Jan 13, 2025
“Don’t move!” Warriors chided, tugging the braid back together. “I’m not done yet!”
Wild laughed. “Fine, fine. Just hurry up. It’s taking forever.”
“Beauty takes time,” Warriors told him. “Can’t rush it.”
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“Don’t move!” Warriors chided, tugging the braid back together. “I’m not done yet!”
Wild laughed. “Fine, fine. Just hurry up. It’s taking forever.”
“Beauty takes time,” Warriors told him. “Can’t rush it.”
Warriors could feel the eye-roll that Wild gave him, but he chose to ignore it. As Warriors collected all Wild’s hair into the braid (over, under, over, under…) he found himself leaning into the rock, his stiff shoulders finally not aching for the first time that day. The repetitive motions (over, under, over, under…) worked miracles for the dull headache behind his eyes.
“Is this…how it’s supposed to look?” Zelda wondered, staring at the tiny mirror. She ran her hand down her head, feeling several abnormally large bumps.
“I don’t really know,” Link replied. He fidgeted with the hem of his tunic. “I’ve never braided hair before.”
“Well, it doesn’t look…like I assumed it would,” Zelda replied dully. Several pieces of hair fell into her face, and the actual braid itself was lumpy and lopsided. “Not very realistic, either.” She hesitated a moment. “Impa’s going to make fun of me for it. Her style is always immaculate.”
As if on cue, Impa burst into the tent, eyes locked onto the princess with determination before she realized what exactly was wrong. She grinned, sly and too mischievous to be good.
“Who made that mess in your hair?” Impa gawked in disbelief.
“I did,” Zelda lied. “How does it look?”
Impa squinted. “Mmm. You best take it out before someone else comes in. If you wanted to learn how, you could’ve just asked me. Come on. We have things to do.”
“...Understood.”
_____
This is for @hyruledwarriorr! 1/1 chapters, one-shot, 3,058 words of fluff and Zelink cuteness and Wild & Warriors bonding <3
ao3 link:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Hey =)
Say, I search some fanfics in Linked Universe
1) Fics that i read but i lost them, where it revealed that Legend is a prince, Fable's sister with the terrible twist that knights used to kill the princes (i don't remember the reason ^^") and so Legend, saved by his uncle, didn't feel 100% safe with Warriors at first. I think that Warriors learns it at a point. + reactions of the chain, learning it.
2) And also A fic who explores Legend's trauma with knights? He was just a kid and strong adult knights tried to kill him for weeks. How wouldn't he have a trauma about it? So Legend doesn't relax with Warriors for some time. (yeah it looks like number 1, i know). Wild was a knight too but he doesn't remember so Legend feels safe with him.
3)A fic where nobody in Legend's hyrule believe him. Even years later, people think he's a liar about his adventures. + Chain's reaction to this. I remember having read it but i don't remember the title.
4) I would also like any good fics where Time realize that he is the Fallen Hero of Legend and Hyrule Timeline, and so that he has failed and left them a messed up timeline.
Thank you by advance =)
Linked Universe but every part of an arc, post from Jojo, or fanfic is labeled like a Friends episode. Observe:
The One where Sky Tries to Outrun the Postman
The One with the Bunny Incident
The One with the Yiga
The One where the Traveler Wears a Wedding Dress
The One where Wind is Turned Into a Cat
The One with the Yiga pt. 2
The One with Magical $tripping (they get stuck on Eventide Island)
The One with Malon
The One with the Unmasked Korok
The One with the Iron Knuckle
The One with Ravio
The One with the Yiga pt. ??
The One with Wars’ Sketchbook
The One where Four Almost 4 v. 1’s Wild
The One where the Captain Hides From Women
The One where the Old Man and Sky Talk Romance
The One with the Cursed Wizzrobe
The One with the Other Cursed Wizzrobe
The One where Wind Accidentally Makes Time Have an Existential Crisis
The One where the Rancher Solos Dink
The One with the Block Puzzle
The One with Badassery
The One with the Skull Kids
The One with Wild’s Therapy Session
The One with More Badassery
The One with the Masks
The One with Ron Swanson
The One with Time as a Massage Therapist
The One with Inception (willow bark and chamomile- IT’S SO GOOD)
The One with the Shield-Eating Blob
The One with the Bet
The One with the Gaslighting Champion
I could go on 😂
Feel free to comment/reblog with more ideas
Edit: added (adding) more & I finally added hyperlinks (don't ask me how long it took 😭)
Magnetic Attraction Masterpost
Welcome to the Magnetic Attraction Masterpost, where you can find everything you need in regards to this series and all the fics within it.
Summary: Despite Rev and Tech's close relationship and knowledge of each other's recent shift in feelings, multiple obstacles stand in the way of a quick and easy romance. The path ahead might be long and difficult, but they're willing to take the journey together no matter the bumps in the road.
Warnings: Fantastic Racism, Internalized Homophobia, Canon-Typical Violence, Suggestive Content, Mild Language.
Word Count: 59,369 (As of Part 4)
This is the link to the Magnetic Attraction series on Ao3
Otherwise, links to all available parts on Tumblr can be found below:
~
Part 1: Boiling Point
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: The Loonatics get called in to prevent a planet’s energy crisis, and as Heroes of the Universe, they are more than up to the challenge. However, upon arrival, the team notices a certain biotech problem they couldn’t account for. With tensions growing and relationships being brought into question, what was supposed to be a simple repair job may turn out to be less simple than they first thought.
Word Count: 20,907
~
Part 2: Bright Horizons
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: After a long and eventful day, Rev and Tech take some time to enjoy a nice meal and discuss a few things.
Word Count: 3017
~
Part 3: Oversight
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Summary: Rev receives some friendly advice from Tech after a mistake of his is brought to attention. Desperate to prove that he took Tech’s words to heart, he seeks the aid of his other friends to improve himself before the evening is over.
Word Count: 27,277
~
Part 4: Static
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: Tech finally seems to be on the right path to discovering his hidden powers and Rev decides to start setting up that party he promised for when he succeeds. Unbeknownst to each other, their progress is hindered by troubling memories and uncomfortable conversations.
Word Count: 8,168
~
I will continue to update this post as new fics in the series come out, however, those edits may not show in reblogs. Click here to view the most recent version of this masterpost.
Top 20 feeling: when you discover a good fic on ao3, check the out the writer’s dashboard only to find an entire series dedicated to the EXACT style of fanfics you’ve been looking for, with the exact relationships and exact tags you wanted to read after a long day.
(this is 4 u @iolitemoth <3 I loved the bunny series, highly recommend to anyone who likes ravioli)
Why does Wild not cut his hair? Why is Wild still able to go to sleep after 100 years of rest? Is Wild a new person, or he bits and pieces from his life before?
And if Wild wasn’t told to be a hero by everyone, would he have chosen a different path?
____ _____ ____
1,603 words, 1/1 chapters. Twilight & Wild, angst feels and brotherly love ❤️
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Static
This is Part 4 of the Magnetic Attraction series.
Rating: General Audiences
Content Warnings: Fantastic Racism, Internalized Homophobia.
Summary: Tech finally seems to be on the right path to discovering his hidden powers and Rev decides to start setting up that party he promised for when he succeeds. Unbeknownst to each other, their progress is hindered by troubling memories and uncomfortable conversations.
Word Count: 8168
Here's the link to this work on Ao3, otherwise:
~
The sound of Ace’s footsteps contrasted sharply with the otherwise complete silence as he stepped into the lounge. Were it not for the bright red crest sticking up from the center cushion of the lounge sofa, Ace might have assumed nobody was there. But, somebody was there, and he happened to be the person he was looking for.
“Morning Rev,” he said, walking around the center couch and peering down at him.
“Hey,” Rev replied absently.
He was just… sitting there… staring at a plain ceramic mug on the coffee table. The TV wasn’t on, and he wasn’t talking or reading or… doing anything. Anything other than… staring.
“Are you… doing some weird sciency thing I’ve never heard of?”
Rev made a noncommittal noise.
“Uh… okay. Well,” Ace huffed and crossed his arms, “Tech wanted me to let you know that you shouldn’t bring anything electronic or filled with flammable gas out back today. He’s testing his new powers or something.”
“Tech?” Finally, Rev blinked, looking up at him. “Oh, he is?”
“Yeah.” Ace rolled his eyes. “Hey, any idea why Mr. Million Powers couldn’t use the power of talking to you himself instead of sending me to do his errands?” After a brief pause, he pursed his lips. “You guys didn’t get in a fight or something, did ya?”
