in time we find some shelter

Multi-muse blog by Screech. See "characters" for full muse list. Sideblog to thatlastpartsthecatholicism. Selective, open to all fandoms.

[thatlastpartsthecatholicism]

((So, I haven’t been around in a while.

Short version is that I haven’t had a lot of muse on here, and then not a lot of muse anywhere. Real life has been a bit crazy, I’m trying to be on tumblr less so I can focus on other things, and in light of all of that I figured it would be best if I officially went on hiatus–not just here, but everywhere.

Don’t worry, I’m okay and no one did anything! You’re all lovely. I just wanted to make it official so that people didn’t wonder if I’d fallen off the earth or died or something. I’ll still be poking my head in occasionally, but actual replies are officially at a halt.

Again, not dead, just hoping to focus on other things in life. I’ve been writing more and that feels good. HMU if you want to know where I am on AO3 and read my dumb schmoopy Apex Legends fics.))

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

“Yeah, that was kind of the idea.” He wasn’t looking at her now, glaring off into some dark corner or another. “I just…needed some space. From everything. Especially them.”

Glancing back at her, he added, “If you’re fishing for specifics, you should know I pulled the plug on my last shrink.”

Kara raised an eyebrow at that comment. “I’m sure you say that to mean you’re closing the door on opening up to me,” she said in what Connor referred to as Disappointed Amanda Voice, “and that’s fine. But you should also know that talk of unplugging isn’t going to win you many fans. And I think you could use a few acquaintances in this world. Not friends if you don’t want them, but...people you know, at least.”

No one was going to do anything stupid--not in Detroit, at least--but that didn’t mean the world and its new inhabitants were going to be kind to him. Not after what some of them had been through.

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

The assumption that Klaus was her father made El smile a little bit, like it always did. It was a nice feeling, when a stranger thought they were a normal family. 

Then the radio blared, loud enough for her to hear it even from the headphones, and sudden enough to be alarming. It could have been a normal malfunction, but this was Hawkins.

Eleven’s senses immediately flared out, her eyes fluttering shut briefly with the effort, but, sensing nothing, she looked back at Chloe and it was hard to miss the panic in the young woman’s eyes. That was all too familiar. “What’s wrong?” El asked, not bothering to try and play it off. 

“Nothing,” Chloe said, too quickly. Damn it, she was better than this. “This thing is garbage sometimes. I think I dropped it one too many...”

The noise came back, garbled beyond recognition this time. Without thinking, Chloe put the headphones on. It was coming from both ears, but her left ear more than her right ear. Of course, of course he was between her and the house. “Hey, can I...borrow your phone? I just realized, I had to call my mom about something like, fifteen minutes ago...”

That was a bad lie, one of her worse ones, but she was starting to panic. It made lying hard.

[musesthroughtheages]

@justholybranches (chloe)

Sometimes Noah wandered. It was a side-effect of being dead, of being both tied to the world and entirely disconnected from it. Like many things in his afterlife, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, but he didn’t entirely hate it, either. He got to see new things, at least. Places along the ley line that he’d never seen before, and probably wouldn’t have any other way.

At first, he thought he was in Monmouth Manufacturing–the charts and diagrams and devices were familiar. But no, this was somewhere else. Both present and not entirely there at all, Noah leaned forward to look at one of the pictures pinned to the wall. It was a forest, but if he squinted, there was a shape like a person in the trees.

“Spooky,” he murmured, unaware of anything else at the moment.

[justholybranches]

She had been sleeping. Had been. Chloe had been a light sleeper even before everything that happened, but now? Now the smallest creak could wake her up. And a person talking was a lot louder than that.

Chloe shot up from where she’d fallen asleep at the desk, her hands scrambling for a hammer resting near a pencil cup. She knocked over the pencil cup and sent a few pages flying as she went. She didn’t immediately start swinging, but she looked damn ready to. “What are you doing in my apartment?!” she yelled.

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

He snorted. “It’s cute that you think that matters. Are you new or just optimistic?” Looking away again, Reeve shrugged. “Depends, though. Does your precinct cover cult shit or just run of the mill kidnapping? This might be above your pay grade. No offense.”

