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#BUT OH ITS SO FUN TO BE UNLABELABLE

luveline · 11 months

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𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 | 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐨’𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚

the tension between you and miguel rises to an all-time high —a ficlet featuring a grumpy miguel and a flirty, distracted spider-girl. pre across the spider-verse but contains spoilers. fem!reader, 1k

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Miguel has asked you multiple times to leave him alone while he's working. The strike force can't run itself (or so he claims —Margo and Lyla seem plenty capable, in your eyes) and he needs time and solitude to organise the protection of canon events, and—

"Blah, blah, blah," you say, dropping your voice to a soft, teasing melody as you skirt around his frankly audaciously jacked chest.

"Don't blah, blah, blah me," Miguel says. You'd be intimidated if you weren't so happy to mess with him. "I'm not kidding around."

Okay, maybe you are intimidated. That just makes messing with him more fun.

The room he operates from, as you've so fondly monikered The Office, is in organised chaos, and much too dark. You drag a lone chair toward his control panel and set yourself down in front of all his screens and computers.

"Ooh," you hum, reaching for an unlabelled switch with a purposeful slowness.

Predictably, Miguel slams his hand over yours, yanking your chair back with an annoyed, "No."

"Come on, Miguel. What harm could I possibly do?"

"You could–"

"Topple the multiverse?" you suggest. "I've heard."

"You could turn off every member of the Society's DMW. That's what that does. Potentially endangering each of their lives by stranding them in unfamiliar dimensions, and preventing them from correcting canon events."

You feel bad for teasing him when you see the look on his face, anger and exhaustion and the slimmest allowance of defeat. It must be tough to lead the Spider-Society. Tougher to micromanage more than half of its members.

Pulling your hand from under his, you cross your arms over your stomach and give him an apologetic frown. "Sorry, Miguel."

Evidence of his sweet spot for you lines his expression, softening his sharp jaw and the stoic set of his brow. It's gone as quick as it came, and his mask falls back into place. He turns away from you as though pretending you aren't there and scans one of his holographic screens, his face glowing with a yellow-orange haze.

Miguel has to tolerate you, because you're a Spider-Girl. Though you've never called yourself that aloud, and you're not sure anyone else has, either, it's an undeniable truth. You were bitten by a radioactive spider that gave you super mutant abilities, though yours aren't as potent as others. You're not especially strong, you probably couldn't stop a bus with your bare hands, but you're smart. You haven't saved the world or anything, but you lost your Uncle Ben. You paid the toll.

Every spider person has lost someone. Miguel seems to have lost more than that.

"You know," you mumble, kicking the ground lightly to make your chair spin on its axle, "I've been thinking…"

"That's never good."

"Why do we wear our suits here?" you ask, spinning for a second time, the room moving past your eyes in flashes. "It seems performative."

"Ah, I can answer that. Some of us work when we're here."

You wrinkle your nose at his deadpan and kick the floor again, spinning so fast it makes you laugh. "What did you say? I can't hear you from your high horse– woah!"

Miguel grabs the back of your chair, bringing you to a sudden and firm stop. You blink hoping it'll assuage the dizziness between your eyes, and when it doesn't work you keel forward, muttering, "Woah, I'm gonna die."

"You won't die."

"How do you know?" you ask.

"You're under my watch, aren't you?"

"I knew you liked me," you say. "Oh, I don't feel well."

"You brought it on yourself."

You catch your breath. When you feel okay enough to stand you almost trip, and Miguel doesn't bother pretending that he had any intention of stopping you from landing flat on your face. The you before the spider bite would've wiped out. This you giggles and holds Miguel's elbow for a second while you plant your feet.��

"Okay, boss-man," you ask, looking up at the unnaturally high screen he's investigating. "What are we doing today?"

"I'm supervising a task force operation on Earth-31913. You're going home."

"Miguel," you say, not sure if you want to flirt with him or piss him off. He looks incredibly pissed off already, so you choose flirtation. "Have I told you how handsome you look this evening?"

He doesn't react. His hands don't so much as shift where they're akimbo on his hips.

"You really have the most handsome eyes," you continue, weaving around his arm to stand in front of him. You have to crane your neck to see them. "Sulky. Do I really have to go home? I'd rather stay here with you."

He looks down his nose at you. "Yeah?" he asks quietly, his voice rough as hewn stone.

"Yeah," you say, taking a small step back.

"And do what?"

You mirror his stance, hands on your hips. Your suit isn't form fitting like his, doesn't showcase nearly so much lean muscle, but you like it. You'd chosen a simple black ensemble to match the spider who bit you with a pinky purple heart over your stomach. Miguel had asked about it once, just once, when you'd first met and he had no idea how much of a problem for him you were going to become.

Why there?

Why do you think? you'd asked, giving him a sticky-sweet smile.

Forget I asked.

He lifts a hand to your chin, pinching it between two deft fingers. You're lucky he isn't wearing his gloves; his claws would pierce your jaw.

"What do you want to do?" he asks, again so quietly. "If you stay?"

"I could help with the task force."

"That's what you want to do?"

You flush with heat but refuse to let him know how you're feeling. Your heart bumps against your ribs, breath caught in your throat as he tilts your head up, as he leans down.

"No," he says near your lips, "that's not it."

"I could help you?" you offer.

Something flashes in his eyes. You hesitate to call it lust. It reminds you of a cat with a mouse in it’s clutches, only his pupils are blown, black and inky and wide as dimes.

"You want to help me?" he asks, his lips an inch, half of that from yours.

You nod minutely. "Yes," you say under your breath.

His hand moves to your cheek. He leans in closer and closer, until there's a hair's width of air between his mouth and yours, the tips of your noses bent together. His breath fans over your bottom lip and it's hot. You swear you can feel his heart as his chest presses to yours. He lingers there for an endless handful of seconds, silently egging you on.

You call his bluff and refuse to close the distance.

Miguel pushes you away from him, far from cruel but certainly not sweet. "I have a tower of paperwork you can file," he says.

"Here I thought you were finally going to bite my head off," you hum. "You're a sore loser, Miguel."

"And you're my pest," he says, holding your gaze for a half-second too long. He turns away. "Lyla? Arrange the recounts from the last canon event for Spider-Girl's perusal, please."

"So you've remembered I'm here?" Lyla asks wryly.

You don't mind the paperwork. You sign each one with a winky face and a pink gel pen heart, knowing Miguel will go over them all again, and knowing he'll grow angrier and angrier with each heart.

He'll kiss you and mean it one day. You just have to play the waiting game.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

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jacenotjason · 7 months

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How would the opposite neighborhood react to seeing their original selfs?

i wanna draw this, but im gonna jot my thoughts down real quick!!

(Here’s the AU masterpost!)

Also doodles!!

They try their best to find something they have in common. I feel like OG Eddie is way to nice to be scared or like grossed out by Opposite, he’d just feel a little bad and wanna be his friend.

They talk about Frank, they have that in common. Like:

OG: …uhm.. arts and crafts?

OP: I’m not five? What about sports?

OG: I can’t follow along with all that..

OP: eugh… mm…

OG: …

OP: ..Frank?

OG: Frank!!

OP: Frank!

Oh they would hate each other. OG would be trying to be nice and then Opposite would insult his business model, and then they fight. I lowkey wanna see these two brawl, I think opposite would kick OGs ass no offense.

OP: *looking around OGs store* Where’s your price tags? The unlabeled scam is scummy, even for me.

OG: Hm? Oh, buddy, I don’t charge money for my products!

OP: … What?

OG: Yah! I prefer accepting other meanings of payment! Things much more valuable then money, friend!

OP: … That’s dumb.

OG: 🙂 what.

Then they BRAWL!! Ok probably not OG howdy probably doesn’t resort to violence. But a lot of insults are thrown back n forth hueurheye-

I honestly think they’d love each other. OP is basically Franny, and OG is OP.Franny they’d literally just:

OG&OP, at the same time: You look like my sister!!

Plus they both love fashion, and hair, and makeup, and Sally- ohmygod theyd be the best of friends i cant even theyd be so girlboss together

OG teaches her some games, and then OP teaches her some girlboss survival skills. Before they leave, OP gives her a pink sparkly pocket knife to remember her by :3

Yknow that fancy rich ppl thing ppl do where they kiss each others cheek? They do that

OG: My dear! Won’t you let me in? I’m you, you can trust me!

OP: what in gods name makes you think I trust myself..?

OG: We are one in the same, starlight! I am you, you are me! A mirrored doppelgänger of your own image! I don’t look to harm you, starlight! Put aside your distrust.. for yourself?

OP: haha… okay, shakesqueer…

Then OP lets her in :3

I have lots of thoughts about these two hanging out. OG makes her a new outfit after judging her gross clothes, lightheartedly ofc and OP is like “haha yeah its gross” and OP gets a cute dress! OP absolutely shocks and destroys OG in video games, they dance together, and they talk about Julie huehuehuehue

WAHHH THESE TWO! I honestly feel like theyd get along, but have little bickering about their different mothering styles.

OG: a.. punk mother? Interesting..

OP: whaat? My kids are all party animals, just like me! I can’t contain that.

OG: haha that’s fair.. I guess.. but.. partying? Thats so… much..

OP: …dude unclench your beak and live a little.

Someone calls OP Ma and OG is like “Ma? Thats so sweet.. i wish my neighbors called me mom :>..”

OG: a dog wearin’ pants? That ain’t right.

OP: aah.. it’s just.. to walk around half naked, is that not discomfiting?

OG: Discomfiting?? Thats a big ol’ word for a big ol’ dog.

OP: Ahaha… I’ve got a bit of a considerable vocabulary.

OG: you got a word-a-day calendar or somethin?

I feel like they’d be friends? Maybe?? OG kinda pokes fun at OP and OP is like “I’m talking to my opposite self :) dimension plane is real :) ain’t that wild :)”

OG: …

OP: .. :3

OG: …I have questions

OP: :D

OG: why the turtleneck?

OP: its like a shirt is giving my neck a hug! :D

OG: …ok. Why the hair?

OP: fluffy! :D

OG: no why is it white?

OP: I bleached it :D

OG: why?

OP: preti :D

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remusbutfemale · 6 months

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Just other Dps hcs because idk I like doing them:3

TODD IS ACTUALKY ME so

Todd hcs…where do I start

He definitely plays some sort of instrument, maybe the piano. But he was forced into it and doesn’t associate himself with it unless it’s brought up.

“My mom was thinking of buying a piano” Charlie would probably say and Todd would be like; “oh cool, I play the piano” and everyone’s like ‘what the fuck? You play the piano????’

He’s queer. Do I really have to elaborate here?

He def wasn’t entirely sure on his whole sexuality for a while, but he knows he isn’t straight. So that makes me wanna say he’s unlabeled, he is just a silly guy!

holds stuff off until last minute

“Did you do the Latin homework?” Neil would ask, and Todd would be like 😨 bc he didn’t really forget but he also just forgot it was due the next morning

Neil

he definitely does method acting, especially for puck

He would act like his character in the play during the school days, just for fun; maybe even when he was in his dorm with Todd. (Im gonna pretend he’s alive to not want to die) when he got a bigger role he would go out of his way to put himself in that character’s shoes until he had to film.

He has a collection of rocks I just know it dawg

“Neil what the fuck,” Charlie would say and Neil would turn confused as hell obvi, and Charlie found his little trinket drawer, like yeah he collects other stuff but bros entranced by rocks. “Oh yeah my rocks! Do you like them?” He would ask and Charlie would be like “yeah, I guess.”

His favorite season is summer.

He would LOVE summer, he definitely swims and is outside the entire time. He would probably be deathly afraid of bees tho, would scream and cry when he seen one. He loves summer but hates bugs, he loves butterflies.

steven :3

I have a strong feeling when he was playing soccer he broke his glasses, this happened at least twice.

He would be like ??!?? And stare blindly at his broken glasses on the ground, squinting HIGHKEY. And wouldn’t get a replacement for a day and just be extremely blind trying to see the board in his classes.

doesn’t know how to cook, like at all. OR BAKE he cannot be in a kitchen without fucking it up.

“How the hell did you mix up 1 ½ cups of milk with just half??? Now we have to restart!” Gerard would say; I feel like they’d just be baking at his house during winter break because they have nothing better to do. And Meeks somehow fucked up the bread by adding too much milk and pitts is just like ?!!? How the hell?????

a piece of shit tbh LMAO like in a humorous way

“Cameron you fucking dumbass how did you fuck that problem up? It’s literally sooo easy— don't be mad at me you’re an idiot!” Or like “couldn’t be me, I would never be that down bad especially for a girl— with a fucking boyfriend you weirdo” to knox

SPEAKING OF now its Knox’ turn

we all know he’s a hopeless romantic but I wanna feed into it

He would be on about Chris to Charlie and he would just be like, “okay I genuinely couldn’t care less”. And then he would also read love poems, would be into Romeo and Juliet tbh, probably would imagine him as Romeo and Chris as Juliet.

I genuinely have no hcs for this man so all of these are probably ooc.. but he PROBABLY knows every type of bird to exist, he just looks like that.

