain combined with the bruises on his body forced a pained groan out of Jackson, shutting his eyes tightly as possible while he tried to ride out the waves of suffering.

Loud, thudding footsteps came from Jackson’s left, attacking his already frayed senses. The fencer whimpered in pain and tried to bring his shoulders up to cover his ears from the invasive sounds, not caring it made him look vulnerable to his captor. Soon enough, the footsteps came to a standstill in front of the fencer, a shadow blocking the light that permeated Jackson’s eyelids while  gloved fingers gently lifted his chin up. 

“Can you open your eyes for me?” A gruff voice whispered. Jackson tried to shy away from the other’s touch, not willing to open his eyes for fear that the light would attack his retinas and further wreck his concussed brain. Even the low voice of the other grated his nerves, as if the other was shouting directly into his ears instead of whispering. However, the chair wouldn’t let him move far and the other’s fingers firmly held contact with Jackson’s face. Slowly, he opened his eyes to a familiar sight; his reflection in the visor of Dark Souls protective helmet.

Jackson used the chance to examine his mirror image as Dark Soul gently used his fingers to turn Jackson’s face in different positions, seeming to inspect the damage. The kidnappee noticed that he was pretty beaten up, with small cuts on his left cheek and a bruise stretching across the right side of his face.

“You must’ve really fucked something up, Dark Soul. Usually I come to this Villains Club relatively unscathed. Now my face is all messed up and my body feels like crap. Do I get compensated for property damage? I may need reconstructive surgery to restore my face to its former glory after this encounter.” Jacksons rambles out quietly, but his whispered retorts fall on deaf ears as Dark Soul ignores him in favor of continuing his assessment.

After a couple minutes of awkward silence, Jackson let himself relax a bit as Dark Soul released his face from his firm grip. Taking a single step back, Dark Soul tapped his forefinger twice against his armored thigh and began slowly rising into the air. Jackson watched, enraptured as Dark Soul began gliding backwards, his sluggish brain forgetting that a light was aimed directly at him.

The pain comes back full force once Jackson’s eyes accidentally meet the rays of light, the absence of Dark Soul’s body allowing the bulb to direct its attention back on the captive once more. He shies away from the bulb, spots dancing in front of his quickly shut eyes, and he grits his teeth in an effort to keep the agonized sounds forming in his throat at bay.

Suddenly, the shadow returns, this time without the pounding footsteps to indicate movement. “Open your mouth.” Dark Soul commands lowly, grabbing Jackson’s chin once more. Jackson clamps his mouth shut, much to Dark Souls annoyance, and slowly shakes his head no. An annoyed sigh escapes the criminal in front of him and, before he can do anything to try and stop it, his nose is covered with gloved hands. Unable to breath or move, Jackson struggles briefly before gasping in pain as his ribs shift awkwardly. 

With ease, two pills are inserted into Jackson’s mouth. Before the Hong Kong native can even try to spit them out, Dark Soul forces his mouth to close. With his nose still covered, Jackson continues to struggle and uncomfortably swallows the pills down dry, almost choking as the unknown drugs catch in his throat. Immediately, Dark Soul lets go of him and backs away.

Jackson glares as his usual kidnapper stands in front of him, “What the hell did you give me?!” 

For a few seconds, the latter doesn’t respond. Then, he starts clapping.

Jackson stares back at the other in shock, thinking It’s finally happening. This person has gone insane. Dark Soul seems to look at the tied fencer inquisitively, tilting his head to one side.

“I can’t remember, are you actually this slow or are the pills not doing anything for your concussion?” the villain drawls out, resuming speaking at normal volume.

Jackson scoffs, opening his eyes fully and staring the other down. “What the hell are you rambling… about…?” Jackson recoiled a bit in shock, realizing that the pain he was feeling earlier had decreased significantly. The migraine ebbed to a dull irritance and his body was no longer voicing concern over his encounter with the floor. How did it work so fast??

“For the record, I wanted you to suffer just a tiny bit more…” Jackson snapped his head to the right where he could clearly see Project J, back facing him as the villain typed away at some monitors that Jackson swore were not there before. 

“Those pills should make his life a bit easier. Dark Soul, we’re almost ready for broadcast, will you stop staring at Wang and come over here?” Project J called over his shoulder again, keeping his focus on the computer screens before him.

Rubbing the back of his neck in what looked like an embarrassing gesture, Dark Soul snapped his gaze away from the captive and quickly walked over to his partner, mumbling under his breath “Why do I put up with this sass, all the time, nonstop?”

With the duo distracted by whatever was thrown up on the screen before them, Jackson took this opportunity to continue to survey the room. He now noticed that he was in the center of what appeared to be a makeshift lab, with gadgets haphazardly strewn about over various tables, papers gathered around with notes and equations, pictures of what appeared to be random places pinned to the walls and a huge, covered opening on a dome shaped ceiling. Are we in some kind of observatory? 

Before Jackson could answer his own question, a whine of static popped up on the monitors that the duo was gathered around. Curiously, Jackson tried to look over their shoulders to see what the ruckus was about, but the broad back of Dark Soul covered most of the monitors. The static stopped abruptly and what sounded like the news took its place.

After a couple more keyboard clicks, Project J pushed his seat back a bit and turned away from the controls. “I have control of the news station and the projector-bots are finally in position. You  should be able to power them up once it’s showtime. Are we ready to broadcast?” 

Dark Soul contemplated his partner’s words for a brief moment, before nodding his head. “I think we have all we need. Red Dragon should be up and desperately searching for Wang over here and I can power the bots right away. Make sure you have the Ray warmed up and ready to fire.” 

Project J nodded his assent and soon, the two began gearing up for their showdown with Chicago’s native superhero. Jackson watched the scene unfold, helpless and unable to assist with Mark’s soon to happen takedown of the villains. He looked up towards the ceiling, hoping beyond hope that Mark would be ok dealing with whatever scheme his enemies had for the week and desperately trying to think of a plan. That’s when he noticed the large telescope hovering a couple feet above his head. Blinking rapidly to make sure he was seeing things correctly, Jackson felt an embarrassing heat rising up his face.

If anyone asks, I’ll say I noticed we were in the observatory immediately instead of accidentally discovering the seven foot long telescope that happened to be above my head...

And with that, Jackson pieced together an idea.

______________________________________________________________________________

Mark’s eyes sprung open, sitting up suddenly and violently coughing up water out of his lungs. The sudden move stirred up the bruises on his body, the soreness forcing Mark into a fetal position on the sandy beach, his legs still getting splashed by the waves from the lake. The coughing fit slowly lessened with the possibility of choking on lakewater becoming less imminent. Mark began moving different parts of his body to see how critical his injuries were. Once he determined that he had only minor cuts, bruises, and cracked ribs from Project J’s assault, Mark allowed himself a brief moment of reprieve as his coughing stopped. Relaxing his muscles and letting out an aggravated sigh at the fact that he let the villain get the better of him, the hero noticed the feeling of his body working to repair the damages. At least my cells repaired most of my injuries. It would have been hell to wake up with a broken back again....

After lying back for a few moments to try and regain his bearings, Mark began the slow process of convincing himself to stand back up. His lungs and throat were sore from the near drowning experience and he wondered how he was able to wash back up onto the beach as he maneuvered himself into a squatting position. Blinking his eyes rapidly to get the sand out of his face, Mark tried standing up while his legs almost gave way to the sudden weight they had to support. Once he was confident in his ability to walk and move, Mark started dusting himself off, dimly noticing a small crowd of students starting to gather to his left, all staring and pointing at our disheveled superhero. Hearing the click of cameras as the posse began taking pictures, Mark ruffled out the sand in his hair and slowly rose into the sky. Once he was satisfied that  he got most of the sand off, Mark turned to face towards the gym and began flying in that direction. Not knowing how long he had been out, Mark hoped that this would be the one time that the villains let Jackson be.

Red Dragon’s dreams were crushed as he hears the police sirens coming from the direction of the sports facility. As he jets around the corner, the first thing he spots is the yellow caution tape blocking the general public from the collapsed wreckage of the Loyola facility. EMT’s, firefighters, and policemen all rushed around as they inspected the injured civilians afflicted by the collapse while trying to prevent the gawking public from entering the wreckage. Horrified, Mark gently lands on the roof of the CPD’s chief’s car in an effort to avoid getting in the way of the official’s work. His red suit quickly catches the police chief’s attention, who snaps her head around to face the hero.

“What’s the situation, chief?”

Waving her hand in a semblance of a greeting, policewoman Donna Winters stiffly replies, “Well, your battle knocked out the college’s facility, injuring around 50 people in the process. We have one missing person unaccounted for, you probably already know who, and we barely have enough people here to handle the whole situation. Additionally, we have a couple othered injured by the beach from your second battle with Project J, which stretches us even thinner. Luckily, somebody was able to pull a lot of the unconscious out of the building, so at least we do not have any casualties this time around.”

Mark’s stomach drops as his brain processes new information. Guilt settles in as Mark tries to figure out the best way to assist the public without injuring any more civilians, his eyes unable to meet the accusatory glare of the police chief below him. His thoughts were soon cut short as static bursts from the car’s radio, surprising both the chief and the hero. 

“Chief! We got …situation… there’s damage…evacuation needed!”  A panicked voice yelled, their voice getting cut off intermittently. Yanking her car door open, jostling Red Dragon with the force of it, the police chief quickly dropped into her seat and grabbed the comm. 

“Repeat! Where are you, what’s the damage?” The chief listened, but her question was met with radio silence. “I need you to report back immediately, what is your current location officer?” 

As the radio continued it’s silent reply, the police chief frustratedly threw her comm down onto the seat next to her, hitting her steering wheel with the other hand. Gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut, the chief tried to calm herself down by focusing on the ache in her hand. She felt the car shift above her, opening her eyes to see the hero’s red hair appear in the entryway of the still open car door. He held onto the roof of the car and looked at her upside down inquisitively. The childish gesture sparked sympathy within the chief, who thought to herself,  He’s probably just a kid, and he’s got to save the city again?

Pushing aside her anger over the helplessness of the situation, Chief Winters took a deep breath and let it out, regaining her thoughts and organizing them accordingly. In her most authoritative voice, she finally turned to address Red Dragon. “Since I don’t know the location of the other team, I would like to ask you to fly out and scan the city. If there’s trouble, I’m confident in your ability to prevent as much building damage and pedestrian casualties as possible. We have this area covered.”