Connor would’ve been more indignant, but he got the you’re too optimistic thing a lot. He was used to ignoring it. “Depends. Do you suspect or can you reasonably suspect that the cult is involved in sex trafficking? Because...technically that would be sex crimes, but I might be able to justify sticking my nose in. Suspicion or reasonably suspicion of drug dealing would be a better bet.”

Also, what kind of cult was this guy talking? Scientology? Self-help gone wrong? Good old fashioned religious extremism?

[burnupthenight-deactivated20190]

Noel Fielding: Emotional Support Goth, The Great British Bake Off

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

Since she hadn’t met any of the neighbors so far, Eleven had to think for a moment to remember which one had brought food. “It’s okay,” she replied at last. “It was good. She was…” She’d talked a lot, which was what Eleven remembered from her hiding spot in the living room. It had given Klaus a headache, not that there was much that didn’t give Klaus a headache. “…nice. Friendly.”

Chloe laughed quietly. “Is friendly the nice way to say she talked your dad’s ear off? I get it, it’s fine. She...doesn’t like the quiet, I guess.” That was one thing they didn’t have in common...or didn’t used to have in common. “It’s her way of...”

She was interrupted by the sudden sound of her headphones, slung loosely around her neck, squawking out a Joan Jett song. The sound stopped just as quickly as it started. Chloe froze, trying her hardest not to immediately turn around and look around for...him.

“...being friendly,” she finished, hoping her voice didn’t shake.

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

“Protein blocks?” That sounded…healthy, but not much like actual food. And not spicy, Jin decided. She thought a moment longer, then nodded and signed for him to follow. “Something simple would be a good place to start, then. There is a baker on the next street who I am told makes very good bread. You can decide more from there, alright?”

“Okay,” Edgar agreed immediately. He was just glad to have someone make a call--any kind of call. “Yeah, protein blocks. They’re like...wiggly and black and they taste like...” He inhaled deeply, trying to think of the best way to describe the taste. It was hard when it was the only thing he’d ever tasted. “They taste like...how grime looks, I guess.”

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

A softer expression, closer to a smile, flickered across her face. She knew who he was talking about. It vanished just as quickly when he reached for his pockets, but the cookie wrappers caught her attention, and she cautiously–very slowly–held out her hand to take them.

“…what is ‘stick in the mud’?”

Jesse only moved close enough to put the cookies in her hands, then scooted back once she had a good grip on them. “It means he’s grumpy and always wants you to follow the rules exactly,” he explained. “And doesn’t let you have fun, ever. He’s not that bad, but he doesn’t like me much. I think it’s the hat.” He tipped his hat up a bit. “Or that I keep calling him Big Boss.”

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

“Probably.” He snorted again, louder, as he tossed the food in the fridge. There were a few cans inside, and what remained of the last ‘care package’ from Markus, but not much else. “We’ve got the best immune systems in the history of mankind, but they’ve never actually encountered foreign microbes, so turns out we’re allergic to everything. Except Black Ep, obviously.”

Dropping into his scavenged desk chair, Hal spun slowly, still studying her. “So I’m guessing you didn’t come out all this way just to bring me food.”

Even as a deviant, some aspects of her old programming remained. And right now her programming was telling her to go grocery shopping. She forced that impulse down.

“That was most of it. And to see how you were doing. I know it’s isolated out here, and with the others...everywhere else, I thought...”

Either he had been isolated or he was isolating himself. It could be hard to tell sometimes.

[justholybranches]

storiestotell‌:

“Oh, you’d be surprised.” A slight pause. Harbor smiled. “Or maybe you wouldn’t be. Some people tend to think that the mere existence of certain sorts of creatures is a reason enough to go after them. I’m sure your goblin friend gets plenty of that.”

“Do you think everyone has something to prove, though?” he asked. This question was genuine, the flippant tone to his voice gone for the first time. “Perhaps some people just go about it differently.”

“I don’t have dick to prove to anyone,” she said bluntly. “People like me or they don’t, but that’s their problem.” Her mom always said she wasn’t going to get anywhere with that attitude. Kiki liked to think she’d done just fine with it so far.