“Is that an ancient murrelet!??” He would say looking at a bird sitting a couple feet away, and Neil would be like “how the fuck do you even know that”

Okay this one’s just for me to laugh at

When he was talking to Chris when they were on their way to Neil’s play, knox fell on his ass and it was a really awkward walk there; they didn’t talk and it was just really really awkward

Charlie dalton😈

Don’t get me started

This boy gets on every teacher's nerves like.. he’s just an arrogant piece of shit im sorry😭

“Mr dalton PLEASE sit down” the teacher would ask for the 15th time as Charlie would mess around, and then he would get sent to Nolan’s😭

So so bisexual like it’s insane

He flirts with Neil a lot— as a joke but he thinks Neil is attractive. He also thinks women are hot, I think he has a preference for women but will date a man without a thought. Todd definitely asked one time “are you gay?” And he would be like “I dunno— maybe for your boyfriend” and then Todd would be like “HES NOT MY BOYFRIEND I DON'T EVEN LIKE NEIL LIKE THAT” and Charlie would say “I never said Neil”

Never shuts thebfuck up

Yapper of the year award goes to Charles Dalton like im so fr, the poets love him but Jesus he talks too much😭

#dead poets fandom #charlie dalton #dead poets aesthetic #dead poets society #steven meeks #dps #neil perry #knox overstreet #todd anderson #I couldnt think of the rest #headcanon #headcannons

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arcaneafterhours · 6 months

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anyway really long list of sbg headcanon time

i have alot so im just gonna dump them all here

oh jeez where to start

-asexual taylor and ben

-unlabeled ashlyn

-bisexual aiden and gay logan

-tyler has intense internalized homophobia but is probably gay

-tyler and ashlyn probably have really similar music taste

-tyler got into indie and rock music in his middleschool years (and probably had a very minor emo phase)

-taylor has really mixed music taste but through tyler she knows a weird amount of lyrics to random songs he listens to all the time i think thats funny

-if you shuffled aidens playlist its the most mixed thing ever you cannot name a genre for it

-aiden also probably listens to his music at full volume casually

-logan listens to things like cavetown no i dont take criticism

-taylor is a morning bird and tyler has the worst sleep schedule known to man she is constantly dragging him out of bed

-(i have so many thoughts about the twins)

-tyler is probably often favored over taylor, and she tries not to let it get to her because she loves her brother but damm!! she isnt just “tylers twin!!” tyler knows about this and feels shitty

-ashlyn knows sign language because of often going nonverbal in youth and ben asked her to teach him

-logan really admires tyler but is too scared to say it

-taylor has lots of interest in music and singing but never went after it

-logan is far tougher than he looks hes just a kind soul

-taylor also played like the clarinet in 6th grade and loved it but quit

-ashlyn accidentally sits/steps on her braids all the time. every day

-ashs favorite holiday is thanksgiving for the food and she is the only one in the group with that sentiment. everyone else loves halloween

-aiden’s love language is gifts. he buys his friends stuff all the time and theyre like “WHAT why how MUCH WAS THIS” and hes just “:]”

-aiden also wears eyeliner. silly goose

-he tried teaching ben how to wear eyeliner and it didnt go well

-aiden has the loudest most disruptive sneeze ever

-ashlyn has a ton of inside jokes with her dad and they would always tell each other to shut up after sneezing (affectionately) and so she just instinctively tells aiden to shut up after aforementioned sneeze

-aiden and taylor were warrior cats kids and bonded over this

-ben and aiden go ice skating!! they have fun racing around on the ice

-ben has a competitive side

-aiden and taylor are also really good at volleyball. Idk man they’re Pals

-taylor braids her hair out of nervous habit she wants to braid ashlyns hair

-ashlyn misplaces her stuff all the time she gets it from her mom

-(this is simply because me and my sister did it when we were little) the twins used to make their own little dance routines to music and perform it for their parents and it was really silly and cute and theres a video somewhere of them doin a little dance together

that one was purely projection

@planetarymesss @rainbowangel110 yall wanted me to tag yall so smdnsnd

ANYWAY thats whats been on my mind recently- i could go on

#school bus graveyard webtoon #sbg #school bus graveyard #420 posts nice

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basslinegrave · 3 months

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its always nice to come back to a ship after a "break" from it to be able to look back at things and look at everything with fresh eyes and stuff.

thinking about stobotnik (and shipping them romantically, to be specific) and how easy it is to look at them and go yep, theyre together. i guess partially because theres nobody telling me otherwise (or im good at avoiding those peeps online) and its all quite open, but from a new perspective i wouldnt even say its That toxic (if you ignore the fact that theyre literally evil) only thinking of jims words saying its abusive, hes like the only one i care about saying stuff since hes part of this. i have thoughts about that... but besides that - maybe its some weird copium but. to me, at worst it can be one sided, at best its literally anything. couple, "married", weird unlabeled Thing going on, i eat them all up. (i understand a lovey dovey bot is quite ooc, but thats not the only way to show love, and he definitely has his own ways)

my biggest thought lately is how in s2 bot is much nicer to stone, but i dont take it as "oh he changed and grew as a person while exiled and isnt abusive anymore" but rather "this is the norm" and him being awful to stone in s1 was literally just because of sonic. like this little alien thing is a completely new variable in the flow of things and it made him so frustrated, he already has a short fuse, so this is just what happened. also thinking about how hes a bit more collected normally (in s2 its also from the emerald, and some newfound false confidence, But in s1 before they find sonic you can see him going from stern but collected to just a shouting mess ), like this brought out this side of him or amplified it (a side which he absolutely would not hide around stone) it is also fun to think, oh he just bullies him. (but i obviously dont look at that as too bad, i guess in fanon you can play with the idea that stone fucks with it) but with them deleting all of those scenes for s2, for a few reasons ig, it tells a slightly different story to me... does this make sense? the way he talks to stone at the start in s1 and in the good cop bad cop scene is like quite calm to me for robotnik. thats how i imagine he would normally be around stone. smiling at him more often than snarling, showing off etc. the way the manifesto is written too, theres respect given to stone, and i doubt it was written inbetween the movies or last second. like that is something that he made x time ago imo way before s1, so the way he barked at him in the 'pin yourself to the wall' scene, to me thats just plain frustration and lack of emotion control taking over. plus how he completely switches that off once he notices the quill, no he doesnt hate stone, hes not angry at him, hes just angry. and stone was the closest person to take it out on. is that healthy? no, but it makes for the most fun dynamic ive seen in my fav media so i love that.

and the whole thing with him grabbing stone and shoving fingers in his mouth and what not, in all fairness your honor, he is literally innocent. he is neurodivergent and his love language is on the same level as people biting other people they like. its literally just that (reminds me of someone that i strongly believe had a crush on me in hs and they would ask to sit next to me in class and then push me off my chair and write on and tear my notes and it was cute to me. so im projecting that onto stone okay)

#2am thoughts #its about stobotnik #changed some things after i wrote it all out so it kinda fell apart but just some thoughts about bot and how he treats stone #thoughts are being thunk #tldr stob fun and good #unreadable since im half asleep

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plainbageltoastedwithbutter · 2 years

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oswald cobblepot (the penguin) hcs

DONT TELL ME IM WRONG IM RIGHT /lh

I'm leaning towards asexual penguin but I feel like aceflux would also work. if you don't know what aceflux is, it just means your sexual attraction fluctuates on the asexual spectrum

ik most iterations of penguin involve him actually liking birds, even being RAISED by penguins but i feel for gotham penguin, he probably wouldn't like to get birds. sure, he uses the name penguin but only because he found power and intimidation in using it but it's still connected to his trauma of being made fun of.

he's unlabeled cause 1. robin has stated that there's no confirmation that oswald is specifically gay. he's just not straight. 2. is because it makes sense for his character not to rlly give thought to his sexuality or to put a name on it, however i do think he only likes men just isn't labeled. if someone were to ask him his sexuality, he'd whip around and go "that's not of your concern!" and storm off or something pfft

he gets sick often, especially during his umbrella boy days. like imagine standing in the rain but you have to give your umbrella to fish mooney of all people because its what you get paid for. he'd get sick often cause of the cold murky weather of gotham. he's also unhygienic, at least in the start of gotham and constantly shouts so he'd probably get sick rlly often and has sore throat. cuts back to his mom always helping him with her tea and how he has a raspy voice!!

when ed switches over to riddler all oswald does is "ed ed ed ed come back baby im sorry"

him being domestic can range from childish innocent things like singing songs to each other and having picnics to tracking down people to kill <3

probably only got a dog cause he wanted loyalty and a dog is known for being loyal. hes seems more like a cat person to me

learns asl for martin, (and teaches him it if he doesn't already know how). oswald will literally ONLY shut up for martin, he won't speak when he's signing or when martin is (ed is kinda different but THIS ISNT ABOUT HIM *proceeds to write mostly riddlebird hcs*)

oswald buys martin antique toys and lame stuff, like jack in the boxes. ed buys him extremely hard puzzles and 'educational toys'. uncle zsasz buys him music-related things, headphones, radios, etc. barbara buys him more of what a kid would want, like an xbox. (ik this isnt just oswald but idc)

actually back on the cat person oswald, im going to state how cats are attracted to HIM. he probably tried to pet a cat when he was a kid and got scratched and sobbed to gertrude. he'll immediately become upset when a cat doesnt like him but he'll eventually learn how to gain a cat's trust and suddenly theres six following him around, he teaches them to bring dead animals to his enemies.

he treats his maids and house employees extremely well. like olga was the one to like oswald and not ed. why?? because he pays her good!

sadly probably mistakes olga as his mom, he catches himself right when "mother" slips out of his mouth, he feels embarrassed and ashamed, he doesn't get mad at olga but he excuses himself and runs to his room. olga doesnt get angry, she just feels bad :(

oswald walks into gcpd. everyone stops what they're doing and are like "oh no", he just skips over to lucius and props his umbrella on his desk and is like. "make this into a gun or else." with two of his henchmen behind him. hes not even scared that hes surrounded by police PFFT

in MY gotham, oswald is still very close with ivy and other people like mr freeze and firefly.

he realizes how bad he was to them, apologizes and promises to be a better friend. everyone is skeptical besides ivy cuz she's naive but turns out he's not lying. he gets upset when ivy messes up or whatever but quickly apologizes and calms himself down, he learns to value his friends and their quirks as they have for him

oswald is autistic and has bpd, along with apd, maybe ptsd?

he usually gets driven around by others but he owns his own car which is a hearse. yes, coffin car.

doesn't know about ed's hallucinations but finds his pills and was like ???

he dropped out of school probably when he was a teen and when he did have school, i'd like to think that he had straight A's.

not only did he get bullied a lot but oswald is smart. it's only a matter of time before he snaps, so i imagine he'd put his smarts to use and would start a business where he'd write people's essays and tutor them for tests (explains why he wasn't surprised when ed asked for oz to mentor him)

gertrude would have boyfriends when oswald was younger, but oswald being the clingy mama's boy he is, didn't like them. he'd put bugs in their pillows and coffee, and other fucked up shit to scare them off. eventually, they'd break up with gertrude and yell at her about how fucked up her kid is. gertrude would get rlly upset and explains how her little oswald could do no wrong. after a while, getrude would stop dating entirely, much to oswald's approval.

his favorite holiday is christmas and thanksgiving

does not speak of either mothers day or fathers day

will disappear off the face of the earth on those days

hates the cold strangely, it reminds him of when he almost drowned, multiple times. he always has multiple layers on so when you see without all that or a suit in general its very 'woah'

he hates when people touch him, especially those who he does not trust. like did you see when sofia touched him that one time, EW. or when he first met ed, "you're standing too close", could be that he could strike at any moment but he also just doesnt like strangers

speaking of his touch aversion, oswald wouldn't trust ed to touch him after he, yknow tried to kill him. in s5, when oswald jumped to save ed was probably when he got over it and as we know they later hug (non-homosexually 😊)

ed is like the only one who can mention his mom (ofc in a good way) without oswald bursting out in tears or attacking them. partially because of their shared history, when ed nursed oswald back to health he used his mother's memory to gain his trust more.

when people insult him, depending on who you are he'll either dissociate or attack you. he's probably learnt to do that from when he was bullied as a kid

speaks rlly fondly of fish after her death, ppl would be like "but didnt she try to kill you?" "idk what you're talking about"

doesnt kiss ed unless ed goes in for the kiss first, hes afraid of somehow being rejected again, and also cause he's aceflux he doesn't crave a kiss like some ppl do but he does forehead kiss martin all the time. hes the parent who will drive martin in his limousine and be like 'wheres my hug 🥺🥺' before he gets out of the car to go to school

ok me needs to sleep hope this was enough to satisfy the penguin stans

#riddlebird #nygmobblepot #oswald cobblepot fanart #dc #gotham #ed nygma #gotham tv #the penguin #the penguin headcanons #oswald cobblepot headcanons

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straycalamities · 8 months

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Just to know, what are the canon pairings between your ocs at the moment? :3

cANON? UHHHH uhh what is canon uhhh

well mainverse entre is with 12 they've been dating since......2012? 2013? oh god. (maybe they're married at this point who knows)

trufflu entre isss ummmmmmm hard to answer :) he's With swag obv but its Complicated and Unlabeled (til its not, but that's......a story for another time)

weehawken entre is kinda? flirting? interested? in vin not official yet but they had their Moments

man..entre is my bicycle ill be honest. and there's more aus and iterations of entre all usually with their own boo (or the same boo just different situation) i just like to have fun

but anyways enough about him

eboy is canonly with EDU HIMSELF. uwu

mronceler is canonly. divorced :)

andrew and ace are usually canonly planned to get together. i literally made ace FOR andrew. so i guess they're technically canon? i just haven't officially done any stories yet where they get to that point. but they're supposed to. especially in their main universes (there's like two now..maybe three..oh no)

andrew canonly has feelings for ji-hoon but they're not reciprocated. he also has a thing for julian, but its uh. awful. its bad. i wont go into it here

i think thats about it for him? uh :( same for ace err...yeah they pretty much just have each other rn even in different universes (i'd be down to play around with hooking them up with other ocs if anyone's interested tho wink)

kian is canonly with dev uwu they are in LOVE and sometimes eventually have a dotter named sid (sidney (because of scream yes))

i also have like four more oc pairings with edu, but i think i havent ever posted about them here...uh...seiki, will, aoife, and sean. well i HAVE posted about aoife and will but i dont think edu has anything posted of taelim or dean...so...

erendriel, daisy, and spook as of now are all canonly single and ready to mingle... idk do they even have ""canons"" right now ?? they kinda just exist in my head as amorphous blobs of vibes and vague traits (except spook who's got more than that but not rly anywhere to belong yet. it's just out here.) so if someone wanted to..make smth happen. my ocs. y'all's ocs. fingerguns. i know spook has one interested party rn. and has done stuff with another treasured friend's oc in the past

there's also danny, apollo, beleth, callisto, leah, mary, brady, nayasha, toni, and zenathrael. i have so many ocs dude...umm nayasha has a gf in canon but i havent designed her yet. brady has a...Thing going on with their basically-boss but...:) and the rest are all canonly single. i have even more but idk this is already getting out of hand.