Red Dragon flips over onto the ground beside her open door, sending a thumbs up her way, declaring, “I’ll take care of it, Chief Winters. I’ll stop them before any more civilians get hurt. ” 

Once he sees Winters’ nod of assent, Mark turns around and blasts off in search of the two villains. Chief Winters watches as the city’s only hero gracefully arcs through the sky and over the highrises. As she exits her vehicle, Chief Winters begins barking out orders at her team with the image of Red Dragon’s quirky thumb’s up still lingering in her thoughts. An uneasy feeling settled in her heart as she begins organizing the team around her. Whoever you are, Red Dragon, I hope to god I didn’t just send you into a war zone… 

______________________________________________________________________________

“The fake call was sent to the chief’s radio. Our super should be in position soon.” Project J idly commented, turning off the power to his self-made transmitter. 

With a silent nod of acknowledgement, Dark Soul begins gathering his power together, washing the room in a bright white light through the seams of his suit as electricity crackles around him. Jackson, still unable to move in his chair, feels the static rising inside the room as hair stands up underneath his uniform in response. Unable to stop the upcoming event, Jackson can only watch as Dark Soul took up a stance in front of the covered slit in the dome in front of him. After a quick press of a button from one of Project J’s monitors, the covering starts sliding away with a groan, gradually revealing the outside world. From around the silhouette of Dark Soul, Jackson can see the huge lake shimmering in the light outside the observatory. With no buildings on the horizon, Jackson deduced that they were facing the eastward side of the Adler planetarium. With his position confirmed, Jackson watches as the TV monitors turn on one by one while Dark Soul raises his hand towards the heavens, the screens simultaneously starting to fill with images of various places around Chicago. With a jolt, Jackson realizes they’re broadcasting a live feed of the city, with one monitor capturing his tied form from a birds eye view. Glancing upwards, he can barely make out a shape behind the bright bulb still shining in his face. Must be one of the bots Project J mentioned before. 

“Hey, I am all about video recordings, but I’m pretty sure you need my consent before you start projecting this lovely bondage scenario to everyone in the city.” 

For a split second, the tv monitors glitch out. Surprised, Jackson turns his attention towards the supervillain in front of him, noticing the barely perceptible twitch his comment seems to insight. Quickly recovering Dark Soul coughs out an embarrassed huff before regaining control of the video bots. 

Curiously, Jackson opens his mouth to inquire about the sudden glitch. His words die in his throat, however, as he catches a glimpse of a familiar red suit flying past one of the bots. 

Project J clears his throat, turning towards Dark Soul, “We have eyes on Red Dragon. Bot C31 caught him going south down the magnificent mile…” 

Apparently hearing his partner’s update, Dark Soul begins flexing his hand in certain patterns, looking like he’s playing one handed piano. On the monitors, the bots began banding together, synchronized by the commands from the technopath to search for the flying hero. In the monitor, Jackson can see that the robots are silver in design, with their pointed nose and long, angled wings making them look like a flock of silver chimney swifts. 

Soon enough, all of the robots except the one inside the observatory with the trio, were following Red Dragon’s tail at a swift pace. 

“Lead him towards millenium park so we can throw up the feed of Jackson.” commanded Project J, who moved towards the monitors in order to study the feed better.

With a flick of his wrist, Dark Soul sent the robots flying forwards, making their presence known to the airborn super. Jackson watched in stunned fascination as his best friend finally realized the swarm of silver stalking him in the sky, the robots shoving into Mark in pairs. Veering away from the incoming attack, Mark tries to escape the robots attack, unknowingly flying right towards the pavilion that the villains are targeting. The robots are so close to Mark that Jackson can clearly hear the muffled curses and labored breathing stemming from his friend and he feels the anger rising in his chest at his own inability to warn Mark.

Soon enough, Mark can be seen flying over the Bean in Millennium Park, the robots circling around him, rising up to create a barrier to push him back against the concert Pavilion. In the observatory, Dark Soul raises his other hand and Jackson sees the giant screen behind Mark light up with the live recording of himself thrown up onto the screen. 

Jackson knows that he looks terrible, but he didn’t realize how bad it was until he watches as Mark’s face falls as the hero takes in the fencer’s trapped form. The guilt is evident in the downturned corners of Red Dragon’s lips before his face smoothes out and he gets into a battle stance. 

“Let go of him.” Red Dragon commands lowly, raising his fists threateningly as fire begins to wrap around his fingers.

Jackson hears a scoff to his left as Project J saunters over  towards the center of the room, effectively putting himself in full view behind Jackson. He puts his hands on the back of the metal chair, leaning against it with his body towering over Jackson. “You know we can’t do that, Red Dragon. The princess, here, is our safeguard against one of your merciless attacks. You don’t want us to “accidentally” rough him up more than we already have, do you?”

The fire spreads up Red Dragon’s arm in response to the villains threat, “Touch a hair on his head and you’ll be in for the beating of a lifetime!” The hero snarls menacingly, his burning anger turning his fire blue for a split second. 

The villain scoffs at the hero’s display, rolling his eyes before replying, “No need to get your spandex in a bunch, hot stuff. All we ask is that you turn over this city to us and disappear of the face of the earth. Is that too much to ask?”

“And leave Chicago at the mercy of you two goons? I think not.”

Project J sighed, resting his chin on top of Jackson’s head. When Jackson tried to squirm away from the other’s touch, Project J brought both of his hands up against the sides of the athlete’s face, forcing Jackson to look directly into the monitors and act as Project J’s headrest.

“Then I guess you’ll never see this pretty face again, won’t you?” Project J stroked the sides of Jackson’s cheeks with his forefinger, the fencer’s skin crawling at the touch.

“Hey, man, consent is sexy and mandatory!” Jackson shouted through clenched teeth, still trying to squirm his head away from the villains touch. His eyes darted to the side to watch Mark’s reaction play out on the screen, getting worried at the blue color of his flames.

“Jackson, don’t panic! I’ll find you!” The hero shouts, attempting to rise up in search of wherever the villains were keeping his friend. The silver robots closed their ranks above the hero, preventing Mark from getting very far off the ground.

Deciding now was as good of a time as any, Jackson hurridley yelled out, “ADLERPLANETARIUM!” before Project J quickly clamped one of his hands over the fencer’s mouth.

“What? No! Don’t listen to Jacks, he’s concussed, he has no idea what he’s blabbing on about!” 

But that was all Mark needed to hear. Jackson watched with wide eyes as his friend’s body was encompassed with a blue fire and he sped upwards. The robots were no match for the heat generated by the Hero, and Red Dragon blasted through the barrier with ease. The feed turned to static as the robots were annihilated and Jackson smirked under Project J’s gloved hand, feeling a little victorious as he watched Dark Soul lower his arms.

Project J quickly let go of Jackson, as if burnt, and took a huge stride away from the captive as Dark Soul turned around. Raising his hands in a submissive gesture, Project J walked towards his partner and joined him at the edge of the opening with an apology on his lips. “You told me to make him mad, so I did what I had to!” 

Dark Soul clenched his hands into fists, turning his back on Project J. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. The powerful glow that surrounded the villain slowly disappeared along with the static in the room, indicating his powers were leveling off. A loud beep caught everyone’s attention, and the villains turn in unison towards the sound as one of the buttons on their console blinks red. Jackson has been kidnapped enough times to know that that particular display meant, a relieved laugh escaping from Jackson’s mouth and slowly becoming more hysterical until tears are coming out of his eyes. 

“Oh man, you guys are about to get your asses handed to you! Red Dragon is coming, powered up and completely enraged!” Jackson manages to get out, laughing all the while at the absurdity of the villains plans. How could they think that I wouldn’t figure out where we were?

His laughter dies out as the two villains look at each other, fully turning to face Jackson and standing with their arms crossed. Under their heavy stares, Jackson begins to feel uneasy at their silence and lack of fear for their lives. 

“Power off, please.” Project J finally voices, his command causing the entire room to go dark with the only light stemming from the sun’s rays outside. Jackson, officially confused, assumes that the power goes off in preparation for Red Dragon’s entrance through the ceiling. Bracing himself in his seat, Jackson tries his best to fold in on himself to protect his body from Mark’s usual hole-in-the-wall arrival… 

But looks up as the sound of Red Dragon’s entrance appears to his … left? 

Jerking his head to his side, Jackson watches in horror as a single monitor records his friend encapsulated in a similar circular dome that was not the one he was in. His jaw drops as screen-Mark looks around before reaching the same realization as Jackson. 

Laughing at his stunned expression, Dark Souls hands start lighting up as he calls out to Jackson,“What, you really thought you were at the Planetarium?”

______________________________________________________________________________

Dark Soul was more than pleased; he was positively elated that his plan went off without a hitch. It all relied on Jackson falling for their ruse, hook, line and sinker. With the fencer taking the bait, he unwittingly sent the hero into the premade trap located on the Museum Campus while their lair was set safely on the southern side of Chicago. 

Ignoring their captives shouts of anger, Dark Soul began on concentrating on the electric hum of their satellite cast out into space. Feeling it powering on, Dark Soul sent a thumb’s up in his partner’s direction.

With a smug smirk on his face, Project J activated the two way communications between the lair and the trap. Watching Red Dragon’s face, Project J activated the robot already set in the real Adler Planetarium. Once he confirmed that the system was working, he sauntered back over into the picture. “Hello, old friend! If you haven’t noticed, you’ve fallen right into our trap. Lovely, isn’t it?”

Screen-Mark glared back through the projection, “Really? You went through all this work to send me to the planetarium and created a fake one in a separate location? What were the tickets were too expensive for you?”

“Excuse you, if we could afford this quality replica in order to trick Wang over here, then we could DEFINITELY afford to buy the entirety of the Adler Planetarium. This place is worth a hundred times more than your dollar store dye job on that ragged looking mop of yours! ”

“Wow, I know you’re not talking about MY HAIR. Do you even have hair under that tacky helmet, or do you wear it because you’re ashamed of your bald spot? Oh, wait, wearing that helmet all the time probably GAVE you a bald spot!”

“I do NOT have ANY sort of hair loss ANYWHERE, for your information! Your head would explode with jealousy if you saw my perfectly coiffed locks!”