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

“Nothing yet. Just a link in a chain, hopefully.” Reeve spared another quick glance at his mark to make sure she was still there, but most of his attention now was on this guy. “I don’t remember you being part of my hiring process, though, so that’s all you’re gonna get. If you’re looking for a new dealer, buddy, you picked the wrong day.”

“...I’m a cop,” he said, deadpan but a bit angry underneath that. “Vice, specifically, so if I don’t recognize the man, he’s not in drugs or prostitution. So...who is he? Should I be worried?”

Maybe he shouldn’t have dropped the I’m a cop bomb so soon. Oh, well. If it got a result...

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

“I am afraid I am not a very good judge of food, but I could take you to the shops that my friends like and you can decide then,” she offered, a further whirr of concern entering her thoughts. That was an awful lot of excitement about food. “There are some nearby. Do you prefer spicy or not spicy?”

That always seemed like an important distinction among her friends.

More options. He was starting to feel overwhelmed with options.

“Whatever’s...closest, I guess? I’m going to be honest with you, all I’ve had is protein blocks my whole life. That I can remember. I swear I had steak before the train, but that was a long time ago.”

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

Alright, enough of this shit. Rolling his eyes, Reeve heaved himself up from the seat and moved to sit beside the staring jackass. To an outside observer, his posture was casual, but the look he slid to the other man was anything but.

“Are we going to have a problem here?” he asked quietly.

“That depends. What did he do?” Connor gave the interloper a quick once-over. He knew most of the private investigators in the city. This guy wasn’t one of them. Out of town, maybe? Or someone new? “It’s not drugs. I’d recognize him if it were.”

He made a point of memorizing the faces of as many people in that “industry” as he could. Especially the red ice makers and dealers.

[justholybranches]

storiestotell‌:

“Oh, I believe that,” he said, pulling out his most charming smile. Harbor didn’t really believe it, at least not in the way it sounded. Most people didn’t meet his standards of civilized or smart. Goblin or human or elf, they were all the same to him. 

“If I’m honest, I never did understand the obsession with races and monsters, people going around killing because they don’t like orcs or goblins or…. dragons.”

“I mean, if they’re not bothering anyone, yeah. Who goes after a dragon that’s not bothering anyone? That’s just putting yourself at stupid unnecessary risk.” Then again, a lot of people were that dumb. “People who feel like they have something to prove are the worst, and it’s always those people that do that kind of thing.”

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

Hal snorted. “Yeah, no shit.” He did, however, take the container and open the door further to let her in, not taking his eyes off of her for a moment. Markus probably wouldn’t have told one of the anti-human androids where he lived, the pro-human androids being so keen on his continued survival and all, but Hal found paranoia to be both healthy and comfortable. So far, he had a pretty good streak of surviving assassination attempts, and he planned to keep it that way.

“Power’s fine. I had a few blackouts getting it started up again, but I kinda like going low-tech every now and then. No offense. Are you any good at farming, or not that kind of model?”

“I wasn’t originally, and...I don’t know, farming was never for me. You’d want to talk to Rupert about farming.”

Some of her own instincts kicked in as she stepped inside. The place could definitely use some extra attention--that was what happened when you left a teenage human alone, she supposed. There wasn’t much in there on top of that, though she was sure there had to be places for him to get...something. A plastic plant. A few pictures, maybe.

“He keeps pigeons, though. Do you know if you’re allergic to feathers?”

[justholybranches]

musesthroughtheages‌:

Jack gave another quick smile. “No, I’m not fond of therapists, either. They always try to get me to admit I’m lying.” She still looked thoughtful, however, still turning over the idea in her head, like the puzzle it was. “Joy is hardly easy to narrow down. You specify legitimate–I take it there’s no leads on illegitimate trials, either? A black market drug, maybe? The name would be fitting.”

“I don’t think so. I mean...” He laughed a bit sheepishly. “There’s plenty of drugs calling themselves joy but they’re all weed and uppers. Nothing that would need a trial. And it’s a bit hard to find the illegitimate trials.”

Hence the reason he was on a train, off to talk to a former investigator who knew a thing or two about this kind of thing.

“I feel like if I could just...remember where it happened, I’d be able to work things out. But I can’t.”