#justdebargingin

[scientificxmethod]

@just-debarging-in continued from X

“What I’m talking about is you being a blood thirsty monster and her not doing her job as a Slayer.” Abby growled. She stood far away from Erin, not wanting to get any closer. “She should have staked you when she had the chance.”

Erin sighed, still not looking over at the Watcher stranding a good few feet away. As if Erin wouldn’t be able to snap her neck anyway if she really wanted to. But Abby was important to Holtzmann, and Holtzmann was important to Erin, so as a result, the Watcher was off-limits to her.

Unfortunately.

“Monster? Now that’s just rude, Abigail.” Erin tutted, finishing her paragraph before closing the book. “You’re really hurting my feelings there.”

[scientificxmethod]

"I don't trust you. Stay away from Holtzmann!" (Just-debarging-in)

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Erin countered, refusing to look up from the book she was reading. “Besides, Holtzmann is an adult. She can make her own decisions.”

[scientificxmethod]

Look around | Erin & Abby

[[Y A T E S B E R T @just-debarging-in ]]

Erin couldn’t quite describe how it had felt seeing Abby again after nearly a decade of radio silence. It was like a breeze of fresh air and a punch in the gut all at once, a beautiful tragedy. The physicist hadn’t blamed her former best friend one second for not listening to her, even if Abby’s behaviour could have been considered childish at best. Erin deserved it. She had fucked up, she had left the person she’d loved most, all in a hopeless quest to get her parent’s approval.

(Add that to the long list of things in Erin’s live that hadn’t worked out for her)

Still, they’d struggled through that. Somewhat, at least. She’d joined Abby at the Aldridge mansion, they had re-booted the Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination group (now nicknamed the Ghotbusters, much to Erin’s dismay), and had slowly begun salvaging and restoring their friendship. 

Still, it wasn’t until Abby had gotten sucked into that portal - that, and Holtzmann’s dance moves and obvious gayness - that had made Erin realize just how much she had fucked up by leaving when she had.

Until the Ghostbusters, Erin had never valued love all that much. At least, not in the romantic sense. She dated because it was expected, because it was convenient, because it generally kept her parents form complaining about her choices even more. But quite unsurprisingly, all those relationships had fizzled out, Erin always choosing to spend more times on her studies, or with Abby.

(In hindsight, that last bit should have been a clue)

And now here she was. A few weeks after the Ghostbusters had saved New York, working on a new book with someone she...

No. She had to focus. Focus. While Erin saving Abby form the portal had done a lot to heal old wounds, there was no reason to believe Abby liked her... Like that. For all she knew, Abby wasn’t even attracted to women. Hell, Erin herself hadn’t known this until she’d found herself wondering about kissing Holtzmann.

And speaking of the blonde engineer, even if Abby was attracted to women, wouldn’t Holtzmann be the better choice for her? No. Best to just keep her thoughts to herself. And Focus. She was close to missing her self-imposed deadlines as it was.

[scientificxmethod]

@just-debarging-in continued from X

“Erin, come on. I know something is up.” Abby looked accusatorily at her friend. “You have been checking your phone constantly and I saw you sneaking around when you didn’t think I was watching. What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing is going on!” Erin squeaked out, wondering how on earth Abby had caught on to her stealthy behaviour. “I’m just... buying... Drapes. Yes, drapes. And that requires a lot of attention.”

In truth, she was planning a present for her girlfriend, but Abby didn’t need to know that.

