#terresarides

[quantumstarpaths]

@terres-arides

He doesn’t know why he’s alive. It’s something he’s gone over time and time again, but it still doesn’t make sense. He should be dead, and he has the scar to prove it. But the fact that he was stabbed isn’t surprising--that’s happened to him enough over the years that it’s become almost boring at this point--but that, upon being saved, he’s been allowed to remain living. He imagines it’s because of the handy placement of the scar that makes it a message to others not to try to kill the Emperor with some idiotic, half thought out scheme. 

Then he did it again, joined the storming of the brig in an attempt to kill her again. He’d made it out of that one alive, but Hugh hadn’t. He saw him die. And he saw it again and again every time he closed his eyes. For a little while, things had gone back to normal, but how he’s dead. And why is he still alive? Why is he here? Why did she not just kill him like she killed Hugh? Is a stupid flagship worth that much? He’s thought about destroying it, about letting her kill him, giving her a reason to, but his survival instinct hadn’t let him. So he contented himself with biding his time until he can make a third attempt on her life. And this time, it will end with one of them dead. 

But that is not now. Now he bides his time, works, proves that he has changed his ways and owes himself to her completely. If she asks him to jump, he asks how high. He crafts her her ship. He hopes she chokes on it. He works on the ship powered by the super-mycelial reactor. It’s beautiful. His magum opus, his pride and joy. It’s the only thing that brings him any semblance of happiness anymore. Then something goes wrong. It’s nothing big, just a small, little explosion. But it’s big enough, because when he straightens, he’s there.

But it’s not him. He’s wrong. He’s in white, for one, and he’s too...clean. The familiar black circles that ring brown eyes are nowhere to be seen, and the curls of his hair seem fresher. Healthier. He seems healthier. But it’s still him, isn’t it? “...Hugh?”

[sadnessruns]

@terres-arides​ said:  [ text ] –– he died doing what he loved: living in perpetual fear of death. (mhugh to mpaul)

TEXTING MEME

[ message: Devil Dearest ] I suppose you’re right. 

[ message: Devil Dearest ] To be fair, he had it coming. 

[ message: Devil Dearest ] So how did our newest toxin work? 

[ message: Devil Dearest ] Did it look painful?

[anarcalina]

          // @terres-arides​ sent     ❛   console .   comfort  my  muse  as  they  cry .

          It’s instinctual, the way she tries to laugh it off. Nothing important, she tells herself, nothing new, nothing surprising, nothing worth tears. She’s seen it coming for months now, only a matter of time. Not that telling herself not to cry has ever succeeded, try though Tilly might to rationalize it to herself, to logic her way out of the emotions.

          But the laughter breaks too quickly into sobs, and once broken she cannot erect the dam once more and stay them. She’s grateful that her friend doesn’t judge, doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t do anything but place her hand upon Tilly’s shoulder, fingers squeezing in reassurance. Not smothering. Not dismissive. A sob catches in her throat, then, like a hiccough, and she finds enough self-control to turn it once more into a laugh. Fingers quickly push tears from her cheeks, smearing salt and, she fears, mascara across her face.    ❛ I’m sorry, Owo. ❜    she manages.    ❛ Look at me, being silly as always ❜

          It’s nothing, she wants to say, but her lips refuse to form the words. Her father’s birthday isn’t nothing, and she feels the distance from home too strongly now.

[bucketxfsunshine]

@terres-arides​ cont. from x

“I think I finally worked it out so that my patients automatically receive confirmation messages for their appointments. Work smarter not harder, right?”

“Please tell me your secret! I have been arguing with this diggity-dang system for eons trying to get something like that to work!” 

[cadetxtilly]

@terres-arides​ for Hugh because Tilly would DIE if she tried to ask Paul Ft. mentions of @sadnessruns​

“So you... are human... of the man variety... who is also dating a human, of the man variety. I know you’re not all the same, but... if I were to ask out, a human of the man variety... how would I do so?”

[quantumstarpaths]

@terres-arides​

All things being said, the life they had built themselves on Vulcan wasn’t going poorly. He would even go so far as to say it’s good, really good. It was domestic in a way he hadn’t previously experienced with Hugh, even on Discovery, but he still found himself with enough to do to sate the ever-present itch for stimulation. 

Once they’d gotten the climate control in working order, it became damn near perfect. 

The only problem, or the biggest one, anyway, Paul found, was that in returning to the world of the working scientist, especially a teaching scientist, was that events that forced him into uncomfortable clothes to stand around in a room of people that only wanted to talk about themselves--him included--had, unfortunately, not died out in the two years he’d been enlisted. 

Hence, as he heard movement at the door, why he was adjusting a nearly too-tight collar. Hugh was late, later than he expected but not too late that they would be late. The door chime filled the room, and despite the fact Paul wasn’t sure why he would ring it instead of entering, he moved to open it himself.

“Did you forget--?” the question is cut off as he registers that the person the door has revealed is very much not the man he was expecting. Eyebrows furrowed, head tilted. No one had told him Ere was coming. He didn’t know she was near. “What are you doing here?” Not unkind, but not quite the welcoming tone most would expect. At least, that would be expected so long as they didn’t know Paul well enough. “Did Hugh--” (since Paul himself certainly hadn’t been involved in arranging this visit) “--not tell you we’re busy tonight?”

[quantumstarpaths]

@terres-arides​

“Where are we going? You know I don’t like surprises.” Which was something Hugh always managed to ignore when he said it, proving once again that he could get away with things other people could never dream of. The scientist is  being all but dragged down the hall by a very excited partner, reminding him, almost certainly unintentionally, of a date the two shared a millennia ago. That helps to soften any irritation he may feel as well. 

They seem to be making their way to the newly installed holodecks, which is something he doesn’t consider necessarily surprising, as he doesn’t know what else on Discovery could possibly be so exciting as to constitute this amount of secrecy--and this wide a smile glowing from the doctor. (The latter of which also doesn’t hurt and makes him far more willing to be pulled along the corridors of the ship. Part of him wonders why they couldn’t beam there, but he imagines that would taint the anticipation that he’s supposed to be feeling.) 

[sadnessruns]

@terres-arides​ said:  “Will be faking allergic reactions after dinner?” chris @ paul

Lucids Series Sentence Starters

Paul furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Chris for a moment. “Leland is only here because this is a Starfleet function. We can just avoid him.” Paul said softly from the corner of the room, standing next to Chris. He wasn’t quite sure where Hugh and Una had gone, probably to go socialize where Paul didn’t want to. “I’m not faking an allergic reaction, Hugh would murder me.”