“No. Um.” Rev stood up, looking around. “Look, I promised to throw him a party if he figured out how to create an EMP himself, so, I’ve gotta get started on that.”
“Ugh. Like that guy needs more of an ego boost.”
But Rev didn’t hear any of that, because he was already gone.
Sighing, Ace turned and walked away.
“Something’s funky with him. What does Rev even need coffee for anyway? Unlike Duck, Rev’s always seemed like more of an early bird.” His chuckle echoed awkwardly across the lounge. “Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing important. Everyone has their off days.”
-
“That should do it.”
Tech released his magnetic grasp from a rod that was now firmly planted into the ground. It was sticking straight up and topped with a smooth metallic ball.
Cool morning dew dampened the fur below his ankles, and soft grass cushioned the ground below his paws. When Tech first began to set up his equipment, the fields were thick with mist, and though a deep breath confirmed the damp air, the mist was no longer present.
“Alright. I’m thoroughly grounded and the air is conductive enough to pull away any stray charge. If there’s any time to train my ability to create and control electricity, especially something as strong as an EMP, this is it.”
He stared down the metallic rod as he stepped a few meters away, making sure to side-step the folding table he set up nearby.
“Creating an arc from this distance would definitively prove my understanding and mastery over electromagnetism. I just have to do it.”
Closing his eyes, he took another deep breath.
“Rev knows I can do it.”
The field blinked into view again, but Tech lost focus of the rod and looked at the folding table, specifically a plain ceramic mug sitting on top of it.
Huffing, he yanked his focus back to the target.
“I know I can do it. I just have to try.”
He raised his hands. They came to life with green energy.
“Here I go,” he said assuredly.
But his eyes flicked again to the coffee mug.
-
“Alright. Party supplies. Party supplies.”
Rev turned a corner.
“I’ll need tables. Supply closet. There should be some there.”
He turned another corner. Down the hall, gymnastic supplies as well as a bunch of other things were flooding out of the open closet door.
Rev sighed, running over and beginning to pick things up and properly put them away. Ironically, he was often in charge of cleaning up anyway.
Now that everything wasn’t teetering like how Slam and Lexi left it and Duck later released it, Rev dug a little deeper to find some fold-out tables.
“Alright. Tables. Where to put them? Sparring room. Nobody should mind.”
He briefly set down the tables to stack them in a big pile, then picked them up from the bottom to move them.
Given the weight and precariousness of the tables, he decided to take the short trip to the sparring room slowly. Though, as he stepped forward, his eyes landed on a few colorful sticky notes littering the ground.
Not paying attention, the tables started to slide.
“Wh-!”
And apparently, he really wasn’t paying attention, because Slam was there to easily catch the tables with one arm.
“Oh. Thanks for the save, Slam.”
When the tables evened out in Rev’s grasp, Slam looked the stack up and down, then tilted his head.
“Want some help?” he offered.
“No thanks,” Rev replied, a little coldly. “I can handle this alone.”
Before he could see Slam’s pout, Rev was already making his way to the sparring hall, being sure to not lose his balance this time.
Finally, after what felt like forever, he came to a stop at the sparring hall door.
“Ugh. Great.”
Rev set the stack of tables down and then opened the door, pulling it as wide as it could go before kicking down the door holder.
Now. The smart thing to do, Rev thought, would be to bring in a few tables at a time so they could fit through the door more easily. It would take more time, but would also be safer.
He grabbed the entire stack again and started to grapple the tables through the doorway.
Surprising no one, including himself, the tables slipped out of his grasp and crashed down around him.
Looking up from the wreck with a pained hiss, Rev saw Slam standing just outside the doorway, looking concerned.
“I’m fine,” Rev huffed, awkwardly pulling himself out of the pile of tables. “Just go do whatever you were going to do before you saw me. I don’t need any help.”
Slam rubbed his arm, muttering a barely audible “okay” before sulking over to the weight room.
Sighing, Rev wiped a hand across his face. “Great. Are there any more friends I can make feel bad today? Maybe I can pull off a new record…”
With nobody there to comment, Rev simply got back to the annoying process of moving tables.
-
“Here I go.”
Tech could feel the energy as he pointed his hands at the metallic rod, but it didn’t feel that much different from his usual magnetic manipulation.
“Here. I go.”
He knew how to do it. He knew he did. He did it last night while barely thinking about it.
Barely thinking.
He glanced at the ceramic mug again.
Yanking his head back toward his target, he groaned.
“Here. I. Go.”
The method was simple. The power was within reach. Rev believed in him, so-
He shook his head. Focus. He needed to focus.
-
The tables were now set up but there was nothing on them so now it was time to fix that.
Rev shot out of the sparring hall… and stopped immediately.
There were still sticky notes on the floor from yesterday evening.
Sighing, he decided he had to clean those up before any kind of party could be held. The last thing he or Tech needed was a bunch of mistakes littering the ground.
One by one Rev went to every sticky note he saw and snatched them off the ground. By the time he was done, he had made his way through the hall and into the lounge and was holding onto a stack of notes that was a centimeter thick.
Against his better judgment, he inspected the pile of notes, learning nothing new and leaving him with shame clawing his throat.
He was supposed to relax. That’s the thing Tech wanted most from him. To relax. Even a week ago, Tech told him he’d make mistakes and that it shouldn’t upset him so much. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he covered his room and himself with historical trivia and ignored the myriad of tips he read to just listen to what actual coyotes had to say. Why would he need to listen, right? If he just knew every possible way he could screw up, then he wouldn’t, right? Except, it didn’t work like that. And somewhere in his head, he knew it didn’t work like that. But doing obsessive research was easier than acknowledging that he was going to make mistakes eventually.
And in the end, he chose the easier option. To run. And he hurt his friend anyway.
Rev growled and tried to tear up the notes, but the stack was too thick. Frustrated, he ran toward the nearest recycling bin to hurl them inside… and stopped when he reached the back exit.
Through the glass window of the door, he could see Tech out in the field, dressed in shorts and a tank top, standing next to a table with some supplies on it. His hands were stretched out toward a pole in the ground, making motions that implied something was happening when nothing apparent was.
Maybe he was doing warm-ups. There was probably no reason to be worried about him.
After lingering at the door for what was probably too long, Rev decided he’d run to the recycling bin in the kitchen rather than use the one just outside. Plus, he’d changed into his hero suit complete with all the attached electronics this morning, so it wasn’t safe to go out back anyway.
He reached the kitchen in an instant, tossing the notes less aggressively than he had planned a minute ago. Seeing Tech just sapped the anger out of him. For a moment, he lingered on why, but simply decided he needed to put his focus back on setting up the party. With a sigh, he turned around.
And yelped.
“Good morning Rev,” Lexi said, smirking. “Sleep well?”
“Uh…” That… was an interesting question; Interesting in that she should already know the answer, given she also knows how he usually sleeps as well as… some recent circumstances… Still, he had to reply with something. Hopefully something that results in less teasing.
“Yeah,” he said simply, trying to ignore how that answer made him feel.
“That’s great,” she replied, seemingly dropping the subject to Rev’s relief. “But, before you run off, follow me. We need to talk about something.”
And the relief was gone. Rev could only think of two things they could possibly need to talk about, and he didn’t like either one. But what was he going to do? Refuse?
Run?
He sighed.
“Alright. Where’re we going?”
-
Tech groaned.
Something wasn’t working. He was trying his best and nothing was happening.
Sighing, he took a few steps toward the fold-out table. Maybe he needed to stop and think this through.
Despite his mind drifting to how he should ignore the mug he had set down earlier, he managed to notice a strange feeling as he placed a hand on the hard plastic surface of the table he was about to lean on. A familiar tugging of his fur and soft crinkling below his fingers.
“Huh.”
He wiped his hand across the table’s surface, continuing to feel and hear that soft crinkle.
Well, it turned out something was happening. There was nothing in the environment that would have caused that sort of static buildup, so it must have been him. Though unintentional, that was progress, right?
Still, it wasn’t great that he was altering the charge of objects in his vicinity unintentionally. At least he warned everyone to keep their electronics and combustible fuels away from him, because the exact scenario that warranted caution appeared to be happening.
It wasn’t enough that he could manipulate the charge of the objects around him; He had to be able to control the charges as well. He had to be aware of where the charge imbalances were occurring… otherwise he wouldn’t be able to manipulate a discharge from that imbalance.