#asks #Anonymous #tagging only the ones i actually said some real shit abt #entre #andrew cho #ace miller #eboy #mronceler #kian elliot kennedy

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arqdyke · 1 year

Note

whatre your opinions on all the jake ships. ALL OF THEM.

hi gaz :3 under the cut bc its literally fivemillion miles long.

rosejake - ??/10 theres something there. i can see it in my minds eye. its not romantic probably(??) but i feel like they would be so insane unhinged abt each other in a really hard to describe way. this is largely bc i like smashing my faves together and having them be weird abt each other.

davejake - 8/10 hehe. i like them :3 theyre very funny & silly. i feel like neither of them have ever introspected in their entire lives w/out repressing it immediately afterwards & together they get Worse. this eventually culminates in them both having Realizations and transitioning. i think they can holding hands on purpose.

jakeroxy - 8/10 theyre so unlabeled confusing but DEEPLY intimate relationship to me. they are baring their souls to each other in a hobby lobby parking lot ^-^ theyre very important to me

dirkjake - ??/10 clutches head oh theyre oddly compelling to me actually. i think they work best as weird ex's who have sort of something going on but they dont really work in a 'proper' relationship so its awkward & confusing for everyone around them. my feelings r mixed overall though.

jakehal - 10/10 imagine the worst pitch dynamic you possibly can. now make it worse. i have several vague aus in my mind palace about them being terrible & codependent. but in actuality i think their dynamic is very interesting from a character analysis standpoint & thats a very easy way to make me ship a set of characters. also i think its funny. and jake deserves a robotboyfriend.

jakedavesprite - 5/10 ive actually thought abt this one before surprisingly but there wasnt really a lot going on with them. definitely potential though!!!

jakejasprose - 9/10 futch dyke 4 bisexual aroace and its up to you whos which. i think theyre the weirdest palerom dynamic on the earth but genuinely they are so bffs to me. bffs that kiss a little (a lot) thats jasproses emotional support [vile slur omitted]! & jakes emotional support kittycatgirl :3

davepetajake(??) - 8/10 gripping the sides of my chair. yeah im normal about these characters who i dont think have any speaking line 1on1 interactions. so normal. why do u ask? anyways yeah i think theyre kind of supersilly awesome & fun. and also *gestures vaguely * the psychological trauma is vast and fascinating 2 my fucked up mind.

jakerisolsprite - 10/10 ok now hear me out. this was one of my first ever jakeships actually i just think the "jake/a guy who hates his guts" dynamic is supremely underrated & funny as fuck. they r like weird & messed up usually pitch vacillation nightmare girlfriends. genuinely very attached to them in a personal way.

jakearquius - ??/10 well. looks down at myself. looks back up. theyre funny? surprisingly i dont actually think abt them often.

arajake - 10/10 imagine a world so full of joy and peace. ok but fr their characters are like. intertwined in my mind. their relationship is like almost romantic...? theyre aro4aro. but very much in an 'official' relationship as well. if they knew or cared what it was they would be in a qpr but they dont. i think spending time w aradia would help jake figure out more abt himself & i think aradia would just really like spending time with him. they are marveling at each others minds.

jaketav - 3/10 unfortunately i go out of my way to not think too hard abt tavros so im gonna have to leave this one alone. in a hypothetical world they could be bffs forever!

jakesol - 10/10 deep breath. ok so actually im very very attached to the idea of pale jakesol. it shows up in my casual idle daydreams & in every au i think abt too hard. i think they can taking a nap together. i want them to sillyargue about random bullshit & infodump at each other about things the other could not give less of a shit about. clingy sleepynaptime girlfriends. neither of them has showered in weeks. also theyre so totally each others type. like look at canon for a moment and consider it.

jakekat - 7/10 idk. i think theyre sillies. they bond over cinema in the arguing way. i think jake would like to mess with him until it becomes clear that karkat doesnt actually hate everything and is just kind of Like That. i can see them being good friends and... maybe?? boygirlfriends.

jakenep - 8/10 i think she can hunting him for sport. like for actual sport they go play high stakes tag in forests for several months and come out soulbonded. also jake needs more sillycatgirls in his life & nepeta needs more chill/fun ppl to hang out with. shes being sillySTIFLED.

jakekan - 5/10 honestly i can not say ive ever though about- wait no no i thought about it once like forever ago. honestly they could be pretty good green autism besties!! idk abt romance but thats mostly bc ive just never considered it.

jakerezi - ??/10 this one is absurdly funny to me. i dont think it would ever happen but if it did it would be really really funny.

jakevris - 7/10 actually ive read several fics abt this before! it kind of appeals to me in a weird way but i prefer them as weird frenemies.

jakequius - 8/10 lays down. look. ok. so. well. i just think theres potential ok? i cant explain it. im running out of steam for this if you cant tell.

gamjake - 0/10 no thanks ?

erijake - 5/10 i dont think ive seriously thought about it but theres definitely some potential there.

thats all im doing. god bless u all.

#dt-posts #gaz tag

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brick-a-doodle-do · 1 year

Text

TW for injury, hospitals, major injury, attempted suicide, visions of suicide, mentions of weapons

Staple but from this fic is chicken nuggets

Also gave up on Karl's pronouns halfway through cause i forgot ;-;

- - -

Time’s teachers never understood them. Karl’s legs were the source of its troubles.

But he would ignore spirals troubles.

One day, as time was getting ready to go to class–their gym class, curse his luck–three humans approached the tiny.

Karl ignored its needs for weeks.

“Hey Karl!” Tommy, a fellow tiny, waved, to which Karl waved back. His legs ached. “What are you doing all alone?” He responded, hugging the older.

“Tubbo had to go home, so I was lonely, until I saw you!” The British teen spoke, a smile so wide it practically covered his face. Karl chuckled as he sat down. Gym class was always fun, it was a guessing game. Could time suck up the pain and play, or would spiral only get through the morning exercises before he was forced to the bleachers.

Today was different.

Tommy helped the other stand, and they slowly made their way down the bleachers. The Brit’s hand wrapped itself around their chest, pulling him closer. “Karl, are you okay?” He asked. “‘M fine, keep going.” He responded.

Tommy led the other down, letting him lean against him as he held the other in his spot for role call. “Tommy, get in your spot.” The teacher announced, to which Tommy slowly let go, hoping that the American could stand on its own feet for five minutes.

Karl fell.

- - -

“George!” Tommy shouted, clearly more panicked than normal. George looked down at the tiny, carefully picking him up so he could join the table group. “What’s up?” Dream asked beside him.

“Karl’s been gone all week, I haven’t even gotten any texts from it!” Sapnap chuckled. “Someone’s clingy-” “Oh shut up, I’m just worried about spiral.” Tommy muttered, to which George gently brushed his back.

“He’s just fine, okay?” George whispered. “Here.” The larger Brit carefully handed the smaller a chicken nugget.

Tommy smiled as he ate the chicken nugget.

- - -

Tommy watched as Karl limped into class, walking on two crutches. “Karl! What happened, oh my g**!” He rushed, quickly hugging the other. “Broken legs, apparently it’s not good that I ignored the injury-”

“What the f***, Karl that’s not healthy, how could you even stand that, how long-” “A half a year, I think.” The other tiny returned. “And I didn’t want to be a burden.”

Tommy just glared. “That’s enough, we’re going to have fun, and you are going to stay off your feet.” The younger announced, getting into his bag. “I can’t stay with you but you can play with my Switch.” Tommy smiled, handing it to the other.

He turned on Pokemon, and let the other get distracted.

Throughout the class, the Brit stared up at Karl, just to make sure his injured friend was okay.

- - -

+44(020)-***-****: hello? Is this Karl?

(252)-***-****: ye, whats ur name?

George: George

Karl: oh u must be the 1 tommy talks about

George: yeah he was worried about you

Karl: aww

Karl: hes so clingy

George🥹: he is

George🥹: can i add you to a gc

Karl: ye

- - -

George🥹 added Karl to a chat!

George changed 1 name

George🥹: meet Karl

(936)-***-****: hello

Karl: hi :)

(407)-***-****: hey thats my brand

(936)-***-****: its his now

(936)-***-**** changed 1 name

Karl: no change ig

George🥹: introduce yourself, name, sexuality and pronouns

(936)-***-****: sapnap, poly bi, he/him

Karl changed 1 name

Sappy: karl :)

Karl: :)

(407)-***-****: breaking that up, dream, poly&unlabeled, he/him&they/them

Karl changed 1 name

Stilldre: cant live this down, dhmu

George🥹: george, poly&gay, he/him&it/its

Karl changed 1 name

Gogy: k

Karl: karl, poly pan&ace, trans he/they/it/spiral/time

Sappy: neos are so valid, love you karl

Sappy changed 1 name

Kar: vroom vroom

- - -

“So, Karl, did you like your surprise?” Tommy smiled at the other. “What surprise?” The other playfully shoved the teen.

“I hooked you up with three hot humans, that’s the surprise! You should be thanking me!” The teen laughed. Karl giggled. “Yeah, maybe I should.”

Tommy smiled, and pulled out his switch again. “Here Kar, you’re getting pretty far in the game, hm?” The other smiled. “Keep going at it while I do boring old gym class.”

Karl smiled, and waved Tommy away as the other went through it.

- - -

Kar: im bored

Sappy: arent you in class

Kar: cant do much in gym with my legs :|

Sappy: what

Kar: eh its nothing

Sappy: idk waht are you doing

Kar: playing on tommys swithc its kinda boring compared to the class :/

Sappy: want me to take you to an ice cream shop after school

Stilldre: sap what the f***

Gogy: jealous?

Sappy: simps

Kar: lol

- - -

They left them on read as Tommy came back. “Whoah! Someone caught some good ones, f***ing Gardevoir?” Karl just laughed and looked away. “I could improve them-”

“You have a different save file, I’m going to play it later, come on! They have chicken nuggets for lunch.” Tommy smiled, handing Karl his crutches and helping time down to the floor where they began the slow journey towards the cafeteria.

“So there was this one guy, right? So he approached me during math, was all like ‘oh hey can you help me with my homework?’” Tommy started, lowering his voice to portray a new character. Karl giggled. “So I’m all like ‘wait there was homework?’”

Karl laughed as they eventually made it to their destination. “Tommy!” A voice laced with a British accent spoke out. “It shows his friends more affection than it’s own boyfriends, g**.” Another voice teasingly spoke from behind. Karl gasped as it and Tommy were lifted upwards.

Karl, on instinct, dropped time’s crutches, watching as they were left behind in the middle of the entrance to the lunchroom. S***.

The two were set down on a table top, and were quickly surrounded by three humans. “Ey! George, Sapmap and Dream!” “Oh come on, every time, it’s SapNap.”

Karl laughed into their hands. “Who’s your friend? Is that Karl?” Karl nodded, looking at the three. Tommy was right–for once–they were pretty hot.

“You're pretty cute, hm?” The one who was introduced as Sapnap reached down, carefully picking it up. Karl stood awkwardly on his own two legs, not hiding behind his crutches. They were poked, but time forced spiralself to stand.

“Karl?! Where the f*** are your crutches?!” Tommy shouted.

Karl panicked.

“Wait, crutches…?” Sapnap muttered as he eyed the other. “Oh f*** wait-” The human gently pushed Karl down to rest on the palm of his hand as the four others began the search for the tiny’s crutches.

As Karl looked, he gasped. “They-they’re gone…” Time whispered. Its legs hurt, although the human gently pushed them back down. “It’s okay, we’ll find them.” The larger’s voice rumbled as he was pressed against his massive chest.

Spiral couldn’t even fight it as time’s mind took over and lulled it into a comforting sleep, the most comfortable they’d had in so long.

- - -

Sapnap smiled to himself as he held the now sleeping tiny. The other was so calm, he practically radiated peace. Good for Sapnap, of course, because he had a test the next hour. He tracked down the tinies crutches.

He set Karl in his jacket’s inside pocket, while he let the crutches rest in the outer pocket. At least he could bring Karl to his favourite ice cream shop.

He slowly walked to his class, ignoring the strange glances he gained from his class at the bulge in his jacket.

“Sapnap!” He turned when he heard a voice to his side. “Oh hey Skeppy.” He spoke softly, his hand finding it snuggled nicely overtop the tiny.

“Jeez man, why are you so quiet?” The other asked. “I technically kidnapped someone, they’re asleep right now and I didn’t want to wake them up.” He whispered, holding out his pocket to reveal Karl, snuggled into the cloth.

“Holy s-” “They doesn’t have classes for the rest of the day, the teachers are all gone, and they’ve finished everything already.” Sapnap whispered. “They’s going to be my good luck charm for the tests.” He smiled, watching as the teacher walked in.

It’s safe to assume Sapnap passed his tests with flying colors.

- - -

“You wanted to take Karl here, not us. Where even is it?” Sapnap smiled as Dream asked the question. He gently pulled out the sleeping tiny, carefully prodding time awake. “Good morning, sleeping beauty.” He whispered, letting Karl gather spiralself.

“What-” “you fell asleep, so I brought you along with me. Here” He kissed the tiny before handing him their crutches. “We found these.”

Sapnap gently set the tiny and its crutches down atop a table that the group would sit at moments later. He ordered, slowly approaching the table again, this time placing the ice cream on it.

He and the other two definitely took their turns feeding their ice cream to the tiny, even if Karl was against it at first.

“Are you enjoying the date so far?” Dream asked with a smile, to which Karl laughed. “I guess, yeah, if you count this as one.” The four all shared smiles.

“Karl, we-uh-we wanted to open up our relationship to a fourth, and we wanted that fourth to be you-” “We totally get it if you don’t want to be with us, it’s totally fine-”

“I would love to.” The tiny whispered into time’s hands. Sapnap smiled, gently lifting him up. “Yeah? Well, I guess that means you get giant sized kisses.” The human smiled, gently kissing the smaller.

The three took turns giving Karl kisses. They loved their little one.

- - -

“Karl!” Tommy smiled. “Your brace is off! It’s been months since you could participate, come on!” He smiled softly as he took Tommy’s hand. His friend helped them stand, but Karl’s leg didn’t agree.

It ignored the stinging pain shooting up time’s legs at every movement as Tommy walked down the bleachers with spiral in hand.

He shouldn’t have pain–at least not this bad, they had been freed of its cast and crutches last week.

He left Karl in time’s role call area, and within seconds, he crumpled to the ground. Spiral couldn’t move his legs without the excruciatingly high amounts of pain. No one was helping them, it had hoped they wouldn’t.

Tommy was there. Karl let Tommy move time’s body, wincing audibly when Tommy barely moved spiral’s leg, sending sharp pain throughout his body.

“Karl, Karl, what’s wrong?” The boy panicked, to which Karl realized they had zoned out. “don’t know, hurts…” It whispered, melting into the hug.

“I’ll get someone, okay? The teacher has the nurse on her way. Who do you want to see?” The boy whispered in return. “don’t know, hurts…” Time repeats, tears stinging spiral’s eyes.

Hands grasped his side as they were pulled up, it muffled the screams coming as time’s legs were moved. “It’ll be okay, we’re going to figure out what’s wrong, then the pain will be all over.” A soft, delicate voice whispered into spiral’s ear.

His vision was blurry, but they saw everything.

