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umbry-fic · 3 years

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Road Trip!!

Summary: To drive off some post-exam stress, Lloyd, Colette, Sheena and Zelos decide to go on a road trip around the country. What could go wrong?

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel, Zelos Wilder, Sheena Fujibayashi Relationships: Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving, Sheena Fujibayashi & Zelos Wilder, Colette Brunel & Lloyd Irving & Sheena Fujibayashi & Zelos Wilder Rating: G Word Count: 6485 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 26/01/2021

Notes: A modern day AU set in Singapore where I send everyone on this itinerary!

Do note that the last part of this fic has been removed as it uses workskins that don't work on Tumblr. If you'd like to access the full fic, do read it on AO3!

@frayed-symphony did an amazing piece of fan-art for this fic!

~~~

“Why is this road called 99 bends if there’s only…” Zelos squinted through the car window at the trees going by, wracking his brain to recall how many turns they had done. It had definitely been less than 99, but how many had there been, exactly? “... 9 turns?”

“I don’t know, idiot. Maybe because we haven’t actually left the road yet? Be a little patient, would you? And don’t talk so loud, you’ll wake Colette up!” Sheena hissed, shooting Zelos a withering glare as she removed her elbow from the cold windowsill to give him a small slap on the arm. Seriously, would it hurt him to shut up for once?

“I don’t see how this is possibly being soft?” Zelos hissed back, covering the rapidly reddening patch of skin on his arm and inching away from his companion in the backseat. Did Sheena not see the irony in her actions? At least Colette didn't seem to have stirred in the front seat; still soundly sleeping with her head lolling to the side, a serene smile on her face. But at this rate, Sheena's less-than-quiet yelling was going to wake her up.

"It's way too early in the morning for this..." Zelos whispered forlornly. He would greatly prefer to not be awake at 7 am. He was a night owl and staying in bed till 11 was the norm for him! It also meant he could avoid Seles for the most part, since she liked leaving at the earliest of hours to go spend the day at the neighbourhood library. But that was just a plus.

It was seriously unfair that Sheena was bright-eyed and alert so early in the morning. He was going to be stuck with her in the small space of a car for the next 7 hours. He had doubts over whether he would still be alive by the end of the first - Sheena was already eyeing him as a cat would her prey. He was going to be ripped to shreds within the hour. Why had he agreed to this again?

“I think it’s just, uh… exaggerated? Is that the right word...?” Lloyd pointed out, adjusting the rearview mirror and looking at his friend’s reflection in it, hoping he had somewhat diffused the argument. Still, Sheena looked like she was about to pounce on Zelos, which was slightly worrying. Lloyd would prefer if everyone stayed in one piece. It wouldn’t be a fun road trip otherwise! And that was the only reason he’d suggested the idea of ferrying everyone around in the first place.

Everyone was stressed after exams and they deserved a chance to let out those pent up emotions. What better way than to tour the nation in a single day? It was the perfect opportunity to have fun with friends!

Lloyd hadn’t considered that murder might happen in the backseat. That might throw a wrench in the plan.

“There’s no way this road could actually have 99 bends. It would be like a really long snake if it did. It would take up too much space.” Lloyd muttered, turning the steering wheel to navigate yet another bend. The road was already difficult to drive on. Add on more turns and it would be hell for a new driver like him. He’d gotten his driver’s license in the first half of year 6 while juggling school and driver’s lessons, and he was not ready for such a difficult challenge.

These roads were already difficult enough to drive on, what with the plentitude of crazy drivers that loved to haphazardly cut lanes and sound their vehicle’s horns way too much. Stressful was the only word that could describe it.

Wait, that was the same word he’d just used to describe the school year. Did that make this whole trip redundant?

“Mm…”

Colette shifted slightly, slowly opening her eyes. The last thing she remembered was Lloyd picking her up at the void deck of her HDB. They had set off to pick up Zelos and then Sheena, but she had no memory of doing any of that. Just little flashes of watching parks and various HDBs passing by...

Her hands, feeling around blindly, grasped something soft and woolly wrapped around her. Blinking fully awake, she recognised the blanket that currently formed a snug cocoon around her.

"See, you woke her up!"

"You were the one who started yelling first! Don't blame me!"

There was the familiar backdrop of Zelos and Sheena arguing. She must have fallen asleep somewhere on the way if they were already in the car.

"You can go back to sleep if you want. This part's not very exciting. I'll wake you up if we're getting out of the car," Lloyd whispered, having heard Colette shifting in her seat despite not diverting his attention away from the road. What a responsible driver!

"It's fine. I’ve slept enough." Colette freed her arms from the blanket, letting it fall such that it only covered her lap. The a/c was switched on (as it always was in Singapore, where it was eternally summer), and you could feel it particularly strongly in the front seat. Looking out the window to figure out their whereabouts, all Colette saw was trees. As expected.

Turning her gaze back towards the blanket, she traced the familiar pattern of green dogs that dotted it. Green wasn't a colour that dogs naturally had, but it did elicit some old memories.

"Isn't this the blanket your mother knitted? She'd wrap us in it every movie night. You used to cover your eyes with it when you got scared." That memory made her giggle, just a little. Lloyd got scared at movies that weren't even supposed to be scary. He'd burrow in the blanket, then, and grab onto her arm so tightly that she'd once thought he would leave permanent marks.

"Of course you'd remember that," Lloyd grumbled, cheeks turning a pale pink at that embarrassing memory. Colette had just blurted that out in front of their other two friends as well. "Mom keeps it in the car in case anyone gets cold. You're always wearing sweaters, so I draped it on you while we were at Zelos' place."

"Thank you."

"Ahem." The sound of Zelos clearing his throat echoed through the car. Colette craned her head to see both Zelos and Sheena resolutely not looking at the two of them. "Sorry to be the third wheel, but can I know where we're going next? You didn't bother sending us the itinerary, Lloyd."

"If you're a third wheel, then what am I? The fourth wheel? That's even worse!" Sheena groaned, resting her forehead against the cold window. If things were going to be like this for the whole trip, maybe she should just open the door and fling herself out of the car before it got too unbearable. Alas, the doors were locked.

"An incorporeal banshee," Zelos muttered, which earned him another smack from an irate Sheena.

"I have no idea why you two are going on about wheels. This is a perfectly fine vehicle with four perfectly functional wheels!"

Zelos groaned, dragging his hands down his face. He'd unknowingly agreed to a torture session, hadn't he? Why had he thought this was a good idea?

Well, he was going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, so he might as well continue working on the plan. It was the one thing he knew Sheena would willingly work with him on, so it was the perfect solution to prevent his death. Zelos would rather not have to dig his grave today.

"Yeah!" Colette chirped in, eager to defend Lloyd. "Besides, Lloyd did send the itinerary to the group chat! You two just buried it under your argument about cheese!"

“Cheese…?” Zelos echoed. He had zero memory of this ever happening.

“Oh god, I remember this. It’s another one of those midnight conversations that I wish never happened.” Sheena leaned back, letting her head fall over the back of her seat so she was peering into the trunk of the car. Huh. There were some weird things in the trunk.

Oh, Zelos thought. One of those inane conversations fuelled by a blend of coffee, tiredness and the spirit of craziness.

“I mentioned mozzarella and you started arguing blue cheese was better! Not all of us can afford that, you know!”

“Stop yelling at me! I am not responsible for your inferior taste in cheese!”

Colette giggled, turning back to face the road. Zelos and Sheena were as energetic as always. This looked like a fun road trip already!

~~~

“And you said you did your research?” Zelos asked, raising one eyebrow as he pointed at the sign next to the securely closed gate.

“Closed on… Tuesdays…” Colette read out slowly, realisation slowly dawning on her as to why they were currently stalling at the end of a one-way road. “Oh no, Lloyd, it’s Tuesday!”

