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commsroom · 1 year

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two things about doug eiffel: 1) he's a very physical person; he's always moving and needs to keep his hands occupied, and that extends to physical affection, something he's largely denied on the hephaestus; 2) he is an absolute space heater of a man.

which is to say, if hera had a body, i would hope for her sake that it'd be more biological than mechanical, because that guy is going to cause something to overheat.

... but, also. because, the way eiffel interacts with hera, he's always attempting to establish some physical connection - i think he makes eye contact with her cameras, touches the walls, etc. and he knows she's "always there" but he still doesn't really get it. he keeps asking. i think the same thing applies to her presence in the station - he never fully gets that she's always everywhere. sometimes when he gets up to leave a room, he'll ask her to go with him - just force of habit.

and sometimes, when he can't sleep properly - which is often; he's a restless sleeper, overcaffeinated, and his thoughts keep him awake - he'll curl up next to hera's servers. and it's hot in there - and he's already a sweaty guy - or it's too cold, if the AC is actually working properly - and it's loud, but it's enough to quiet his thoughts. and at first hera reminds him that she's equally there in his quarters (which would be set up enough for a suggestive retort, if he were any less tired), but he looks so tired, and it seems to help. and she's not sure why, but it does kind of make her feel closer to him, too.

#wolf 359 #w359 #doug eiffel #hera wolf 359 #eiffera #these are kind of disconnected thoughts but #i'm sentimental about them i'm sorry #eiffel wanting to show physical affection to someone who doesn't have a physical body just. lives in my head #the in-character AMA where zach said 'lord knows i've hugged the walls enough to try' okay ...#if i ever wrote fic i would want to write. eiffel falling asleep to the drone of hera's servers vs. hera falling asleep to eiffel snoring #i know in my heart that eiffel is an obnoxious cuddler. i know it. and also he drools in his sleep.#also when he wants to stay awake so he can talk to hera ... he crashes because he's been awake for days already #but also because he finally feels safe to sleep. with her watching over him. head in my hands.#good night.

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eyelessfog · 2 years

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Just the little things

There are interesting little differences in the way everyone’s magic works, Scott has noticed. The colours, the way they present, what it means for the person the magic is bound to - it intrigues him. Usually, he’s in his right mind enough not to stare.

Usually, he isn’t at a party where somebody spiked the punch.

———

Scott pressed his knuckles against his forehead, trying to rid himself of his headache by just pressing against the pain. It didn't work.

He didn't expect it to, obviously. Joel was still very much in the room, and it was clear that he'd taken a dip in his fountain just before meeting for the small party, which made him significantly brighter than normal. Joel was also laughing very loudly, which was not helping what Scott was pretty sure was a migraine.

Scott pressed his glass of ice water to his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief at the small comfort it gave him. He closed his eyes and let the steady hum of everyone's conversations wash over him. The noise was easier to deal with than the glow of everyone around him.

"Ah," a nervous voice said from beside him, a couple minutes into his almost-meditation. Scott jumped. "Are you alright?"

Scott turned to the source of the question and found the amnesiac, False, standing next to him. She looked distinctly uncomfortable, but her concern seemed genuine enough. She wore her normal pants and shirt for the party, but appeared to have borrowed someone else's suit vest and rolled up her sleeves. She was twisting her leather gloves - an accessory that Scott had never seen her without - halfway off her hand, then pulling them back on in some sort of nervous tick, and Scott found his eyes drawn there.

"I'm alright, thank you," Scott said, pulling his glass from his forehead and taking a sip.

The thing about False's gloves was that they were blocking a glow of some sort. Red leaked out in a soft glow, reaching up and around her wrists and forearms if it could.

False tugged at the edge of one of her gloves, and Scott realized suddenly that she'd noticed his staring. He glanced up to make eye contact with her, and caught her furrowed brows and frown.

"You have nice gloves," he told her, by way of explanation. It was no lie, but certainly not the actual reason he was inspecting her hands so closely. Her gloves had a design of gears of varying sizes interlocked with each other burned into the side. It was beautiful to look at, and implied a cute little stamp she would own to imprint the graphic into it.