“Who the hell refers to their hair as ‘coiffed locks’?! GET WITH THE TIMES, OLD MAN!”

Just as Project J opened his mouth, ready with another witty clapback, Jackson coughed loudly, catching everyone’s attention.

“LADIES! You’re both pretty! But if you don’t mind getting on with it, I have a project due tomorrow that I really can’t get out of. Can we just skip to the part where Red Dragon escapes and kicks your ass?”

Clamping his mouth shut, Project J rolls out his shoulders and holds his hands behind his back, trying to regain his composure. “Of course. That is, if he is even capable of escaping our trap while being obliterated under the full concentrated power of the sun…!”

Project J’s words seemed to be the command his partner was waiting for. With a quick movement, Dark Soul clenches his hand into a fist, activating the satellite perfectly positioned in the exosphere. The satellite begins emitting a highly concentrated beam of light which streaks across the sky above them, and the villains watch as the robot located within the trap abruptly cuts communication. Not soon after, the sound of an explosion shakes both the lair and the city behind them. 

The aftershocks of the blast only last for a few seconds, but for Dark Soul, it feels like an eternity. He cuts off the power to the ray quickly, and rushes over to the monitor along with Project J. Activating the remaining robots that were not melted by Red Dragon, Dark Soul deploys them to the blast zone. The two watch the feed closely as the silver drones encircle the site. Slowly, the dust starts to settle and both villains can see that the Planetarium’s archipelago has been obliterated, swallowed up by the water underneath.

With wide eyes, Dark Soul uses the robots to scan for a sign of life, any sign of life, amidst the ruins. The white letters against the red backdrop on the monitors flash back at the villains, a clear sign that all readings came back negative.

The two partners, who for years had never even gotten close to defeating the acclaimed superhero, slowly turn to each other in shock. 

“We did it…” 

______________________________________________________________________________

The aftermath of Red Dragon’s defeat goes by in a blur for Jackson. He can’t move, can’t even speak, as he is untied from the chair. Once freed, he puts his head in his hands, his brain still trying to comprehend what happened. For a couple minutes, he just sits there in a state of total shock. After a while, one of the villains gently removes his hands away from his face while the other places a black, polyester bag over his head. He faintly registers the villains helping him stand, throwing his arms around their necks and supporting his weight on either side. They half carry, half walk him out of the lair, Jackson’s legs failing him in the moment. Somehow the duo places Jackson inside a car and the next thing he knows, he’s being led to a park bench near Soldier field. He watches, looking without really seeing, as the car speeds away and he’s left completely alone. 

Usually, the area that he’s in is bustling with tourists and city goers, each eager to watch a football game or wander through the many museums nearby. But today, the place is desolate and scattered with random debris all around. Not knowing how long he sat on the bench, Jackson stares out towards the harbor before him his eyes looking but not comprehending the scene before him. Before Jackson can make a conscious decision to begin walking, his feet have already taken him halfway down the street towards the Planetarium. 

In a few short minutes, the fencer is standing at the edge of the explosion site, watching as the waves crash against what’s left of the entryway. Jackson sees pieces of the building sticking out of the lake, but most of the property is submerged, the water reclaiming the land it once had. 

Jackson feels droplets running down his face, thinking that the weather started to reflect the somber feeling of the moment. The sun was still shining brightly, however, with no rain in sight as Jackson touched shaking fingers to his face. He was crying.

Jackson fell to his knees, an anguished scream bursting from his chest as the denial over the situation was brutally broken down; his best friend was dead. With grief in his heart and an emptiness in his soul, Jackson wrapped his arms around himself to try and hold his body together. The familiar feeling of anxiety and panic took root in his core, his body starting to shake in response. It felt as though he was too big for his skin and his mind lost in the all consuming negative thoughts that continuously berated him. His heart rate sped up and his breathing became ragged as his eyes widened and the tears dried on his face. Curling in on himself, Jackson’s panic attack increased tenfold as he tried to gasp in air that his lungs refused to take, his internal dialogue progressively getting louder and attacking his brain: I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I KILLED him. I KILLEDHIM.  I KILLED HIM. IKILLEDHIM. IKILLEDHIM. IKILLEDHIMIKILLEDHIMI KILLEDHIMIKILLEDHIMIKILLEDHIM… 

A faraway voice pierced through Jackson’s self deprecating thoughts. Jackson curled in further on himself, vaguely aware that his hands were covering his ears and his eyes were tightly shut. The accusing voice inside his head began to slowly dim as his breathing started to resume at it’s normal pace. The overwhelming feeling of self-hate began to ebb as Jackson registered a hand gently stroking down his back in rhythm with his breathing. Slowly uncovering his ears, Jackson was finally able to hear the voice of his helper alongside him.

“ - doing great, Jacks, that’s it breath with me. Everything will be ok, just focus on your breathing and let me ground you in the present. You’re fine, everything is going to be great. Just relax and let yourself take in air…” The voice continued, Jackson’s body finally beginning to resume its functionality. 

Slowly, Jackson opened his eyes and started down at the concrete street in front of him. His knees were covered with soot and he noticed a pair of black vans on his left. The hand never stopped stroking his back and Jackson felt embarrassment well up inside him. He had had panic attacks before, but never in front of a complete stranger.

The hand grounding him stopped it’s motions and instead chose to rest on Jackson’s shoulder. “Do you feel ok to stand up?”

The other’s low voice sounded strangely familiar, but as Jackson sat up, he kept his eyes downcast and pointed away. Sniffling, Jackson wiped at his face in an effort to get rid of the dried tears under his eyes. “M-maybe in a bit… Sorry you had to wit-witness that…” Jackson mumbled, feeling ashamed as his voice wavered and his words stuttered. 

The hand that was on his shoulder gently shook him, the other laughing a bit. “I’ve seen you when you were half naked in my apartment with nothing but a black tie, cufflinks, and black boxer briefs in a half-assed attempt to seduce me, Jacks. I learned how to help calm you down after I witnessed your first panic attack right in front of me as I sat like an idiot as you ran out of the room to try and solve it yourself. I gear up everyday to save your sorry ass from the two knumbskulls that always try to get rid of me. There is nothing in this world that could sink this friend-ship, you loser.”

Jackson’s neck almost snapped as he finally turned towards his left. The bright, laughing brown eyes that Jackson thought he would never see again stared back at him, and Jackson launched himself into the waiting arms of his supporter.

“MARK?!”

*

so... i wrote this... 

After a brief, half-assed attempt at revising (because I hate revising even thought it's definitely a necessity) I decided to post this ridiculously long chapter of my story. Why, you ask? Well, I will probably not be updating for the next week and a half due to a long-overdue vacation time :) So please, enjoy this chapter and get ready for the tiny hiatus(to be quite honest, I'll probably cave and continue writing for this, but who really knows).

If you didn't notice, i revised the first official chapter a bit. I wanted to add in some more details that I had in mind but forgot to translate into my writing :p  I'll let you know of any more changes. Keep watch on the introduction as more characters are introduced.

Finally, a shameless plug for my wattpad account (@ jwang2017) and soon to be AO3 account, so watch out

Next up: We finally get a glimpse into the student side of Jackson and Mark's lives! At long last YOU, the reader, will get a good look into the school that I completely made up: JYP International Preparatory School. Good lord, I'm gonna have become an architect and building planner to figure out where the city would even build this made-up school.  Why did Mark do what he did? How is he alive? What will become of the city now that our "villains" think the hero is dead? All of this, plus the introduction of the rest of the got7 ensemble, coming up to this story near you!

If you know who our villains are, con-drag-ulations you're my fave.

Any Idol you want to see in the future?

*

[unquiched]

Happy Birthday

(And hello again. No, I didn’t write this just now. Yes, this has been on Wattpad for weeks. What can I say? I’m a feedback slut.)

It had been five years. One thousand, eight hundred and twenty-six days since Rose and the Doctor-Who-Wasn't-Really-the-Doctor had been stranded, abandoned, on Earth, without a TARDIS, by the Doctor and Donna. She'd hated them at first, hated his clone thing, even hated her mother. Hated this world where she remembered every epic adventure they'd shared and yet was trapped on this boring, familiar planet. Hated the fact that the Doctor had probably already found someone else, and maybe even forgotten her. Of course, his clone reassured her that he couldn't have forgotten, but he wasn't the Doctor. He was just a transparent copy, a faded echo. He couldn't be sure.

Rose had mostly gotten over those feelings. The invasions were exciting, although the time between- they only happened about once every six months- was dull, and it showed on the Doctor's face. His fluffy brown hair somehow managed to become more unkempt, his shirts wrinkled, and his new sonic screwdriver (invasions were also useful- they usually managed to salvage some tech from the ships and even traded with the friendlier aliens, and he'd even managed to get some psychic paper) lost its shine, covered in fingerprints and grime.  It was boring, and the Doctor had always thrived on excitement. Rose, too, although she felt the effects less strongly.

Rose turned onto her street. It was dark, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. It had been a very long day. She was looking forward to seeing the Doctor again, that would surely cheer her up. They'd lived together for four and a half years. For the first three months, she'd lived with her mother, until she got tired of all the nagging. Then she'd lived alone, but she soon discovered that living alone really meant alone. So, she packed up her stuff and moved into his flat. Unlike most people assumed, they weren't together. Rose was very adamant about that- or had been, anyway. Lately, she found herself not minding nearly as much. In fact-

"Rose," she scolded herself, clearing her head of those thoughts. She parked in front of her building, shutting the car door a little harder than necessary. She unlocked the front door and took a look at the couch where he slept (it wasn't her idea, he'd insisted, so she took the bed). The blankets were messed up a bit, but he wasn't there. She put her hand on the cushion- cold. So he hadn't been here in a while. Rose sighed. These days, he was either out or sitting on his couch, flicking through the channels with nothing better to do. She really had been getting worried. Rose made a note to take him to a psychiatrist, just to make sure he wasn't depressed. It was at times like these when she realized just how hard being trapped on earth had been for the Doctor, especially after a few months ago. He'd traded some pretty valuable resources for a vortex manipulator, and gone to another planet. He'd told Rose that she could come with him next time, that he just had to make sure it was actually safe, and then disappeared for four weeks, and showed up on the front step and told her that it was broken beyond repair.

It was good that he was getting out, though. Rose supposed he'd finally found a partner and stopped pining after her. And that's a good thing, she told herself, but she couldn't help her heart drop a little at the thought. He'd always made it very clear to her that he loved her, even after she told him that she couldn't be with him. He's not the Doctor.