Lloyd put the car in reverse, praying that no one would drive into this road at this inopportune moment. Then again, the road had been empty and silent for a reason. Everyone had known the goat farm was closed. Everyone except, well, them.

“The article didn’t say anything!” Lloyd grumbled. “How was I supposed to know?”

“Maybe through the power of Google? Don't you remember the importance of primary research?" Zelos drawled, only to get slapped by Sheena again.

"That's not what primary research means, dumbass."

"I think the main problem is how we're supposed to get out of here…? I'm sure we're all hungry," Colette pointed out. They had already gone to a few other places and taken some cool photos! It had been a fun time all around, but it was time for lunch and the goat farm was meant to be the lunch spot. She had rather fond memories of coming here with Lloyd on a primary school learning journey - they had fed the goats and eaten some delicious food. It was a shame that it was closed today.

"The first step would be getting out of this road." Lloyd scanned their surroundings with a nervous eye. This was a dead-end, so there was no way to drive back to the main road without turning around. And the road was scarily narrow...

"Lloyd, I can take over from here," Zelos said, unbuckling his seat belt and bending over the front seat to tap Lloyd on the shoulder. Ignoring, of course, Sheena's violent protests at how dangerous this was. "You need to do a three-point turn. And no offence, but I don't trust a newbie to do one without scratching the car or ending up on the side of the road. Especially on such a narrow road."

Lloyd paled, remembering the promise (it had been worded more like a threat, really) that his father had made him before agreeing to let him use the car. Not a single scratch on it or Lloyd would never see the light of day again.

After a quick switch in seats, Zelos manoeuvred the car out of its perilous position with ease and they were on their way again.

"You make it look so easy," Lloyd mumbled, slightly jealous. Zelos was driving with confidence that he would like to emulate. Not that it was surprising. Zelos had been driving for the past two years.

"He's only so good at it because he's old. That's the only reason he has years of experience over you," Sheena snickered. She wouldn't give up any opportunity to make fun of her oldest friend.

"Who're you calling old? You're only one year younger than me!" Zelos grumbled.

"You're still the oldest," Colette pointed out. "You're older than me and Lloyd by... 2 years, right?"

"I get it! I'm old! This is the cruel fate I suffered for not being born here!" Zelos said mournfully. Really, he would rather have not lost two years of his life to being held back in the school system.

“It’s kinda sad that we’re at the same point as you two despite being older, huh?" Sheena muttered. "At least you won't need to lose another two years to National Service, Zelos. Thank your lucky stars for that."

“Don’t mention that. Not now.” Lloyd desperately tried to push all thoughts of National Service out of his head. Nope. This was meant to be a fun trip! No depressing thoughts! No! “Do you want me to switch back, Zelos?”

“Nah, it’s fine!” Zelos called back, turning back out onto the main road to begin the game of weaving between lanes like a madman. “You’ve been driving all morning. Anyone mind if I take us to Sembawang food centre for lunch? It’s pretty close if I’m remembering correctly.”

“Oh! I want carrot cake!” Colette cheered, mind already drifting to the delectable cubes of radish. It was one of her favourite foods...

“Black or white, though?” Sheena pondered. The black one had a tad too much sweet sauce for her taste, but she was mostly neutral. Maybe she'd get something else entirely. Fishball noodles, perhaps...?

“Black, obviously. How could you ever think white was the superior choice?” Lloyd replied, horrified.

“No objections, then,” Zelos said cheerily, flicking on the signal and moving the car onto the turning lane. Sheena, meanwhile, set the route on her phone without any prompting from Zelos. “Sembawang food centre it is! But Lloyd, am I allowed to floor the gas on the expressway?”

“NO!”

~~~

“Mmmmm.” Colette stirred her glass of ice milo with a straw before sipping from it contentedly, resting her chin on her hand. A plate, emptied of carrot cake, sat next to her elbow on the table. “This is bliss…”

“Nothing beats ice milo,” Lloyd agreed, shovelling the remainder of his plate of black carrot cake into his mouth. The chewiness of the radish cubes, the sweetness of the sauce, combined with the cold, sweet taste of milo… It all added up to perfection.

“Cretins,” Sheena muttered distastefully. "Ice milo is not the peak of drinks."

“No need to act so smug just because you drink brown rice green tea every day, Sheena. I know you drink packet milo at home," Zelos rebutted, nursing his cup of black coffee. He was glad that there was something to raise his energy levels. Colette and Lloyd could wake anyone up in their boundless energy, but even they could not overcome - well, a night staying up surfing social media and not sleeping.

“Shush, you!”

Colette giggled, staring at her two friends argue with each other. She knew it wasn’t anything malicious, but simply how they showed their friendship towards each other. They had been like this for as long as she’d known them, which had been… “I can’t believe we’ve been friends for six years already!”

Sheena paused in her act of strangling Zelos, sitting down to consider Colette’s statement. Zelos hung his head, sighing in relief. Another attempt at his life that he had avoided.

“Has it really been that long since you crashed into Zelos at the school canteen?” Sheena asked, resting her elbows on the table and leaning across, grinning. She hadn’t relived that memory in a long time, and she excelled in any opportunity to embarrass him. “Don’t you remember, Zelos? Colette -”

“She crashed into me at rush hour in the school canteen while I was holding a tray full of food,” Zelos replied in a deadpan tone. He loved Colette as a friend, but that was a disastrous memory -

“Ha! I remember. Zelos had seaweed soup down his front for the rest of the day,” Lloyd snickered. He didn’t often think back to so long ago, but this was a perfect opportunity to reminisce! “He smelled like teriyaki chicken in class for the whole day. Our teacher was staring at him the whole time.”

“Please stop,” Zelos mumbled pitifully, burying his face in his arms. “I have done my very best to bury that memory forever. And that was your lunch, Sheena! You held partial blame!”

“Yeah, no,” Sheena retorted cheerily. “You required a little humbling then, anyway, Mr High and Mighty.”

“I hate you,” Zelos replied gloomily. “Why am I still friends with you?”

“We PRs need to stick together.” Sheena punched Zelos in the arm in the same playfully gentle way she always did. “And I, uh…” She turned away, muttering something under her breath.

Colette looked on in curiosity, observing the bright pink spots that were beginning to form on Sheena’s cheeks. Zelos smirked, raising his head to antagonise Sheena again. “What was that you were saying? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Yeah, Sheena. I couldn’t hear you either,” Lloyd interjected, busy trying to scoop ice cubes out of his glass with his straw and failing horribly. “Could you repeat that?”

“I said I value your company, alright?” Sheena snapped, refusing to make eye contact with Zelos. Why had she brought this upon herself? “There, did you catch it this time?”

“Noted,” Zelos said smugly. One point for him, finally!

“I really am sorry for the time I crashed into you. I do that way too much,” Colette said guiltily, fiddling with her utensils. It was true, though. The number of times she had crashed into people just this week was more than she could count with her fingers. The amount of inconvenience she had caused was staggering.

“Hey, it’s fine! Don’t put yourself down. Besides, if it wasn’t for that, we would never have met!” Lloyd retorted, waving a fork threateningly in her direction.

“Ah, right. I forgot that you two have known each other for basically forever,” Sheena said, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. Somehow, Lloyd and Colette still didn’t pick up on it. “You two have been childhood friends for, what, 14 years?”

“More or less!” Colette replied. The math checked out. At least she was pretty sure that was right? They met when they were 5 or 6… And they were 19, now…?

“We met when Colette crashed into me at the playground and nearly knocked me off the climbing towers,” Lloyd said absentmindedly, returning to his quest to retrieve an ice cube. "I remember that we were pretty high up, so it was kinda scary."

“That’s why I’m banned from the monkey bars for life…” Colette said sheepishly.

“That’s… interesting.” Zelos stared with wide eyes, speechless for once in his life. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard this story. It was certainly an unorthodox way to meet your childhood friend, by nearly causing bodily harm.

Now if the two of them would realise what was so incredibly obvious, maybe he could stop having actual headaches over plotting harebrained schemes.

But that... was way too much to hope for.