- - -

Sappy: hey karl want to go on a date with us

Sappy: karl

Sappy: @Kar

Gogy: relax theyre probably busy

Sappy: fine ill ask later

- - -

BigMan: GEORGE

Gogmeister: what

BigMan: KARL HOSPITAL

Gogmeister: what

BigMan: TIMES LEG

Gogmeister: ill get the others and go

Gogmeister: thanks tommy i hope your doing okay

- - -

Gogy: @Sappy @Stilldre

Gogy: karls in the hospital for theyre leg

Sappy: s***

Stilldre: im out of class now ill go now

Sappy: k

Sappy: tell us how they are

- - -

“Hello, I’m here to see a… Karl Jacobs.” Dream spoke to the desk attendant, shockingly calm for the possible gravity of the situation.

“Relation?” They asked, to which Dream thought. “They’re one of my significant others.” He answered softly. The desk attendant looked at them for a moment.

“He’s still in surgery, we don’t know when he’ll get out, but he’s looking to be in there for more than four hours.” Dream hissed. “What’s he in there for?” He asked warily, shifting awkwardly.

“All I have listed here is an amputation above the knee, a myomectomy, and an osteotomy.”

Oh s***.

Oh f***.

This was bad.

“I-Thank you, I’ll go sit in the waiting room.” They smiled, although pathetically as he wandered to a seat to sit down.

Tears flowed down their face as he pulled out their phone and called Sapnap.

- - -

“Excuse me sir, I have something going on with someone close to me,” Sapnap began once he stood at his teacher's desk. “So I-I need to answer some calls and check up on him.” He failed to conceal his tears.

“Hey, that’s alright, it’s a work day anyways. Take a break, and if you need to take a call, please do.” The teacher smiled. “I know how this stuff goes, it’s hard. Lucky for you, all your work is done.”

Sapnap nodded slowly, going back to his seat, where Skeppy awaited him. “What’s up?” The man asked softly. “Karl’s in the hospital, and Dream’s gone to check on him. I haven’t gotten any new information-” His pocket buzzed, and he shot up out of his desk, grabbing his phone.

“Oh f***, I-uh…” He muttered frantically, rushing towards the door. “I have a call.” He watched the teacher nod before he quickly left, answering his friend.

“Dream, f***, how is it?” He asked, leaning against the wall as students began filtering into their classes. “It’s bad, Sap, it’s so bad…” Sapnap could practically hear the tears.

“He’s, they have to amputate something, he’s got a osteotomy, a myomectomy, what the f*** even happened?!” Dream spoke frantically, as tears escaped Sapnap’s eyes. “What-What do we do…?” He asked slowly, letting himself sink to the floor to better ignore the glances he gained from those around him.

“Nothing Sap, they don’t expect him to be out for another four hours…”

Four hours.

“I’ll meet you there Dream, I don’t f***ing care-” “Sap, no, you have class, and you can’t possibly imagine of driving like this-”

“I just said, I. Don’t. F***ing. Care. I’ll get a g**d*** uber. My classes are just work days. I’m going over there.” He shouted in his teary eyed stupor.

He stayed on the phone with Dream as he told his teacher that he had to leave. Thankfully, the teacher was incredibly understanding, checking him out of all his later classes too.

Sapnap then proceeded to walk to the office and check out George.

“What, why am I here, what’s happening?” George asked frantically, practically pouncing on the younger. “Karl’s in surgery for four more hours. We are going to go meet Dream and distract ourselves.” Sapnap spoke. “I’ve already called an uber.”

Sapnap pulled George close, letting the other cry on his shoulder as he led the two towards their uber. He couldn’t ignore the tears gathering in his eyes as he told the driver where they were headed.

Thankfully the driver understood and did their best to distract the two until they arrived, to which Sapnap gave a fairly generous tip once they had arrived.

Upon finding the waiting room, they spotted Dream, who was probably zoned out listening to some hopefully happy songs. He took the opportunity to sneak up and scare the taller.

“What the f*** Sap!” “Wake up, sleepy head, we’re here!” He shouted in return. The other rolled their eyes and promptly wrapped the two in a hug.

“How much longer do you think?” The Brit asked slowly, treading lightly on the already unstable topic. “If we’re lucky, three and a half hours-” “Let’s do something to distract ourselves, even if it’s only for an hour, okay? Beats sitting around in a dreary hospital waiting room, that’s for sure.”

The other two nodded at the Texan’s proposal, deciding to walk outside into the cool air and figure out what to do from there instead of staying another minute in the drowsy room.

The Brit seemed to be the only one who could form a thought out of the three, although Sapnap knew that if its past record was anything to go by, George was even more of a sobbing mess than both Americans combined, even if he didn’t show it.

- - -

George looked up as he watched a man step into the room. As ita eyes met the lab coat, he realized this was going to be serious, so it popped the earbuds out of his ears, letting them dangle from its phone.

As he stood up, it realized the other two were asleep, so he slapped the two with a magazine on the side table.

“Karl Jacobs?” The doctor asked the three. “Yeah, that’s us.” George responded as it pulled Sapnap upward.

“Okay, well, we have a report on his diagnosis. There was a medical inaccuracy, the doctors that previously treated him seemed to only treat him for his broken bones and failed to spot an infection.”

George tried his hardest to keep a straight face, while the other two seemed to fail at such a simple thing, in which Dream was already sobbing and Sapnap had the strangest face–probably a mixture of shock, fear, and sadness.

“And as a result, we’ve had to remove many of his muscles in his right leg, as well as a chunk of bone. His left leg had to be amputated above the knee, the nerve damage caused by the infection. Here are a few packets," The doctor spoke, as gently as he could while still being serious and blunt. George took the pamphlet, which was a guide on how to care for the amputation, as well as a second on how to care for the muscle removal, a third for the bone removal, and a fourth on how to care for a wheelchair, "on how you need to care for him. The nurses have already placed an order for the medication you'll need, it should arrive later today."

George let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. At this point, it was almost ready to throw the other two out of the room until the doctor finished.

"Dream, Sapnap, get out, I need to hear this, and your crying isn't helping." George was trying so hard to hold onto his emotions as he watched the two sadly walk out.

Crybabies.

“Sorry, please continue.” George informed, steeling his nerves. “Right, we’ll be keeping him in his room for about seven days, the first day to watch his muscles, amputation, and leg, the second day focusing on the amputation and leg. After the third day, we’ll be focusing soully on his amputation.”

George nodded along, it was good to know this, and thankfully the other two were sobbing their hearts out in the halls outside and not in here.

He needed to hear this information, not their crying.

“Is there anything else?” George asked softly, hoping to not overstep any emotional boundaries.

“Right, uh, visiting hours are 6 to 8. If you have any other questions, you can either find them in the pamphlets or you can talk to me. He’s in the recovery room, that surgery was a lot for him.” George nodded. “Can we visit him?”

“Not yet.” George sighed as the doctor left. He finally let his despair take control as he fell into the seat and cried. Crybabies, all four of them.

- - -

“The desk lady asked me what my relationship was with Karl and I straight up told her I was polyam and in a gay relationship with him…” Dream admitted, to which Sapnap broke out into laughter wet with tears.

“Only you would panic and say that, you simp!” The shorter laughed. George just rolled his eyes. “Says you, pulling yourself and me out of our classes just to see Karl.” He whispered.

Neither of them got any sleep, Dream driving to their shared apartment to grab their necessities: clothes–Dream grabbed whatever he found in the three’s separate dressers and mixed them together, none of them would mind if they shared clothes–shoes, their laptops for school and homework, chargers, medicine, basically the stuff that was easiest to grab.

He had also made a stop at the local store to get the stuff he couldn’t grab–toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc–as well as a gift for Karl, a keychain that he cut up to make a stuffed animal.

“Do you think his family’s worried? I mean, unless Tommy’s said something to them.” Sapnap asked softly. George paused. “Let me go ask.” He spoke, pulling out his phone with the intention to call the tiny Brit.

He pressed call, getting up as he held the phone to his ear.

Ring.

Rin-

“Ey, gogmeister, what’s up?” George only rolled his eyes as the energetic teen answered. “Karl’s been out of surgery for a few hours, just wanted to check if his family knows.”

There was silence on the other end, silence that was abnormal for the energetic teen. “George, I-i’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but Karl was abandoned. We found him quite literally on the side of the road.”

Oh.

That explained a lot.

“So…” George tried to salvage any sort of conversation they could’ve had. “Visiting hours start tomorrow at 6. Karl’s had-” “Wait, I need to put this on speaker. Okay, you’re good, EVERYONE SHUT UP!”

George sighed, rolling his eyes. “Okay, visiting hours start tomorrow at 6. Keep in mind that Karl may not be fully conscious for a few hours. The anesthesia has probably done a lot.”

He took a breath to calm himself.

“He’s had some of his bone and muscles removed, and had to have a leg amputated. All of this from a medical inaccuracy.” He finally finished, frowning. This had been so much, almost too much for such a short time frame they’ve had for all of this.

“Wow…” Tommy gasped from the other end. “Oh s***, that’s a lot…Techno, you are not making him potatoes.” “Oh f*** you.”

George smiled at the family banter between Tommy’s family. It was a nice refresher from the dreary few hours it had been. “Yeah. Dream, Sap, and I have been here for a while, we’ll update you guys on anything new.” George informed.

“If you get to see Karl tonight, tell him good night for me?” The teen on the other end of the phone asked. He smiled. “Of course Tommy.”

He hung up the phone with one last goodbye before he promptly sat down, his head buried in his hands as he began to let his emotions loose, crying alone in the empty room.

Why had this all happened?

“George!” He looked up, spotting a figure in front of him. Beautiful gray eyes, covered delicately with fluffy brown hair and accented with miniature freckles dancing across a wonderfully round face.

A face that could only be formed in his dreams.

“Come on!” George took the figure’s hand, marveling at how shockingly soft the skin was against his own. He was lifted up and dragged through the landscape, which appeared to be a flower field.

He watched as the new figure pranced about the field, picking an assortment of blue and purple flowers with each graceful movement.

There was something different, something almost familiar about how the figure moved, and how each hair danced up and down with each practiced step.

“Come help me make flower crowns for everyone!” The figure cheered as they sat down carefully among the flowers. George was slower, sitting carefully next to them as they began to make a flower crown out of stunning green leaves and white daffodils.

“Why are you so stressed? Just relax and take a breath, silly.” The other smiled, clearly trying to melt his worries away like they were slime.

Clearly it worked.

“Someone–sorry, a friend of mine–is going through so much right now, but I feel pathetic. I can’t do anything to help him.” The other only smiled before looking up from their mess of flowers. “If your friend is about half as strong as you are, I’m sure he’ll be just fine.”

George smiled as he picked up a few purple flowers, beginning to weave them, copying the movements of the more experienced of the two.

“Yeah, but it still worries me. He’s already so tiny, I’m scared that I won’t be able to help him. What if I hurt him more?” He rambled, twisting a few flowers to slide them in with the rest and tie them in place.

“You worry too much. You and the others won’t hurt him, I know that. You three will help him out, and he will be so incredibly grateful.”

He smiled, before the realization dawned on him.

“How do you know my name? And how do you know about Dream and Sapnap?” The figure never took their eyes off the flower crown, continuing to weave. “Your time is up here George, but I’ll tell you one thing. I’ll be fine.”

The smile. It caught him by surprise when it finally clicked.

Karl.

And just like that, George awoke with a start, feeling Sapnap against his side as Dream pulled the two closer in his sleep. His eyes spotted something resting in front of them.

A flower crown made from faux lavender and lilac.

Karl was going to be okay, of that he was sure.

- - -

Dream was the first one allowed to enter, to which he got to adore the miniature form of his love. Karl hadn’t woken up yet, but the larger didn’t care.

He wanted a moment to take in the other’s beauty before Karl would inevitably shove him off.

“Oh good, hey, we needed to do something for him, but as you can see…he’s a bit too small for the bed. Do you mind getting under him to lift him up for us?” One of the nurses asked, turning their attention to him.

Dream nodded, slowly pulling himself into the bed, and carefully–with assistance from the nurses–laid Karl atop his chest, where he watched cautiously as Karl was moved along with his breathing. Luckily, this movement didn’t seem to mess anything up.

The nurses began their work, bringing in tiny nurses to properly care for the tiny form resting on him. Once they finished, Dream rested a hand over Karl as a makeshift blanket to warm him up.

George and Sapnap joined him in the room a moment later, bringing in tinies with them.

“Hey Dream, we brought the Watsons-what-” Sapnap started before it clicked in his mind.

Great, they were going to have too much fun with this.

“Okay, look, the nurses couldn’t have him drowning in the sheets, so they had me stay with him. Now hand over my laptop, I have to check my schoolwork.” Dream sighed, holding out his hand. George–ever the responsible one–gave him his laptop as Sapnap laughed at the site.

George was careful in handling the tiny family, taking them from Sapnap and setting them on the table connected to the hospital bed. Dream eyed them.

The oldest one looked like Tommy, having blond hair and blue eyes. He could see where his genes came from. Although the other two had little resemblance, the only similarities being the brunette’s blue eyes.

Who has naturally pink hair?

Apparently this guy.

“Hey, I’m Phil, this is Wilbur and Techno. We’re the Watsons. Tommy’s family, and by extension, Karl’s.” Dream nodded, smiling. “Hey, I’m Dream.” He knew George was probably facepalming at this point, annoyed at just how awkward he was socially.

And only then, as he zoned out, he felt the weight of Karl against him. He barely moved his fingers, brushing the area where the leg was missing. This was terrible, how would Karl react?

The three joined separate Zoom meetings with their teacher as they taught, not wanting to miss their assignments. No one really dared to talk, although Techno–the one with the pink hair–became bold and scaled Dream’s chest to lay next to Karl. The Watsons had to be going through everything right now, it must hurt.

Everything in Dream’s mind was racing as he thought about being in this position. He really didn’t want to imagine his little sister in this position. He was amazed at how composed the family was.

“So, is Tommy coming?” George dared to ask. “No, he’s staying home with Kristin. He needs to focus on his schoolwork.” Dream nodded.

Karl was strong.

“Tommy told us that Karl had been hiding an injury for half a year. I’ll be shocked if he can even walk after this.” Wilbur–the one with the brown hair–spoke next. “A half a year? How could he handle that?” Sapnap asked, adjusting himself in his seat.

“We don’t even know. The school had no clue about it either, we looked at the tapes, he was great at hiding it.”

Karl was an incredible actor.

- - -

Dream shuffled awake, looking around. Everyone else had left, seeing as it was past visiting hours. But he remained, being asked to keep the other from drowning in the sheets.

He assumed he would see a nurse or someone, coming in to do their nightly check-ins, but he instead felt movement, so small, so close, so soft. His attention turned to Karl, watching as the other slightly moved his head. The other’s eyes opened slowly.

