Fandoms: Jurassic Park, Jurassic World
Characters: Lex Murphy, Tim Murphy
Tags: adult Lex Murphy, adult Tim Murphy, siblings that get along, siblings that push buttons, brief Owen Grady, brief Claire Dearing
Grimacing, Lex stood in front of her apartment and shifted her water bottle, key ring, lunch bag, and drugstore purchases to her left hand so she could dig her ringing phone out of her back pocket with the right.
"Tim. What's up?" she asked, pinching the phone between her ear and shoulder as she disentangled her keys and opened her front door.
"Hey, Sis, how are you?"
Lex rolled her eyes. He needed something. Tim called all the time and they saw each other at least twice a month, but he had a 'need something' tone that was an obvious tell. She hadn't bothered to share that bit of personal trivia with him yet.
"What is it, Tim? I just got home and the cats are hungry."
As if on cue, two felines came running from her bedroom, meowing loudly. Trixie jumped up onto the recliner and conveniently meowed almost directly into Lex's face (and her cell phone) while Marco made it his mission in life to get underfoot and trip Lex by darting back and forth frantically as she stepped briskly toward her kitchen.
"Ungrateful Victorian children," Tim said, and she could hear a smile on his face.
Lex dropped everything on her kitchen counter, then quickly fed her two monsters from a bin stored in a lower cabinet. She didn't say anything more into the phone.
Tim picked up both her irritation and the line of conversation. "So hey, I'm calling because there are some people here with me that have a favor to ask us."
"I'm not doing any interviews." Lex's tone was flat, unyielding.
"No, that's not it. This is actually kind of urgent, Lex. Hold on, it might be easier if I put you on speaker…"
"No--Tim, don't do that--" Lex sighed as the quality of his voice on the line shifted.
"Lex, I have Claire and Owen here with me. They reached out to me via email yesterday with a, um, a request. Say hi, guys." Tim directed.
A man and a woman echoed 'hello's in the background while Lex tried to stifle a sigh. Unsuccessfully.
"Alright, alright. What is the story here?" she asked, leaning both elbows on the kitchen counter and toeing off her work flats.
"Well, we've come into some important information," said the woman's voice. Claire, Lex thought to herself. "This is um, private information that you won't see on the news."
"Okaaay…" Lex replied.
An unfamiliar man's voice picked up the story. "You may have heard of Isla Sorna at some point. It's a secondary location your grandfather was using to clone dinosaurs, then transport them to Isla Nublar. It was in use until the closure of Jurassic World. Anyway, since then, it's been pretty quiet, but Isla Sorna still has several species thriving there. And now--"
"I'm sorry, but did Tim tell you I hate dinosaurs?" Lex interrupted. "Like, I really, really hate them. I wish they would all just die."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, then the man's voice continued.
"Anyway, some people reached out to us about their family members, who took a private yacht out to the Muertes Archipelago, hoping to lay eyes on a few dinosaurs. Apparently, the weather got rough and things happened, and now this family is stuck on Isla Sorna, including a few kids. It's only been a couple of days, so we have hope that we may be able to track down and retrieve survivors. Some drone recon has already been done. We can see a compound with old InGen buildings fairly close to where they came ashore. We're building a team of volunteers to head up a rescue mission, and Tim suggested your familiarity with the old InGen security systems could be invaluable."
Lex's eyes had opened wider and wider as the man--Owen--rambled on, and she shook her head reflexively when he stopped, even though they couldn't see her.
"You've got to be kidding me," she mumbled. Louder, she said into the phone, "Why does every asshole rich parent think their kids' lives are going to be perfect if only they can see a live dinosaur in the wild? Are zoos not enough? We have a whole generation growing up with ecological and zoological trauma because of this bullshit!"
She heard Tim chuckle uncomfortably. Shit, she was doing that thing where she was too honest and embarrassed him. To be fair, he was doing the thing where he put her on the spot because she was famous because dinosaurs! and disregarding her clear boundaries about childhood trauma. She took a deep, slow breath and straightened her spine.
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. And I apologize, but I'm not the right fit for this…expedition. I was only thirteen when the events at Jurassic Park happened. It was a long time ago, and I don't work in computers now."
Tim spoke next. "C'mon, Lex. You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. We're talking about people's lives. Besides, they could probably use a certified trauma therapist on hand, once we retrieve them."
Lex's tone turned sharp. "Tim. Take me off speakerphone."
She heard a shuffle and a click. Tim's voice re-emerged, sounding somehow closer to her ear.
"Lex, Owen and Claire are probably the two most qualified--"
She cut him off. "No, Tim. I'm not fucking doing it. I'm not mad that you asked, but I can't. This is too much. The answer is no."
Tim's heavy sigh reverberated through her phone's speaker. "I understand, Lex. Okay, thanks for taking the call. Love you."
"I love you, too. And hey, be safe. Whatever you guys are doing, don't you step foot on one of those islands. I mean it. You're not some survivalist, you're an academic with an interesting childhood. And a perverted fascination with dinos."
"Lex--"
"Promise me. Really."
Tim sighed again. "Okay. I promise, I'll be safe."
They rang off and Lex let the phone slide from her fingers across the countertop. Marco jumped on the counter and she pet him thoughtfully, instead of shoving him right off.
Was she really doing the right thing? Tim was a grown man, but he'd always be her little brother. Despite their experiences, his sense of wonder had remained intact and he'd come to terms with what happened on Jurassic Park in his own way. He didn't hate the animals for acting out their nature. She absolutely did. But on the flip side, she would never underestimate them in any environment. She feared Tim might. The idiotic compulsion to anthropomorphize these wild animals was rampant in Western society, and Tim might be subject to some of the same impulses. Just because dinosaurs were smart (well, some dinosaurs were smart) didn't mean they could be tamed or reasoned with. At the end of the day, they were claws and teeth and a horrible way to die.
Troubled, Lex picked up her cat and deliberately turned away from her phone. Maybe she would call Tim again later, when he wasn't with those two people, and try to talk him out of whatever they were trying to talk him into. It was worth a try.
Hi!! I was checking something related to Athan and came across a post by you that mentioned Tim Stoker? And Tim Murphy? I haven't listened to Hi Nay yet so I have no idea what's going on and I wanted to ask if it's mentioned in the story or uhm??😭 In another way? I got really curious but I don't really have time because of school right now so uh.... Sorry if this is a really weird question!!
It's ok this is so funny
Athan plays a character in Hi Nay named Tim Murphy. Tim Murphy is the brother of main character Detective Rick Murphy.
Tim Murphy is also explicitly named after Tim Stoker from the Magnus Archives, and we've joked that this is his reincarnation where he's a twitch streamer.
He also canonically, in the Hi Nay universe, will go kayaking with Peter Lukas retired Detective Dooley, voiced by Alasdair Stuart, because Dooley and Murphy are close friends via Detective Donner, Murphy's 15 year crush slash codependent life partner.