"Oh," False said, as if suddenly realizing that he meant no harm. "Thank you! They're my favourite part of the outfit." She paused, thought for a second, then made a face.

Scott didn't put very much effort into avoiding looking at the clouds of red that twirled around her temples. With the stress in her face, it pressed further down, pushing down on her brows.

He could guess the meanings of her magic and where they were placed. For her? Magic that kept her from remembering her life before the first meeting, and something about her hands. Guidance? Blessing? Great ability? He could see it as any of the three. She was a bit of an enigma, with her general avoidance of using magic, like, ever. And also her general avoidance of people. Which, he was quite sure was the only reason she was hanging out in the corner with him.

He tipped his glass back and drank the rest of his water, then stuffed the ice into his cheek for good measure. "Good talk, Ms. False," he said. "I'll see you around."

He dropped the glass onto the table beside him and began walking towards the door of Sausage's tavern. Behind him, False called, "Oh! Alright, um- bye!"

He pushed the front door open and sucked in a bit of the cool night air. It felt damp, of course -the rainforest always did - but it was darker, quieter, calmer. Everything he needed while he was inside.

Whispers reached his ears, and he turned to see two figures huddled on the other side of the path, whispering to each other. He didn't interrupt them, because that would be terribly rude, but he examined their glow all the same.

He recognized both of theirs.

Shelby was more obvious. Her magic swirled through her so thoroughly, purple pressing against her skin and trying to get out. It pulsed in time with her heart, where the magic was most densely contained. The magic avoided her head and hands, the two places it could get out with ease, and Scott was struck with the thought - not for the first time - that Shelby's chest must hurt. He wondered if she knew that her chest hurting was by no means normal. The poor thing had shackles she didn't know of imprinted onto her wrists and neck, and it made Scott shudder to know that it would take someone as powerful as her at her unblocked power to remove them.

He liked to think that he was helping her not explode herself, by not telling her.

Katherine, on the other hand, was a little more subtle. A black spine that glowed under her skin was difficult to find in the dark, but it pulled light away from the area around it, so his eyes always eventually caught. He couldn't see the glow of the curse creeping up her arm, but it was undoubtedly still her. Her magic was a curse, he knew. She generally avoided the topic, but she'd slipped once, on the edge of tears, and did a terrible job of lying while in the general vicinity of him. With that in mind, it did look like a curse. A dangerous one too, so he kept his eye on her condition. Curses that resided in spines the way hers did were terrifying. The spine's an important part of the body, and for something to infect it - paralysis and death were both very likely situations. Scott was quite sure she was nowhere near the stage where he'd have to worry about either of those outcomes yet, as the curse was growing quite slowly up her arm. He had plenty of time to research how to help.

He'd tell her sometime... later. Either when he had an answer or really needed the help to find one.

He blinked himself back to attention when Shelby giggled, and checked himself. Even from across the path, he was still intruding on a private moment. He left them to their own devices and walked back inside for another drink.

He walked right up to Sausage, standing behind the counter, and traced the glow of his magic with his eyes. Sausage waved a hand at him mock-bashfully. Scott pretended he really had been checking him out, and leaned over the counter, eyes half lidded.

“Hey, hot stuff. Come here often?”

Sausage laughed. “I do, actually!” He reached under the counter for a glass. “Another water?”

“With a lemon this time, I think. I want a bit of taste.” Scott rubbed a bit at his temple. “You can only drink ice water so many times. Especially after the punch.”

“It is good punch, isn’t it!” Sausage says, with the voice of someone who knew exactly what was put in the punch. After a moment, he lowers his voice, face turning more worried and warm browns, oranges and reds flaring around him. “You can step out, you know. No one will fault you for a break.”

“Oh, I was just outside, don’t worry. Figured I’d come back in and let those two have some time alone.”

Sausage blinked. “Those-?” He searched around the room, taking quiet attendance. Realization grew on his face and in his magic, and he gasped. “Oh, are they really?” Pink bloomed into existence around his head.