Karl let out a questioning hum before Dream rested a hand atop him. That sparked a yelp. “Sorry Karl.” He whispered, brushing his hair. “Did you sleep well?” “where-what happened…?”

He frowned. “You collapsed in class, it turned out you had a serious infection that had been killing your legs from the inside out.” He spoke, trying to stay calm for the other so he wouldn’t panic. “I-oh.”

“Next time something happens, you need to tell someone. Please Karl.”

Dream felt Karl nod. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” The tiny paused. “Yeah…”

Dream waited for the other to respond. “There were these kids–humans–who were mad for some reason, and saw me as I was going to my gym class. They grabbed me and squeezed my legs, but ran when they realized that doing that had broken my legs.”

He knew Karl was trembling, so he carefully reached over and grabbed the keychain plushie and let Karl rest against it. “I didn’t want to be a burden, so I just ignored it. The pain just became worse and worse until I just collapsed.”

“If I could, I would hug you, but you’re hooked into so many different IVs that I would probably break all of them. If you get a major injury, that doesn’t make you a burden. You need to take care of yourself too.”

Dream felt as the other’s heartbeat slowed, the other was asleep again, at least that was an improvement. He felt himself drift off into dreamless sleep as well.

He opened his eyes to laughter, startling him from his sleep. A forest, which had not–which could not have–been in the hospital room awaited his eyes.

And yet in front of him, while not too far but far enough, stood a figure. Their face was blurry but they wore a lavender colored sweater that blew with the wind. Dream stood slowly, eyeing them as he slowly approached.

The figure smiled through the blur, holding out their hands towards him, almost begging for a hug.

Who was he to refuse?

As he approached, the sky turned dark, overtaking the two in its suddenness. He tried to reach forward, to make it to the figure who stood, slowly being dragged away.

“Wait!” Dream called out, reaching out for them.

“Not okay, help me.” The figure whispered before his eyes shot open.

His breathing was heavy, his chest hurt. It was a dream, oh thank f***, it was a dream. He wanted to cry, before he somehow managed to collect himself.

Karl was thankfully still asleep as a nurse stepped inside. What was happening to him?

- - -

It was a long ride from the hospital, Sapnap found out the hard way, as the four of them slowly drove home. George was carefully holding Karl in his hands.

None of them look like they got good sleep, but Sapnap probably looked the same.

“What do we do now?” Sapnap whispered to Dream–the driver–softly, so only he could hear.

“We need to focus on ourselves and Karl. It may or may not be harder for us, because he’s smaller, but we should be okay for a bit.” He nodded, turning on his phone, and letting it connect to the bluetooth.

“Sap, no, you know we banned you from the AUX-” George cut himself off as ‘Careless Whispers’ played through the speakers. “Sapnap, I will strangle you-” “I will kick you out of this car and let you walk home, so help me!”

Sapnap just cackled, smiling as Karl seemed to enjoy this too.

He let his eyes flutter closed for only a moment before he opened them again. Had he fallen asleep long enough for Dream to get them to their apartment?

He wandered through the house, it was strangely dark and misty, giving him that horror feel as he walked through. Something wasn’t right.

At the end of a hall, Sapnap spotted a shadow moving under the door. Worried about a possible intruder, he crept forward, reaching out to open the door. It didn’t swing open when he pushed it, so he slammed it hard with his shoulder.

A rope.

“Help me.”

Sapnap nearly threw himself out of his seat, screaming. The other three panicked as well, Dream slamming the brakes and quickly turning off the road.

“G**, Sap, WHAT THE F***?!” The driver shouted. “Rope, body, f***, f***-” He couldn’t breathe, it felt almost like there was a rope tied around his neck.

George reached from behind, gently rubbing his shoulder. “It was just a dream, okay? It’s not going to affect your life-” “Dream, Dream, they f***ing died, they were hanging-” Dream shoved a hand onto his mouth.

“It’ll be okay, it wasn’t real.” He tried to reason. Sapnap turned his attention to his phone as it buzzed, pulling it out of his pocket and looking at the notification.

‘I had a dream about karl’ the text from George read. ‘simp’ he responded quickly. ‘weve all had strange dreams’ Dream replied to the two.

George tucked Karl into a cupholder in-between the three. “So, Dream, what did you dream?” Sapnap snickered, how funny. “There was someone in a forest, I went to hug them, but then everything was dark and I heard ‘not okay, help me’. Then I was awake.”

“I dreamt I was making flower crowns with Karl, he told me he was fine.” “Shockingly tame, I dreamt about someone hanging themself in our apartment.”

“Weird.” Dream muttered as Sapnap felt the car begin to move again.

The car ride was silent as they continued home.

- - -

George helped Karl in the morning, carefully washing him down and letting the other sit in silence. “I’ve got you a smoothie.” He smiled, holding out a bottle cap filled with the strawberry liquid.

Karl slowly drank, getting his food all over himself and the area surrounding him. “How are you feeling?” He asked, receiving a shrug in response. He sighed.

He began to clean up his friend. It had been so long since they heard him talk, they believed the last time was when Dream spoke to him in the hospital about two months ago.

“I have to go in a bit, have to pick up the mail. I’ll be back, do you want to stay in the kitchen or….” Karl nodded, staying still. George didn’t expect him to move, at least not without his wheelchair.

He waved as he left the apartment.

- - -

It was eerily silent as George entered. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was so terribly wrong.

The choking sounds from the room at the end of the hall were enough for George to sprint into the room.

And there, only there, did everyone’s dreams make sense, as he stared at the limp body of Karl, hanging from a pin stuck into a piece of thread.

He understandably screamed.

Pocket knife in hand, he cut the rope, catching the tiny form as he ran back out the door to his car. This was bad, this was terrible.

He knew he was speeding, probably a good 20 over. But Karl’s life was on the line. He promptly ignored the calls he was getting from his boyfriends.

- - -

Even though Karl was fine physically, that didn’t mean that it didn’t leave the two with lasting scars. George could barely hold his pocket knife without having a panic attack, while Karl had a permanent bruise where the rope had been tightened around his neck. Neither could even glance at rope or thread.

Both Dream and Sapnap were powerless.

Even as the two finished making wheelchair accessible pathways, George refused to leave Karl alone.

There were a lot of things to work on now, things both healthy and unhealthy. But they needed to work it out together. From that point, Dream and Sapnap promised each other that they would help the others, and take it all one step at a time.

“Hey Karl?” Sapnap asked with a smile as he stepped into the room, placing a kiss on the tinies forehead. He carefully set a plate down in front of him, watching as the other stared at it.

“It’s dino nuggets, a friend wanted you to try some.” He smiled, watching as the other carefully took one and bit into it.

“I see why Tommy likes these.” The other spoke, for the first time in a long while. “Yeah, they’re pretty entertaining, hm?”

—–—

(brick here) AGTHHHHGHGHHGHGHHGHHHGHGHGH SQUISHY THIS IS SO ANGSTY. I LOVE IT. DUDE. THIS IS AMAZING!!!!! ANGST FOR THE ANGST GOD??????

love the chatfic aspect and just karl being afraid of being a burden is so hghghhghghhgh i can't describe it. this is cutting it close with paperclips,, i think you will win our angst battle :')

#brickmission #squishfic #mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #dsmp g/t #dsmp gt #tiny!karl #giant!dream #giant!george #giant!sapnap #tw attempted suicide #tw major injury

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elekinetic · 2 years

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what’s your specific headcanon on mike’s sexuality? if you have one :)

well hello there anon im glad u asked

so this is basically me projecting bc im gay but ive kissed boys and kinda enjoyed it but didnt realize thats not how its supposed to feel until i kissed a girl LOL

so i see myself in mike's struggle to define his feelings for el. he loves her, he does, but is it actually romantic? he feels strongly toward her and guys feeling strongly for girls means they have a CRUSH on them so i think he assumes its romantic? and because el is pretty, he loves her a lot, he enjoys the attention/being wanted/being needed, and kissing is fun, it feels like something that can work.

and then his relationship with el falls apart. eventually he gets w will and has his OH SHIT moment, where he realizes what everyone was talking about when they said fireworks.

that being said i think mike's internalized homophobia would keep him away from the word gay. he's unlabeled for a long time.

#but b*sexual mike truthers i love you so much #censoring bc im not tryna get in ur tag <3 #thank you so much anon!!#comic con panel #gay mike wheeler #unlabeled mike wheeler #byler #stranger things (ella's version)

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daenystheedreamer · 1 year

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omgg for the ask game: asha and theon and stannis and arianne 🫶🫶🫶

ok this is gonna be FOUR posts THANK YOU MINA FOR FEEDING ME♡

asha my weed smoking girlfriend:

SEXUALITY unlabelled bisexual and mostly guys... she’s like it’s so gay to be like “i’m gay” “i’m straight” bro just fuck 🤨 dont be an adjective fuckin virgin lmao

OTP don’t have much of an otp for asha i like her with lots of people 🫶 i like qarl and asha i think tris and asha is funny. LOVE alysane and asha and arianne and asha is my secret guilty pleasure i think it’s hot and fun!! i also like show danyara that was fun

BROTP does a brotp count if its her actual brother if so theon i love their relationship SOOO much.... if not i think qarl and asha are so fun they’re the most normal relationship in westeros istg. bros being hoes!

NOTP don’t have one! i don’t mind most asha ships. there’s probbaly some freak ones i would hate. ok asha x erik ironmaker HATE ASS EVIL the seal thing is kinda funny

HEADCANON i think she would like ska music🫶

FAV QUOTE she has so many.... “a little brother may live to be a hundred but he will still be a little brother” she’s so right! i like the lord husband axe and sweet suckling blade dagger quote too i think it establishes her character well. also the sad ones abt theon in the TWOW sample chapters

RELATABILITY proud man-hater!

SECOND HAND EMBARRASSMENT god the esgred bit. i know it serves a purpose i know it establishes her character God it is gross oof. like yeah the ironborn sorta have this ritually abusive culture around masculinity which is interesting and i like but the sexual aspects especially regarding asha’s genderbending can be gross to read. did she need to grope him...

CINNAMON ROLL/PROBLEMATIC FAV i don’t think she’s all that problematic...oh right the piracy and killing and oft times playing into patriarchy and yeah she’s my problematic fav♡

#asha greyjoy #thank you babes truly i love the sound of my own voice (posts?) i love having excuses to post and talk shit and ramble incomprehensibly

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snowdice · 2 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 132]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.

If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”

See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.

Note, today I’m editing things so I won’t be doing consistent uploads, just whenever I take a break.

Chapter 47

The museum ended up being interesting to Virgil. Though, this was not because any of the exhibits taught him anything more about the events they displayed. No, it was interesting to learn what history people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events. It was an angle he’d never really thought about studying, but he might put a pin in the idea of going to different museums from this time period to study how the 21st century viewed history.

His and Logan’s conversation quickly became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but of hypothesizing why those mistakes had been made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed. Logan’s contributions were a whole lot less technical than the theories Virgil threw out, however he seemed to keep up well.

They spent a few hours in the museum before deciding it was time to head back to Logan’s apartment. However, not before stopping at a small hole-in-the-wall bar inhabited only by day drinkers.

“I have to bring home a peace offering after running off this morning,” he explained to Virgil when questioned. “Patton will forgive me easier if I do and will be more likely to agree to a time travel mission for me.”

“…And Patton likes… vodka?” Virgil asked with an eyebrow raise.

“No,” Logan replied, seemingly amused at the thought. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ It is the only thing they cook. They don’t even serve fries.”

Virgil gave the location a dubious look but didn’t question it. Sometimes good food was found in the weirdest of places. The best tacos he’d ever eaten had been bought out of a window on the side of a laundry mat in the late 1900s.

When Logan handed him one of the unlabeled brown paper bags that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just its contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow.

“Ah yes,” said Virgil dryly as they left the restaurant, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”

“You once ate only bagged pepperoni slices meant for pizzas as your breakfast for an entire week,” Logan pointed out.

“I told you that in confidence!” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.

“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”

“You’re making fun of me. That’s a part of the agreement too,” Virgil said.

“I don’t remember there being any clauses like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, better than eating nothing.”

“Oh,” Virgil said. “Well, good.”

“I am simply citing another example where not perfectly healthy food can be good in the short term,” Logan said.

“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery?” Virgil asked.

“Precisely,” Logan said with a smile. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”

“Alright, fair enough,” Virgil conceded. “It’s still horrible nutrition wise.”

“You don’t have to have any if you don’t want it,” Logan promised.

“Oh, no, I’m going to,” Virgil said instantly.

Logan paused and turned to look at him. “Then why are you complaining?”

“I just thought you should know your time has much too greasy food.”

“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. “I’m sure it will be very useful going forward.”

They’d made it to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.

“And where have the two of you been all morning?” Patton’s voice called as soon as the two of them walked through the door.

“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered, following his roommate’s voice towards the kitchen. Virgil followed in his wake.

Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop, but he paused to peak into the bag. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he tried to convince them.

“I will take your word on that,” Logan said.

Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for one of the cheeseburgers. Logan kept looking down at Patton, and obviously that meant something that Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked, suspiciously.

“Virgil and I went back to the location he arrived at,” Logan told him. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions caused the crash and is still active in this time.”

“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out with a frown.

“It seems to be a more advanced version of the devices we’ve seen so far,” Logan explained. “Which will make it much more difficult to trace.”

“Okay,” Patton said. There was still a good amount of distrust in his tone. “Then what are we going to do about it?”

“Well,” Logan said, “if we could gain access to an older version of the device, we could likely study it and reverse engineer a way to track the current one’s location.”

“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.

“I do understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week,” Logan said quickly. Patton was already frowning, “and that your last trip through time was a challenging one, but,” he nodded at Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one of these devices exists and I have it on good authority that you have a good chance of finding it, deactivating it, and bringing it home if you travel to Camaguey Cuba 1755.”

Patton groaned. “And judging by the obvious source of this information, I’d be stealing it off of the TPI.”

“Well, yes,” Logan admitted.

“Excellent.”

“At least, in this particular circumstance, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”

…

Should Virgil… say something? It’d be rude to not mention the whole time shredding almost full party drowning experience, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream and he was going into an already messy time disturbance.

Virgil debated with himself on whether general social courtesy should trump the possible destruction of all of space and time.

…

Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they weren’t already planning to pack him one. Just in case.

“Fine,” Patton said with a sigh, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and my survival pack before I make any jumps. I am not making the same mistakes again.”

Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Give me a list of what you want in your survival pack by tomorrow.”

“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “It’s in the Google Drive.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things to pull up a google document. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”

Logan looked over his shoulder at the list. “…Do you really need all of this?”