~~~

Lloyd watched with a tiny smile as Colette’s head perked up the moment the next song on the radio begun to play. He’d switched the radio over to this particular station earlier that morning, knowing that Colette loved it.

Colette hummed under her breath, swaying to the music. She loved Chinese songs, especially listening to them on the radio. They were perfect to close your eyes and relax to.

They also brought back some of her earliest and most cherished memories.

Sitting in the backseat of this same car back when she had still been the same height as Lloyd, head resting on his shoulder, listening to the radio and the sound of Lloyd’s father humming along while she was still half-asleep. They had stayed in the same HDB and experienced all the advantages: being able to visit each other whenever they wanted, going to the same primary school, and commuting to school together. They had spent almost every second together. Playing catching around the school field, puzzling through their homework together, lazily spending afternoons at each other’s houses and playing video games…

Waiting for Lloyd at the gate of their secondary school, every morning without fail. She would break out into a smile whenever he showed up, and they would walk to the canteen together, hand-in-hand. The moments before assembly were spent in bliss, a rare sanctuary from the constant stress of school. They would talk about anything and everything while they shared a single pair of earphones, listening to her latest favourite song.

When finally, they were separated by attending different tertiary institutes, she would spend hours every week (not that she didn’t already) texting him over the phone. Every time a message from him lit up her phone screen, her heart would swell with happiness and she would scramble to unlock her phone screen. The silly little pictures and comments he sent her never failed to brighten her day. Her favourite part of the week became talking to Lloyd over the phone on weekends, letting the sound of his voice drift into her ears just like her favourite music. And still, she would send newly released songs that she liked to Lloyd to see what he thought. During the rare weekends that they were both free, they would meet up with Zelos and Sheena for ice-skating and karaoke. Lloyd always let her pick the songs.

She liked this song quite a lot as well. It was sweet.

The sound of Aska’s voice coming over the radio grew steadily louder as Zelos rotated the volume knob. “I know you like this song, Angel. So why don’t you sing along?”

“Won’t I be annoying everyone else? I don’t want that…”

“It’s all right,” Sheena waved her worries away, grinning back at Colette from the front seat. “Zelos and I had our fun screaming English songs earlier. It's only fair you get to do the same, so sing your heart out!”

“It’s really OK?” Colette muttered, shyly lowering her head. “I don’t know…”

“I like your singing! So go ahead!” Lloyd proclaimed, grabbing her hand from across the backseat. Colette stared with wide eyes, flushing immediately.

“Well, you can sing along too,” Colette replied, looking away to hide her blush. “It’ll be more fun that way.”

“I - well, I don’t know! My singing is way worse than yours!”

“I’ve heard you sing at karaoke before, Lloyd. You sound just fine! Come on, let’s do a duet!”

“OK, OK!” Lloyd laughed, shifting closer in his seat, of course without escaping his seatbelt. “Let’s do this, I guess!”

“My god, they are dense,” Sheena muttered.

“They are, quite literally, singing a song about how deep one's love is,” Zelos agreed. “Can they get any dumber?”

“I mean, Lloyd’s Chinese isn’t… great…”

“It can’t be this bad. I refuse to believe that. I know he barely passed his O level Higher Chinese, but surely he can still get the basic gist!”

I wonder what they’re arguing about? Colette thought, before discarding that thought entirely, too engrossed in singing along with Lloyd by her side.

~~~

“Don’t you two want to join in too?” Colette asked, confused as to why Zelos and Sheena didn’t want to partake in a photo before the famous Casuarina tree in Upper Seletar Reservoir. They had taken the time to drive here, they should at least commemorate it!

“No, it’s fine! We’ll take a photo after you two.” Sheena waved away Colette’s concerns, staring with a furrowed brow at the tree. Honestly, it didn't look too impressive to her. What to do now…? The place looked romantic enough for her and Zelos’ purposes, but the problem lay in how to initiate the conversation on the other two’s side. Remembering what she and Zelos had read about the Casuarina tree, an idea formed in her head.

Making eye contact with Zelos, Sheena made a little heart shape with her hands, hoping he would be on the same wavelength as her. Thankfully, Zelos seemed to understand, because he nodded with a slowly growing smirk. “Hey, Bud! Did you know that newly-weds take their wedding photos here?”

“Really? That’s nice!” Colette exclaimed. “The atmosphere of this place is very romantic. We can take some nice photos here. You two sure you don’t want to join in?”

Sheena resisted the urge to scream and dig a hole for herself in the dirt to hide in for the rest of eternity. She loved her friends, but having to face them staring lovey-dovey at each other every second of every day without realising they were doing it had been driving her insane for the past year.

Zelos’ smile was twitching at the corners now. He had to be as exasperated as her by this point. “Yeah, we’re sure. How about you two do a pose? Like a heart shape?”

“A heart shape?” Colette thought about it for a moment before breaking out into a giant smile. “That’s cute! Do you mind, Lloyd?”

“Sounds great!”

Sheena grabbed Zelos’ hand and begun tugging with all of her might. They needed to talk. Like, now. Zelos, thank god, put up absolutely no resistance and let himself be pulled along like a rag doll.

“Where are they going? We need another person to take the photo!” Colette asked, staring in the direction that Sheena and Zelos had run off in utter confusion. Zelos and Sheena tended to run off at random times. To do what, she didn't know. She would really like to find out.

“Don’t mind them. We can just take a selfie!”

“OK, we are now… ” Zelos craned his head to scan his surroundings. “Directly overlooking Seletar Reservoir. We should be far enough to discuss things now, right?”

“Yes,” Sheena got out through gritted teeth. “I am completely and utterly done. Nothing we do has worked! Do you remember that one time we all bought tickets to a romance movie and then bailed on the two of them? It was on Chinese New Year, so I couldn't even pay student price! AND I STILL HAVEN’T GOTTEN MY THIRTEEN DOLLARS BACK YET!”

Zelos groaned. “You tell me. Remember that time we did the same thing with a karaoke session? I had to tell them it was a treat, which means I haven’t gotten my twenty-six dollars back.”

“You’re rich, though.” Sheena replied. “You live in like… landed property.”

“But I’m still stingy.”

Sheena looked back at Colette and Lloyd, who had resorted to some funny positions to take selfies while still doing a pose. They were adorable, but there had still been no progress made. At all. It was infuriating.

“What do we do now?” She muttered, putting her weight against the railing so she could lean out over the sparkling blue water and enjoy the slowly building breeze.

“I don’t think we can do anything,” Zelos replied, shrugging hopelessly. “At this point, I don’t think they would notice if an asteroid struck the Earth. They’re too busy spending time with each other. I propose we give up and just let nature take its course. They’re happy enough as it is.”

“But god, it’s frustrating,” Sheena groaned, leaning out further so her entire upper half was hanging free of the railing. Zelos was inching closer in case she really did fall, but that was unlikely to happen given her excellent sense of balance that he had witnessed firsthand. Still, did she really have to do such dangerous things all the time?

“It is, but that’s how they’ve always been.”

Sheena sighed, deciding to simply enjoy the serenity and let go of any thoughts concerning her other two friends. A quiet moment with her oldest friend was rather rare to come by, given how bombastic he usually was. “We were talking about how all four of us met at lunch… Honestly, it was pure coincidence that the two of us met in primary school.”

“I like to think that it’s fate!” Zelos proclaimed, winking at her. Under the noontime sun, high in the sky, his hair seemed even redder than usual. He had undergone quite a transformation since the end of Junior College last November. Zelos had sported short hair in line with the ever-present school rules from the moment she’d met him, but the lifting of those restrictions had finally given him the chance to grow it out. The shoulder-length curly red hair, being lifted in the wind… Honestly, she thought it fit him.

“Yeah, sure,” Sheena snorted. “It’s just like you to proclaim it’s - EEK!” The first cold raindrop hit the back of her bare neck, startling her so much that she nearly lost her balance and toppled into the reservoir. Only Zelos’ hand, secure on her shoulder, kept her from dipping head-first.

“Geez, Sheena. Don’t give me a heart attack, would you?”

“Sorry, old man. But thanks.”

“Wow, you seldom thank me,” Zelos replied, raising one eyebrow in surprise. “And I’m not that old! I’m turning 21 this year! That’s still pretty young, right? RIGHT?”

Sheena looked up into the sky, which had rapidly turned from blue to grey. The storm cloud in the far distance that she had noticed in the corner of her eye some time ago had made its merry way over. Following the trend of the previous week's weather, it would be raining cats and dogs soon.

“You two!” Colette ran over, yelling with one hand held above her head in the vain hope that it would shield her from the rain. “We should hurry back to the car before it gets any heavier!”

“Come on,” Zelos muttered. It was his turn to pull Sheena along as they made the short run back to the car.

By the time everyone was back in the car, they were all utterly drenched and resembled bedraggled rats. Lloyd winced at the amount of water they were dripping on the car seats. Hopefully, no permanent damage was done. They should have brought an umbrella out of the car.

Poor decisions were made.

“Hey Lloyd, did you, by any chance, check the weather forecast?” Zelos asked, accepting the tissue that Colette was offering. Somehow he had ended up in the backseat instead of the front seat. Well, he would gladly let Lloyd drive now.

“Uh… I didn’t,” Lloyd said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “I… sorta forgot to?”

“It’s been raining for the entire month of January and you didn’t think to check the weather forecast?” Sheena asked. Wasn’t that… common sense? Never mind, she was expecting too much of Lloyd.

“It’s so heavy,” Colette said, peering out of the window with her nose pressed to it. The view was completely obscured by the white screen the dense raindrops formed, the patter of the rain against the window drowning out all other sounds. “It’s going to get so cold… We can’t really go on to the next destination like this.”

“We can go to my place,” Lloyd offered. “My parents will be out today until the evening and this trip was supposed to last until 6.”

“Huh. Well, no objections here,” Zelos replied. “Just get us out of this rain.”

“Can we play Smash Brothers again?” Sheena asked. “That was fun the last time we went to your house.”

“Sure,” Lloyd shrugged, turning the key in the ignition and starting the engine. “Smash Brothers it is.”