She woke up the next morning and noticed his absence immediately. He was usually up before her, and that man really did not know how to keep quiet. Her heart sped up slightly with worry, but she busied herself with making breakfast and tried not to think about him.

He was home when she pulled up to their flat that afternoon. "Hey," he said, glancing up at her briefly, then going back to scrawling notes in Gallifreyan.

She looked over his shoulder. "What's that?"

He smirked at her. "Can't you read?"

He'd tried on multiple occasions to teach her to read the ancient writing of the Time Lords, but she couldn't for the life of her grasp the meaning of the interlocking circles and lines. Rose rolled her eyes. "No."

"It's just a shopping list," he said vaguely, waving his arm.

"Shopping? You?"

"Hey! I help sometimes!" he protested.

"Okay," she chuckled. "Whatever you say." She turned to go to her room when a thought struck her. "Hey, where were you last night?"

The Doctor turned to look at her properly. "Um. Just... errands."

"If you've got, like, a secret girlfriend, you can tell me, you know."

"No! No. It's not... like that."

She raised an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"

"No," he sighed. "It's just- here, how about this. Wait just a week, and I'll tell you. I promise. As a birthday present."

Rose blinked. She almost never remembered her birthday until the day of, when her mother randomly burst into her house with a present and a cake. For another thing, the Doctor almost never got her birthday presents. "Fine. A week. And don't think I won't pester the hell out of you if you're not on schedule."

His eyes laughed. Rose loved it when they did that, it made him look more real. "For some reason, I have no trouble believing that."

It was a long week. A good one, but a long one. The Doctor was more animated than he had been in years, more like he used to be, but he was also gone almost all the time now. It almost felt like Rose was living alone again. She was patient, though.

Finally, the day before her birthday came. He wasn't home. He hadn't been home last night, either. She frowned. It wasn't like him to stay out two nights in a row. She wasn't terribly worried- he could fend for himself, after all- but she missed him. He was her best friend in so many ways, even if he was just a copy. She couldn't deny, though, that he'd become his own person through the years. More empathetic, kinder, less tactless. He still had the same memories of them before being stuck on this planet, of course, but he also had the memories of their time together. He'd become softer, less rough around the edges. Unfortunately, he was still just as sarcastic. All of that did make it easy to forget where he came from, though.

"Don't worry," She said aloud to herself. She shook her head again and went to bed.

Rose woke again in a cold sweat, breathing quickly. She got up, drank a glass of water, and tried to go back to sleep. It wouldn't come. She got another glass of water, but, walking back to bed, she found her feet wouldn't obey her. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the couch, the blankets all rumpled up as usual. She sat down and brought the corner of a blanket to her face. It was plain fleece, but it was drenched in his scent.

Stop being creepy, Rose. You are not dependent on him. But she couldn't bring herself to get up and back to her bed. She breathed in the blanket, and her heart rate slowed. She lay down on the cushions, and let her eyes shut.

"Rise and shine!" There was a loud bang as the Doctor kicked open her door.

"God, what-"

"We have a lot of errands to run. It's a new day! No, wait. It's your birthday!" he shouted, then wheeled around on his heel and strode out the door.

Rose rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. Her bed. She blushed as she remembered falling asleep on his couch. Then, she blushed as she realized what waking up in her own bed meant.

She got ready and leaned against the doorframe. "As I recall, you had something to tell me."

"Ah, but has it been 168 hours yet?" He tapped his wrist, which was conspicuously devoid of a watch.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Do thou bite thy thumb at me, sir?" he growled in mock offense.

She sighed. "No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you sir; but I do bite my thumb, sir."

"Then we have no quarrel." He sonicked the door lock open and disappeared.

Rose started after him. "I'm pretty sure that's not how it goes!" she shouted, catching up with him.

"Ah, old Willy won't mind. A bit of a flirt, though."

She laughed, and he grinned at her. She went a bit pink, and not because of the cold.

It was probably the best day of her life (or so she told herself), aside from maybe the first day she'd met the Doctor. It was dark now, though, and Rose was starting to recognize the roads they were driving on.

"Are we... going to my mum's house?" she asked, frowning.

"Oh, yes. Where else?" He said, glancing at her. Then, he did a double take. "Are you crying?"

Rose sucked in a breath and touched her face. Her hand came away wet.

Suddenly, she felt like she was going to throw up. So many bad feelings came flooding into her at once- sadness, anger, longing. "I... I..." she said weakly.

He pulled over and put a hand on her cheek, looking into her eyes. "Hey. What's the matter?"

Tears overflowed. She buried her head in his coat. "I-it's just that, you t-took me to all of these places," She gave a shaky breath, "the museums, the planetarium, even the restaurant," she said, thinking of the starry ceilings and the Doctor pointing out the wild inaccuracies in the constellations while they ate, "an-and we can never go back! It's all g-gone."

"No, no, it's not gone. It's never gone. Hey, look at me." He added.

She did, her tear-stained face glowing in the car's lights.

"We never, ever have to step one foot in those places again. We just have to visit your mom's house for a second. Then we never have to even look at them anymore."

Rose looked at the floor sheepishly, the drops falling to the carpet. "I'm s-sorry. Thanks."

"You're welcome." He leaned over and pressed his lips between her eyes. She closed them. He only did this on special occasions, and for once, she didn't jump away.

They stayed there for a few seconds. "Are you ready to go inside?" the Doctor murmured against her forehead.

Rose opened the glove compartment, grabbed a napkin, and wiped her face. She gave a little nod and then opened the passenger door. "Let's go."

They rang the bell together. Jackie opened the door a few moments later. "Goodness, it's late. I expected you sooner," she said, a towel in her hands. "Well, I suppose you should come in then. Oh, and Doctor, does this mean you'll stop coming 'round every night? Because I was getting rather tired of having you barge in all the time."

"Here? You've been coming here? To my mum's house?" said Rose incredulously. "Why?"

"You'll see. Well, actually, speaking of seeing, don't."

Rose dutifully shut her eyes.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and lead her into her old room. "Wait there," he said, walking about five feet and then stopping. "Okay. Open your eyes."

She did. And then she almost fainted. Standing in front of her, about three meters tall, was a familiar blue box, the Doctor casually leaning against it.

"So... do you like it?"

She tried to speak, but no sound came out. She tried again, and made a small noise that sounded a bit like a dying hedgehog. She cleared her throat, and the next time she spoke, she actually formed words. "Does... does it... work?"

He laughed. "No, I just robbed twentieth century London of its telephone box. Yes, it works. Almost exactly like the original, although a bit bumpier sometimes."

"Is it..."

"Bigger on the inside?" he cut her off. "Yes. Here, have a tour."

For the first time in five years, Rose Tyler stepped into a TARDIS.

She could tell it was almost an exact replica, although the console looked much less complicated, with maybe three-quarters of the buttons to the original.

"But how did you get... a console?" She asked in disbelief.

"Right. So, did you know that there's an entire planet full of broken TARDIS parts? Well, asteroid technically, but whatever."

"But how-"

"Vortex manipulator, remember?"

Rose stepped out of the box, knowing full well that this was exactly what people who had never seen the TARDIS did. The Doctor followed her.

"Happy birthday."

Rose wheeled around, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him, her eyes closing. However, to her dismay, he pulled away so quickly you'd thought he'd been shocked.

Rose's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry- I mean- I thought- I guess I just- oh God, I'm so-" she stammered, not looking at him. "I didn't mean- if you're not-" she said, meeting his open-mouthed gaze. And the Doctor, for the first time in his living memory, was speechless. Not only that, but he was blushing. He never did that. Ever. But even he couldn't deny that his face was beet-red, his thoughts racing, but going nowhere at all. Still, Rose rambled on.

"I guess I just got caught up- oh, God, I can't even-"

And he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her waist, his head tilting to the left a bit.

She melted into him, forgetting everything she was supposed to have said or apologized for. She forgot everything in her life up until that point, and she especially forgot that she was in her mother's house.

Coincidentally, said mother had just walked in the room to say happy birthday. And then she walked out of the room, smiling a bit to herself.

"I guess nine hundred years of life paid off," she quipped.

He kissed her more deeply, making her forget to be sarcastic.

"You have no idea, Rose, how long..." he murmured.

"Well, I'm here now."

"Yeah," he said listlessly, and they didn't speak again.

Five minutes later, they walked into the kitchen hand in hand.

Jackie was still washing dishes, but glanced over her shoulder when she heard them coming in. She snorted. "Finally."

Rose hit her arm. "Mum!"

This time when he blushed, she got to look at him properly. It may have been the most adorable thing she'd ever seen. He still couldn't speak.

"Come on, you moron. You're going to take me somewhere in the morning, I don't care where. But you," she pointed an accusing finger at him. "You need sleep. And no, you're not taking the couch."

They never came home much after that. The Doctor had built a new bedroom for them in the TARDIS- with two beds, although Rose declared the second one a "guest" bed. They traveled, got new, better parts, almost died several times (when that happened, they had to take breaks from space. Rose lost count of the number of time she reminded him that he couldn't regenerate), but it was a good life. It was a good life.

[kishan-ahuja]

The Sharp Knife || Self-Para

Tagging: Kishan Ahuja Time & Location: March 15th, 2019 @ Night in Boston Word Count: 1,601 Summary: Kishan faces a life altering situation. Side Notes: TW: Car Accident

It shouldn’t have been, but it was the hardest decision of Kishan’s life. He had come to love his time at Turing Academy. Nothing turned out to be what he thought things would be. He met some of his best friends there, other wonderful people, and he was shown something amazing: The Grid. The Grid was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It was exciting, mysterious, and something that could never be replaced. It was almost enough to make him stay at Turing...almost.

When Kishan got the acceptance letter from Columbia University, he would have been an absolutely idiot to reject their offer. When he got the job at the Hayden Planetarium, he knew he’d be a fool to reject that offer. He had already finished his last few papers and lab work before packing everything he could into the car he could barely afford. His Master’s program was done and his research was taking off.

Without his parents’ support, it was going to be hard to afford living in New York, but he knew he’d be alright. What was life without a few challenges here and there? He was thriving in Boston. He would be fine in New York, if not better, especially with his new job at the Hayden Planetarium and American Museum of Natural History. 