This was getting dangerous… but also more promising. Maybe. Hopefully it meant that he’d have some progress worthy of telling Rev about later.
Rev…
Before his eyes could wander, he caught himself and sighed.
Focus. The later it gets, the less conductive the air will become, the more likely he is to cause an unintentional discharge.
Back to work.
-
As it turned out, Lexi was taking Rev to the quiet room; One of the safe havens in headquarters where you could escape all the noise, or make some noise without bothering anyone else. More specifically, it was one of the select rooms in the base completely soundproofed to protect Lexi’s sanity, and everyone’s privacy. Since she was going into the room with him, that obviously wasn’t its purpose at the moment.
When not being used to escape the laughter of sitcom marathons or the beeping of arcade machines, it made an excellent space to just sit down and think without distractions. Inside were a couple of sofas, bookshelves, a writing desk, and Ace’s meditation pad. Rev found the room absolutely unbearable, and figured it was only going to feel even worse considering he was about to have some sort of tough conversation there.
Lexi opened the door and he could immediately see Ace leaning against the arm of the sofa directly ahead, looking somewhat displeased to be there. Ah. So this was about his comments yesterday. It was still not something he wanted to talk about, but at least the conversation probably wouldn’t involve Tech in any way.
Though, as he and Lexi stepped inside, Rev noticed Duck sitting on top of one of the bookshelves, looking down at them from his higher vantage point.
Rev tilted his head.
“Uh, what’s Duck doing here?”
Atop his perch, Duck huffed.
“You make it sound like you don’t want me around.”
He kind of didn’t, but he also didn’t want an argument at the moment.
“It’s not that, I just thought only Lexi and Ace were going to talk to me.”
“Well, when I heard about how they were gonna teach you how gender stuff works, I just knew I had to stick around for that trainwreck!”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence…”
“You’re welcome!”
Lexi whispered, “sorry, we couldn’t get him to leave,” and patted him on the shoulder, before gesturing to take a seat on the same sofa as Ace.
As he took those few agonizing steps to sit down, the thought flashed in his mind that he should have done some research at some point so he didn’t have to do this. Just as fast he mentally slapped himself on the back of the head with a metaphorical rolled-up newspaper. He was inevitably going to have blind spots in his research, and he had more knowledgeable friends who wanted to help him.
This was going to suck… but he just had to deal with it. There was no reason to feel so averse to having his biases called out. And maybe… getting through this conversation would make it easier to have any similar ones with Tech in the future.
Sitting down, anxiety curled in his gut as usual, but he wasn’t going to let it get past his resolve to be better. To stop running.
-
Tech was beginning to feel like an idiot, which was not a feeling that he often had.
“Alright, new plan,” he said, walking over to the conductive rod. “Despite having proven that I have some capability to manipulate electricity as demonstrated last night-”
He paused, swallowing thickly before continuing his train of thought.
“Despite having concrete proof of my abilities, I may find more success in mimicking the distance at which I first performed the feat and increasing said distance until I can replicate the effect at the desired magnitude.”
It was a good thing that nobody was around to hear him ramble, as he really wouldn’t appreciate someone like Ace chiming in to say, “English please,” while he was already struggling. Obviously Rev would understand what he was saying perfectly, but he-
“I didn’t- I’m not going to screw this up,” Tech huffed, reaching toward the conductive surface. “I just need to- OUCH!”
His finger barely grazed metal before he received a hearty shock, making him hiss and flail the pain away.
“Focus…” he muttered, finishing his interrupted sentence once again. “If I had my wits about me, I would’ve noticed the charge that had accumulated across my fur…”
He raised his hand again, knowing this time he didn’t have a charge to worry about this time.
“Start small, work my way up. Surely I’ll get somewhere if I just come at it from a different angle.”
His hands lit up with energy.
“‘A different angle…’ Why does that sound familiar…”
The energy around his hands wavered. Tech growled.
“It’s fine! I can do this! I just need to focus!”
A small spark crossed the gap, stinging a finger. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. He needed to control the energy so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
“Focus!”
-
Rev’s skull was aching with what felt like a combination of the brain jumble he gets after a research binge and the sharp sting of being shown that he’s wrong about something. This, he thought, made sense, since he was both learning a lot and being shown that a lot of things he thought were wrong.
“Okay so,” he said, vision almost swimming as he tried to wrap his head around everything, “biological sex is separate from gender, which is also separate from gender presentation, which is also also separate from preferred pronouns, and people can have seemingly random combinations of the aforementioned things, and all of them are separate from sexual orientation?”
“Yeah,” Lexi said. “See, you’re getting it!”
“But like, why would a guy choose to dress like a woman but keep a guy’s pronouns while being into women? That sounds really confusing…”
Duck scoffed. “Because you can appreciate the beauty of feminine attire while also finding women hot, duh.”
“Duck…” Lexi sighed. “If you’re going to be here could you please be a little more understanding? Rev’s new to all this.”
“Are you telling me he’s never seen a dude in a pretty dress before?”
Ace chimed in, “he’s only gone to private schools with uniforms for most of his life.”
Duck rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Rich people…”
Rev crossed his arms. “That’s a funny insult coming from the guy who’s had enough ‘get rich quick’ schemes to compete with an MLM convention.”
“There’s a convention for men loving men?”
“What the heck are you talking about?!”
“Guys!” Lexi called out. “Could we please stay on topic?”
After a brief pause, Rev uttered a soft apology while Duck gave a silent shrug.
-
The noon sun shone fiercely as Tech was met with failure after failure.
His eyes drifted to the mirages over the asphalt track, then shot back to his target.
His eyes drifted to the back entrance to HQ, then shot back to his target.
His eyes drifted to the plastic table he had brought out. To the coffee mug sitting on top of it.
…
“Focus!”
His eyes shot back to his target.
He could feel the sweat building under his fur. And the silence. The horrible, horrible, silence.
Out in the field, it was just him and his reflection on the metallic sphere atop the conductive pole. No voice to keep him company. To remind him he should probably eat something. To offer suggestions that might not be what he needs, but would help him figure out what he does.
“Focus!”
Each breath stung his nose and mouth with hot, dry air. The grass poked and prodded his paws as he shifted in place. Every strand of fur on his body stuck straight out and repelled each other.
Tech didn’t notice any of this.
His thoughts swarmed. He wasn’t thinking. He was the smart one. The careful one. Yet, he didn’t think. He should have thought harder.
“It’s fine! We’re fine! We’ll- We can-”
With a stomp of his foot, he looked again at his target.
“FOCUS!”
And now, he was alone. It was going so well, and then he screwed up, and now he’s alone.
Tech screamed, throwing a punch at his own reflection.
The regret was instant and painful.
With a thundering shock, he was blown back several meters, landing in a smoldering pile beside his supply table.
Once his regeneration kicked in, he sat up.
The grass was singed, but thankfully, not on fire. Still, that was a massive failure of reasoning on his part. All the signs pointing to that outcome were there, but he didn’t pay attention to any of them. Instead, he let his mind keep wandering to…
To…
Eyes squeezing closed, Tech yanked his ears and let out a wail that echoed across the empty field.
-
Rev wiped a hand across his face, feeling like he’s been in the quiet room for years… when in reality it probably hadn’t been even a few hours.
“Okay, so I still don’t get how a guy who dresses as a woman wouldn’t just be trans. I know that ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and ‘presentation’ and whatever aren’t the same, but if someone can just choose to be another gender, why wouldn’t they just choose to be the gender that they dress up as?”
“People don’t really ‘choose’ to be a specific gender,” Lexi explained. “They just sort of feel like a certain gender, and then choose to express their gender in different ways.”
“You can also feel like a bunch of different genders, or none at all!” Ace piped up excitedly. “Sometimes it’s a ‘woman’ day so you dress feminine. Sometimes it’s a ‘man’ day so you dress masculine. Sometimes it's an ‘agender’ day so you wear whatever. Or sometimes it’s even a ‘man’ day but you just wanna dress femininely.” Then, he pouted and looked off at the opposite wall. “Or… you just dress in the same super suit as everyone else all the time because it’s got a bunch of dohickeys in it that help you do hero stuff…”
Rev tilted his head. “But if you sometimes don’t feel like a guy, wouldn’t that mean you’re trans?”
“Me? Kinda. There’s not really any one gender I feel attached to for long, so I’d sort of consider myself nonbinary, even if I don’t care if most people see me as a guy most of the time.”