“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.

“I will do my best,” Logan said.

“You will do it,” Patton returned.

“Right.”

Patton sighed and turned back to his laptop. “And I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700s,” he said.

Virgil watched him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier, in particular, all of that museum’s inaccuracies.

“Do… you want help?” he offered.

Chapter 48

It took a little over two weeks for Logan to get everything in order. He’d already been in the process of updating all of their equipment for quite some time, and their current situation spurned him to complete these improvements even sooner. That was easy.

What was more difficult was trying to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long when Logan had started, but Patton had continued to add to it. It seemed like the list would be endless for a short while as Patton had been adding things as fast or faster than Logan could address them.

He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at one point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey was nowhere near the sea.

Virgil, thankfully, didn’t seem to mind the delays too much. In fact, he may have had a hand in causing some of them. His natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton who had already been stressed given his last trip through time. Patton’s request for the boat had come after one of their brainstorming sessions.

Virgil and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually, as Logan worked on supplies. Virgil had offered to help Patton with researching. While Patton was fairly good at doing his own research for time travel destinations at this point, Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering his profession and his involvement with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.

Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not appreciate Virgil’s input on things. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing days ago. They were currently refusing to speak to each other after a discussion about the fabric composition of Ancient Greek clothing over dinner the night before.

Logan honestly… could not tell if these fights were friendly debates or not. There seemed to be a lot of anger around the topics, but they also seemed to enjoy their arguments to an odd degree.

Logan had inquired after Patton’s opinion on the matter, but he’d shrugged and claimed he also could not tell.

Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship was helpful either, but Logan had noticed Roman slightly change the design of the outfit he’d made for Patton’s trip to Cuba.

Virgil was helpful in preparing for the mission, taking some of the stress of research off of Patton and Roman which was nice. He was not much help to Logan’s endeavors unless you counted the original intel. He had a basic understanding of mathematics and physics, but not enough to help in that regard.

He was, however, very good for company. It helped that his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks unlike the other occupants of the apartment. Typically, Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than Logan did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room. However, with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while Logan worked. If it was less volatile company than he was used to working with, that was just a bonus.

Virgil fit into their little group in a way that Logan had not anticipated. (Well, socially he fit. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for over two weeks now.)

Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton was supplied with three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to step into, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive in an apocalypse if needed.

Patton planned to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would dictate Janus be sent in. That way, he would have more than adequate time to get set up and acclimated before the TPI sent in their agents.

For now, however, he was busy examining his new and improved timepiece.

“This is cool,” Patton breathed, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.

“The controls are the same configuration as on your previous device. The only thing new is the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the button to access the survival kit features.

“It looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still flexing his fingers to get used to it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many options for the device’s form yet, but more could be designed and added in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a simple wristwatch.

“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before your trip.

Patton nodded, flicking his fingers. He disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did a few other simple mini trips before predictably growing bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and “accidently” jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice.

Eventually, Logan confiscated the device for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.

Patton went to bed early after dinner, planning on leaving the next morning. Roman also retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.

Despite knowing his calculations were perfect, Logan still found himself sitting on the couch and checking over them one last time, just to be sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.

He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.

Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks, by the way,” he said. “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”

“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.

“Sure,” Virgil said, “but you still all have been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”

Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he replied.

“Maybe,” Virgil said, “but this time you’re doing it for me, so yeah, thanks.”

“You’re welcome then,” Logan replied. “Any time.”

Virgil titled his head and grinned at him. “Was that a time travel pun?” he asked.

Logan scowled instantly. “No.”

“It sounded like a time travel pun…”

“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun,” Logan said.

“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make any puns?” Virgil asked.

“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.

Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am?”

“Not so loud!” Logan hissed instantly. He leaned forward to put his hand over Virgil’s mouth while glancing back towards the hallways to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with yet another intervention.

Logan’s hand was bit.

“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, tearing the hand away.

Despite his childish violence (or perhaps because of it), Virgil’s eyes were shining.

“How do you know?” Logan asked in a whisper. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years as neither of them liked orange juice.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”

“It’s worked on everyone else,” Logan said.

“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid bastard with a doctorate degree in human bullshittery. You cannot fool me.”

Logan couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose I have met my match then,” he said.

Virgil titled his head back all the way, so his skull rested on the couch cushion, and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said with a grin.

Logan was not much for sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows softening the edges of the rooms and the almost golden glint in Virgil’s eyes from the reflection of the lit lamp that suddenly made it more difficult to breathe.

Virgil was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning. His eyes were softened with sleepiness as he looked up at Logan with a smile on his face.

He fit here, Logan thought. He slotted into Logan’s life with an ease Logan could never have anticipated. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak over the telephone. He’d found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one-sided video chats. Yet it was different with him right here in front of Logan.

Logan could reach down right now and touch him with ease if he chose to. He could brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes. Logan wondered what Virgil would do. Would his eyes shine the same way they had after biting Logan earlier. Would he grin wider than he was now? Would he get embarrassed like he did the first day in the coffee shop after oversharing?

“You… good man?” Virgil asked, pulling Logan from his musings.

“I am perfectly well,” Logan replied, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”

“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.

“I find myself a bit disconcerted at the moment.”

“Well, maybe a carton full of iced coffee at 3am is not the best choice,” Virgil said in good humor. “You aren’t a college kid anymore.”

Logan glanced down at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled.

Virgil gave him an odd look but didn’t comment.

“You know,” he said instead. “I think your calculations are probably fine anyway,” He reached up to gently taking the papers out of Logan’s grip. “Why don’t you put the coffee away and we do something else?”

“Like sleep?” Logan asked.

“Do you think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with an eyebrow raised.

“Fair point,” Logan replied ruefully.

Virgil grabbed the television remote from the coffee table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”

“Sure,” Logan agreed. He glanced down at Virgil who was already turning on the television. “You can come onto the couch if you like.”

“Nah,” said Virgil without looking at him. “You can come to the floor.

Logan sighed. “Very well,” he agreed and slid to the floor.

Chapter 49

Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.

…

This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.

The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.

Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.

“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.

Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.

Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.

He should not have trusted him.

He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.

“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”

“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”

Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”

“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”

“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’

“It’s. In. A. Mall.”

“So?” Logan asked.

“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”

“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.

“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”

Virgil glared at him.

“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”

“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.

“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.

The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.

Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.

Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.

The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.

He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.

“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”

“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”

“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”

“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”

“Do you have anything in mind?”

“You guys have Blockbuster still?”

“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”

“Is it close? Let’s go there.”

“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”

Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.

“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”

“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.

“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”

They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.

There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.

“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.

“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”

“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”

“I don’t ‘panic choose’ anything,” Logan said. “I-”

“You do today,” Virgil interrupted.

“I…”

“Choose a letter.”

“…S?”

“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.

“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”

“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”

“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”

“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”

“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”

Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.

Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.

“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.

Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”

Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.

Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”

“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.

“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”

“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”

“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”

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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”

“It was a bad one.”

“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.

And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.

“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.

“Roman! You need to knock!”

“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.

“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.

“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”

Chapter 50

The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.

“…Look,” Roman said.

“We aren’t talking about it.”

“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”

“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.

Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.

“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.

“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.

“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.

“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.

“What?” Logan asked.

Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”

“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.

“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”

“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.

“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”

Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.

“Thanks, Lo!”

Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.

“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.

“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.

Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”

He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.

Roman froze. “You did?”

“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”

“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”

“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”

“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”

Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”

“He what?!” Roman practically screeched.

“It wasn’t particularly innocent flirting either,” Patton said, grimacing.

Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”

“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.

“What did he even say?” Roman asked.

“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.

“He talked about your butt!”

“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”

“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.

“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.

“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.

Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”

“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.

“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.

“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”

“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.

“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.

Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.

“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.

“I know!” he called back.

“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”

“Why do I have to do it?!”

“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”

“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.

Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Logan said.

“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.

Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”

“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”

“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.

“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.

“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”

“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”

“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.

“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.

“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”

“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.

“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”

Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”

Chapter 51

It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.

“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”

“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.

“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”

Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.

“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.

“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”

“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”

“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”

“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”

“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.

“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”

“Where?” Roman asked.

“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”

“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”

“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.

Patton gave him a look.

“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.

“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.

“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”

Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.

“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”

“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”

“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.

“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.

He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.

“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.

“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.

“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”

“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.

Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”

“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”

Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.

“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.

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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”

He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.

“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”

“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.

“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”

Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.

“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.

“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”

“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.

“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.

Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.

“Thank you,” Virgil said again.

“Of course,” Logan replied.

Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.

Arc IV: (To Be Named)

Chapter 52

“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.

“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.

Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.

Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.

“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.

“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.

“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.

“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.

“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.

“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”

Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”

“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.

Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.

The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.

Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.

He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.

Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.

He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.

He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.

For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.

“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.

“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”

“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”

“Not for every meal, Janus.”

“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”

“Vegetables, Janus.”

“You could have put pickles on!”

“I don’t like pickles.”

“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.

Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”

“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”

“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.

“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”

Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”

“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”

“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.

“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”

Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.

“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.

“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”

“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.

“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”

“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.

“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”

“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”

“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.

Janus snorted.

“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”

Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.

Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.

It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.

…

Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.

He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.

He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.

(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)

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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.

“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”

Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”

“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.

“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.

There was a long silence.

“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.

“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.

Chapter 53

Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.

He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.

They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.

The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.

Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.

…

His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)

They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”

“No,” Janus replied.

“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.

“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.

He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.

“What are you doing?” Janus asked.

“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.

“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”

“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.

Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”

“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…

“Again, what are you doing?”

“I’m making you soup.”

“Why?” Janus asked.

“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.

Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”

“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”

“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.

“Liar!” Patton declared.

“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.

“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”

“This is Pat,” Janus said.

“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.

“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”

“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.

“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.

“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”

“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”

“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.

“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”

Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.

“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.

“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”

“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?

“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.

“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”

“And you’ve met me before?”

“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”

“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.

“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”

“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.

Patton just shrugged with a smile.

“No, Patton, what are you doing?”

“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”

“Patton.”

“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.

Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”

“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”

“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”

“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.

“What?” Janus asked.

“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.

Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”

Chapter 54

They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.

Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.

“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”

“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”

“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”

Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”

“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”

“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.

“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.

“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.

“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.

There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.

“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”

Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.

“…Huh,” Emile finally said.

Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.

“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.

Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.

The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.

“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.

“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”

“A dream?” Janus asked.

“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”

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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”

“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”

“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.

“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”

“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”

“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”

“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”

“Like…?”

“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”

“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”

“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”

Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”

“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”

“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”

“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”

“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”

“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”

“It has?” Janus asked.

“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”

“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.

“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”

“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”

Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”

“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.

“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”

“Pity?”

Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”

“I promise,” Janus said immediately.

“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”

“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”

“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”

Janus nodded.

“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”

And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.

Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.

Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.

Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.

“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.

Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.

“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”

“I really don’t know.”

“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”

“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.

Chapter 55

Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.

It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.

The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.

Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.

Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.

The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.

He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.

First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.

Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.

Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.

Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.

The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.

He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.

Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.

Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.

“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”

“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.

“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”

“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.

“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”

“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”

Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”

“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.

“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”

“No promises,” Remus replied.

Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.

At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.

To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.

“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.

“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.

“That’s concerning…” Janus said.

“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”

Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”

“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.

“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”

Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”

Chapter 56

Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.

“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.

“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.

The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.

“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.

Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.

“This is why we’re partners,” he said.

He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.

There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.

Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.

He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.

“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.

“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.

“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”

Janus shook his head.

“Can I have a name for that?”

“Jay,” Janus replied.

“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”

Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.

The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.

He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.

“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.

“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.

“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”

Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.

“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.

“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.

“Er, what flavors do you have?”

“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”

Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.

“We might have grass.”

Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”

“…Maybe just no on the chips.”

Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.

“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”

“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.

“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”

“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”

“How would you know?” asked Janus.

Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.

“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”

“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.

“Research?” Janus asked.

“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”

“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.

Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.

“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”

“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”

It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”

He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.

In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.

Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.

“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.

“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.

Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”

“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”

“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”

Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.

“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”

“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”

Janus sighed.

Chapter 57

Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.

“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”

“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”

“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.

“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.

“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”

“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”

“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.

“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”

“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”

“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”

They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.

“So, what is it usually?”

“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”

“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.

“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”

“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”

“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”

“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.

“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”

Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.

“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.

“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.

Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.

“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”

“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”

“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”

“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”

“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”

“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”

“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.

He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.

Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”

“How much?” Janus asked.

“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”

“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”

Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”

Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.

Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”

“Stranger how?” Patton asked.

“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”

“What do you mean?”

“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.

Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”

Chapter 58

Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.

The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.

It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.

Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.

It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.

If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.

There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.

“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.

Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.

“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”

There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”

“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”

Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”

“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”

“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”

“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.

That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.

“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”

Fred glanced down at his integrator and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.

“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”

“Same,” said Fred.

“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”

“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”

“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”

Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.

“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.

“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.

“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.

Janus just rolled his eyes.

“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”

“Have you read it?” Janus asked.

Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.

“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”

“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.

“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”

Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.

Janus shot him a thumbs up.

He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.

“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.

“You look stressed,” Emile commented.

Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”

“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”

“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”

“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”

“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”

“Janus,” Emile scolded.

“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”

“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.

“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”

“I just worry…” he said.

“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”

“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”

“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.

“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”

“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”

“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”

Chapter 59

Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.

“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”

Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.

“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.

Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.

It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.

They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.

“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”

Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”

“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”

“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”

Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”

Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”

“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“I could make time,” Janus said.

Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.

Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.

“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”

Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.

It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.

The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.

“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”

“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.

“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”

“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.

“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.

“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.

“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”

“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”

“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”

“Yea-”

“So, I was actually wondering something.”

“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”

“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”

He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”

“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”

Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.

“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.

“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”

Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.

“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.

Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.

Patton nodded. “Yep!”

“What exactly did you want to know?”

“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”

“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”

Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”

“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”

Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.

Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.

They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.

“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.

“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.

“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”

“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.

“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.

“A London Fog?” Janus asked.

“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.

Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”

“Mhmm.”

Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.

“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”

“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”

“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”

“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”

“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”

Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”

“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”

Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”

“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”

“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.

Chapter 60

Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.

He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.

The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.

He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?

He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.

“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.

“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”

“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.

“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”

“…Yes?”

Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”

“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”

“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Probably,” Janus agreed. “I don’t know where he is right now though. He ran off when we got back from our last mission.”

“And you have no idea where he could have gone?”

“I actually would like to talk to him too,” Janus said. “So, if I did, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Chances he’ll come back to the office?” Virgil asked, hopefully.

“Very low since he’s avoiding me.”

“Great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples. “That’s great. Why does this have to be physically difficult as well?”

