Time for the ace/aro love that we have been waiting for!!!!
One might think that with Schott’s perpetual exhaustion, he’d go to sleep early. But one, in that case, would be wrong. Schott was a night owl of the highest order, and it wasn’t uncommon to see him sipping a hot drink and working on reports at one in the morning. Usually, he stayed in the common room in case anyone needed him, but he very rarely saw any signs of life after the soft curfew of eleven. So it did catch him by surprise when Siham stepped out of their room and headed into the common area.
“Hey Siham, you okay?” Schott asked. They were wearing their hijab, and they didn’t sleep in it--they must have been up for a long time or resigned themselves to not sleeping.
Siham gave a tired smile. “Yeah, I guess.” They didn’t quite make eye contact.
“Do you...wanna talk about it?” Schott was tentative; he knew this was not his strong suit, but he was sure gonna try.
After a minute of pause, Siham took a seat near him. “Do you have a partner?” they asked.
“No.”
“Do you want to?”
Schott shook his head. “Not really. I’m happy without. Why do you ask?”
For a moment, Siham didn’t answer. Then, they sighed. “I don’t know. I just...I think I’m asexual and aromantic. I don’t get everyone wanting romance or kissing or sex or...I’ve just never felt that way, and everyone says I will. Everyone says I’m just a “late bloomer” and that I’m gonna understand eventually. And I know I’m only fourteen and that I’ve got a lot of time but...everyone else seems to understand. When people ask me if I’m gay or straight or bi, I just...don’t have an answer. It’s the same way with my gender. Male or female? I don’t have an answer. And I just...I’m tired of feeling caught in the middle sometimes. I’m used to my gender and my pronouns but everyone’s telling me I’ll “pick one eventually”, and that I’m not going to think I’m ace/aro later, but what if I still do when I’m twenty or thirty or eighty? What am I then?”
Schott didn’t know what to say.
For too long, he was silent. After a long sip of coffee, he finally said, “You’re a person, Siham. That’s what you are if you still think you’re ace/aro and nonbinary when you’re eighty. You’re brave and you’re who you are. And that’s alright.” Siham’s numb expression turned into a small smile as they looked up at Agent Schott.
“You really think so?”
“I do,” Schott said with a nod. “What society considers normal is seriously overrated.” Siham giggled and finally smiled in earnest.
“Thanks, Agent Schott. That makes me feel a little better.”
“I’m glad I could help,” Schott said with a smile. “Jefferson’s usually better at this stuff, so I’m glad I didn’t mess up too bad.”
“You made me feel better! Maybe I’ll talk to Skyler about this stuff too. I dunno if they’re ace/aro but maybe they’ll be able to help me feel better about being nonbinary.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Schott encouraged. “It’ll help to meet people who have been where you have.” Siham nodded and got to their feet.
“I should probably get some sleep. I should be awake for tomorrow.”
Schott gave them a lopsided grin. “I can’t exactly tell you to go to bed without being a hypocrite.” He took another sip of coffee. “But have a good night. If you need to talk, I’m here. I can’t promise I won’t be awkward, but I’m here.”
“You’re the team dad, of course you’re gonna be awkward,” Siham laughed. “Night, Agent Schott.”
“Night, Siham,” Schott replied with a smile, deciding the dad joke he was about to make could be saved for later.
Day 025 -
“ See, here’s the thing: Guardian, he protects the Earth. but Agent Schott? He protects the stars. See you on the streets, baby. “
- Winn Schott
Another crappy sketch... the last days it seems I’m constantly too busy and too tired to get good drawings done ;(
but today was my last 3 hours evening lecture, and although there still are a lot of exams in the next three weeks, I’ll try to stay confident. I really promised myself to not give up on this daily sketch thing this time!
Mod Ten here, Mod Concerned and I are going to be out of Internet and cell service for a few days, but I wanted to toss this up on the blog! Still feel free to send us questions/comments/anything else and we’ll do what we can to answer!
TAGLIST: @imaghostwriter @aconstantcrisis
Agent Jefferson stood in front of the group of heroes with a tablet in hand, swiping through the debriefing that the higher-ups had provided. “Alright. This is going to be your first mission all together. Not all of you are going to be in the main field for safety reasons, but those of you who are not in direct combat will be providing support from other areas. The villain you’ll be detaining goes by the name ‘The Professor of Ice.’”
“He’s got some pretty cool powers,” Agent Schott chimed in. The phrase evoked a small groan throughout the room, except for Riley.
“What a frigid reception,” they chuckled. Agent Schott beamed, and Agent Jefferson pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand.
“Are you finished?” she asked.