“But wouldn’t you want to be seen as whatever gender you’re feeling?”
“I mean, we’d probably need a calendar in the lounge to let everyone know what I’m feeling each day, which is just a lot of work for something that doesn’t matter much to me, personally.”
Rev let out an anxious sigh, burying his head in his hands. “This is really confusing…”
“Well…” Lexi said, “it can be kind of confusing, but even if you’re confused, you can still respect people’s identities regardless. It’s pretty rude to decide how people should express themselves just because of how you think they should be.”
“I, for example,” Duck firmly spoke up, “would prefer to be seen as a man no matter what I’m wearing. So don’t go thinking I’m a lady just because I sometimes prefer to be gorgeous.”
“Ugh. You may prefer to be gorgeous, but your outfits say otherwise.”
“Hey!”
“Come on, Lex,” Ace said. “Duck’s got plenty of style!”
“Of course you’d say that,” she retorted with a roll of her eyes. “Only the queen of gaudy outfits would think the stuff Duck wears is stylish.”
Rev frowned. “Wait…” All eyes went to him, making his throat feel tighter. But… he had to ask… “Lexi, didn’t you just say it’s wrong to decide how people express themselves?”
Her eyes went wide. “Wh-! That’s not the same thing!” she yelped. “It’s not like I’m saying they can’t dress in feminine clothes, they just have terrible taste! The outfit you picked out yesterday was perfectly fine!”
“But why does it matter if their outfits look nice to you? It’s how they choose to express themselves. I don’t get how it’s okay to tell Ace and Duck they’re not dressing the right way, but it’s not okay to do the same to someone you don’t understand. Why would it even matter?”
“I…” Her gaze drifted, seeing Duck crossed-armed and refusing to look at her, and Ace rubbing his arm and looking hurt. “I’m… sorry…” She sighed, looking away. “It really shouldn’t matter to me how you guys choose to look. Even if I don’t like it, I shouldn’t judge…”
“Oh.” Ace smiled lightly, brushing his ears back. “Well, thanks for… actually apologizing. I… honestly thought you were gonna be grilling me for my wardrobe for the rest of my life.”
Duck glanced at her briefly, before looking away again. “Well, it’s not like I ever cared about what you thought… but it would be nice to have you stop being so judgy all the time.”
“I won’t say anything about it again,” Lexi said. “I promise.”
The room went quiet. On the one hand, Ace and Duck seemed to be radiating relief. On the other, Lexi seemed a bit ashamed.
Though, if he were the one who just got called out like that, Rev thinks he’d be on the verge of tears. Maybe he was being a little harsh on her? He really was just trying to understand everything better.
Before he could ponder it further, Ace clapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, I believe the student has become the master. Well done; lesson time is over.”
“I don’t feel like a master…” Rev muttered.
“We brought you here to teach you, and you ended up teaching Lexi. I think that qualifies.”
“I really don’t think it does.”
“Sure it does,” Ace said standing up. “Especially since I’m sick of sitting here, and I have a feeling you are too.”
“I guess you’ve got me there.” Rev pushed himself off the sofa.
Ace turned his attention to the top of the bookshelf. “Hey Duck, how do you feel about a fashion show without worrying someone’s gonna come in sneering from the sidelines?”
“Sounds great!” Duck warped down to the floor beside Ace. “See ya later!”
And with that, Duck and Ace warped away.
As silence filled the room once again, Rev looked down at Lexi, who still had a look of shame across her face.
“Um, sorry about calling you out in front of everybody. I didn’t think about the kind of position it’d put you in.”
“No, it’s fine,” she said, getting up from her seat. “This whole meeting was about educating biases and stuff, and I… needed to be given the perspective…” Looking at him, she gave him a playful nudge. “Besides, I did a fraction of the learning you just did. You managed to stick around despite how awkward it all was, so I can get over being called out for being judgy.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Of course. You did the right thing, Rev. Real friends call out their friends when they’re doing something wrong, and real friends listen to what they have to say.”
“I… guess so.” She… was doing pretty well about the whole thing. Is this how normal people react to making mistakes? If so, he was definitely making things a lot more awkward for Tech then, huh?
Lexi walked past him, opening the door. “I’m gonna go play something to take my mind off of the embarrassment. You joining?”
Rev followed her out the door, but stopped just outside. “Actually, I was in the middle of something when you found me. So I think I’m gonna get back to that.”
She shrugged. “Well, you know where to find me. And, even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t take you long to find me anyway.”
Rev snickered. “That’s true.”
“Later, Rev.”
“Bye, Lexi.”
As Lexi turned the corner into the living room, Rev looked the other way toward the patio door, remembering that Tech was out there earlier. In an instant, he was at the door.
Rev almost thought Tech had gone inside, but, just beside the table out in the field, Tech was laying in the fetal position on the ground, back turned toward the building.
“Tech…”
Earlier, Rev ignored his concerns to assume Tech was just ‘warming up.’ But… after what happened this morning… it was understandable why he was having problems.
The party would have to wait. First, he had to apologize, but how? He… really screwed up. The last thing he wanted to do was get stuck on what to say. Not again…
Heavy footsteps caught Rev’s attention, pulling his gaze toward Slam, who was trudging his way through the lounge after a presumably long workout.
Speaking of apologies… he kinda owed one to Slam as well.
Before he could second guess himself, Rev dashed over.
“Uh, hey Slam!” he greeted.
Slam tilted his head. “Hey?”
“Uh…” Rev scratched his neck. “Sorry for… being kinda cold earlier. I was going through my own thing and didn’t really think about how rude it was to push you away like that. I probably could’ve declined a little more nicely.”
Smiling bashfully, Slam waved away Rev’s concerns. “It’s okay.”
“You sure?”
Nodding, Slam started walking down the hall, giving a farewell wave a little distance away.
“Yeah uh, later Slam!”
That… wasn’t too bad. But now, he had to go apologize to Tech.
Letting out a sigh, Rev ran his fingers through his crest and looked around. That’s when his gaze landed on the ceramic mug on the coffee table.
Slowly, he walked toward it, coming to a stop right where he had been sitting that morning.
And where he had been sleeping a little earlier.
Rev sat down again, eyes transfixed on the simple object.
Closing his eyes, he sighed.
“I’m sorry, Tech. I let my fear get the best of me again… and you suffered for it… again…”
His eyes opened… then drifted a bit further.
The back of the remote… it was still sitting on the table. It wasn’t clicked back into its proper place.
Sure enough, with a quick flick of his head Rev saw the remote sitting on the arm of the same sofa, right where Tech had been sitting last night.
And the TV… it was off. It was off when he woke up. So, unless he managed to sleep through multiple hours of TV noise without waking… Tech managed to turn the TV off… without disturbing him in his sleep.
But… Tech was still struggling to control his new power…
Rev definitely faulted himself for that… but he was going to make it right.
And he had an idea how.
First came off his bracers and cowl, which both were set on the coffee table. Then, off came his boots, which he slid underneath.
Tech was going to succeed one way or the other, and the electronics on those parts of Rev’s suit could get damaged in the process.
Lastly, he took the mug gently into his hands, and began the long walk to his struggling friend.
~
Earlier that morning…
Before he opened his eyes, Rev took a slow, deep breath, and the scent of comfort washed through him. For some reason, Rev felt absolutely refreshed for the first time in years. Ironically, it made him love being in bed more. He nuzzled his beak into the warmth of his pillow, which…
…was furrier than he remembered.
Now that he thought about it, his mattress was also firmer. His blanket too.
Eyes shooting open, his heart pounded as he tried to get a grip of his situation.
He choked on a gasp, seeing Tech peacefully sleeping below him.
This was… bad? Good? A lot. Rev decided on a lot. That was the only thing he could be sure of as his heart was pounding and his thoughts were racing and…
And he couldn’t pull himself away because Tech had his arms wrapped firmly around him.
Multiple things shot through his mind. Trapped! Snug. Danger! Safe. Wrong! Home. Floating around was the realization that he was only so refreshed because Tech prevented him from rolling onto the floor, but he couldn’t process that alongside all the other things he couldn’t process.
Then, Tech’s eyes blinked open.
Somewhere, Rev knew he should calm down. Wherever that was, it wasn’t here.
“Mmf… Rev?” Tech blinked again, and then his eyes widened. “Oh! I didn’t-!” Instantly he released him.
Before thinking, Rev threw himself back. Almost instantly, something strong urged him to throw himself right back. He didn’t.