“What exactly do you need with Remus?” Janus asked, noting the way Virgil was holding himself very tensely.

“I just need to talk to him,” Virgil said.

“Yes,” Janus said. “About…?”

Virgil didn’t say anything. He just looked off to the side.

“Why is everyone acting weird today?” Janus said, almost to himself.

“I’m not!” said Fred from his corner.

Janus shot him an unamused look. “Thank you for your contribution to this conversation, Fred.”

“Look,” Virgil said, “can you just tell him I need to talk to him about something private the next time you see him?”

“What on Earth do you need to talk privately to Remus about?” Janus said.

“Just leave it, Janus,” Virgil said.

He had his lips downturned in stern way that meant he was trying to hide something from Janus by feigning annoyance. Janus titled his head. “You two aren’t…”

“No! Ew!” Virgil said, looking disgusted. “He’s somehow the worst of two options which is saying something considering the French Toast.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” said Virgil. “Just, can I leave a note for him, or something?”

Janus paused, looking at him. Virgil squirmed under his gaze but didn’t seem like he was going to give in anytime soon. “Fine,” Janus finally relented. “You can leave a note on his desk. I’m not sure why you didn’t just email him.”

“It’s an in-person type of conversation,” Virgil said, wringing his hands.

“Whatever you say,” Janus said, walking over to Remus’s desk and clicking the memo button that brought up a screen people who weren’t Remus could write on. “There you go,” he said.

“Thanks,” Virgil said with a relieved grin, clearly happy he was no longer being interrogated. He grabbed the stylus tied to the side of Remus’s desk. (If Janus hadn’t tied it there, it would be in Mesopotamia by now, he was sure.)

Janus turned to go back to his own desk.

“Wait,” said Virgil. “It isn’t working.”

“What do you mean?” Janus asked. “It’s a note app.”

“It’s not tracking what I write,” Virgil said. He tapped the screen with his finger. “It’s not even responding.”

Janus leaned over to take a look for himself. He tapped it a few times and there was nothing, so he tapped it a bit more aggressively. A fuzzy line went across the screen and then it shut off abruptly.

“What is wrong with things in this office lately?” Janus asked with a frown.

“My stuff just froze too,” Fred said.

The door opened then, and Lena entered the room. “The coffee makers are all offline.”

“What do you mean the coffee makers are offline?” Janus asked.

“I went to get some coffee for Fred and I and they’re not working. Any of them.”

“That’s odd,” Fred said.

“You know,” Virgil said, shifting nervously on his feet. “This seems like a bad time for me to be here. Why don’t I just come back another time or better yet, Janus, just tell Remus to come find me.”

“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “There’s a lot of things going on apparently, so it’s probably best if you leave.”

With that, Virgil brought up the time device he was using and pushed a couple of buttons to return to his university.”

However, instead of disappearing like he was meant to do, he flickered once and then was immediately on his knees with his hand over his nose.

“Shit,” Virgil hissed.

“Are you okay?” Janus asked, kneeling next to him. There was blood coming from his nose which was concerning, but his eyes focused on Janus easily enough, though he looked very startled.

“I think I just hit the shield.”

“Is your timepiece not approved?” asked Janus, pulling on his arm to see the timepiece.

“I got it approved this morning,” Virgil said, taking a tissue Fred handed to him to press it to his nose. “It’s supposed to have access to the TPI all day. I used it not even 10 minutes ago.”

Lena was already on her own time device. She pushed a button and disappeared for a moment before appearing a couple of steps away. She stumbled and was caught by Fred. “Mine’s blocked too,” she said, “I only put in to go to the entrance of the building.”

That’s when the lights went out.

Chapter 61

There was screaming from somewhere down the hall.

“Do you think that’s like when kids would scream when the teacher would turn out the lights in elementary school for a movie?” Virgil asked hopefully, voice a bit nasally since he was still holding his nose.

Janus gave him a tightlipped stare.

“Yeah,” Virgil said, “that’s what I was afraid of.”

Fred calmly reached over and shut and locked the office door.

“And what good is that going to do?” asked Virgil.

Fred glanced at him, already moving to shove Remus’s desk in front of the door. Janus instantly went to help him. “Gives us time to regroup.”

“Or it locks us in,” Virgil argued.

Janus glanced over at him. “Don’t panic,” he said.

“The fuck do you mean, don’t panic?” Virgil asked, panicking, “Do you even know me?”

Janus sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Panic as much as you want but do it quietly.”

Virgil opened his mouth to speak.

“We know what we’re doing. You do not. Contributions from you that are only fears no matter how rational are not helpful at the moment.”

Virgil shut his mouth.

Janus turned Lena and Fred. “Okay, what do we know?”

“Malfunctioning coffee makers,” Lena said. “Malfunctioning tech in general really.”

“And not just now,” Fred added, now working on barricading the window with the cabinet he kept his hot chocolate in. “There’s been issues with the whole system for a while now, and they’ve been getting worse.”

“Right,” Janus said. “I’d been blaming that on new recruits messing things up out of ignorance or IT not having enough time do normal maintenance, but if everything is down when the shields are malfunctioning, that implies something else.”

“Are the shields even malfunctioning?” Lena asked. “That implies something went wrong with the program, but what happened to Professor Eran and I is what it’s supposed to do to people who don’t have permission to cross them.”

“So, the shields might be malfunctioning,” Janus said, “or someone went in and changed the permissions.”

“Considering the tech problems we’ve been having,” Lena said, “it’s possible someone’s been playing around in the TPI the system without knowing what they’re doing.”

“Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing,” Janus suggested, “and they wanted to see our usual protocol for small issues before giving us a big one.”

There were a few moments of silence where they all were lost in thought.

“People are still screaming,” Virgil pipped in.

“Yes,” Janus confirmed. “This is obviously not just a virtual attack.”

“Which should be the priority?” Lena asked. “The virtual attack or the physical one?”

“The virtual part will be complicated, and if we stabilize the building physically, we’ll have more time and have everyone safe,” Fred said, “but on the other hand the virtual attack is obviously what’s letting the physical attack persist. If people had access to time travel and communication, the physical attack wouldn’t matter.”

“I think-” started Janus, but he was cut off suddenly by a horrible screeching noise like metal on metal. The room they were in jolted like they were in a car that suddenly stopped and then the world was turning sideways, and they were all toppling as the floor became the wall. Janus landed on top of Virgil. Hopefully the blood now staining his shirt was from the man’s already bloody nose. “-we should probably start with the time anomaly attack!”

Lena was a few feet away from him. She’d luckily been to the right of her desk, so she landed on top of it instead of it landing on top of her. Fred was a couple of feet away, already crouched. Judging by the state of the furniture around him, he’d had to dodge the cabinet he’d been putting over the window.

“What’s going on?” Virgil asked. Good, he was conscious after that.

“Time distortion,” Janus answered.

“What the hell type of time distortion is this?!” Lena exclaimed, holding one of her arms with the other. Janus couldn’t tell what type of injury she’d gotten.

“One like the one Remus and I ran into in Cuba,” Janus said.

“So…” Fred said.

“I think we’ve finally found whoever has been mucking up time with time distortion devices. Or, more, I think they’ve found us.”

There were more screams from down the hall. “We can still hear other people in the building screaming,” Janus noted. “That’s good.”

“How is that good?” Virgil asked.

“That means the building is still connected to itself,” Janus explained. “Which, means that while the shields are screwed up, they’re still in place and keeping the building from being ripped apart and sent through time and space.”

“Oh well that’s good at least,” Virgil said, sounding honestly a bit hysterical. He looked over at Janus. “If the building is intact, can’t we just leave? Just through the front door?”

The three time agents in the room exchanged a look.

“Well,” Fred said, “first of all, it’s probably not going to be that easy to get to the front door considering the screaming we’re hearing every so often.”

“Also, we wouldn’t be able to get out if we did make it to the door.”

“What?” Virgil asked. “Why not?”

“It’s kind of a secret that most people don’t know unless they’ve worked here a long time,” Janus said, “but the TPI headquarters isn’t exactly… in a place.”

“What do you mean it’s not in a place?” Virgil asked. “I’ve seen the outside of the building. It’s on a normal street with restaurants and a park and all of that.”

“It’s really not though,” Janus said.

“It’s kind of floating,” Lena cut in. “Somewhere in deep space. The doors auto-teleport you the doors of a building on Earth which is why you think that it’s there.”

“The building’s a shell?” Virgil asked, flabbergasted.

“Yes, and unfortunately, without time travel being accessible, going out of the front door would be ill advised.”

There was a long pause as Virgil seemed to reboot. “We’re floating in space right now?!”

“Well,” Janus said. “We were always floating in space. You just didn’t know that.”

“Great, yeah, nice, that’s great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples.

“So,” Janus said, turning to Fred and Lena. “I think first we need to find whatever is sending out time quakes before they get worse. Then, we’ll figure out the rest along the way.”

“How are we going to find it though?” Fred asked. “It could be anywhere.”

“I’m not sure but standing in here isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Lena said.

“The closer we get the more chaos there will be,” Janus said. “Game of hot and cold with time distortions anyone?”

Lena and Fred nodded, but Virgil just looked queasy. Luckily, when the room had gone sidewise, the door had landed in a place still accessible enough with a bit of crawling.

Fred and Lena had to pull the desk away from the door, but then they were able to cautiously open it. Fred poked his head out. “Seems clear,” he said. “Sideways, but clear.”

“Good,” Janus said.

Fred started slowly crawling out into the hallway and Lena went after him. Janus turned back to a very green looking Virgil. “You can stay here,” he said. Maybe go in the supply closet to prevent any more injury from falling office supplies. It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll be better. We’ll come get you when things are stable.”

Virgil nodded. Yet, right as Janus turned away to go follow Fred and Lena, there was another rubble and the ground shook. Virgil, still a bit wobbly on his feet from the last couple of falls tumbled down, but luckily the room’s walls stayed in their places.

Unluckily, the walls outside of the room didn’t. Looking through the office door one could see what was outside the room was very much not a hallway anymore, but a different room entirely. There was no Lena or Fred in sight. “You’ve got to be kidding,” Janus said to the universe.

Chapter 62

“I thought you said the building was stable!” Virgil said.

“I said it’s not being ripped apart,” Janus corrected, “and it still isn’t. We’re still inside the headquarters. The rooms just got a bit… scrambled.”

“Great, great, fuck.”

“It’s fine, Virgil,” Janus said, though he himself was a bit worried. He knew if he showed that, however, Virgil would just panic more, and the last thing Janus needed at the moment was a panicking civilian, let along a panicking Virgil.

“It is not fine,” Virgil said. Luckily, he looked a bit pissed off at Janus’s flippant reply. Good. A pissed off Virgil was better than one having a panic attack.

Janus just rolled his eyes, making Virgil bristle even more. “Well,” he said, “either way, I need to attempt to find what is causing this time distortion. Come with me or stay here, though I am unsure if the closet is a closet anymore.”

Virgil eyed the closet and then eyed Janus.

“Make your choice quickly though,” Janus cautioned, already steeping towards the open doorway.

He heard Virgil curse after a moment and then a hand was gripping Janus’s arm. He was coming with then.

They both climbed out of the sideways doorway into the room on the other side.

“Where are we?” Virgil asked, still holding onto Janus’s sleeve. It reminded Janus of welcome week in their freshman year of college.

They’d been randomly assigned as roommates in the dorms. Janus had mostly ignored him the first day after small attempts at making conversation had failed miserably. He’d assumed the boy simply didn’t want to make friends, and Janus had taken that in stride, sure he could make friends elsewhere.

That lasted until that night when he’d found his roommate on the bathroom floor, dry heaving into the toilet. After figuring out that it was from nerves and not some drug his body was trying to desperately expel (Janus had been very glad he didn’t have to drag some dumbass to the hospital on his first day living away from home), he decided to take pity on the poor fool and socially adopted him.

He'd been a nervous wreck during all of Welcome Weekend even with Janus’s literally leading him by the hand (and sometimes dragging him) to the many social events the university put on. He’d slowly calmed down, however being around a lot of people still sometime freaked him out. He’d warmed up to Janus quickly though and when they were alone, he’d come out of his shell.

He’d proved himself to be a witty, smartass, bastard as soon as he got over his crippling social anxiety. He’d matched Janus perfectly, honestly, and had always been around to help with homework, especially reading and writing. He’d also known more about how to clean himself and his environment more than most college freshman even if sometimes his anxiety had prevented him from using that knowledge appropriately.

He'd actually managed to stop Janus from making poisonous gas in their apartment by mixing cleaning fluids in their junior year.

Janus glanced around them trying to answer the question of where they were. It was a medium sized room, about the size of the living room in his house and was mostly baren except for a large hollowed out circular desk with one gap for people to be able to walk through. Under the desk was a long line of old school computer towers humming softly with only a few centimeters between them. There was a mess of cords all over the place, connecting to different parts of the computers and thrown over parts of the desk.

“I’m not sure where we are,” Janus admitted. “This is a pretty archaic set up. I’m not sure what it’d be used for.”

Virgil stepped forward towards the desk with a curious tilt to his head. He bent down to study one of the computers for a few moments. He squinted. “It’s not an archaic set-up. Well,” he amended. “It is, but it’s intentionally an archaic set-up. The techs current, it’s just put in a shell that looks old for some reason.”

“That’s odd,” Janus said.

Virgil pushed a button on the side of one of the towers and the machine started rumbling louder, lighting up Virgil’s face in a soft blue light as it did.

Virgil stood as the computer tower next to it lit up the same the next moment and the one next to it the moment after that until all of the computers were on. Only after that did the top of the desk light up, a full 3-D hologram lighting up with Virgil inside.

Janus stepped through the gap in the desk to stand inside the hologram too.

He was met with a lock screen, but more worrying.

“Oh no,” Janus said.

“What?” Virgil asked, glancing at him.

“The date,” Janus said.

The date behind the prompt for the password read almost 10 years in the future of the year they were supposed to be in.

“So much for your shields,” Virgil grumbled.

“We really shouldn’t be here,” Janus said.

“Oh really?” Virgil said. “Thanks for your useful information, Mr. Time Agent. I thought likely stepping on our own personal time streams, especially by going to the future was a good Thursday afternoon activity.”

Janus glared at him.

“Oh wait,” said Virgil, glancing at the date on the screen, “I mean Sunday at 2am.”

“Does being an asshole help?” Janus asked.

“Would you prefer an actual mental breakdown because I have two modes of behavior open to me right now.”

“Asshole it is,” Janus grumbled.