What surprised him was that they wanted him to start in a couple of weeks. They wanted him to work there so much that they wanted him there as soon as possible. With his school work done, he figured why not? He had finished his thesis for his Master’s and was only waiting to hear back from some conferences and to defend his thesis. He contacted his sister to stay with her until they found a place large enough for the two of them. For now, sleeping on her couch would do. 

He wanted to leave a note in the computer room explaining everything. Kishan had to leave on such short notice that he couldn’t gather them all together in person and tell them. Of course...he could have just texted them...but this didn’t seem like something to mention over text...not that a letter was much better. He wanted to tell the group how much they meant to him and how he loved being in the Grid. How it was something exhilarating and made him feel like he belonged somewhere after “losing” his own family. He told them that it was a difficult decision to leave them and something as amazing as the Grid. 

But for Kishan, the Grid, as amazing as it was, was not his whole world. He wanted to discover something real and something amazing. He wanted to see the stars and he wanted to share his discoveries with others. The Grid was for Wes and June to figure out. The galaxy and the whole universe was for Kishan. 

He was going to leave a note in the computer room for them...and then he balled up the piece of paper he’d written on and tossed it into the trash can. Maybe it was better for him to just go. He’d gather his things and leave, only to return later and tell them. Elena and Zara knew. Although, they only knew his potential plans, not that he’d been accepted to his dream school and dream job. 

Kishan didn’t know what the future would hold. No one did. Could they publish their findings about the Grid? Make it big and get rich? Create something only seen in science fiction novels? But Kishan’s dream was space exploration...not spending all his time in a video game when real life was what mattered. 

Kishan turned on the engine and started the drive back to New York City. When he returned to the school to gather the last of his things from his apartment with Zara, he would tell them with a note or in person if he could. Yes, that would work. He already made plans to go out with Zara on Monday when he got back to get the last of his things.

Then, he would leave a voicemail for Wes...maybe leave a separate note for Bailey...email Zara some advice on how to get through college...send Javier a playlist to write to...give Riley some of his old art supplies that he’d used to make signs for protests. He would leave a note behind, thanking them, because doing it in person seemed so much harder. And then, he’d leave Turing for good. It was all a perfect plan. A clean break.

He didn’t want a party or some big event. Kishan didn’t want or like that kind of attention, not for this. Having his paper accepted to a conference, breaking ground in a new theory, a birthday, or New Year’s Eve...hose were worth having a party about. Not saying goodbye.

He wasn’t going to be far from the group and Turing if he lived in New York, but he was going to be far too busy and invested in his PhD work and job. It was best to leave the Grid behind and look forward to the future. The future held many possibilities and Kishan couldn’t help but smile as he thought about it. 

As Kishan crossed through an intersection at a stop light near the highway, a truck came barreling towards him. 

The truck should have stopped. 

It had a red light. 

It didn’t.

Kishan tried to swerve out of the way.

It was too late.

Kishan couldn’t even register the pain as the truck rammed into his side of the car. The force crushed him and pushed his vehicle into other cars at the intersection, spinning them out of control. Glass rained down and metal crunched under the pressure.

The car jerked again as it hit another car. He put his hands to his head in a feeble attempt to protect it. He felt blood running down his temple. He felt an intense pain in his shoulder and arm. His ribs ached. His neck was sore.

Just as he was starting to discern what happened to him, another car came barreling towards him and the other cars in the pile up.

Kishan felt a sharp explosion of pain in his neck and there was a blinding white light behind his eyes.

Cops and ambulances arrived at the scene almost immediately. Smoke wafted into the air from the totaled engines. The sirens howled as more first responders sped down the road. Lights were flashing, lighting up the street at night like the Fourth of July. 

Officer Song stepped out of his car and made his way to the scene. Four cars in all were involved. A semi trailer truck against two smaller cars and an SUV. The truck and SUV were hardly damaged it seemed at face value, but the smaller cars sustained far more damage. 

He ducked his head as he went under the caution tape and flagged down one of his colleagues. “What happened here?” he asked. 

Officer Clearwater shook her head. “Witnesses say the truck driver was speeding down to the intersection. He lost control and couldn’t stop and ran into a car pulling through. The car turning had a green light and the truck should have stopped. I’m thinking the guy was drunk, texting, or too tired to drive. We’re waiting now while he’s with the paramedics.” 

“Any casualties?” Officer Song didn’t need to be psychic or a genius to know that no one was walking out of this collision without some sort of injury. The real question? Was anyone killed in the accident?

“Other than bumps, bruises, and maybe some broken noses and fractured wrists, paramedics say the drivers in the truck and SUV should be okay. A driver in another car is stable. They’re all being taken to the hospital to be checked out. One death though. He was dead on arrival.” Officer Clearwater reviewed her notes with the description of all the victims. “He’s about six foot 2 inches, lean build. Mid-twenties. Dark hair. Probably of Indian descent. License says his name is Kishan Ahuja. The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place it.”

“I can,” Officer Song replied with a heavy sigh. The kid was young and an unfortunate victim of a senseless accident. He had a lot ahead of him but it was all cut short by a sharp knife. “His parents own a company in San Francisco. There were a bunch of articles a few years back about them disowning him.”

Officer Clearwater cleared her throat and bit the inside of her cheek. “Do you think they’ll come here to...”

“I don’t know, but we’ll see who his emergency contacts are first and then notify the next of kin.”

“A card in his wallet says his emergency contact is Tara Ahuja,” Officer Clearwater told him. 

“I guess you start with calling Tara and I’ll call his parents and see if they’ll answer,” Officer Song replied. He walked over towards the center of the accident and watched as evidence was collected and photos were taken of the scene. He turned his head and watched as the paramedics zipped up the body bag and hoisted the body onto a gurney. 

Officer Song looked up at the sky, taking in a deep breath, something he always did to calm his nerves whenever there was a death. He stared up at the stars, but the lights in the city were too bright to see them. The officer faced forward after a moment and then made his way towards the truck driver. 

It was just another night on the job.

[ambisinistous-blog]

okay but i saw this and had a out of body experience

- Danny starts to carve figures made of ghost ice blue quartz like rock that for some reason is cold, under the guise of an artistically inclined meta,

- maybe he’s strapped for cash, maybe its just a passion project

- Anyway he starts selling figures, and one day  he’s looking in the comments/reviews of his store/etsy/sumshit one especially some random citizen trying to guess what the material is

- The customer bought a wonder woman figure. It’s Just Ice he thinks to himself,

-Wait, Holy shit.

- And so his greatest collection/line of figures was made “The Just Ice League”

- (Christened so after putting a message on his website about the materials for concerned customers)

- Sam blames the fact he was floaty from bloodloss at the time

- danny thinks he’s a comedic genius

- Then money starts rolling in,

-Like REALLY rolling in 

- It was all commissions for wonder women statues. hundreds of them. All shapes and poses, different styles, keychain minis

- At first danny is concerned, was this some kind of pervert? As a fellow hero (less active now after some treaties with local ghosts-thank god) he had been subject to some uncomfortable attention himself, and in no way wanted to contribute to making someone else go through such an experience.

- But the customer never asks for revealing or risque figures, only triumphant poses and battle scenes. 

- Did he mention the cash was also REALLY good.

-he likes to make sure emergency funds for both himself, Jazz, dani, sam, tucker, mr. Lancer and others were always at the ready and its nice to have some pocket money to treat his friends and buy sweet, sweet, astronomy textbooks

We flip to the other side of our story, Dick heard about it from wally who heard about it from his uncle barry’s bi-monthly tea (re: spar in any area were there were snacks, he never really understood the flashes dynamics with their rogues) with captain cold about a talented meta ice carver

dick looks into it and discovers the Just Ice League set figures, and naturally, as a connoisseur of elite puns himself he thinks its the best ever

He buys a wonder woman figure for Jason. Other than noting that the craftsmanship really was good he thought nothing of it.

Two weeks later jason’s busting down the door to his apartment (literally mind you, goddamit Jason) and demanding to know where Dick bought the figure. Dick gives him the link to the website.

Soon every corner of everywhere has a miniature.

Batmobile? Wonder Woman. 

Bathrooms at the manner?  Diana Prince in your face

Inside of private apartement and in strung from light posts around gotham? The Princess of Themyscira.  

Everyone assumes it to be an elaborate prank from Jason, and after seeing the horror on Bruce’s face from a realistic bust of the Daughter of Zeus herself in the medicine cabinet (allergy season in gotham is hell, goddamit ivy) well no hesitates on joining in.

No one really notices anything special about the sculptures, until 6 months later when they cant remember the last time Jason had an episode

When they try to look into the Website the BatComputer gets a virus so bad that any time the letter “A” was used 30 orders for bagels were placed

Eventually danny comes to Gotham for an artisan fair that coincides nicely with a new exhibit at the Gotham Planetarium.

So, his sculptures are famous in Gotham apparently? (few buildings in low income areas have proper AC units and Gotham summers are a bitch so most homes have taken to setting up small shrines of the figures that radiate cool air), Now that he thought of it he had been getting more requests for Local Gotham vigilantes, including less widely known bats like Signal

and then red hood shows up and OH. Now he knows why the Wonder Woman fanatic needed so many sculptures. The corrupted ectoplasm in this poor shmuck’s system seemed to have almost flushed out fully.

(Thank god it wasn’t a pervert)

Just to be safe he decides to give this guy some snow from the Far Frozen as a cleanser. But a handful of snow would be weird. Danny looks in his fridge, huh he’s got some cherry cough syrup...

He gives the guys a snow cone with his purchase (wonder woman of course), the guy stares at it for a second

FUCK! SHIT! who the fuck randomly gives out snow cones?!?! that was so much sketchier than loose snow

The guy downs it with only a moment of hesitation. WTF Wasn’t this Gotham? Capital of dont trust strangers?

Maybe this guy was a pervert after all?