“Hey! I- I’m really sorry!”
Inside Rev’s head was a barrage of conflicting screams and commands. Outside, he was frozen, staring and panting as his heart continued to pound.
Inside Tech, multiple things were shattering. But it didn’t matter right now. Rev had fear in his eyes and he had to do something.
“I didn’t mean for us to fall asleep like that, I promise! You were asleep and I didn’t want to move and- Oh god that doesn’t help…”
Tech looked away, only for his eyes to land on two somethings on the coffee table.
Two coffee mugs.
Lexi had seen them and set aside some coffee.
Panic shot through him as he looked back to Rev, whose gaze was returning from the same direction. He had seen the same thing and likely came to the same conclusion.
“Rev, she’s not gonna say anything,” he pleaded, trying desperately to level out his voice. “She already keeps so many secrets, this is just another one.”
But Rev was still breathing hard, eyes unfocused and anxious.
To make it worse, the sound of Ace and Duck’s voices began filtering in from down the hall.
Rev shot up from the couch.
Against his better judgment, Tech stood up as well.
“There’s nothing for them to be suspicious of, Rev. You don’t need to freak out.”
Rev’s head swished away to Tech to away to Tech again.
“Please. I promise I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
More panting. More looking away.
The voices down the hall continued getting louder.
“Just calm down. We can talk about this.”
The voices got louder.
And Rev ran.
“Rev-!”
But he was gone…
And the rest of the team didn’t even notice Tech was there as they walked past. They just made their way into the kitchen without even a glance in his direction.
Sighing, Tech looked down at the coffee mugs.
It was clear which was his, as Lexi knew he preferred quite a bit more sugar and cream than he was willing to admit to anyone else.
And it looked like Rev took his coffee black.
Tech wanted to think about how interesting that was, but as he picked up his coffee, he decided that thinking about Rev was just going to hurt his soul too much at the moment.
The edge of the mug touched his lips for a brief moment, before he pulled it away.
All things considered, Tech felt pretty refreshed. And… it was because having Rev sleeping against him made him reconsider getting up, which would have possibly led to him working later than he should.
Well, he’d keep the coffee anyway. Maybe he’ll want some later. Besides, he had work to do. For the past week, he had been trying to produce an EMP, and he had just figured out one key component in achieving just that. Rev was going to be ecstatic when he-
Tech sighed, walking toward his room.
He didn’t need to think about Rev right now. He’ll get dressed in proper attire, warn the rest of the team not to bring sensitive materials out back, and ask one of them to inform Rev on his behalf. After that, he needed to keep Rev out of his head. He had work to do.
He had to focus.
…
Before Tech opened his bedroom door… his eyes drifted to the mug in his hands.
~
The current afternoon…
If he thought the dry grass was uncomfortable against his paws, it was definitely uncomfortable against his head and ears. But, that didn’t matter. The only thing he had energy for was laying next to the foldout table and failing to stop thinking about that morning. It was especially hard not to think about, because the lack of energy was coming from his will to keep working, and not from a lack of physical energy. As was true that morning, he was actually well rested, and that only made his thoughts more clear and painful.
Interrupting Tech’s thoughts, footsteps slowly crunched in the grass toward him. They were too light to be Slam’s, and Duck wouldn’t have bothered with walking outside in this heat. That just left Lexi or Ace, neither of whom he was in the mood to talk to.
“If you’re here to question if I’m fine, I am. I just decided to lie down to get some more blood flowing to the brain. It’s a thing only geniuses like myself understand. So, you can leave me alone now.”
The footsteps stopped briefly, then continued closer.
Tech sighed.
But then, they stopped, and…
“Tech.”
It was like he was slapped into reality as Tech shot up onto his feet.
“Rev-! Uh, I thought someone else was… uh… there.”
Finally, he looked him over, seeing a somber expression on his face and his hand cupping the top and bottom of a coffee mug.
Presumably, the coffee mug Lexi had given him that morning.
Clearing his throat, Tech looked away. “Sorry… about this morning. And last night too. Just… all of it. I… should have considered my actions more thoroughly.”
It went quiet. Tech felt the urge to look back at Rev, but worried he might not be there.
Then, the words coming out much slower than usual…
“Can I… tell you a secret? Something… I’ve only told Lexi?”
Unease crawled up Tech’s spine as his words reached him. He looked at him for an explanation, but Rev’s gaze was settled on the mug in his hands.
“Of course. Say whatever you want.”
Rev took a deep breath in, closed his eyes, and slowly let it out.
“Ever since I got my powers… I started tossing and turning in bed worse than I ever had before. Instead of just waking up from a rough night of sleep… I’d roll out of bed in my sleep and wake up after hitting the floor. It happens… at least a few times every night.”
Eyes slowly opening, a sad smile crept across Rev’s beak.
“The rest of the team thinks I’m an early bird, but really… you can only handle being abruptly smacked awake so many times before you get sick of crawling back into bed. And, despite my powers giving me way too much energy… I’m pretty much a zombie every morning until I’ve had a cup of coffee…”
With that, Rev brought his mug over to the table, setting it down with a deep thunk.
Tech blinked, tilting his head and seeing that it was just as full as it was when they woke up.
His eyes flicked back to Rev, and his sad smile was replaced with a more hopeful one. And sure enough, his tone was more lively as well.
“But this morning… I didn’t wake up on the floor. I was… comfortable. Refreshed. For a moment, I just wanted to stay right where I was and savor it.” Slowly a frown overtook his face as he looked away. “Of course… I eventually realized what had happened, and I felt… scared. But… I also felt safe, at the same time. I felt… a lot of things, honestly. Good and bad. But I couldn’t really make sense of any of them at the time. And when you woke up… and let go of me… and I backed away… I was feeling… even more.”
Rev ran his fingers through his crest, sighing. “And then we saw the coffee Lexi left us, and I was embarrassed, and then the rest of the team was walking closer, and…” With a groan, he wiped his face. “And I ran away…”
Tech rubbed his arm awkwardly, standing around for agonizing seconds not knowing where he and Rev stood at the moment. All he knew, was that Rev was still scared that morning. “I understand,” he said. “Really, I’m… very sorry for putting you in that position.”
Rev returned his gaze to Tech.
“I came back to the lounge… after you left…”
The coffee mugs stood at the corner of Tech’s vision.
“I assume not for a drink,” he said cautiously.
“No,” Rev said. “I… needed to think about what happened. Everything that happened.”
Tech listened, throat tight and jaw clenched almost painfully.
“When I first woke up… I felt better than I had waking up in years. It was only when I started overthinking that all the bad stuff crept in. Then I just spiraled and spiraled until I…” Rev paused, then took another deep breath. “Tech, I’m sorry for running away again. Not just literally but, also avoiding having a conversation about what was going on. I left you alone and… clearly feeling terrible about everything…”
Well, he couldn’t deny that…
“What happened was too much…” Rev continued, “and I wasn’t ready to wake up like that… but I don’t want you to feel too bad about it. It means a lot that you want to apologize, but honestly, your mistake feels like nothing in comparison to my problem with ditching you when I get scared.”
Tech crossed his arms, pursing his lips. “Even so, I still think it deserves an apology. Despite knowing I needed to be careful with our relationship, I didn’t take the steps necessary to prevent myself from hurting you.”
“I… guess that’s true…” Rev admitted. “You can know you’re forgiven, then. And… I also want you to know I really want to be better. I promise that I’m trying. It’s still really hard to talk about my feelings… and about why I’m bad with making mistakes… But even if it’s hard… I’m working at it.” He sighed, looking away. “I’m not ready to fall asleep with you again… or finish our talk from yesterday, but I really want to.” A shy chuckle escaped his beak. “Especially the first one.” His earnest gaze fell back on Tech. “So, if you’re still willing to deal with… me… I promise that I will do everything I can to not run away again.”
Tech let out the faintest laugh of relief. “Don’t worry. It’ll take a lot more than that to stop me from wanting you around.” His face softened. “And, I promise to be a little more careful from now on and… and not push you to talk like I did yesterday.”
Rev chuckled lightly. “You can push a little. Sometimes it’s nice to have a nudge to do something more difficult.”
“Well, I guess I’ll push a little then.”
They both smiled, the tension from that morning melting away.
Then, Rev cleared his throat. “So… I couldn’t help but notice the TV was off when I woke up. If I’m not being presumptuous… that means you finally figured out how to create electricity?”