~~~

“Kirby! I want Kirby!” Colette pouted, clutching the single Joy-Con securely in one hand with a Pikachu plush settled in her lap. The moment they had gotten to Lloyd’s place, she’d tied her hair into a messy ponytail and put on one of the hoodies she’d left there from her various trips. It had little ears on the hood and Totoro’s face emblazoned across the front. It was adorable, but best of all, it was warm and toasty. And she really needed that given how cold it was.

It was comfortable here, tucked between Lloyd and Sheena on the sofa facing the television mounted on the wall. Zelos was lounging on a separate plush back chair that he’d dragged from the dining table, carefully snacking on a pack of Mamee Noodles that he’d pilfered from the pantry. Lloyd had warned Zelos that if he got even a single crumb on the floor, he’d be dead meat.

“I’ll let you have Kirby,” Sheena decided, moving her cursor across the screen. “But I’m getting Sheik. Prepare to lose!”

“Why so competitive?” Zelos wondered, hovering the cursor over the random option. “It’s just a casual game. We’re even playing with items on.”

“It’s the spirit, Zelos! Better get into it, because I’m coming after you first!”

“Wha - Sheena, that’s not fair! Don’t pick on me!”

The four of them proceeded to play a few rounds where, more often than not, Sheena and Zelos would get engrossed in defeating each other while Colette and Lloyd simply goofed around. It was fun, but of course, they got tired of it after a while.

Colette eventually found herself sitting behind Zelos, gently braiding his hair. There wasn’t much to work with, but there was just enough for a fun little side braid. Sheena was kicking back with a packet of milo, while Lloyd was sitting on the floor sifting through movie DVDs that he'd pulled out of a cabinet.

The Pikachu plush had been abandoned to sit on the floor, alone. If Noishe was still alive, he'd have snatched it off the floor and run off with it already. Lloyd would then have proceeded to chase Noishe all around the apartment. Colette missed Noishe. A lot.

“Are you planning to grow this out any longer?” Colette asked, gently threading one bunch of hair through the other. She didn’t want to pull too hard and risk hurting Zelos. “I think it would look good on you.”

“Maybe,” Zelos replied, glancing down at his phone, which he was busy scrolling through. “It used to be this long when I was still in Germany. At least I won't need to chop off all my hair in February, unlike a certain someone."

“Gah, bald Lloyd is something I do not want to think about.” Sheena blanched, taking the straw out of her mouth. “That image is straight out of my nightmares.”

“I don’t like thinking about it either,” Lloyd muttered, pulling out the DVD for Tangled. Did his family’s blu-ray player even still work? It had been a pretty long time since they’d played a DVD instead of just using Netflix. “Can we just stop talking about this altogether? Please?”

“I'm not gonna stop talking about my hair! It’s fabulous -” Zelos froze, staring down at his phone screen in abject horror. “Colette, what time is it?”

“Huh?” Colette stopped mid-threading, confused, one hand still holding a bunch of red hair. She craned her head to consult the clock hung on the wall (which, to Lloyd’s eternal chagrin, still displayed his baby pictures from the first year of his life). “It’s four in the afternoon.”

“Crap, I need to go,” Zelos cursed, stuffing his phone back into his jeans and scrambling to his feet. “I have an online interview at 4.30.”

Sheena’s mouth fell open as she stared at Zelos in astonishment. “The interview for the scholarship is today, and you didn’t think to say anything until now?”

“Yeah, Zelos. We could have just rescheduled this trip or something. Why didn't you tell us? Are you going to make it home in time?" Lloyd piped up in concern.

“He stays close enough that he should be fine if he doesn’t miss the bus,” Colette said, mournfully watching the braid she had done unravel before her very eyes. “You remember where the bus stop is, right?”

“Of course I do! I’ve come here enough times to know that much!” Zelos called back, busy packing his stuff back into his backpack. He haphazardly zipped it up, his water bottle still hanging out the side precariously, before slinging it over one shoulder. “I’ll just be on my way, then!”

“I’m going with you, idiot,” Sheena grumbled, picking up her bag as well. “I leave you alone for a month and this happens.”

“You can’t leave me alone with them,” Sheena hissed under her breath at Zelos as they left the apartment and walked into the lift lobby. “I will die.”

“Well, we’re the only two here now.” Colette swung her feet up onto the sofa, pushing her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. “What do we do now?”

“We can still watch Disney movies!” Lloyd raised the Tangled DVD, grinning. “You up for it?”

“Sure! I love Disney movies!” No objections from her side.

Lloyd inserted the DVD into the Blu-ray player, bundling the blanket into his arms and heading over to the sofa to seat himself next to Colette. Gingerly, he tucked the blanket around the two of them. The wind from the rain was still howling outside the apartment, and the air was still rather chilly.

“This is nostalgic,” Colette whispered, resting her head on Lloyd’s shoulder and taking his hand as the movie started.

“It’s like nothing ever changed.” Like she had never moved away from this HDB, like they were still little children attending the same primary school, like they had no responsibilities resting on their shoulders…

The fatigue from the morning that had been chased away by the cheer and enthusiasm of her friends slowly sneaked up on her, here with a blanket keeping the warmth around her and the soft, warm colours of the television swimming in front of her eyes. Not to mention Lloyd’s presence, comforting and familiar. It was enough for her to close her eyes…

~~~

And that was the position Kratos and Anna found Lloyd and Colette in when they got home: Colette still soundly sleeping and Lloyd sitting ramrod straight in his attempt to not awaken Colette.