[scientificxmethod]

@just-debarging-in continued from X

It been a long day for Abby. She’d had two lectures and then spent most of the afternoon in the lab with Holtzmann. The project they’d been working on had hit a snag and they’d been stuck for weeks now. They had been attempting to create a better form of ghost detection, a way to read the energy signatures they emitted, but going from the limited research Abby had done over the years hadn’t been enough. The machine just hadn’t been working the way they wanted and it had been frustrating Abby to no end. She wished deep down in her heart that she could see a ghost. It would be so much easier to study them if she has a live sample. Abby had been studying for years and if she was honest with herself, the lack of actual full form ghost interaction was disheartening. She wasn’t giving up of course, but with all the snags in their work and lack of evidence, Abby was starting to get a little discouraged. She sat, with her feet up, drinking a well deserved beer. When the doorbell rang, she lifted her head from the back of the couch and sighed. The only person who usually came over was Holtzmann. The engineer must have forgotten something, or hopefully had stayed later at the lab and had something to show Abby. She got up slowly and pulled the door open. “Hey Holtz, why don’t you ever text fir-oh!” She was surprised to see the red head who lived down the hall from her. Abby hadn’t ever really talked to the woman but she did try and wave at her when they passed. Erin, that’s what her name was, Abby always thought she looked a little run down or sad, she hadn’t gotten up the courage to ask her about it, nor did Abby think it was her place to ask a stranger why they looked sad every day. But now here she was standing in her doorway, looking positively awful. “Hi there Erin. Are you ok? You don’t look too good.”

It was pathetic, really, the fact that Erin had no one to turn to other than one of her neighbours. But she knew herself well enough to know that maybe, it was best if she wasn’t alone tonight. Drunk or not (drunk, definitely drunk), there was still a small shred of self-preservation left that caused her to walk out the door and look for someone rather than lock herself in her room and break the promise she’d made to herself 2 years ago.

“Hi.” She waved somewhat awkwardly, feeling more and more terrible about herself by the second. What was she even doing? She didn’t really know this woman. She undoubtedly had better things to do than listen to Erin cry about her day. But she’d already disturbed her anyway. At this point, she had no dignity left to lose anymore. She was already looking like a total mess, about half a second away from another crying fit, and really, she just needed to not be left to her own devices right now. So she shook her head. “Really bad day. Worst day, actually.”

[scientificxmethod]

you live in my building and we wave to each other in the halls sometimes but one night at 2 am you knocked on my door and you were drunk and crying and you collapsed in my arms ??? i dont know what to do oh ymgod?? AU

Did you ever have one of those days? One of those terrible, horrible, no good very bad days where nothing seemed to go your way, no matter how hard you tried?

Well, today had been one of those days for Erin. It hadn’t quite accumulated into her getting fired, but it had postponed her tenure review until ‘a more suitable time’, and what with catching her boyfriend cheating on her and then proceeding to drown her sorrows in a little too much boxed wine... Yeah, Erin Gilbert was a right mess.

Under normal circumstances, if one found themselves in such a situation, they would call upon one of their friends to help. After all, that’s what friends were for. But ever since the Ghost Girl debacle in primary school, Erin had found it difficult to make friends, this lack of social interaction following her well into adulthood. As a result, she had a handful of acquaintances, but no one she could really call a friend. Still, her alcohol-muddled mind seemed to think it was a good idea to knock on her neighbour’s door, hoping for some form of comfort from the woman who always had been kind of nice to her (as neighbours were. God, she made terrible decisions when she was drunk)

[scientificxmethod]

@just-debarging-in continued from X

“Are you ok?” Abby gave Erin a worried look as she choked on her coffee. She noticed the bright red flush spread across her friend’s face. “It really wasn’t that great of a pickup line, you shouldn’t be embarrassed. You should hear some of the other ones Holtz has, she tests them out on me all the time. Terrible.”

“Fine.” Erin choked out, her face still beet red at the comment. “Just peachy, thanks. You’re right. It wasn’t that good.” Not entirely a lie. It wasn’t a good pick-up line at all, not even in the slightest. But it did serve as a very nice reminder of last night - as if the marks the blonde left hadn’t been enough to make Erin remember. “Did she, umm... Did she say anything else?”

[scientificxmethod]

"Is there something you're not telling me? You've been acting suspicious all day." (Just-debarging-in)

“Me, suspicious?” Erin laughed nervously, tugging at the sleeves or her blouse. Her voice was much more high-pitched than usual when she spoke. “I don’t know what you mean!”