“I did, though… As you could probably guess, I’ve been having trouble replicating the circumstances to do it again. I… was missing something important during all my attempts today.”
“Missing something? I could go grab it for you.”
Tech chuckled, a faint blush dusting his cheeks. “It’s not something that you can pick up and bring here.”
“Well, what is it?”
This was too cheesy, but…
“A reason to succeed.”
Rev tilted his head, giving a confused smile. “What?”
“Stand back a bit. I’ll show you.”
“Uh, okay!” Rev ran back a good 20 meters. “Is this far enough?!” He called out.
“Perfect!” Tech called back, a nervous smile creeping across his face as he turned his attention to the same metallic rod that had been giving him trouble all morning.
Rev knew he could do this. He believed in him. And Tech knew he could too.
Tech looked behind him, seeing a pair of nearly full coffee mugs, and a bit further, the cheerful expression of the most important person in his life.
His gaze returned to his target, and so did his mind. It was so similar to his magnetic manipulation. He had the ability to control it.
His hands lit up with green energy.
And then.
BOOM!
A thrill ran up Tech’s spine as the air flashed with energy. Even better, he didn’t incinerate himself or any of the surrounding grass.
“That was awesome!” came Rev’s voice rushing closer.
Tech barely turned his head to see him before he was wrapped in a hug.
There was barely a second for his heart to do somersaults in his chest before Rev let go.
“Ah um-! Haha, sorry.”
There was nothing that could help the grin on Tech’s face. Without his cowl, the blush on Rev’s beak showed up so nicely and made him look even more adorable.
“Don’t be. Wherever you’re willing to go, I’m ready to meet you there.”
Rev chuckled shyly.
“So… what was that reason you mentioned earlier?”
Rolling his eyes playfully, Tech pointed right at Rev’s beak and gave it a small nudge for good measure. “You.”
“Me?”
“Of course. Nothing gets me more fired up to try something difficult than knowing it’ll make the person I care about most happy. Why else would my powers have only worked while you were promising to spend time with me?”
Rev’s expression was unreadable for a long moment, and Tech was starting to wonder if he went too far already.
But then Rev’s arms were around him, and everything was perfect in the universe.
“Well then,” Rev said softly, nudging his beak into Tech’s fur, “you shouldn’t have any problems to worry about from now on, because you make me happy all the time.”
Okay, and now his face was definitely red. “I’ll… keep that in mind…” he managed to wheeze out.
At this point, Tech expected Rev to let go. What he was not expecting, was for him to hold on tighter.
And now, it felt kind of awkward that his arms were just hanging like limp noodles at his sides. Carefully, and slowly, Tech inched them around Rev’s back.
“Are you, okay? With this?”
“Yeah.” Rev let out a quiet laugh. “Honestly, a part of me’s been screaming to do this since I ran off this morning. Maybe it was a bit much to wake up on top of you… but this is… nice.”
“Well… Good. That’s good. I… feel the same.” With just a little more confidence, he held Rev just a bit closer.
And then… Rev let out a long sigh, melting fully into his embrace.
Tech felt lighter than air, practically floating in bliss. He was helpless to stop himself from melting as well.
How long they stayed locked in their embrace, Tech didn’t know. But it couldn’t last forever. Eventually, something was going to interrupt them.
But he was not expecting it to be an absolutely ravenous stomach growl.
An embarrassed laugh from Rev further interrupted the moment. “Uh, sorry,” he said, pulling away slightly. Just enough to look him in the eye. “I just realized… I sort of didn’t drink coffee or eat anything this morning.”
Tech laughed as well. “I didn’t either. I was so busy trying to focus on controlling my powers I guess I lost focus on… literally everything else.” He smiled hopefully. “You wanna grab lunch with me?”
“Uh, yeah! Of course!”
Despite the plan, Rev didn’t move.
“Rev?”
“Sorry. Just.” He gave him another hug, complete with a firm squeeze, then finally let go. “Alright. And, we should probably bring the mugs in.”
Tech was still so busy processing the flurry of warm feelings from Rev’s embrace, that he didn’t even notice Rev had grabbed the mugs and started walking until he was a few steps behind.
“Wait! Hold up.”
Rev stopped. “Oh, sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. My mind just lagged behind a bit.”
“Your mind? Lag?” Rev said, smirking as the two of them continued walking together. “What could possibly make the mind of super genius Tech E. Coyote lag behind?”
“The arms of a charming roadrunner, apparently.”
Tech continued walking, smirk on his face as Rev froze for quite a few steps.
“Charming?” Rev breathed, a flush overtaking his beak. Then. “Hey! Wait a minute! That’s not fair!”
He couldn’t help but laugh as Rev was forced to catch up as he had.
Tech knew there was going to be a bit of struggle in their relationship, but this was what he was talking about when he said it would be worth it.
~
(Coming eventually) Link to Magnetic Attraction Part 5 ->
Oversight
This is Part 3 of the Magnetic Attraction series.
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Content Warnings: Fantastic Racism, Internalized Homophobia, Suggestive Content, Mild Language, Canon-Typical Violence.
Summary: Rev receives some friendly advice from Tech after a mistake of his is brought to attention. Desperate to prove that he took Tech's words to heart, he seeks the aid of his other friends to improve himself before the evening is over.
Unfortunately, he missed the most crucial piece of advice that Tech tried to convey.
Word Count: 27,277
Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (Link to Chapter on Ao3)
~
Chapter 1
Word Count: 3598
Notes: This is part 3 of the Magnetic Attraction series. If you haven’t read the previous parts you will probably be confused. Feel free to skip the rest of these notes if you don’t care about the content warnings.
(Continued under the cut)
Content warnings are similar to the previous fics, with the same themes of racism and internalized homophobia. As for new warnings:
You might have noticed this fic is rated “T” rather than “G”. That’s mostly due to some suggestive humor, and 90% of it is contained in chapter 2. Basically, I joke about the sexualized nature of modern pop music. A character also says a mild swear and there are allusions to blood (that’s not actual blood) in chapter 4.
There is a comment in the third chapter that is mildly transphobic. Honestly, I don’t even know if “transphobic” is entirely the right word. A well meaning character (you can guess who) voices some bad assumptions. I’m trans myself and I’ve dealt with well meaning people saying worse. Compared to literally everything else in the fic it feels pretty minor.
Lastly… I don’t know if this deserves a warning, but I hope you’re prepared for various characters to make some dumb decisions.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, and feel free to give me comments and/or criticisms.
~
“Oh wow! Three apples! Can all of you count to three? Let’s do it together!”
Tap.
“Tengo que confesar. ¡Estoy enamorado de tu prima! Eres maravilloso, pero él puede correr tan rápido…”
Tap.
“Are those lions, tigers, and bears you see? Of course they are! Because this is channel 4 news, and this is our annual conservation special!”
Tap.
“That’s right folks; This entire evening is dedicated to the zoos of Blanc and all the wonderful creatures contained within.”
Tap. Tap.
“So get cozy, because you won’t want to miss all the amazing animals and the stories behind bringing them back from the brink!”
Tap. Tap. Tap. Taptaptap. “UGH! What the heck?!”
Duck mashed the channel up button a few more times before tossing the remote onto the coffee table.
Ace glanced over his book, otherwise not moving from his casual position on the opposite lounge sofa. “The batteries probably died.”
“I know that the batteries probably died. I’m not an idiot.” Duck crossed his arms. “But now what?! I don’t wanna be stuck watching some stupid news channel.”
“You wouldn’t mind if we were still in Acmetropolis.”
“Will you ever stop bringing that up!?”
Ace shrugged. “If you don’t wanna watch the news then just get up and change the channel on the TV.”
“Absolutely not! I’m not walking all the way over there!”
“It’s like ten feet. Also, you can teleport.”
“The buttons on the TV have a delay.”
“So does the remote.”
“I’m not going to get up and use the TV buttons like a loser.”
“Well, there are plenty of other TVs in HQ. Just go find one with a working remote and watch TV there.”
“But-! Uh…” Duck hummed, looking away. “The uh… lighting is better here. Yeah. I don’t want to go where there’s not… good lighting.”
“I guess the sunset does look pretty nice with all the big fancy windows. That still means you’re out of luck, though.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Ace went back to reading his book while Duck sat cross armed and frowned petulantly at the TV.
“What you see here is the Tiger Terrace Zoo, home of the best captive breeding program in all of Blanc. Thanks to the efforts of all the wonderful staff, the incredible Blanc tiger climbed from extinct in the wild, all the way up to endangered!”