~~~

Full fic

#fanfiction #one shot #tales of symphonia #colloyd #colette brunel #lloyd irving #sheena fujibayashi #zelos wilder #preview

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madroxed · 4 years

Text

the order (season two) thoughts.

so chotoranii asked me for my thoughts on the order season two. of which there are many. posting them here rather than in a reply so tumblr doesn’t fuck up the ‘keep reading’ break.

SO MANY SPOILERS AHEAD, OBVIOUSLY.

OK FOLKS, LET’S DO THIS. SORRY ABOUT THE WORD COUNT.

the good, the bad, and the incomprehensible.

ok SO. overall i thought this season was so much better than season one, especially in terms of production and acting.

i should start by saying, the biggest twist of this season? ME LIKING JACK AS A BLOND. i’ve been dragging that hair for months and i end up digging it? i’m so mad at myself.

ANYWAY the first three episodes? flawless! beautiful! amazing! they honestly took everything i could have listed as wanting and put it onscreen. jack trying out for cheer squad and having to stay on cheer squad to keep up the act? them finding each other almost immediately? the jokes about orgies? jack taking the knights seriously and holding on to his anger over the memory wipe? lilith and nicole? nicole in general? RANDALL AND HAMISH FAKE DATING (however briefly, seriously, i will be writing fic where they have to keep that up because i am betrayed that it was never brought up again and if you think i didn’t throw my laptop across the bed so i could run around screaming you’d be wrong)? A MAGIC HEIST?

honestly, all perfect.

............then the season started to go downhill. don’t get me wrong, there were still some excellent parts, but they were hindered by two things:

the plot jumping about too much to be comprehensible.

the fact that we the viewers are supposed to believe that randall carpio and hamish duke would not tear the world apart for lilith bathory immediately.

the first is forgivable; the first season’s plot was a simple enough device that meant it dragged a little at times. this season they seemed to not want to fall into that trap again, but in doing so threw something so big in that they needed far too much exposition because they didn’t have enough time to show it (a trait they fell into in a lot of ways, we’ll get back to that). SHOW, DON’T TELL, FOLKS. that being said, i really liked salvadore as a character, and the idea of a group of people striving to make magic accessible to all was a cool moral quandary plot.

the second is unforgivable to me, and led to the majority of my issues with the season. i understand the knights becoming members of the order (cool concept), i understand them struggling with conflicting loyalties because of it, but what i don’t understand is the fact that randall spent the majority of the season saying “let’s get lilith back!” only to back down at the first push back, and hamish was the push back. because......the order had other problems. IN WHAT UNIVERSE DO THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER NOT PUT EACH OTHER FIRST AND SAY FUCK EVERYONE ELSE?

(jack i understand, if only because we saw so much of it last season. his loyalties are kinda flaky. i do understand his loyalty to vera; not only did she play a huge part in taking down edward last season, but the mind link thing and learning all her pain would have stuck with him. he loves a cause, that boy. also hey ho! jack was so much more likeable this season! we love to see it.)

also i just really missed lilith.

(thank fuck for nicole never giving up.)

the amount of callbacks to season one were fantastic. they didn’t just move on and leave it be, they referenced basically everyone, and seeing professor clarke and kyle again was a nice touch just to tie things together. there also being discussions about jack’s pete related trauma was great and necessary.

ok, so alyssa. i take back my post about how great it would be for her to be the villain. this was so much better. her trauma in the wake of both season one and then accidentally killing someone leading to her feeling so conflicted and lost and alone? her magic malfunctioning when it’s all she feels she has? we’ve always known she was ambitious, but to see her face straight on the idea that she may be left completely powerless and no one really listening or trying to help her except a hive mind that’s also hurting her? o u c h.

we saw this season that the real problem with the order is its motto of ‘hurry up and wait’. ‘we’ll save lilith.....just do all these other things first!’ ‘we’ll get alyssa’s magic back......there’s just more important things right now!’ it’s all so easy to see how that could frustrate someone so much they can’t take it anymore.

i’m so pleased i loved alyssa so much this season. i desperately wanted to and i’m glad they gave me that. i just felt so much for her. she just wanted to not feel so alone and so helpless and so scared that she was going to pick the wrong side again. it was beautiful.

this also meant alyssa/jack was better this season. having got the insta-love out the way last season (ugh), this season they were able to actually look at how that would play out if you took ramifications into consideration. all the problems i had with them last season were vocalised onscreen, and this new unstable thing left in its place was far more appealing to watch. they were messy and bad for each other and they knew it, but that didn’t stop them loving each other.

also: “if we get out of this, can i take you to the mall? because i really hate your jean jacket. and your hair.”

in regards to the other relationships:

lilith and nicole were adorable for the limited amount of time we got them onscreen. the slow crush to nervous dating was beautiful, and seeing lilith struggle with what getting her memories back meant in regards to that was great. we all know i thought the lilith/randall of last season was rushed, so having lilith torn over hurting one of the most important people in her life and following these feelings for someone new was lovely. IF WE GET A SEASON THREE I BETTER GET SO MUCH MORE OF THEM.

here’s the thing, putting aside lilith/nicole for a moment: the order can’t write good relationships (*with one major caveat).

hear me out.

in season one it was insta-love. jack and alyssa meet and suddenly defending alyssa is the only thing that matters to jack. it....wasn’t good. randall and lilith were thrown together with very little build up and we were supposed to roll with it.

this season we had both hamish/vera and randall/gabrielle. i would like to say that theoretically i am here for both of these. but.

hamish/vera occurred off screen. oh, sure, we had a couple scenes of them staring at each other over drinks, but that was all we got until late into the season. we were told that hamish and vera were a thing by randall when he was winding hamish up. we didn’t see it for ourselves. again, this show’s habit of telling not showing is a problem.

hamish and vera could make sense. two leaders of opposing factions having sort of hate, begrudging respect sex? i see it. from there, you can show us how it would become something more.

the show doesn’t.

we’re told they’re together. we’re told hamish is forsaking his knightly duties in favour of vera. we’re told by hamish that he’s drunk the order koolaid,

and all of this is supposed to culminate in us believing that hamish duke - tundra, leader of the knights of saint christopher, the most cunning of the wolves - would push aside everything else because he just believes that much in vera stone? to the point that he would all but abandon lilith and degrade his relationship with randall to randall being the annoying sidekick?

i woke up at two a.m. to write a note on my phone that says: ‘the greatest tragedy of the order season two is hamish duke’s character assassination.’ and i stand by that.

besides lilith’s absence for almost the whole season, it’s the thing i’m most mad about. i love hamish so much and to one-dimensionalise him in favour of a ship is...............shoddy work honestly.

so like i said. HAMISH/VERA COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD, BUT FOR FUCKSAKE SHOW, YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DEVELOP THIS SHIT.

randall/gabrielle was better developed. by which i mean we actually saw them interacting on screen. we got to see them begrudgingly working together, we saw him learn more about her, we heard them talk about her need to fit in somewhere. when they made the joke about being bffs? good stuff. would i like them to slowburn this shit? yes please. have them become best friends and then have those feelings be something else. i would really like that. the show just needs to.......slow down. not immediately see a single character and need to throw them into a relationship with the nearest person.

gabrielle was great this season. by which i mean, she was gabrielle, and we love some consistent characterisation. i think it’s so true to everything we know about her that she’d want to inject herself into the knights’ world; she wants to be part of the in-crowd, and right now that’s them. she’s also supremely jealous of alyssa because, to her, it seemed like alyssa had the best of both worlds. so, yes, her wanting to be around the knights and that developing into her begrudgingly liking them makes a lot of sense to me.

so, my caveat.

the relationship the order knows how to write? the knights. hamish, randall, lilith, and jack. that dynamic saved season one from being a total mess. that dynamic thrived in the early episodes of this season. IT’S JUST THAT GOOD. i said once that if the order just became greek (2007) but with werewolves i’d be happy, and the first three episodes really gave me that.