“Great,” said Virgil. “Fuck you, fuck Remus, fuck time travel, and fuck…”

And, of course, that’s when the room decided to tilt once more. They both went tumbling, but luckily the fall was softer this time. Janus simply landed on his backside as though he’d tripped backwards while walking. Meanwhile, Virgil ended up on his hands and knees having caught himself.

“Fuck this!” Virgil completed his sentence a bit too loudly for Janus’s taste.

“Shh,” Janus said.

Virgil looked up at him and seemed to realize what Janus had. They were no longer in the room they’d just been in. Or perhaps they were in the same room, but the computer wasn’t there, and the lighting was different. It was rather difficult to tell if they’d moved rooms since it was just a rectangular box of a room.

Instead, they were in what seemed to be just an office, much like Janus’s office, but with six desks instead of four. There was a half-eaten lunch on one of the desks and a hologram with a mission report pulled up on the wall.

There also blood on the floor next to where they had landed.

“Where are we?” Virgil asked in a whisper.

“Back in action,” Janus said. “It’s one of the offices, but I don’t know which at the moment, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s in the right time. The shields must have righted us.

#study break stories #not writing

16 notes · View notes

ricky-olson · 2 years

Note

This might be controversial but I was wondering what your opinion on all the discourse about Eddie’s sexuality? Like some parts of the fandom are being a bit toxic when people have even a slightly different HC as them. They are going so far as even saying that those who HC him anything other than gay ignored canon. Like most are completely ignoring bisexuality like it’s not a possibility.

Oh boy. I say “oh boy” because I know my hc will make people mad because I’ve seen my friends get hate.

I see Eddie as bisexual or even unlabeled like myself. I feel like Eddie is the type to not put a full label on himself like much of his non-conformist attitude. We’ve seen him vibe with both men and women and that’s why I see him how he is. We can see it with his flirty nature and how he just gets along with many people.

Imma be honest, I’m tired of this sexuality discourse and I think most of it stems from seeing how my friends get treated firsthand. Like if you see Eddie as gay, that’s perfectly fine! That’s the fun of a headcanon. Plus, we don’t have a true conformation of his attraction. That makes it even more fun and allows people to explore. I think people need to let others have fun like the rest of them. As long as you’re not being a dick or hurting anyone, your headcanon of his sexuality is fine. Like me saying he’s bisexual to me shouldn’t cost me a death threat.

A lot of people are ignoring his clear attitude towards women. We see in his trailer he has a porn magazine that is known for its drawings of women, he acts like a gentleman around women too. Plus if people want to take Joseph’s attitude with Eddie into account then they should listen when he mentions Eddie with a girl (ex. His recent interview). Things like this shouldn’t make people attack others who view Eddie has having an attraction towards women if we just take that stuff into account of our own personal headcanons.

Again, if you headcanon Eddie as having zero women and/or fem attraction, that’s okay! In fact I encourage it if it makes you very happy and feel seen. That’s how many view headcanons like with me mentioning Eddie could be unlabeled and bi. Just don’t attack or send hate to others who are having harmless fun. He is a fictional character from a fictional show. Don’t let fandom consume you.

#anonymous #mail time with angel 💕

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galaxia-art · 1 year

Text

I posted 108 times in 2022

That's 70 more posts than 2021!

101 posts created (94%)

7 posts reblogged (6%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@galaxia-art

@galaxia-prince

I tagged 103 of my posts in 2022

Only 5% of my posts had no tags

#doodles - 71 posts

#someone always cares - 60 posts

#sac - 56 posts

#id later - 52 posts

#doodle dump - 29 posts

#ocs - 21 posts

#dnd - 15 posts

#original characters - 9 posts

#furry - 6 posts

#trans - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#the reason these are all tagged for me to id later is that these are a couple years old and i just need to finally upload them already

My Top Posts in 2022:

See the full post

98 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

[image description: two illustrations of different people with cat ears and tails, both in a circle filled with fire and with the words "catgirl arson" or "catboy arson" captioned above and below the circle in a yellow-orange gradient. The first image is the one titled catgirl arson and has a pale yellow-eyed girl with long straight black hair and a mischievous smug expression. she's holding a lit match between two fingers in one hand, and a unlit molotov cocktail in the other. she has tall pointy ears and a long thin tail both with a black and orange tortie pattern. she also has a dark pink collar with a gold tag with a pawprint imprint, and a pink tank top with blue pawprints, and black clawed nails. The second image titled catboy arson is of a boy with tan skin and dark brown fluffy hair sticking out wherever. he is grinning openly while he holds a lit lighter in one hand and an unlabelled pink aerosol can in the other. he also has cat ears and a tail, but with shorter ears and slightly fluffier tail than the catgirl and his fur is white. he also has a dark blue belled collar, and white shirt with blue sleeves and shirt collar, with pink paw prints on the blue areas. end id]

here i thought i already posted catboy arson to tumblr but apparently not! couldn't find it when i tried looking but i guess i uploaded it to instagram but not here. anyway in december 2020 i made catboy arson and yesterday I made catgirl arson. it's equality

anyway they're siblings and also trans

I also plan on making a third nonbinary sibling and i'm torn between titling that 'furry arson' or 'nyanbinary arson' because 'catperson arson' and 'catfolk arson' don't have the same ring

also! both catgirl and catboy arson are on my redbubble store!

catgirl arson here

catboy arson here

130 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

See the full post

153 notes - Posted February 6, 2022

[image description: a blue toned series of drawings titled “top 3 tattoo ideas for if i lose my nipples after top surgery”. the first is titled “This Is Not A Nipple”. it is a close up of the nipple area with the nipple being labelled “tattoo of a nipple” and words tattooed across the top of the scar “ce n’est pas un téton”.

the second is titled “my eyes are down here” and is of the torso of a chubby person with light skin, who has a double incision scar thats connected in the middle. where the nipples would be, instead are two styalised eye tattoos. the 3rd image is another close up titled “pizza but one of the peperonis is where the nipple should be and the crust is the scar”. pictured is exactly as the name suggests, and upside down pizza where the scar forms the crust and one of the peperoni slices looks like a nipple. end id]

before surgery i was indifferent to if i wanted to keep my nipples or not, so i drew this as a fun thought on what i would do if i lost them anyway.

if you are recovering from top surgery and look at your nipple and think 'oh fuck its going to fall off' then good news! they won't. that's just what a healing nipple looks like. trust me bro, i've been there.

i thought my scars would look like the middle one when i drew this but they ended up not connected in the middle and also higher and more noticable on the armpits. i did keep my nipples however. different size than they used to be but i never really cared about my nipple size anyway.

did end up getting this as a print for the art festival i did in september, and people did buy this one so im counting as a win! putting it on redbubble now, so if anyone still wants this as a print then it’ll be there. i really need to get around to opening that etsy huh.

999 notes - Posted October 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

[image description: a digital drawing of a rat holding a bar in its mouth, between rainbow text reading “GENDER IS A CAGE AND I’M THE RAT THAT CHEWED THROUGH THE BARS”. the rat has white and purple fur, with a long yellow tail, and black paws, ears, and eyes, matching the colours of the nonbinary pride flag. the bar in its mouth is also black. the rainbow text changes colour for each word, and the background is white. end id]

yee haw! been meaning to do this one for a while and left the sketch in my folders for like, a year? saw it the other day and was like alright why not do this one quick?

anyway heres a rat for all your nonbinary needs

1,256 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

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bongkillua · 6 months

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im SUPER late to the ask game however. 5 & 9 for all of them

anon you are never too late i love talking abt these guys and these r rly good questions

5. How did you figure out your oc’s identity?

TUCKER - Tucker's has definitely ebbed and flowed with my own identity! He initially had a very different backstory that was explicitly about him being a stealth and closeted gay trans man. the way i played him made it so that it didnt really work for him to be trans but i hate playing cis characters so there was some weird magic and memory shit involved to make it work. but it just didnt make sense with the reworked story. took it as an opportunity to make him more openly trans but he was still an exclusive gay man for a while. and well then xander came around and i realized i was bisexual so now tucker is unlabeled because i just know hes going to keep changing with me. but like i truly dont think his character can wholly by separated from Gay Trans Man because so much of his personality and identity was built around that in the beginning.

XANDER - i made xander for the sole purpose of having fun with him. like seriously i made him for a school assignment because i didnt have a "cunty, whorish enough" character for the assignment and then she just stuck around so like... her identity has always just been "whatever is fun!" in the beginning he was like explicitly transmasc but i was playing around with using she/her pronouns for myself again so i gave them to xander to see if it would help me gain more confidence and it did! as i fleshed her out more tho her backstory started to rly revolve around changing identity and like specifically masculinity vs. femininity and how she performs both, and wuth that came the idea of transitioning back and forth over periods of time. because of THAT i wanted her to be really into drag because thats what drag is all about... and because shes rly into drag i wanted to explore her relationship to the transFEMININE experience because drag really cant be separated from that. so ive rly focused on embodying binary identities as performance for her gender. and because she sleeps around a lot ive just made her super fluid in terms of sexuality. shes not picky!

JORDAN - jordan was a he/they from the jump but i struggled a lot with their design and development for like YEARS but once i finally started fleshing them out i was immediately like "nah this guy prefers they/them and tacks he on for normies" and it genuinely helped me solidify his perception of not only their own identity but also life in general? theyre very "go with the flow because theyre extremely confident in themself and dont care how others perceive them". and then bisexual just seemed Right. idk. he sorta embodies "cool bisexual kid in high school that helps u realize ur also queer" and i just kinda went with the stereotype lol. also he seems like a Megan Fox Enjoyer.

KONAMI - i designed konami at a time where i was rly interested in the intersection of neurodivergence and queerness so his identity was def informed by that! along with queerness in childhood as a theme. ive always associated aesthetics like his with the rise in usage of neopronouns (in a good way!) so it just made sense to have them use it/its. if i wasnt a coward id throw some more fun pronouns on there but konami is also just a little guy so i honestly default to he/him a lot in the same way that you'd refer to like. a dog. and once again bisexual just made sense. i established pretty early on that his parents were super accepting of him being trans (konami was a binary trans guy when he was alive!) so i feel like sexuality just wasnt a huge concern for him.

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD THIS IS LITERALLY THE ENTIRE UNDERLYING PREMISE OF WOLFSBANE SO HERE WE GO LOL

TUCKER- ok so the more independent tucker became as a character the more i really leaned into how lycanthropy influences his identity and specifically his queerness. its always been a big part of his story but i rly got to Focus on it once he was mine and mine alone. so in wolfsbane lycanthropy is like. almost directly a metaphor for neurodivergence and like. how do i say this. Being Weird And Feeling Wrong As A Child. which you could argue also makes it a metaphor for transness but like i feel like his lycanthropy makes him trans in other separate ways? like lycanthropy in wolfsbane canonically causes an increase in testosterone production so tucker naturally has facial hair and body hair and a rly deep voice and "male-aligned" body fat distribution. despite being afab. and thats like a big struggle in the story bc his father wants him to Hide that but tucker is very Confident in that, both because he wants to embrace being a werewolf but ALSO because it gives him gender euphoria. and it takes him a LONG time to figure out that those are simultaneously separate things ("im not trans i just look like this!" (you are. you are trans)) and also intrinsically tied (transness as a feeling of Other as opposed to a distinct Gender Identity). AUGH idk if that makes sense. sexuality works pretty similarly. tucker has to repress a lot of himself because his family is scared that his lycanthropy will make him unruly and uncontrollable, and that he will hurt WHOEVER he loves. and in trying to control him they want him to Assimilate (aka Be Heterosexual). so he faces a similar struggle where he spends a long time trying to figure out if hes queer because he Likes Men or if hes queer because he Likes People, BOTH of which have been withheld from him.

XANDER- xander is an energy vampire and relies a lot on the balance between Taking and Giving. this means that he has to hide his true identity and give people a false one in order to get what he needs from them. and when you are performing an identity day in and day out is it really a performance anymore? or is it such a performance that it cant possibly be who you are? so thats like the Central struggle that vampirism invokes onto his identity. sexuality works similarly (can you tell that i have a hard time distancing gender from sexuality?) where he spends so much time forging these fake bonds and hooking up with anyone who will give him the time of day that he really doesnt have the time, energy, or maturity to figure out who he's Truly attracted to. her constant need to perform makes it nearly impossible for her to feel authentic in any way.

JORDAN- im gonna start sounding like a broken record at this point but my understanding of transness and queerness is so far removed from the idea of gender itself that i have no choice but to talk about identity as a whole. SORRY. anyways jordan's identity is heavily influenced by his schizophrenia and his dad. and the way THAT influences him is that he wants to Minimize his body because they do not feel attached to their body at all. and Maximize his ability to Reflect his Father because those experiences were the most important to him. so like. really thinking about it now i feel like a big reason why they even identify as transmasc is a. They Need To Remove Any Unnecessary Part Of Their Body NOW And That Means The Tits Have Got to Go amd b. he can distance himself from who he was as a child and align himself with his FATHER who is like the most important and influential figure in his life. in terms of sexuality they're kind of similar to xander but like the reverse side of the coin? They are so authentically themself that its hard for them to find room in their life for another person. so like while jordan identifies as bisexual i often say they also align themself with aromanticism because romance is just very difficult for him to figure out. a lot of the times it boils down to utility over attraction. which works for some people! (tucker) and not for others (all of his ex's).

KONAMI- konami died and forgot what gender and sexuality were. i explain this more HERE but because of konami's history it doesnt have a reference point for what gender Is. so a lot of his identity boils down to concepts as opposed to things like masculinity and femininity. i really want to do more deep exploration into how tucker, xander, and jordan's queerness influences konami's own identity as well as his perception of gender and identity but i guess for a quick answer he latches onto Connecting Words before he latches onto Individual Labels. so things like "dad" and "aunt" make more sense to him than "man" and "woman" because they have a purpose and a role attached to them. but then again those roles have been defined by queer people who don't perfectly fit into the Status Quo of that role but enact/perform it in unique and nuanced ways. this is also why he more quickly latches onto "son" and "boy" (and specifically how boy fits into a Family structure) than any other gendered labels. again like ive stated before, bisexual came pretty easily because with a lack of gender awareness just came an understanding that gender wasn't a factor in regards to attraction. hence bisexual.

this is so long omfg but what it all boils down to is um. my relationship to queerness is founded on experience, intersectionality, and bodily autonomy, not gender as its own concept. so nonhuman identities (and sometimes just Different Human identities) are always going to influence identity and Be A Metaphor for HOW experience influences identity and vis versa.

#tucker #xander #jordan #konami #wolfsbane #i hope this makes sense christ almighty #category 6 million autism event #anoff #blurry answers #mine

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