“Bor-ing. Who cares about the stupid tigers? They just chase things half the day and sleep the rest! What are they even useful for? Nothing. That’s what.”
Duck looked over to Ace, who wasn’t paying attention.
“Ughhhh.”
“…”
“Ughhhhhhhhhhh!”
“…”
“UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
“…”
“Fine! I’ll just get Tech to give me some new batteries!”
Ace poked his head up. “Actually, I think I remember Lexi buying some the-”
But Duck warped away before he could finish.
“Oh, well, nevermind I guess.”
Duck appeared near instantly in front of the lab door and began pounding on it.
“Tech! You in there? Open up and give me some batteries!” He continued pounding on the door for a few moments. “Hello?!”
A few seconds later, he crossed his arms.
“I’m coming in!” he announced, deciding to warp inside. “YEEEOUCH!!!” And immediately he warped back in front of the door.
“What the-! Oh right. The security thingamajig. Ugh. How am I supposed to find Tech?”
The sound of metallic equipment clanking against itself toward the entrance got his attention.
“Bingo,” he said, teleporting over.
Suddenly he was in front of the main elevator, pointing triumphantly and shouting, “aha!” However, his celebration was a little premature.
“Uhhh, hi Duck,” Lexi greeted with mild confusion.
“Hello,” Slam greeted as well.
“Dang it!” he exclaimed. Then, his eyes trailed down to the things they were carrying. “Uh, what’s that?”
“Hurdles, balance bars… Just some gymnastic equipment to get our blood pumping!”
Slam nodded enthusiastically.
“Eugh. Isn’t it too hot outside for exercise?”
“Oh, we actually set everything up inside. The 2B storage room has loads of space. Nothing in there but an old refrigerator and a few floor fans. As a nice bonus, it’s a little harder to hear the rest of HQ while I’m in there too.”
“But isn’t the door busted?”
“Just the opening mechanism,” she explained. “Slam’s strong enough to pull it open himself, even if the steel is a little slippery for him to grab onto.”
Slam shrugged.
“Hm.” Then Duck jolted, his mind getting back on track. “Wait, have you seen Tech around?”
“Not recently. I think he hasn’t left the lab much since last week. Probably caught up in a project or something.”
“Just great. His security system stops me from quacking in and he won’t answer the door.”
“Why do you need to see him?”
“The TV remote died and I need new batteries, and with Tech being a nerd he’s bound to have some.”
Lexi perked up. “Oh, actually I-”
“Wait! I bet he’d open the door for Rev! I just gotta find him, and he’ll get Tech to lend me some batteries.”
“If you would-!”
And Duck teleported away.
Lexi and Slam looked at each other and shrugged, before continuing on.
At Rev’s bedroom door, Duck began pounding on it similarly to how he did in front of the lab.
“Rev?! You in there?!”
“Oh! Yeah. The security is off and the door is open but give me a sec to-”
Upon opening the door anyway, “AHH!” a mountain of papers fell out and completely buried Duck.
In a flash Rev was by the door. “…clean up.”
Duck popped his head out of the pile and glared at him.
Rev chuckled sheepishly. “Honestly I tried to warn you and considering how fast I talk I’m surprised you didn’t manage to hear my entire warning before opening the door.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.” Duck wrestled his arms free of what was apparently a post-it note pile and picked one up. “What were you even doing? You’ve hardly been around for the past week.”
“Oh uh, just some research.”
Duck squinted at the chicken scratch covering the note. “Public opponents of the 1989 ICZN Opinion 1567 ruling regarding Case 2607,” he squinted harder, “-the moving of Canis latrans sapiens to Latrans sapiens under family… can-did-ay,” he tilted his head concernedly, “rudely wore shirts depicting a coyote with stink lines in protest.” Duck looked up and grimaced at Rev. “…What the heck kind of research is this?”
“Um, well, you know…” Rev quickly swooped over and gathered the pile of post-its in a big bunch before shoving them in a corner of his room.
Duck got up and brushed himself off, then followed Rev inside. “I really don’t. That paper was covered in weird nerd stuff.”
Rev chuckled nervously. “You see, I recently realized that some of my views and behaviors regarding Tech were… not fair, so I made a small effort to remedy that.”
The incredulous frown on Duck’s face grew as he failed to find a single space in Rev’s room that wasn’t plastered with colorful notes. Actually, no. Duck quickly spied a framed photo on Rev’s nightstand with Tech not so subtly left visible in it. But besides that, there was a nauseating amount of colorful papers absolutely everywhere. “‘Small’?”
“I… wanted to be thorough.”
When his eyes returned to Rev, he noticed a few dozen notes covering him as well. “Have you tried not being stupid?”
Rev huffed. “This is me trying not to be stupid.”
“Well, hopefully you’ve at least figured out that Tech didn’t want to eat you, then.”
Coughing awkwardly, Rev looked away. “How… do you know about that?”
“Lexi told me you came flying past her screaming about it.”
“Oh… I… guess I should’ve asked her not to say anything…” he cleared his throat. “But uh, yes. I do know that Tech wasn’t trying to eat me.”
“Great. And since we’re already talking about Tech, can you get me into the lab so I can talk to him?”
“I can see if he’ll let us in. But what do you need to see him for?”
“I need some new batteries.”
“Oh! I have some batteries!” Rev ran to his desk and pulled open a drawer, inadvertently flinging some post-its into the air. “I’ve got Double A, Quadruple A, A Twenty-Three, C Cell, D Cell, Nine Volt-”
“REV!”
He stopped his rummaging. “Yeah?”
“Any Triple A?”
Rev glanced back into the drawer for a moment. “Oh, uh, no.”
“Then can you open the lab already?!”
“Sure. I’ll meet you there.”
In an instant, Rev was gone. Duck soon followed.
When he appeared directly in front of the door, Rev was off to the side speaking through the intercom.
“Are you sure, Tech? You kinda sound like you don’t want me or especially Duck to come in.”
“It’s… fine. Just open the door.”
Rev inputted some kind of overly elaborate code onto the keypad and the door slid open.
“WAH!” And Duck was buried in papers again. He warped upward and landed on top of the paper pile. “Geez Tech!” came Duck’s scolding as Tech walked closer. “Have you ever heard of a folder?”
“Yes. But I’ve also heard of staples.” And like that, Tech used his power to yank all of the papers out from under him, landing Duck straight onto his butt.
“OOF!” Getting back onto his feet and brushing himself off, Duck scowled. “Any reason you had a pile of paper precariously placed right at the door?”
“Genuine mistake,” Tech stated through a smirk before walking his paper tower further into the lab.
“Whatever,” Duck huffed, following him inside with Rev shortly behind. “The TV remote’s dead. I need Triple A batteries for it.”
“Alright. Hand me the ones in the remote.”
“Okay.” Duck teleported.
…
“YEEOUCH!”
And immediately he was right back where he teleported from.
“You didn’t turn off the security thingy?!”
“It takes a while to shut off, so I didn’t bother. Sorry that I forgot to mention it,” Tech said with faux innocence.
“You’re despicable.” Duck sharply turned and walked out of the lab’s door, before teleporting away properly this time.
Rev brought his attention to Tech.
“Something happen between you two?”
“Not really. I’m still mad about something he said last week… even though I probably shouldn’t be by now.”
“What’d he say?”
“Eh, it’d take too long to explain. Long story short, he gave me some dumb advice I’d never use in my right mind.”
“Well that definitely sounds like something he’d do.”
Duck appeared at the doorway again and stomped inside. “Here’s the batteries,” he said, practically shoving them into Tech’s hands. “Now, give me some new ones.”
“I don’t have any.”
“WHAT?!”
“I used the last of the ones I had a while ago. You’ll just have to wait for these ones to recharge.” With that, Tech walked over and set them into the battery charger on his desk.
“How long will that take?!”
“A few hours, at least.”
“You can’t be serious?! How am I supposed to go without the remote for that long?!”
Rev stuck up his pointer finger triumphantly. “Actually! You know what? I just remembered; While I was grabbing a quick snack the other day I think I overheard Lexi talking about-”
“Would you quit yackin? Some people have real problems to deal with.” Duck groaned, stomping back to the door. “I guess I’ll have to find some batteries myself! You literal and not-literal love birds enjoy your freaky nerd nests; I’ve got some battery hunting to do.”
“We’re not-!” And Duck was gone before Rev could finish.