As the guy finishes the cone he tips his head back towards the sun, impercievably tense shoulders dropping, a smile comes over his face and he takes in a deep, unhindered breath for what feels like the first time in forever, the blinding rage and rot, his brain finally free from the pit’s insidious roiling, and fear he realizes now

As the stranger has apparently has a come to jesus moment Danny makes the executive decision to Get The Fuck Out Of Dodge

The hustle and bustle of the market had packed itself up and moved away as soon as redhood came into view (The people rather liked Redhood now, but a reputation for blood was hard to lose, and if anyone would be able to pragmatically coexist unstable individuals it was the people of Gotham. They loved their Trash Raccon Anti-hero but they knew better than to try and pet the feral beasts that ruled gotham alleyways and trashcans.) so as soon as Danny realized what a goddam disgrace he was to any form of being capable of civilized interaction he packed up his tent, shoved all of his stuff into his chest cavity, and resolved to spend the rest of the trip invisible

When he gets home he makes another trade with technus to up the security on his website

Jason just stands there for a while. He decides to go to therapy. It helps alot. His family was so fucked up. He loved them though. (Yah see that Batman and Co?  He was fucking in touch with himself, he had the fucking balls to let himself be vulnerable. Y’all’s emotional constipated asses could never) 

He absolutely T-Poses and lords his good mental health and, *shivers* healthy coping methods over the rest of the bats and mocks them relentlessly

Alfred is so proud he cries and joins in any time 

Submitted Prompts #1

Danny meets the justice league. Uses his powers to make small statues of them, holds the statues up

"Behold," he says. "the Just Ice League."

[in78weeks-blog]

August 17-19, 2018: Salt Lake City

A couple months ago, Jesse Ma and I spontaneously agreed to do a road trip sometime in the summer. He’s living in Sacramento and I obviously live in Denver. Right in the middle of those two cities is Salt Lake City. We both had never been to Salt Lake so, why not?

To be honest though, I didn’t think the trip was actually going to happen. We picked the weekend a couple months ago but hadn’t really talked about details since. Even the week leading up to our trip, we didn’t end up making any concrete plans. But, I texted him at 6pm on Thursday saying I was leaving Denver and he was already on his way. Alright, it’s on!

The drive took us 8/9 hours each, so we both started driving on Thursday night and decided to meet on Friday morning. I picked a cute coffee shop right in Salt Lake City called Rose Establishment where I sipped on black coffee while reading a book.

Once Jesse arrived, we decided to wander around the city. It was a workday so the city was in a somber, but that made the experience of walking around so much more interesting. We were shocked with how much the Mormon church influenced the architecture, culture, and population of the city. I’ve never seen religion be such a prominent factor in a city - even if you wanted to escape it, the church was interwoven into the fabric of this city.

We found ourselves playing around at the planetarium, walking around the very impressive international peace garden, and ended our evening by going to a comedy show.

We started out our Saturday by driving up Cottonwood Canyon and hiked up to Donut Falls - a hike recommended by the cashier at a little boutique we visited the day before.

A quick 1.5 mile hike up and a steep rock scramble led us to a really cool waterfall which is named donut falls because the waterfall feeds through an almost perfect circular hole in the side of a sheet of slanted rock. The water pools under the rock and flows out through an arc that became the doorway into the mysterious donut pool. 

Antelope Island State Park was the next stop on our trip. It was an hour and a half away from Cottonwood Canyon, but I loved every minute of the drive. The canyon was breathtaking and noticeably different from any of the canyons I have seen in Colorado. They had similarities in their characteristics - sharp rock faces, a sparse scattering of trees, and a creek leading the way of least resistance up the canyon. The main difference though was that the rock here appeared more abrasive than the stone towers of Colorado.

The drive onto the Island was also such an interesting experience. A long stretch of road on a tiny strip of land that lead to our final destination. Since we were visiting in the heat of summer, a lot of the coastline was dried up so we didn’t get see the water come up to the edge of the land strip, but it was interesting to see the layer of dried salt line both sides of the road. It reminded me of the long drive to Key West I did with my mom back in April. And soon enough, we arrived at Antelope Island!

We did a short and steep hike to the highest point on the island which put the size of Salt Lake in perspective. From here we could see the long stretch of road that led back to the mainland, and around us in all directions was the Great Salt Lake. From this position, we could see the streaks of salt that were left behind from the evaporating water. What a strange experience to be standing on an island in the middle of a salty lake surrounded by beautiful mountains.

We continued driving along the east coast of the island to find some bison. To our surprise, the bison seemed to be comfortable with the people and were not phased by our presence.

After cracking far too many puns about bison and antelopes, we headed back into town.

On our drive into town, I heard a terrible clanking sound coming from my car. Rolling down my window, I realized that the sound was coming from my back driver’s side tire. I pulled over to the nearest parking lot and found a bolt stuck in my tire. 

We quickly googled for tire repair shops in the area and before long, we were making a pit stop at Les Schwab to get my car looked at. The mechanic said that it would take an hour to get my car into the shop and the tire fixed so Jesse and I made the quick decision to walk over to the shopping mall next door. We wandered around the mall and before we knew it, we were being called to pick up the car.

I’m so thankful that Jesse was so calm and understanding through the whole debacle! I felt bad that we had to put our plans on hold for an hour or two to take care of my car, but he was incredibly patient and flexible. I’m glad it was a reasonably fast and free fix! (Pro Tip: Les Schwab doesn’t charge for patching tires!)

We got back to Salt Lake City and decided to go to a highly rated Mexican restaurant in town. You know it’s a good restaurant when you have a 45-minute wait for a table for two. We stuffed our faces with delicious Mexican flavors, and were too full to do anything else. We went back to the AirBnb and called it a night.

We woke up the next morning with the sad realization that we only had a couple of hours of vacation left. I think this feeling is one of the purest feelings anyone can experience - the emotional limbo of being happy about the fun you’ve had and disappointed about it being over. You start to become familiar with a foreign place and prepare your heart for the sad realization that you will probably never return.

What better way to end our trip than breakfast at the best breakfast spot in town! I filled up on veggies and Jesse got a taste of the famous biscuits and limeade, and before long our tummies were full and the clock was running out. 

Since we both had long drives ahead of us and had to be ready for work the next day, we ended our trip at 11am to begin the long trek home. Since I don’t mind driving late into the night, I decided to take advantage of my proximity to the desert and make a pit stop in Moab before heading back to Denver. Last time I was out here with friends from The Well church, a couple of folks went and hiked “Corona Arch”. I’ve heard this is one of the coolest hikes in the Moab area so I decided to give it a go! 

I’ll be completely honest, I got a little lost and went off trail a little bit, but it turned out to be a really cool photo-op. I walked along the train track that followed the canyon that housed Corona Arch. 

I discovered that I had gone off trail by identifying the people n the distance next to the Corona Arch (I spy the Corona Arch in my Train Track picture). I followed the tracks back to the trailhead and finally made my way up the actual trail to the Arch.

The sun was setting in the most perfect way to provide a view of the canyons through the arch. Spending some time letting my ears adjust to the silence of the desert, the sound of the wind passing through the arch became my only distraction.

Moab has a really special place in my heart. I visited the desert for the first time only a couple of years ago, but in the last year, I’ve had the privilege of coming out to Moab three different times.

The rock tells a story of persistence and determination. It convinces us of the power of the earth and reminds us of it’s capabilities. I can see the motion of the earth as it’s intricate history has been carved into these spires of stone.

I’m humbled in more ways than I can describe. I’m humbled at the power of the natural earth - of the wind, water, stone, fire. I’m humbled by the creator who gives power to the elements. And finally I’m humbled at my humanness in the midst of great power. In moments where I feel weak, I am reminded that God created us to rule over all these things, and when I’m inflated with pride, I’m reminded that I can be toppled simply by a strong gust of wind.

The desert has a special place in my heart. There’s many miles of it out there to explore, so I better put on my Chacos and get walking.

[chapitre7]

Something New, In You and Me

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo [달의 연인-보보경심 려] fanfiction

Childhood Friendship/First Love AU

Wang So/Hae Soo

Mostly she wanted to discover what it felt like to jump through her window and into her neighbor’s like she was in an action film.

In all the rehearsed attempts in her head, she made a perfect leap, arms thrown back and legs tucked in, never touching the window frame, nothing causing her fall. It was a leap of freedom, of adventure, and of procrastination of her homework. She jumped in all of her dreams, but in reality, the couple who used to live next door used the room for their toddler and they were always so anxious when the child cried that she didn’t have the heart to jump the few feet between their houses, into the kid’s room, and scare him half to death. So she just patiently waited for the day that would surely come and she practiced, climbing two, three steps to her classroom on the second floor before someone caught her and scolded her. So she dreamed of flying.

The boy on the other side after her successful jump, the one staring at her like she was a teleporting time traveler or a ninja or a wuxia main character, was just a bonus.

“What the hell!” He shouted just as her feet hit the floor and she stood straight, arms stretched and open wide like gymnast’s.

“Whoa!” She covered her mouth and looked behind her and calculated the distance she had jumped all the way from her room. “It really worked!”

“Who the hell are you?” Asked the occupant of the room, removing his earbuds and setting his phone aside. She whirled around to face him, her pigtails curling in the air, and gave him a big grin.

“Hi, new neighbor! I’m Hae Soo, pleased to meet you!”

She extended her hand but the boy just looked between her and the window.

“This... This isn’t even trespassing. Burglary?”

Hae Soo snorted, wrinkling her nose.

“I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor I could visit through the window like in an American film.”

“In American films, usually they climb in, consensually, using a ladder, they don’t jump through windows like in Matrix.”

“Well, I like Keanu Reeves.”

Soo shrugged, sitting on a nearby box and propping her chin on her palms. The boy scoffed, crossed his arms, and raised his eyebrows at her, probably expecting an explanation or an exit, but all Soo asked was,

“What’s your name?”

“You’re sitting on my books.”

She shot up like her butt got burned, crouched, and looked between him and the box with eyes somehow wider than they had been when she popped into his life.

“Can I see? What kind of books do you like?”

“Get out.”

She pouted.

“But I just got here.”

“Uninvited.” Every syllable got stuck between his teeth. “Now get out.”

Soo stood up, pout still on her lips, shoulders low and upper body curved into an almost upside down “j”, and slumped towards the window.

“Through the door, please.”

She deflated even more, shoes scraping against his wooden floor, and her hand was on the knob when she heard an exasperated,

“Oh, good God, you’re worse than my brother, just open the damn box.”

She was back by the box in a flash, tearing the lid open, and her eyes sparkled at the fantasy titles.

“Whoa... This is so much better than the library at school. What else have you got here?”

She turned her head to him and noticed he had let himself fall on his bed and was lying on his side, looking at her with disinterest.

“Clothes.”