“I have more, but I’ll put ‘em on ice,” Agent Schott replied with a lopsided grin.
“OK,” Agent Jefferson sighed, “But yes, as the name implies, he has powers over ice. He may also have another power, but it isn’t offensively useful.”
“His sidekick,” Agent Schott added, “is Darkstorm, and she’s got at least shadow manipulation powers. We have a feeling she also has a sort of mind control and is likely the more dangerous of the two. But it’s gonna be alright, you kids are more than ready for this. Basically, we’re going to have two teams. Kira and Riley, Hakim, Kai, and I are going to get you into a secondary facility. We need information on how this power occurred and on what plans might be in action. The rest of you are going to be fighting the main villains. They’re planning to do something at a farm a good ways outside of town, so the potential for collateral damage is low. Bayleigh, you’re going to go with them to the main fight with the villain, but your job is primarily escape. If you get a distress signal from any of us in the secondary facility, drop everything and come get us.”
“Understood,” Bayleigh said with a nod.
“I understand why Kai is with Kira and me, but why is Hakim?” Riley asked.
“Out of all of the rest of you, his powers are best in close quarters. Bayleigh’s the exception to that, but she’s in the other group so that she can be more mobile if needed. Dakota, Haeun, Siham, Ace, and Skyler all have powers that either require room or variety,” Agent Jefferson responded. “Same with mine, for the most part.” Riley nodded their understanding.
“Everyone feel like they understand everything?” Schott asked. At a nod from everyone, he continued. “Alright, let’s suit up.”
------------
The sound of keystrokes was all that broke the silence within the smaller facility as Riley and Kira worked with the computers. It hadn’t been difficult to get in; since the main villains were out, it was just a few grunts guarding the area. All were unconscious but one, who Kira had thoroughly restrained next to her. She fearfully provided passwords, so Riley and Kira didn’t have to do almost any actual hacking. It just took about half of Kira’s vines and a little bit of intimidation from Kai.
“Alright, there’s a bunch of plans here, and a lot of science shit that I don’t fully understand,” Riley murmured.
“Lots of c-c-climate research,” Kira added softly.
“Pull what you can,” Schott instructed. “We’ll evaluate it later at HQ, once you’re safe.”
“Already on it. Right now we’re mostly scrubbing any traces of what we did.” Riley continued to type as Kira shut her eyes and concentrated, doing her best to help. “OK, after I run this command they shouldn’t even know we were in the server. Should do just enough to erase the edit times and data like that. They won’t know exactly what we got.”
“Wh-what about her?” Kira lifted her vines a little to point at the woman she had tied up.
“She won’t know exactly what you got to,” Hakim added from across the room. “Besides, if everything goes to plan, the others should have taken out the villains anyway.”
“This is mostly informational and cautionary,” Schott affirmed. “Keep going, you two are doing great!” The two continued to hack, but after a moment, Kira jumped back.
“Th-th-there was input f-f-from somewhere,” she whispered. Riley leapt to action, typing away.
“One of the outer doors opened,” they announced a moment later.
“No one should have been able to get here this fast,” Hakim protested as he looked over Riley’s shoulder.
“So things aren’t going to plan. What a surprise,” Kai muttered as he prepared a gust of wind and positioned himself between Kira and the door.
“It’s going to be alright, keep calm. We can handle whoever it is,” Schott reassured.
“Oh, can you?” a sultry voice asked. All the room’s shadows seemed to move for a moment, none of them in a natural way. A figure seemed to be stepping between them, moving just too fast for anything to hit. “You underestimate me,” it purred. A tall, stick-thin figure appeared behind Agent Schott, one shadow claw gently tracing his jawline. It drew a small trickle of blood, but Agent Schott fell to the floor as if he’d been struck.
“What did you do to him?!” Hakim demanded of the figure, but the they only chuckled. Schott groaned, one hand grabbing at his head, and the figure’s long, shadowy claws grew longer, until they seemed to almost envelop Schott in a cocoon. Hakim’s telekinesis and Kira’s vines couldn’t touch it--they just went through. In an instant, the claws retracted, and Schott was yanked to his feet like a marionette on a string. When the heroes looked him in the eye, they couldn’t recognize a trace of the man that once was. The figure disappeared, and reappeared in the shadow of a doorway. Once it stepped forth from the shadows, it became clear that it was a woman, tall and thin, though not as much so as the shadow had been.
“Oh, remaining in the shadows does tire me so,” she chuckled. “So I must retreat and take care of your other friends. Take care of them, darling,” she called over her shoulder to Agent Schott before darting away. Agent Schott rolled his shoulders...and a moment later, lunged at Riley.