THE KNIGHTS ARE EACH OTHER’S SOULMATES, ASK ME HOW.

is this an excuse for me to complain that they gave us a hint of hamish/randall and then cruelly snatched it away and i’m still mad about it? YOU BETCHA.

is this also my way of saying there wasn’t nearly enough jack/randall this season? YOU BETCHA.

removing lilith from the equation (I’M STILL SO MAD) and then having hamish pull away from randall because..........who the fuck knows, was just a recipe for disaster.

clearly lilith is the glue that holds these idiots together.

so, vera. katherine isabelle still just steals every scene she’s in. i love her. i love vera’s characterisation. i love that she’s shamelessly ambitious but also wants the order to succeed and the world not to end. i love that she can be cold and cruel and still have such soft spots for both jack and alyssa. i love that she can be vulnerable and angry about it. i just........think vera’s pretty fucking great, tbh.

i still don’t understand why the knights - after their infiltration revenge plans go tits up - decide to just go full on order. like??????? hamish and jack barely even questioning anything???? randall must have spent most of this season feeling so alone.

that being said, when jack said to nicole and randall that he knew what they needed to get lilith back and the conversation pretty much went:

jack: you’re okay betraying the order?

nicole: for lilith, anything.

randall: i’d literally betray the order for a cookie, haven’t you been listening?

we love to see it.

OH, HEY GUYS, REMEMBER WHEN IAN ZIERING AND JASON PRIESTLEY WERE MEMBERS OF THE ORDER AND JASON PRIESTLEY BECAME GRAND MAGUS FOR A HOT SECOND???? that was written solely for me. i do not know who this show thinks its audience is, but it understands me to my core.

so...............i have zero clue where the show intends to go from here. i just need alyssa to be ok and i hope - like his friend randall - jack is willing to kill whoever the hell he has to to make that happen. (we stan randall straight up murdering someone to get lilith back and making sure nicole remains innocent and safe tbh.)

SO TL;DR: the early episodes gave me life. the show declined from there, but i still enjoyed it a lot. the order is at its best when the knights are a team, i loved alyssa’s story this season, and i have no clue what to expect from next season (if we get one). werewolf alyssa? villain jack, perhaps? we’ll see!

THIS POST PROBABLY SEEMS TOO NEGATIVE BUT HI! I STILL LOVED THIS SEASON A LOT AND I LOVE MY KIDS WITH MY WHOLE HEART AND IF YOU READ ALL A MILLION WORDS OF THIS THEN I LOVE YOU TOO.

also if anyone has any hamish/randall prompts i’ll be hanging out over here crying into my hands for the next few weeks. FAKE DATING. how dare they?!

#the order #the order spoilers #the order netflix #THIS IS.....TOO LONG I'M SORRY #i love this show so much????#but it's also a mess?????#basically my brand lbh

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elodieunderglass · 5 years

Note

Hey Elodie. :) so I was reading your moss post and I had a question: you know those algae lights that they want to put everywhere? How does that work? If the CO2 goes to making biomass of a plant, how is algae so good at making O2 when there isn't a ton of it physically? I mean presumably it is pretty good at it cause afaik that's where the O2 on earth came from to begin with?

(in reference to my general grumpiness about people’s claims that moss sequesters more carbon than is physically possible)

To engage with this post, you’ll first need to know that photosynthetic organisms absorb carbon dioxide and break the molecule apart. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. These organisms keep the carbon atom and release the two oxygen atoms. This is how plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. The carbon atom goes into their biomass. Right now, there is too much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, caused by the burning of carbon, which reacts with oxygen when burned to form carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is making the atmosphere too hot. As our economies depend on burning carbon, people do not want to stop doing it. Many people are now interested in “absorbing the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere” in order to survive on the planet. The problem is, as I point out, that the atoms of carbon have to go SOMEWHERE. Carbon dioxide doesn’t just magically turn into oxygen - the C atom is still there. And when plants break CO2 down, they need to do something with the carbon - they use it to grow. The C atom goes to making the biomass of the plant. If you see a product that claims to use plants to suck enormous amounts of CO2 out of the air (I argue) you should look for the biomass that it will produce. If you can’t see where the carbon went, it’s probably not real.

Anyway! Ah! It’s a good question! but there is a ton of algae physically! And it does make biomass! Lots of it! PLANETS FULL OF IT! It’s its best trick. And it grows very quickly, too. The fact that algae still produce a huge chunk of the oxygen we use today is a big clue to the fact that there is Really Quite A Lot of It. Anyone who has ever had an aquarium can attest to how quickly algae can increase its biomass. That’s where the carbon goes! Into the biomass! That’s where the oxygen comes from! It’s discarded as a product of all that growth! There’s a huge amount of it!

I’m just going to dump this whole quote from a relevant paper here:

There are several reasons for the greater biomass yields of algae versus land plants. Generally, algae have higher photosynthetic efficiency than land plants because of greater abilities to capture light and convert it to usable chemical energy (Melis 2009, Weyer et al. 2010). Under ideal growth conditions algae direct most of their energy into cell division (6- to 12-hour cycle), allowing for rapid biomass accumulation. Also, unlike plants, unicellular algae do not partition large amounts of biomass into supportive structures such as stems and roots* that are energetically expensive to produce and often difficult to harvest and process for biofuel production. In addition, algae have carbon-concentrating mechanisms that suppress photorespiration (Spalding 2008, Jansson and Northen 2010). With algae, all the biomass can be harvested at any time of the year, rather than seasonally. In contrast, only a portion of the total biomass of terrestrial crops (corn cob, soybean seed) is harvested once a year

* this means that instead of slowly growing into a more complicated structure, like plants do, algae just doubles and doubles and doubles. FYI, moss is a plant. algae is not. algae can casually double its mass even caring, and that’s where the carbon goes: literally into LITERALLY doubling the biomass, INCREDIBLY quickly. Moss will not. Moss will grow, become more complicated, and eventually flower - all quite slowly, in comparison.

Anyway, here is a picture from the paper, showing the Biomass. you can see exactly where the carbon is going. There is so much carbon being made here, they’re literally turning it into ... oil?

Yeah... oil. Algae fuel is considered to be a reasonable replacement for fossil fuels. (starting link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel). Algae fuel is used as reliable gimmick in science fiction, as a renewable fuel that spaceships can generate as they go - the handwaving possibilities are endless: ‘ooh, here’s a thing that takes the waste breath of human crew and makes fuel and oxygen out of it. hurray!’

So you may be like, “oh Elodie, but surely burning carbon-based fuels contributes to climate change, because it releases CO2, so uhhhh why would you bother replacing fossil fuels with a slightly fresher version of the same product?”

and I’m like “YEAH I KNOW RIGHT? the argument is that because algae removes the CO2 from the air, and burning the oil releases the same amount of CO2, it’s argued that it’s a carbon-neutral fuel. the carbon goes in, the carbon goes out. The algae puts it into the atmosphere and it takes it back out. it’s always the same carbon.”

WHICH. THE MATH CHECKS OUT, BUT I DON’T LIKE IT. The argument for developing algae fuels is that the math works out as carbon-neutral, and that it reduces reliance on the oil industry and its geopolitics, as every nation on Earth can easily grow and refine their own oil. BUT I STILL DON’T LIKE IT.

Anyway, the trick here is to look for the biomass. In the diagram above, YOU CAN SEE WHERE IT IS. The carbon goes from the carbon dioxide into the algae, where it can be made into carbon-based fuel. The carbon is THERE. it is FOUND. The peer-reviewed, heavily researched industry is so confident in the math, and the carbon, and the physical laws of photosynthesis that algae can genuinely be called a carbon-neutral fuel. The carbon has been AUDITED. the mass is KNOWN.