Hae Soo rolled her eyes.

“Besides that.”

“Video-games.”

“Really? Can I come over and play sometimes?”

He propped his head up on one hand.

“Don’t you have any?”

Sitting on his floor with his books in her hands, Soo shook her head.

“Nah. We can’t afford one right now.”

“You could buy a used console.”

“Dad can’t afford these things because mom’s sick.”

“Oh.”

He let his head fall back onto the mattress.

“But she’s recovering!” She said cheerfully, turning back to the boxes, biting on her lower lip. “What’s in that long box over there?”

“My telescope.”

Soo gasped.

“You have a telescope?!”

She ran back to the window as he spoke.

“Yeah, my dad gave it to me a few years back.”

“But...” She pouted again. “It’s really hard to see the sky from here.”

The boy sat up and smiled the first of many smiles, pointing one finger to the ceiling.

“There’s an attic.”

Soo grinned, thinking of all the stars one could possibly see on cloudless summer nights. Leaning slightly forward through the boy’s window, she closed her eyes and let the early autumn breeze caress her skin, and when she opened them again, she saw the light in her own kitchen had turned on. Her parents were finally home from a doctor’s appointment and although she was positive they would have good news, fear still clutched at her stomach.

“My uncle took me to the planetarium when I was little.”

“So like, last year.”

“Hey!”

She crossed her arms and glared at him, more out of reflex than of any hard feeling, but the boy just smirked.

“We haven’t been able to go back since, but I really, really miss it... Is the telescope anything like it?”

He sighed, back leaning against the wall.

“On a smaller scale. Your memory’s probably better. A lot of things are better in memory.”

Soo nodded and hummed, her eyes darting back to her own room, just a few feet away. Familiar, pastel pink walls peeking through the small open spaces between her movie posters. She used to have friends visit, used to have sleepovers, but they stopped coming when her mother got sick and they didn’t come back when she started getting better.

“I should go back.”

She placed her foot on the windowsill and he immediately shouted, “THROUGH THE DOOR!”

Soo blinked.

“Oh. Right. My mom could see me.”

She bowed to him as he glared, humbly scooting away, but again she paused with her hand on the doorknob, almost as if she wasn’t really a door person.

“Will you tell me what high school is like next time?”

He seemed genuinely surprised at the shyness of the question.

“Why? Are you scared?”

She scoffed, no real emotion behind it.

“I’m just... Curious, that’s all.”

“When do you start?”

“In two years.”

There was a little twinkle in his eyes when he smiled evilly at her.

“I have so many stories.”

She rolled her eyes and walked out but her head popped back up in only a couple of seconds.

“Your name.”

The boy with the black hair and the lonely back; the boy who would walk to school alone and come back alone and stay in the dark alone; the boy whose parents never seemed to visit his room; this boy she had watched for a week and who hadn’t even unpacked his things yet, gave her an amused, lopsided smile.

“So. Wang So.”

Soo gave him a thumbs-up and then waved.

“Nice to meet you, So!”

She hopped back to her house and when she told her parents about her new friend, she talked of his books and gesticulated about the infinity of the night sky she couldn’t wait to see from his attic.

  He was in his last year by the time she got to her first, busy with college entrance exams and extracurricular activities, and she was more than a little upset that he couldn’t spend much time with her. She got even more upset when she passed him by the stairs once and he didn’t acknowledge her.

It wasn’t until her first lunch time in her brand new high school life, when she sat under a big tree with a literature book in her hands, that he finally paid her back and scared the living lights out of her by jumping down from his hidden spot between the vivid green leaves, landing only a few feet away from her.

“What the hell!” The now fifteen-year-old Soo shouted, scandalized by the grin on his face.

“Now you understand.”

“...You’ve been counting down the days to this moment, haven’t you? How many plans did you make?”

“I lost count.”

Wang So then proceeded to unceremoniously lie down on the grass, demanding her lap as a pillow, and blinked up sweetly at her. The boy she met such a long time ago — for there is such a paradoxical time leap between our pre-teen years and our teenage years that makes it feel like an entire lifetime — was almost nowhere to be seen under the longer bangs and the happy eyes, eyes that in those days made her entire core flutter in giggles. The boy who had talked about memories being better than the present made his own present full of stars with her by his side.

She placed a hand on his chest and he took it in his.

“What are you listening to?” She asked. He took out one of his earbuds and offered it to her, just as he had done many times in two years.

“A new audiobook. There are wizards.”

Soo widened her eyes, clicked the tip of her shoes together, and placed the earbud he offered in her ear. Even when the bell rang, they still lingered for a little more, just a little more, sharing stories and warmth, enveloped in the best memory of first, requited love.

Once upon a time, Hae Soo took a leap from her window, thinking more of romance movies than action movies.

But she never told him that.

[startofamoment]

B99 + Childhood Friends AU: in which Jake attends each of Amy’s eleven birthdays at the planetarium.

6 year old Jake alternates between pulling little Amy's pigtails and running around exhibits with her older brothers. 

He tires himself out and falls asleep halfway through the afternoon planetarium space show. Mrs. Santiago has to carry him around the museum for half an hour after that, until he's awake enough to walk around on his own.

7 year old Jake makes it his personal mission to win every single party game that year. Any other kid might cry over how competitive (i.e. mean) Jake is being, but Amy stands her ground and manages to beat him in nearly every game. 

In the end, Jake's the one who's in tears. Karen has to pick him up early because he's inconsolable after losing Pin The Ring On Saturn.

8 year old Jake is on his best behavior through the morning (partly because Karen gave him a lengthy talking-to on the car ride over, but also because he’s been kind of subdued overall since Roger left a few months prior). He does go ham on lunch, especially when they bring out Amy’s blue cake. 

Mrs. Santiago has to cradle him in her lap during the space show because he has too much of a tummy ache. (The Santiago brothers make fun of him for at least a week after that, but Amy defends him with her life and also sends him a Get Well Soon! card.)

9 year old Jake has just discovered Star Wars and spends most of the party trying to find planet models of Hoth and Tatooine. While the other kids just laugh at him, Amy informs him that Star Wars is both fictional and inaccurate then proceeds to tell him about how awesome the real universe actually is. 

The two of them unknowingly break off from the group at some point because Amy’s too engrossed in telling him about the International Space Station, and Jake’s just hanging on to every word she says. They’re officially lost for a whole 12 minutes, but Mrs. Santiago eventually finds them in the full-scale space shuttle replica, laughing and pretending to be space pilots slash jedi. 

Given last year’s "I Thought I Lost You Between Mars and Jupiter And I Didn’t Know How To Tell Mrs. Peralta” fiasco (along with every single Jake-related mess the years before), Mrs. Santiago assigns her oldest sons to make sure the 10 year old boy does not get into any trouble. 

Luis (who is visiting from college) and Miguel (who is a high school senior) keep a close watch on Jake throughout the party, which just means getting front row seats to their little sister listing off her favorite constellations and being the happiest she’s ever been.

Out of sheer boredom (because they’ve pretty much memorized all the exhibits at this point), they start betting on when Jake and Amy will get together. (”When Amy’s 11, for sure. I mean, have you seen them?!” “Yes, Miguel, I have seen them. They’re children.”) 

Amy’s other older brothers eventually join in on the betting pool. (The younger Santiago boys are excluded because they only have candy and spare change to offer.) 

11 year old Jake puts extra thought into coming up with a gift for Amy. (He settles on a sudoku book and a handwritten note with only one spelling error.) It costs him two weeks’ worth of allowance, but it’s all worth it when her face lights up upon opening his present. At the last minute, he sneaks a kiss on her cheek before running off to where Karen said she would pick him up.

One of Amy’s brothers sees this and immediately updates the others on their group e-mail chain. Miguel demands his winnings, but they refuse to pay up since the two technically aren’t dating yet. (A detailed list of conditions is made to avoid future confusion.)

Mr. Santiago overhears his sons talking about their bet and makes time to attend Amy’s 12th birthday party and meet (i.e. evaluate) Jake himself. (Victor had been busy with police work the years before but had always made it up to his daughter one way or another.) Jake sticks with one of the Santiago brothers the whole time, disappointing literally everyone. 

He does give Amy a shy smile on the way out, and his birthday card (with no spelling errors) makes her entire week.

Another girl schedules her pool party on the same day as Amy’s 13th birthday party, so only her brothers and Jake show up to the planetarium. She’s really sad at first, but then Jake cracks a joke and makes her smile. 

They get permission to roam the museum on their own and eventually end up in the space shuttle replica Mrs. Santiago found them playing in ages ago. The twinkling lights from the fake control panel somehow make Amy look prettier than ever (which should be impossible because she’s already way prettier than everyone else, even Jenny Gildenhorn), and Jake musters up the courage to kiss her for realz. 

The kiss (her first!!) is way too short because her little brother Alex spots them and promptly yells, “I’M TELLING MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” before running off.

Manny is so sure this means he’s won the betting pool, but the two still don’t start dating because Amy freaks out and Jake is convinced that her not doing anything means she’s not interested. 

A week before Amy’s 14th birthday, Mrs. Santiago asks her whether she wants to invite everyone or just Jacob to the planetarium. With her ears and cheeks burning, she stammers out: “Just Jake.” (Jake doesn’t realize he’s the only guest until Karen drops him off and he sees Amy sitting alone on the front steps of the museum.) 

He spends a good half hour wondering if this is a date / what any of this means, but his questions are answered when Amy casually slips her hand in his and laces their fingers together. 

They kiss again at Their Spot™ in the space shuttle... and in the back row of the space show, and behind the model of the moon, and on the bench outside the museum.

They officially start dating a few weeks after, and Mrs. Santiago wins the betting pool.

For her 15th birthday, Amy asks Jake to give her a guided tour of the museum. (”I’ve spent every birthday since we were 9 just talking your ear off! I want to see if you’ve actually learned anything.”) 

Jake, of course, spent those visits to the museum just gazing at Amy with heart eyes and thinking about how smart and pretty she is, so he ends up just pulling shit out of thin air.  

He does get the facts about Amy’s favorite star right, and that earns him a make out sesh through the entire space show. (They almost get kicked out, but the manager knows them and loves that they’re finally together.) 

16 year old Jake convinces the employees to let him turn one of the staff lounges into an “exclusive exhibit.” He leads Amy into the dark room, where one wall is covered in glow in the dark stars spelling out: “PROM?”