Tech crossed his arms. “You know, he’s just trying to get under your skin.”
“But-! He can’t just… keep saying stuff like that!”
“Just ignore him. Don’t give him the satisfaction of thinking you’re actually listening.”
“I… Yeah. You’re right…”
Tech looked around his lab, papers in towers all around. “I guess this would qualify as a ‘nerd nest’,” he said. “Duck made it sound like you had one too?”
“Yeah. I’ve been doing some research on-” Rev’s words got caught in his throat. “Uh, stuff.”
“‘Stuff’?”
“Y-Yeah. Just… nothing weird or… I don’t know.”
“Mmm.”
Tech took a few steps closer, and Rev held his breath.
Then Tech snagged a post-it caught up Rev’s crest and brought it into his vision.
“H-Hey!”
“You said it was nothing weird, right?”
“I-I did, but-”
“Then why can’t I see what you’ve been up to?”
“I… well… I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel entirely right… but as far as I can figure out it’s okay…”
Tech raised the note into his view, reading it aloud. “In a 2165 speech, the governor of New New Jersey was quoted saying that coyotes were cunning and untrustworthy, contributing to the spread of these stereotypes.” His gaze returned to Rev, giving him an expression of mild concern. “This is what you’ve been doing for the past week?”
“Well not entirely. I mean I did spend a bit of time on it as I wanted to be thorough but I did have to eat and sleep and…” Rev cowered. “Did I screw up?”
Tech handed Rev back the note. “Doing some research is a good idea, but if your room is looking anything like it does in here, you might’ve gone overboard.”
“Um…” Rev looked around, avoiding eye contact. “Anyway, what have you been up to? You said you were working on something but you’ve been pretty quiet about it all week.”
Tech sighed, deciding to ignore Rev’s sidestep for now. “Well…” His ears drooped. “I wanted it to be a surprise, but nothing's come of it so far. When you asked to come in I figured that… I couldn’t keep you out forever…”
Rev stepped over to one of the stacks of paper and took a stapled group off the top, scanning through. “Oh!” Rev perked up with a bright smile. “You’re experimenting with your potential electromagnetic abilities!” Slowly, his smile dropped. “But… you said nothing’s come of it?”
“Yeah… I haven’t managed to generate a single watt, let alone a circuit frying EMP.” Tech turned away, sighing wearily. “It should have been so easy. Magnetism and electricity are intrinsically linked, and I used both so effortlessly just last week. Yet… stacks documentation and experiments later… and I think I’ve lost all hope of figuring it out…”
“Aw, I’m sure you can do it eventually! Maybe you just need to come at it from a different angle.”
“Different angle?”
“Sure! How’ve you been trying to create electromagnetic energy so far?”
“Well…” Tech motioned Rev to his main work table, which had a few stacks of paper and a simple energy monitor attached to some loose wires on it. “I know that, mechanically, all that I should have to do is rapidly oscillate my magnetic fields near some conductive material to generate electricity, so I hooked up some wires to an energy monitor and tried to do just that. If I managed to generate even a single watt, I’d be able to see it. So far though… no luck.”
“Hmm…” Rev leaned down and tilted his head, looking at the simplistic set up. “This kinda seems like a cold and mechanical way of figuring things out.” He straightened up and turned back to Tech. “What about the emotional part? Didn’t you say you’d figure out what you were feeling when you produced the EMPs and try to replicate the circumstances?”
“I’m… still not entirely sure what specific emotion correlated to producing the EMPs, or if that correlation even exists or matters at all.” Sighing, he wiped his face. “Nevertheless… I have tried inducing various emotions through different means, but the longer I continued, the more the utter failure of these experiments got to me and possibly influenced the results…”
“Maybe you should try something else like- Oh!” Rev rushed out of sight, then came back with a simple LED lightbulb. “It’ll take very little energy to get this to light up, and when it does, you’ll have a quick and easy indicator that you’re on the right track!”
Taking the lightbulb offered to him, Tech turned it in his hands with an unsure expression. “Even if LEDs are more efficient than other bulbs, it’ll still take more energy to produce results than creating a current through the energy monitor.”
“That’s true, but a lightbulb is easier to carry around, and getting out of the lab might help things feel a little less stagnate.” Rev stepped around and started ushering Tech to the door. “And I don’t know about you, but I would have never learned about the full potential of my powers if nothing changed. Running faster, sure; I already run everywhere. But flying? That was entirely different territory. I looked into the sky and wondered if I could, and after many failed jumps, it wasn’t until I stopped thinking about the ground that I finally took off.”
After a moment to hum in thought, Tech shrugged. “I did only discover my powers when I wasn’t thinking about them. Mostly because I had no idea I even had them. Maybe a short break will help me clear my mind a bit.”
“That’s a great idea!” They stepped out of the lab and the door automatically locked behind them. “Once you’ve cleared your head a little I just know you’ll figure everything out! Maybe I can even throw you a party once you do! Complete with nice clothes and everything. But, since it’s been like a week since you’ve left the lab, before all that you could probably use a good meal and-” Rev sniffed the air and gagged, “uh, maybe a shower.”
Nodding with a shrug, Tech continued forward a few steps before noticing that Rev had gone entirely still. He turned to him in curiosity and was met with a mortified expression.
“Uh-”
“I’m really sorry if that was mean or uncalled for! I wasn’t even really thinking about what I said and then it came out and I don’t know why it even did because I’d never mean to-”
“Rev-”
“-hurt you even a little because I’m supposed to be your best friend but I should’ve known better and-”
“Rev!” Tech shot his hand out toward Rev’s beak, but stopped himself before actually grabbing it. Thankfully, the movement was enough to get Rev’s attention, cutting his rant short.
“I’m… sorry…” Rev summarized quietly.
Tech crossed his arms. “Well, I’d like to know what for, because I’m entirely lost.”
“Wait you don’t even-” Rev paused. “Uh, maybe it’d be better if I didn’t elaborate…”
“After how much you just freaked out? No. I really think you should explain yourself.”
“Oh…” Rev rubbed his arm, his eyes locked on the floor. “Well, there were quite a few records of people assuming that coyotes smelled and I don’t want to be one of those people…”
Tech rolled his eyes, sighing with a neutral expression. “Okay… It’s great that you did some research, and also great that you’re making an effort to be more considerate,”
Rev froze with dread of what was coming next.
“but,”
And there it was. That sharp stab to the gut.
“I’d really like it if you didn’t make things awkward, alright? Like I already said; If you say something uncalled for, I’ll let you know. And when I let you know, then you can say sorry, and then we can move on. Got it?”
“Got it…”
“There’s no need to overreact if you say the wrong thing to me. I can handle it, I promise. So, unless I make a big deal of whatever you say, just treat the situation like you would any mistake you’d make. Alright?”
“Alright…”
Tech smiled warmly, stepping forward and giving Rev a few pats on the shoulder.
“You’re on the right track, so just relax and have some confidence in yourself already. Everything is going to be fine. Okay?”
“Okay…”
Finally, he pulled away. “I do need to take a shower though. Afterward, maybe a nice walk around HQ will help me figure out my powers. So, I’ll talk to you later, Rev.”
He started walking away.
“Later, Tech. I promise I’ll take your advice to heart.”
With a thumbs up, Tech stepped around the corner and out of sight.
Finally alone, Rev sighed, rubbing his arm.
“Dang it… All that research… and it still wasn’t enough to stop me from screwing up…” A warbled breath left his beak, and Rev immediately straightened up and cleared his throat.
“No. Tech wouldn’t want me to cry. I just… need to never make another mistake, and then I’ll never hurt his feelings again, and then I’ll never feel the need to cry. Everything will be fine. Just… think… Where did I go wrong…”
He started pacing back and forth, though, at a characteristically fast speed. A few post-its jostled off and fluttered to the floor.
Abruptly, his feet came to a halt.
“Confidence! Tech said I needed to have some confidence in myself! I’m not quite sure how confidence will help me avoid hurting his feelings, but Tech knows what he’s talking about so getting some confidence will definitely work. Now… how to get some confidence…”
Another brief bout of pacing later and he triumphantly raised a finger into the air.
“Lexi’s got confidence in spades! I’ll just go ask her how to get some confidence and then I’ll be the most perfect best friend that Tech could ever hope to have!”
And with that, Rev dashed across HQ to find her, more post-its fluttering to the ground in his wake.
~
Link to Oversight Chapter 2 ->