[Be warned this is turning into its own thing, im still gonna post my progress and little writings here tho :3333]
WARNING: Blood, Gore, Death, mentions of vomiting
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Trixie wasn’t in the room when it happened, having gone to get some food.
The ground rumbled, almost like an earthquake, but it was gone in an instant afterwards. Fork poking her tongue, she grumbled and took it out, walking swiftly back to the room Tester had set up as a lab.
Opening the door, she spoke. “What—”
Words became nothing as she stared in shock at the scene before her, her throat tingling with the want to puke or cry or make any sort of noise, but she couldn’t, not when THIS was in front of her.
The destroyed remains of Taqqiq were lying in a bloodied heap of flesh and hair and fabric by the table, guts spilled and dripping blood as the substance was splattered across the walls and floor. Broken glass was nearby, and she sickeningly realized an experiment must’ve gone horribly wrong.
Trixie’s wings buzzed in fright and emotion, taking a step back as her breathing sped up. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.
What should she do?! How do you react to this?! What about her sisters, she needed help finding them and now her help was a puddle of gross on the floor!
Pulling her hair slightly, Trixie tried to think on what to do. Maybe she should get the army? But then that would cause a panic and might make some people get ideas and—
SLORP…
…What.
Turning back to the scene, the seidric’s eyes widened further as the flesh began to move.
Intestines slithered back into a collective jumble, bones reformed with loud cracks as the flesh knitted back together. It swirled almost hypnotically, though the snaps of reanimation distracted from the twisted beauty of colors and blood. So gruesome, but she just couldn’t look away, watching as the mess turned back into a person.
Taqqiq blinked when the sounds stopped, dusting off her shoulder of glass fragments as if it was just dust and not… that.
Looking up, the faefolk adventurer spotted Trixie and waved. “Hi.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It’s done! Carson/Lupe offseason. I got a weird idea and couldn’t rest til it was written.
Please enjoy almost 12k of mostly talking, and some fucking.
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“What the hell are you doing here?”
“What the hell are you doing here? Wearing pearls?” She feels a bit adrift now that Lupe is in front of her. Not quite home but not quite lost either.
Lupe wrinkles her nose and looks back up the road. “It’s required for all female staff. The dress too.”
“So you work here?”
“Yeah, since January. Pitching coach. Technically teaching, but only ‘cause it’s required. You hungry?”
“Holy shit. Yeah, I could eat.” Carson laughs, suddenly, feeling carbonated and sugary. “Holy shit, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.”
Lupe grins at her, finally, the one that starts on one side of her mouth and spreads reluctantly over. “Have a little faith, farm girl. What do you think of Italian beef?”
Okay I don’t normally wanna be that basic bitch but pls “I’m drunk and I know you start baking at four am so let me into your coffee shop” wangxian and thank you
The tall guy reminds Wei Ying of nothing so much as a low-battery Roomba, banging against the drive up window.
From inside the kitchen he'd thought it was a large bird. Birds have hit the windows before—the bakery has big roll-up garage doors in addition to a drive thru, so there are lots of windows for confused pigeons or grackles to run into. It's always sad; he has to beat them to death with the doorstop to put them out of their misery.
This sounded bigger than a pigeon. His brain immediately said "pelican," though how a pelican would find its way into downtown, he wouldn't dare to guess.
It's not a pelican, though, it's a very tall, very drunk, very beautiful guy. When Wei Ying comes into his line of sight, he stops walking into the window and just stares at him.
Wei Ying unlocks and slides the window open. "Um," he says, thoughtfully.
"You make lemon bars," Tall Guy says, staring at Wei Ying very seriously indeed.
"Yes."
"The bakery opens at seven a.m."
"Yeah. It's four."
Tall Guy is rocking slightly from side to side. "The lemon bars are baked fresh and are available at seven a.m., meaning that they are baked earlier than seven a.m. I guessed four."
"Um."
"The bars are closed. You're here, baking lemon bars."
Wei Ying reaches out and grabs two handfuls of the guy's sweater to stop him swaying. "You're making me seasick."
"We are far from the ocean."
"Yeah, no pelicans. It's too early for lemon bars. I haven't made them yet."
"Can I watch." It doesn't really sound like a question. Wei Ying suspects that nothing this guy says would sound like a question.
"You want to watch me make lemon bars at four in the morning?"
"Yes."
"You're drunk."
"Yes. I come here twice a week to have lemon bars and to watch you. It would be more efficient to watch you make lemon bars."
"Efficient?"
"Mn."
"Why do you watch me?"
The guy gives him a withering look. "Why do you think."
A car rolls by, headlights briefly blinding. Wei Ying lets the guy go, suddenly shy. "I dunno, I'm funny looking?"
The guy glares harder. "You're not funny looking. You look like a flute solo."
"A what?"
"A flute solo. You know."
"I very much don't. Do you play the flute?"
The guy's shoulders sag. "No. No, I don't."
"Hey, don't be sad. I don't either."
"If I did I'd play it for you. Right now."
Wei Ying laughs. "I guess you should come in then. Which is probably a bad idea, but you seem pretty out of it and if you start acting shady I think I could take you."
"I bet you could." The guy goes back to walking running into the window, backing up, and running into it again. "I can't get in," he says, pouting.
"Oh my god, okay. Power off, stay right there, I'll come around and get you."
Wei Ying heads over to unlock the door.
"Oh, he left," comes from behind him, forlorn.
"I'm coming!" he yells back. His reflection judges him from many well-polished surfaces behind the bar, but he ignores it.
"How do you know if you're doing the right thing?"
Poe puts down his fork and finishes chewing. Finn does this, sometimes, philosophical questions out of nowhere and they deserve a serious response.
"Like, in general?"
Finn thinks for a moment. "No, like in specific. You've been to a lot of planets, right? A lot of different systems?"
"Sure have."
"And I've been learning, you know, I've been reading about history and about religion and stuff. All that stuff we didn't have when I was growing up. They're all so different, aren't they? So how do you know what's the right thing to do? When you're on a planet you've never been to, how do you know you're not doing something bad."
Poe taps his chin. "Recon, mostly. You check it out, talk to people who've been there, see what the customs are. But you mess up sometimes. One time I tried to shake hands with— well, that's a longer story."
"And that was a bad thing? You did something wrong?"
"I wouldn't say bad. It's more like etiquette. I think being, you know, kind is pretty universal. If you try to be kind, you'll probably be okay."
Finn frowns. "But how do you know?"
"You don't. But if you're trying to be kind, worst comes to worst you'll just come off strange. Nothing wrong with being a little strange, right? Gives everyone something to talk about. Mostly kind and a little strange."
"Mostly kind and a little strange," Finn murmurs. "Sounds like Rey."