So what about those “algae lamps that [THEY] want to put everywhere?” I know exactly what you’re talking about. They are glowing street lamp things full of algae and they have the amazing claim of “fixing as much carbon dioxide as 200 trees.”

Those appear to be bullshit. Sorry.

However, on Tumblr, you will find a lot of posts about the algae lamps. I know. I’ve seen them. And I really wanted to believe in them! I may have even reblogged one! But then I just couldn’t find any more evidence about them. And neither could these science bloggers who tried to track down ANY ANSWERS AT ALL in 2012, https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/04/streetlight-powered-algae-actually-possible/1854/ and again in 2015. https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/the-green-algae-street-lamps-that-suck-up-co2/

The algae were reported on in 2012 and 2013 as a funky startup invention, but apparently, only one lamp was ever made. The inventor, an utterly obscure man known as Pierre Calleja, does not appear to have a scholarly record and his scientific qualifications are a bit murky. A few scientists appeared to have asked, “Since algae grows so quickly, what will you do when they overgrow the container/ block the light?” and “Anyone who has maintained an aquarium know that removing the algae - even if you want algae! is part of maintenance; won’t these require a huge amount of maintenance?” and there was no answer. There was definitely no peer-reviewed research. The claim of “fixing as much carbon as 200 trees” (by generating equivalent biomass) cannot be backed up because all of the actual materials have disappeared from the web. The TED talk he did is gone. The startup has vanished. The website is gone. Considering that it attracted millions of dollars of investments, that’s sad news for stakeholders, but normal for a startup based on an idea easily blocked by the question, “don’t you need to clean it.”

Calleja reappeared in the news in 2017, having left the lamp startup (the article has some explanations - apparently the issue was ‘finance people’) and now he wants to make vegetarian smoked salmon out of algae. https://thefishsite.com/articles/algae-can-spearhead-a-culinary-revolution So I think it’s fair to say that the lamps didn’t work and aren’t going anywhere and have disappointed a lot of people and wasted a lot of money. However, I like his new project better. It’s obvious where the biomass is going. It’s going into the fake meat! Carry on, Pierre!

“They” are not going to put them “everywhere” because there is no secret panel of “Them” who, like, Decide Things. There was one inventor, a few reporters who talked about him, no scientific research, no marketable product was ever created, and now the creator is trying to generate fish. Just because that post has 6 bajillion notes on Tumblr doesn’t mean it’s real.

(It’s a bit awkward because two of the science communicators who reported on the lamps are friends of mine, and I know that they simply reported on it in good faith as an interesting bit of pop news, based on the now-vanished TED talk. The tumblr post in the screencap claims its source as Jess’s 2012 snippet from the Grist, which was just meant to be a cheerful description of a cool Youtube video of Pierre Calleja’s TED talk... which has now vanished from the internet entirely. She wasn’t reporting on research, just pointing out a cool video. But yeah, the ‘‘‘‘‘source’‘‘‘‘‘‘ for the Tumblr post we’ve all seen is ... literally just my friend, mentioning a cool TED talk she saw. in 2012. Which is now gone. Because the startup folded with its tail between its legs. And people are using it as a ‘source’, which I don’t think is fair!)

#conservation and ecology #climate change #dark internet show me the forbidden biomass #kyidyl

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greatgreengremlin · 5 years

Note

Hi! I found you through the BTHB tumblr, and liked the way you write! If it’s okay, can I ask for one of your squares? It would be “Cradling Someone in Their Arms” with Hunk and Pidge, but it’s Pidge trying to cradle a heavily injured Hunk in her arms while they wait for rescue and feeling guilty because she isn’t able to carry him to safety herself. Would that be okay?

Um, would it be okay? No, it would be wonderful! What a fun prompt, I hope I filled it to your liking. Thanks for playing bingo with me!

(VLD) Space: Cradling Someone in Their Arms

AO3

“I’m not sure why Allura wants me to hack here,” Pidge mutters, squinting as her rudimentary translator converts the holographic characters into messages she can make decent enough sense of. “It’s mostly about the exports. The fruit exports.”

Hunk shrugs, absently readjusting his grip on his bayard. “The more recon we have, the better.”

“Mm, I guess. Still seems kinda weird though, just reading about shipping fruit. And not like, blueprints for weapons of mass destruction or battleships or something.”

“I don’t think it’s that weird,” Hunk says. “Look at Earth’s history, tons of places were colonized for the exploitation of their food resources, including fruit.”

“True,” Pidge admits, fingers deftly dancing over the keypad.

“And those export reports are probably going to lead us to our next destination.”

“Also true,” she agrees, sighing. “I just wish our assignment was more exciting. Everybody else is kicking butt right now, taking over the command center. And we’re just here downloading transport records.”

“Are you kidding?” Hunk scoffs. “This is a great change of pace! I for one, am tired of being shot at, running into traps, and getting motion sickness flying around laser puke fired by giant planet eating monsters.”

Pidge rolls her eyes. While she doesn’t exactly enjoy any of the things he’s just described, per se, it doesn’t make looking over fruit exports any less boring. When they get back to the castle Lance is probably going to be bragging about how he did this cool thing or that cool thing, or gushing about some badass thing Allura got to do. While she…now knows the Galra character for ‘citrus.’

“I am gonna go do a quick patrol of the perimeter,” he says.

“And leaving your super important post as my bodyguard?” Pidge mumbles, briefly glancing over.

Surely Hunk picks up on the sarcasm, but he answers earnestly.

“Making sure nobody’s sneaking up on us is part of guarding. I’ll be fast.”

Hunk slips from the room and Pidge returns her attention to the screen. Yeah, okay, so this stuff is useful on some level or another. But her eyes are glazing over and she can’t help but feel that fighting with her team would be more useful. Definitely more interesting. This wasn’t even a challenge to hack.

Her comms link gives a soft click, and Shiro’s voice comes through.

“Pidge, status update.”

“Good news is, I could crack this database in my sleep. Bad news is, these reports are putting me to sleep. How are things on your end?”

She hears a crash and loud curse from Keith in the background.

“I’ll get back to you.” Shiro clicks off.

Pidge chews her lower lip. About half the files are downloaded now, hopefully it shouldn’t be too much longer before she and Hunk can regroup with the rest of the team. Maybe actually get in on some of the action.

She’s barely completed the thought when she hears the unmistakable firing of a blaster. For a heartbeat she thinks Shiro’s clicked back in, but it’s followed by a yell that is unmistakably Hunk. She wastes no time springing out of the chair and hurrying into the hall.

Pidge sprints toward the echoes of Hunk’s bayard. She materializes her own mid-stride, zapping at a probe that looks like an upgraded Rover before it can lock onto her. She doesn’t stop to reprogram this one, tearing toward the continued noises of combat up ahead.

The violet lit corridor curves and Pidge swerves to avoid the scraps of a blasted sentry. It’s a small patrol, led by a Galra in standard armor. The intact sentry takes aim at her and Pidge drops, somersaulting forward. Surging up, she jabs her bayard into its torso and zaps, currents crackling audibly.

It crashes to the floor and as she whips around, her breath catches. Hunk fires his bayard at the same time the soldier throws this blinking disk no bigger than a sand dollar. The soldier goes down, but the disk hits its mark, snapping to Hunk’s cuirass with a metallic clink.

It immediately begins blinking faster, emitting a shrill series of beeps.

They both realize it’s a detonator at the same time, locking gazes.

“GETITOFF!” Pidge shrieks, so panicked it sounds like one big, messed up word.

And Hunk tries but he’s not fast enough, and the last Pidge sees of him before it goes off with an earsplitting peal is the nakedly terrified look on his face. It’s a look that floods her with cold and she will never, ever forget it. If she survives this war and sixty years down the line develops dementia, the helpless horror in Hunk’s eyes will be the last memory to haunt her.

