#verse iv.

[12thlevel]

@hisfault​​

he’s absentmindedly rocking the bassinet with one hand and entering equations into the computer with the other when he hears the very familiar sound of a time sphere materializing in his lab.

sprock.

he turns, careful not to disrupt the rocking of his daughter’s cradle.

    ❛ booster gold, i told you to at least attempt to contact me before you - ❜

and then notices the man’s companion.

    ❛ no! absolutely not! no children in my lab! ❜

[cagcdbird]

a ghost of what once was.

@n0nesse​

There was once a great and terrible weapon. It had been conditioned by cruel hands, and deemed mankind’s saviour against a mutation that had riddled the earth like a cancer. A mutation to destroy all mutations. But it neither saw the light of day nor the supposed war that spread. It was all in vain as the world unravelled like thread, and in tandem its weapon did the same. Questions that had no answers arose as their weapon fell apart in front of them. 

Why? Where did we go wrong? What do we do now?

There was once a great and terrible weapon. It, she, had had a name, long, long ago. Her name had been Fleurette. All that remained of her was a husk, a crude yet lifelike mockery of the being that had once been.

Brightly-lit corridors and immaculate testing facilities were no more. What was left were the remnants of a small-scale genocide. Centuries-old stains spattered the walls and floors; once red, now browned with age and flaking away from the panels. Half-corpses and body parts flung askew like confetti had decomposed long ago, leaving brittle bones and dust as a grim reminder of the past. The dead had been entombed in this dilapidated underground facility, forgotten.

And amidst it all, slumped against one of the structural pillars, was a body unlike the rest. It had been untouched by time. Alabaster skin looked too alive for a corpse, yet it lay unmoving, as if waiting for decay that would not come.

[12thlevel]

@blondeinblue​ said: ❛querl, your daughter seems to have picked up an interesting word recently. you wouldn't happen to know where a 5-year-old learned the term 'sprock' would you?❜

    ❛ er - it is just a word? ❜

the look on her face says otherwise.

nope. try again, querl.

    ❛ i uh. have appointments to get to? the latest version of        c.o.m.p.u.t.o is acting up and i really should fix that - ❜

[12thlevel]

parenting with @blondeinblue​

[dosdeux-a]

@shelassos asked: “I never admitted this to you.” It’s ten years later, and maybe it doesn’t matter anymore. “But I did have feelings for you. Not the ones you needed me to have, maybe, but it wasn’t loveless on my part. I just... I never got over him. Steve Trevor. I thought I did, but I didn’t. It’s like he’s in my bones, sometimes. So I’m sorry. For being with you before I could really give myself to you. Or anyone. I’m trying to be better about it. I’m really trying.”

          “Oh.” It isn’t the eloquent response Harvey hoped to give, but her admission leaves him a bit awestruck. It takes several moments of staring in to her eyes, then several more of searching the ground for the words he needs before he’s able to speak.

          “It’s okay. I mean, it wasn’t, before.” He has no intention of making her feel any worse, but he’s breaking himself of his habit of disregarding his own feelings for the sake of others’. “But I forgive you. I’d already forgiven you.” Not that he had been holding onto any resentment, even if a little might have been healthy. At least it would have been healthier than berating himself for the months afterwards for daring to think there was anything between them.

          “I do gotta ask you, though, Di... why couldn’t you tell me that before?” It may have saved them all a bit of anguish, but there was no use in mulling over what could have been. Still, he can’t leave this without an explanation.

[12thlevel]

@enacierr​

    ❛ why are you so upset!? i said she will grow out of it! ❜

newborn babies are squishy, wrinkled, sacks of mucus and fluid. querl is not being mean; he is being accurate! their daughter will look far better once she’s aged a few months. and he’s said as much, so why is kara so upset?

    ❛ you are overreacting! ❜

[cagcdbird]

@n0nesse​ queried: ❛ when you’re married, it’s a contract. ❜ 9S is studying human relationship conventions.

❝So, not unlike the contracts of confidentiality that the Director drew up for his employees?❞ The question was facilitated by a shrug, concern marring her pale features. ❝It sounds like a death wish, then.❞