She rolls her eyes because Jesus Christ, her boyfriend is so Extra, and- “Jake, you didn’t have to do any of this. Did you seriously think I would say no?”

They pass by the gift shop to splurge on commemorative memorabilia since it’s her last birthday at the planetarium for the foreseeable future. (She expects to be out of state scouting out colleges during her next birthday.) 

Years later, Jake takes her back to the planetarium for old time’s sake. At the end of the space show, the constellations move across the dome ceiling to form: “Will you marry me?” (This would’ve cost Jake big bucks but the museum board members were moved by his story of what the planetarium meant to him.)

At this point, Amy’s not even sure she should still be surprised by how Extra her boyfriend is. 

She says yes. 

HI I’M BOTH SORRY AND NOT SORRY THAT THIS LIST WAS SO LONG. Also, major props to @the-pontiac-bandit, @peraltiagoisland, @stardustsantiago, @elsaclack, and @proofthatihaveaheart for listening to me yell about this AU!!! ♡♡♡

[charis-chan]

Nerd Sisters

Beta love to @reinakonanofate. She’s the one that makes everyone able to read my stuff 💕💕💕.

After the last one.. y’all deserved some love between the sisters.

Read on Ao3

“If you touch that, you will die.”

Your hand stops, just an inch from its destination, frozen.

You turn back to Alex and gape.

And you frown.

“Alex!” you whine.

Because your dummy sister is wearing her ‘I gotcha’ smirk.

“Sorry, Kar, sorry,” she chuckles. “You’re just too easy sometimes.”

You pout. You’d like to point out that if Eliza were around she would smack Alex’s head upside down for making Kara panic. But, you have been living with the Danvers for a year now, you have learnt that bringing up Eliza will make Alex shut down.

Even when it’s thanks to Eliza that you are here in the first place.

“You are mean,” you chose to say instead, turning your nose up to her.

Alex sticks her tongue out to you. “Come, Alf,” she says with that little grin that’s reserved just your you. “Let’s buy our tickets and then you can touch anything you’d like.”

You let Alex tug at your interwoven hands towards the Museum’s entrance. Eliza is busy all day with lectures down at Boston University and she gave Alex enough money to last you for a day of activities, even when the money came with a firm reminder that Alex is to take good care of you and to make sure you don’t stand out that much.

You still don’t get why Eliza insists on ‘reminding’ Alex to care for you. Alex cares for you a plenty already… she no longer hangs around with her friends, she doesn’t go surfing as much as she used to, she feeds you breakfast every morning and makes sure to pack your lunch for school, she sits with you every night to do homework and she’s always there to tuck you in at night.

Since Jeremiah’s death, it feels like all of Alex’s free time is spent making sure you’re well taken care of… and most of her not-so-free time too.

She always does everything in her power to teach you and care for you, so, when Eliza’s busy work landed the three of you in Boston for two weeks, Alex decided that the first stop you needed to make is the Museum of Science.

“It’ll be fun. You can see how some things work here and it is child-friendly, so you won’t get bored,” Alex said the night before, once Eliza was asleep on one of the room’s bed and you two were huddled together in the other, under the covers.

“I’m not a child anymore,” you protested.

Alex smiled. “You are to me, little alien.”

So, that’s how you find yourselves at the Museum’s entrance a minute after they open their doors.

“Two full-price tickets, please,” Alex asks politely to the old man at the booth. “Oh, and add the planetarium entrance cost too, please.”

He looks at you two and smiles with a little mischievous glint to his eye as he readies the tickets. “Aren’t you two supposed to be at school?”

You frown. Yeah, it’s Monday and it’s the middle of the semester, but why would he care?

“Oh, no, sir,” Alex says, ever so politely, giving him the necessary money. You know she is annoyed, though, with how her hand is clenching yours. “Mom has work and we had to tag along for the ride. We’re not from around here.”

The old man nods. “Well, have fun you two,” he says handing the tickets and change to your sister. “The planetarium’s shows are listed in there.”

“Thank you, sir,” Alex says and with a little squeeze of your hand, you’re reminded you have to speak to him too.

“Thank you, sir,” you parrot. “Have a lovely day.”

Social cues, just like this one, are still hard to follow. Back at home one didn’t really speak with anyone if they were strangers and interactions like the one with the booth man were strictly business-like. No greetings, no goodbyes, no good manners as Alex puts it.

It’s weird having to be nice to people you don’t know.

“Do you want to hold onto this?” Alex asks you once you have passed the entrance point. She is offering the change the man gave her. “You can buy us a drink later.”

You are not allowed to use money yet. Understanding how it works is still hard for you and you have come close to losing what Eliza called a fortune twice already. Alex said it was closer to a hundred, but you still don’t get if a hundred is much or not. You are not used to carrying coins and bills around. Besides, only Alex has the patience to let you sort out the numbers and the exchange values in your head before you try paying for something …vendors at Midvale are too impatient and too baffled by your inability to use money that they refuse to sell you anything unless you have come with the exact amount of your purchase already counted.

But, Alex insists the more you use money the easier it will get. So, you put your palm up and receive the money. “You will help, right?” You ask her, just to be sure.

Alex rolls her eyes and the familiar sight of it it’s so comforting. “What kind of question is that? Of course, I’ll help. I can’t have you buying me Coke.”

You smile, wide, warmed by her teasing. “Pepsi is nasty.”

“Says the girl that puts pineapple on her pizza.”

“Says the girl who puts Nutella on her bacon.”

“Touché.” Alex laughs, tugging you deeper into the building. “Come on, Kar, we have much to see and so little time to do it.”

“...we have all day?”

“Ah, you, innocent girl… we’ll be spending at least two days here.”

“Oh.”

XxXxX

The exhibits are amazing and you have so much fun interacting with everything that you could get close to. You liked the Hall of Human Life, but sadly you couldn’t contribute any data to it.

You made Alex donate, though, so at least that’s that.

Learning all about the transportation systems and machines humans have had over the years, was amazing. Alex drives, yes, and she’s teaching you how to behind Eliza’s back, but a car is so complicated and so, so, so, frail… seeing all the ancestors of Alex’s beaten up truck made you have a better idea of how far humans have really come.

Similar to it, Mathematica helped you understand a little bit more of the rudimentary thought process humans have in order to explain science. One of the easier subjects for you to learn, but at the same time one of the more complex to wrap your head around, math is the one subject that Alex spends the most time teaching you. The exhibition was a nice way of re-learning some things Alex has shown you already and it’s always nice to

The Natural Mysteries exhibit was fun too. Playing with rocks, sand and dirt made you remember Krypton and, while it was really different, it made you feel at home for a little bit.

But, seeing Alex making a face at having to drink from your shared Coke, maybe feeling like home wasn’t due to the sand and rocks, but due the girl sitting across you.

“What?” she asks. “Do I have something on my face?”

If she were any other person, you would be a little taken aback by her comment. You have come to learn that particular phrase is mocking and meant to make you feel bad. It’s used by the kids at school to sneer at how you often get lost in thought and how, just as often, you end up staring at someone during one of your daydreams.

Like now.

But, this is Alex.

Alex who is your best friend, your sister. Who enjoys being with you and who loves teaching you.

Alex, who is your protector, and your rock.

Alex, who also always manages to stain her face with anything and everything …and, yep, she is sporting an ink line on her left cheek, probably made by the pen she used to submit her information at the Hall of Human Life.

Hence the question. She always asks you that specific question with honesty.

“A little bit of ink,” you say, pointing to your own cheek. “Right here.”

“Damn.” She rubs at her cheek and she only manages to get her skin red with the friction. “Did I take if off?”

She looks ridiculous. The long hours walking around and her engagement in every activity you have done, has made a mess of her ponytail and her cheek is as red as the sweater she is wearing. And she didn’t manage to erase the ink.

“Yeah, it’s gone.”

Alex sighs and takes another sip of the Coke. “Ugh. Nasty.”

“You don’t have to drink it, you know?”

“And have you drink it all? No. Remember the last time you had that much sugar.”

You shiver. Yeah, you remember.

“C’mon, Alf. The planetarium show is gonna start soon.”

You nod, eager, and take her offered hand. You’ve been sitting and resting – in Alex’s case – for the last twenty minutes and you are getting a little bored.

“Just remember, we can leave at any time. Okay?”

You nod, this time solemn. Alex always reminds you that she won’t get mad if you decide to leave or stop doing something suddenly. You fidget with your glasses. “I’ll be fine, Lexie. Don’t worry.”

She scrunches up her nose. Uh, she has some ink there too. “Don’t call me that.”

You smirk, letting your sister present your tickets. You wait until you’ve entered the space to answer. “But I love Lexie!”

“Don’t, Kara.”

You’re about to pout at her and make your eyes water and tease her some more when you discover what’s a planetarium. ~Oh, Rao…~

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

“This… This…”

“Come, little alien. The show will start in five minutes. We need to find seats.”

You let her lead you around, but your eyes can’t leave the images that are shown above you.

You feel your eyes water, but these are no fake tears. Not like the ones you were ready to pour for Alex a moment before.

“We can leave whenever you want.”

“I-I know…”

XxXxX

Alex’s arms are around you as they have been for most of the last hour. The tears are still dripping down and you sniffle pathetically, your eyes still fixated to the images around you.

She doesn’t talk, she doesn’t try to move. She simply hugs you and combs your hair with her fingers, bearing all your weight on her chest.

In moments like this, you are so grateful she’s taller than you, you can easily against her and she doesn’t mind it one bit.

“Alex?” your voice is rough. Your throat hurts.

“Yes, little alien?”

“… can we come back tomorrow?”

You feel her smile against your temple. “We have two weeks, Kara… we can come back every day if you want. We can come back next summer too. And next winter… and every long weekend if you want.”

You take a deep breath and finally tear your eyes away from the stars and planets above you, and you fix them on Alex. On Alex’s honest smile and shiny eyes.

On the understanding reflected in them… on the care… on the love.

“I love you, Alex,” you whisper against her neck, closing your eyes. This is the first time you’ve voiced this.

Alex tensed under you and you’re ready to pull away, to apologize. It’s too soon, you’re still a stranger. You’re still that brat that came into her life and turned it upside down.

But.

Her arms squeeze you tight, tighter than they’ve ever hugged you. “And I love you too, Kara. I love you too.”