Scott smirked. “Mhm,” he hummed. “We better keep Pirate Joe from getting out, else we’ll have a fight to break up, I think.”

“No worries, no worries,” Sausage said, placing water down in front of him, a lemon on the rim of the glass. The pink of his magic was fading into a calm blue. “Pirate Joe is a little busy right now. Look!”

Scott scanned the room, eyes falling on the two sitting just by the stage. Jimmy was fidgeting with a beer in one hand, his other gesturing around as he spoke. He was, for the most part, wearing what he usually did: a white dress shirt and jeans. He'd taken the handkerchief around his neck and left it hanging out of one of his pockets, and swapped out his usual vest for a more fancy one, the same sky blue as his handkerchief. Joey was curled up, resting his head on Jimmy's head, listening intently to Jimmy speak. He'd taken off his pirate's coat and draped it over himself for warmth, maybe? Other than that, his outfit was very much the same as it normally was, but with a little more gold jewelry.

Scott grinned. "Ohhh, that's cute," he laughed. Easy on his eyes, too, after seeing the magic that just oozed off of nearly everyone else in the room. It was nice that the two magicless people were sitting next to each other. An easy distraction from everyone else's brightness.

"Isn't it?" Sausage asked, the calm blue and excited pink mixing into a bright purple. "I didn't know Jimmy would be so okay with a pirate that close."

"I'm sure it's because Joe hasn't opened his mouth in the past half hour. Or more."

Sausage cackled, yellow blooming into his magic. His eye caught on someone and he paused. "Oh, hold on, Scott. Joel's-"

Scott didn't catch the rest of what Sausage said over him ducking under the counter and grabbing him another glass of water, then bolting to go talk to his co-parent. It would have been sweet, if it didn't literally hurt to look at.

Bless Joel, for being what he said he was, despite how easy it was for everyone to forget sometimes. A God, with magic running through every cell in his body. And wow, that man had a lot of cells in his body. Eleven foot was too many feet tall to be. He glowed like a spotlight too, enough so that Scott generally looked away from him when they talked.

It was weird in its similarity to Pix's magic. Pixlriffs was by no mean a powerful magic user - to Scott's knowledge. He'd never seen Pixl use magic before, but still, he radiated golden light in every part of him. It was a dull light, and easier to watch than Joel, but again: It made no sense.

Speaking of Pixl, he sat next to Scott and sighed.

"I don't know what you need an archeologist for. I'm not nearly as influential as anyone else in this place," he said.

Scott rolled his eyes. "We're all trade partners here. You supply us with a great source of light, Mr. Pixlriffs. And I don't know how you finding all these beautiful statues and such could make you anything but influential." Scott reached over to elbow him in the arm. "You give yourself too little credit."

Pixl shrugged, almost bashfully. "As you say," Pixl replied, gold light flashing a little brighter for half a second. "I think I really should leave though. The party is getting a little too rowdy for me. Especially now that Sir Sausage has stepped out from the bar."

Scott rested his head on his hand. "Cheers to that. I'd love to be at home right now, if I'm honest." He nodded at False, still standing awkwardly in the corner. "I bet she wants out too. You think we can all get out of here?"

Pixl raised a brow. "So long as you don't mean it as a flirt, as I hear you're known for, yes, I'd love to."

"Me?" Scott asked, brows comically high. "I'd never!"

Pixl laughed. "Alright. Let's get Ms. False and go. We've had enough excitement for the night."

Scott wiggled his eyebrows at the phrasing, and Pixl rolled his eyes, already slipping off the chair.

The three left, slipping into the cold night chill, and made their way down the paths of the town. There was some sort of comfort to be found in their soft magic, and Scott decided that, yeah. These two were a really good group to skip a party with.

#[written in stone]#scott being able to see magic is so convinient for hcs #it ends bad but its late and im tired and this has been in my drafts for days #scott smajor #hes the only major character so. whatever #empires smp #empires smp 2 #good NIGHT.

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