Hunk is blown back far, so far, and hits the metal floor with a thud that makes the lunch lurch up her throat. Pidge scrambles over in a mad dash, throwing herself down beside him. The sight of the damage is just as nauseating and Pidge has to choke back a gag, clamping a hand around her mouth.

From waist up, Hunk doesn’t really have a suit anymore. Just a few ripped scraps of black fabric. His entire torso is a mess of shrapnel and fragments of shattered armor. As frightening as that is, at least they’re keeping some of the blood inside.

A gaping wound in the center of his chest gushes like a geyser, so deep Pidge could plunge both hands in and touch the pulp. Its inside looks like a sliced pomegranate, all nubbly and viscerally crimson. With a very quiet groan, Hunk lifts his head.

And Pidge gasps, heart skipping as she cups his face, charily positioning her hands to avoid the shards embedded in his cheeks.

“You’re alive, oh, thank goodness you’re alive! Hunk, we gotta get you out of here! C-Can you stand?”

Hunk blinks at her blearily, headband absorbing most of the blood from a scalp wound she can’t quite see because of his hair, but a few droplets seep through it and catch in his eyelashes.

“Dn’t catch that, Pidge, m’ears are still ringing.”

And she notices that those too have red streaming from them. Damn it, the blast probably ruptured his eardrums.

“You need help!” she nearly shouts. “Can you stand up?”

Hunk blinks at her again, a vague look of confusion passing over his features.

“Think something ’sploded,” he slurs without acknowledging her at all, eyes fluttering closed again.

“No, no, no! Hunk, stay with me!”

But he wasn’t entirely with her to begin with and easily slips back out. Pidge gently lowers his head and tries to formulate a plan. Hunk is still bleeding copiously and those are just the injuries she can see. There’s probably a ton of damage on the inside too, he needs a pod as soon as possible.

Green isn’t far from here. She blends in well with the dense forestry of fruit trees and berry bushes that cover this planet. Dragging Hunk to Green would be faster than trying to explain what happened to her teammates and directing them back here.

Pidge removes her own cuirass and tears the padded lining out of it. With shaky fingers, she packs it into Hunk’s chest wound. Pressing down, she chews her lip and watches as it absorbs the blood. Before moving him anywhere, at the very least, she needs to stanch this bleeding.

“I can carry you,” she says aloud, hoping to make it true as the lining soaks beneath her hands. “Green isn’t far and we’ve all been working out, right? This is fine.”

Pidge removes her belt next and rips the lining out of that, folding it over top the first layer and pushing down with all her weight. Hunk twitches a bit beneath her, mewls out a soft, hurt sound without opening his eyes.

When his bleeding seems under control, she lets go and clicks back into her comm link.

“Something happened,” she announces quickly. “Hunk’s hurt bad and he needs a pod like, yesterday.”

“How responsive is he?” Shiro asks, concerned but collected.

“He talked incoherently for like two seconds before he passed out. He can’t wait, I’m gonna carry him to Green and head back to the castle.”

“You think you can carry Hunk?” Keith asks skeptically.

“If people can flip cars during adrenaline rushes, then I can carry Hunk,” she snaps, more frazzled than she intends. “It’s not like I have to vault him over my head, I just have to get him to Green, and I mean, I really have to you guys, he— he’s not doing good.”

“We’re almost done here and even if we weren’t, this takes precedence,” Allura says quickly. “Lance, Keith, finish up. Pidge, do what you can for Hunk, Shiro and I are on our way to help.”

“Copy.” Pidge doesn’t wait for anybody else’s affirmatives before she turns her attention back on Hunk.

She tries not to think too hard about things like logic or physics as she hooks her arms under his. Either Hunk’s clavicle is broken or he’s dislocated a shoulder, because she can feel the unnatural way his arm shifts. When she looks down she thinks she can see a bulge that doesn’t belong there too.

“Okay, here we go.”

Pidge digs her heels in and pulls back with everything she’s got. She begs her body to gift her with one of those rare, miraculous adrenaline rushes that allows everyday people to flip cars off children. She doesn’t need to flip a car, she doesn’t even need to carry Hunk, really, she just needs to drag him.

“Come on,” she pleads, desperately trying to pull even harder.

It takes an enormous effort and all of Pidge’s strength to drag him three steps backward and even that leaves her spine aching. She grits her teeth and uses every muscle in her body to pull him another step and doesn’t even accomplish that. She slips, falling hard on her bum and losing her grip on Hunk.

It’s just impossible.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpers, shaking her head against the sting of tears. “Hunk, I’m so, so sorry.”

She can’t carry him anywhere. But maybe she can hold him, at least, and monitor him. Guard him until Shiro and Allura get here.

Pidge sits up, gently takes Hunk’s head in her hands, crossing her legs. She pulls him into her lap as much as she can, which, while a bit difficult, is far less taxing than dragging him. She cradles his head against her chest, worriedly fluffing her fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” she repeats, even though she knows he can’t hear her. “If this were the other way around, you’d already have me in Yellow.”

She has her bayard near in case any new threat shows up. She doubts it, since it seems like the rest of her team handled things at the command center. That soldier Hunk shot still hasn’t moved. Maybe he’s dead and that’s perfectly okay with her.

“I should’ve been satisfied with boring,” she mumbles, guilt churning in her stomach.

Pidge would rather read a thousand stupid fruit export reports than be sitting here like this, listening to Hunk’s breath get shorter and shallower and too weak to get him the help he needs. She hates this, the helplessness. She hates that she couldn’t force an adrenaline miracle out of herself.

Guilt continues to gnaw at her insides. She knows it’s not her fault that she is small and Hunk is big, but it feels like her fault when it’s the obstacle preventing him from receiving treatment right now. The pad of her finger unintentionally locates the head wound she couldn’t see earlier, brushing over the split in the skin.

Anxiety mounting, Pidge begins to rock back and forth, hugging Hunk close. She quits as soon as she hears the grinding noise that rises from what must be his probably broken clavicle. She goes back to stroking his hair instead, staring at the dicey rise and fall of his bloodied chest.

When Shiro and Allura finally show up, it feels like eons later.

“I couldn’t carry him,” Pidge admits as they survey the damage, her guilt coiling even tighter around her chest.

Of course, neither of them seem even remotely surprised. They probably realized what she should have sooner, that it simply wasn’t a feasible feat no matter how badly she wanted it to be.

“We’ll get him back faster in Red than Green anyway,” Allura says, forcing a smile although Pidge can tell she’s worried.

Shiro helps arrange Hunk in Allura’s arms, positioning him a way that’s hopefully the least stressful on his injuries. Allura doesn’t need help with the actual lifting, however. She simply shape shifts to be broader, lengthens her arms to accommodate Hunk’s girth.

Pidge recovers Hunk’s bayard and the drive with the export transcripts. She wishes she could at least be with Hunk, cradling him in the back of Red. But she has her own lion to fly. Hunk will probably be safer in Allura’s arms since her magic has healing properties.

Or at the least, revitalizing properties. And that distinction sinks to her stomach like a stone.

Lance usually gets the first hug when Hunk is out of the pod, but this time Pidge beats him to the punch and she kind of thinks he lets her. It hasn’t exactly been a secret that she’s been on edge since what happened. She hurries to Hunk so fast she barely pumps the breaks in time to avoid an outright collision, throwing her arms around his middle and squeezing ferociously.

“Whoa,” he murmurs hazily. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she greets warmly, propping her chin on his belly and peeking up at him. “It’s good to have you back.”

A small, sort of sleepy smile unfurls on Hunk’s face.

“Good to be back,” he says, gently patting her head.

#badthingshappenbingo #bad things happen bingo #whump #pidge gunderson #hunk vld #platonic hidge #blood tw #injury tw

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