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edupunkn00b · 1 year

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Time Travelers Point and Laugh at Archeologists

Written for the TSS Fanworks Discord Remix Event, inspired by Marinia's story Gone in Sparks and Light on AO3. Rated: T - WC: 3725 - [ AO3 ]

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Logan was at a loss for what had brought him and Virgil to this very moment. Intellectually, he understood it was a simple chain of events. It started the moment his husband first spotted Remus, sopping wet and ecstatic as he stood in gleaming white robes in the middle of the muddy cobblestone street that thunderous evening.

He understood the facts of this mysterious magician who claimed to be from the future, claimed to be proof that his theories were correct. He understood that they were about to see whether he actually told the truth or if his husband had simply brought home a chaotically charming—or charmingly chaotic—charlatan that day. His heart told him Remus was honest. His head still had doubts.

The bit of periwinkle glass glowed before them, visibly expanded by Virgil’s quilt until every facet of the runes engraved on its surface glowed and sparkled in the candlelight. He held tight to Virgil’s hand with his left, his husband’s palm damp with nervous sweat and a little twitch in their thumb betraying the anxiety hidden behind the calm smirk they returned.

In his right hand was Remus’.

Equally nervous but unafraid to show it, the strange magician—scientist‚ he’d said when he’d introduced himself to Virgil in his strange vernacular—vibrated with nearly as much energy as the runestone. He bounced on his toes, jerking Logan’s hand up and down as he did. In another time, Logan might have joined in his exuberance, sharing in the joyous, bubbling cauldron of energy this strange man gave off, but, whether it was the fear of having his theories disproved or the nervousness churning in his stomach, he couldn’t quite manage more than a small squeeze of his hand and a brush of this thumb against the taller man’s palm.

“Calm concentration,” he murmured, and the mustachioed man nodded and took a deep breath.

“Just can’t wait to show you everything!” Remus whispered back, an excited uptilt in his voice. “The archeology department’s gonna flip!”

“Well, yes,” Logan murmured, his lips curling up as excitement fizzled in his own chest. “Let’s first ensure we will each arrive in one piece, shall we?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he nodded, vibrating again. “Are we ready?”

Virgil blew out a slow breath next to him, and Logan felt their hand grow warmer in his grip. “Ready,” they said, preternaturally calm as they dropped into their own magical trance.

“Ready,” Logan said sharply, staring down at the runes, concentrating on the curve that would loop them back to Remus’ time.

The air grew heavy around them, thick like smoke or fog, though nothing impeded their vision. It prickled against their skin, tiny hairs rising up on Logan’s arms and the back of his neck, and each of Virgil’s knuckles. Even Remus’ mustache seemed fuller. Each inhalation brought a spark with it, and the weight of the air pushing down on them somehow lifted them up, until Logan was left with the sensation of bobbing in an ocean of air.

His eyes never wandered from the glass in front of him and soon the runes began to shift and dance across the surface, growing and morphing until a bright blue light spilled out from the edges, warping around and between them. Tiny tendrils branched out from the glass, meandering along the quilt and across the floor, quickly closing the distance between them and the runestone.

Virgil’s eyes were squeezed shut, but the tendrils didn’t need their vision, coiling around their hands and arms and glowing brightly. Remus’ eyes were wide, almost manic in their glee, and he muttered quietly to himself, staring at the shifting runes. He’d described the portal he’d used to travel to their time and the differences were marked. The modern magician seemed unalarmed, though, so Logan relaxed into the trance.

Soon a set of tendrils found Remus, as well, wrapping around his waist and chest. He finally quieted, standing nearly completely still.

The last set of tendrils wound their way closer to Logan, growing and branching out at the first touch. They were comfortably warm, and tickled, like he imagined the fast growing leaves of ivy might be. Wrapped around his arms and over his shoulders, he felt safe and secure.

Then the world split open and he dropped to the ground.

~~~

The clang of metal against metal and a rough, mocking voice woke him.

“Wakey, wakey, Little John.” The sing-song tone matched the rhythm of the clanging and Logan slowly opened his eyes. The world exploded in light, the noonday sun directly overhead even though, based on the rank, stale air, he was clearly indoors. Slowly, his vision resolved and he made out dark iron bars in front of him.

“What—” His head hurt, and as much as the clanging still reverberated inside his skull, the sound of his own voice was even worse. “What have I done to warrant imprisoning me in this dungeon?” he said again in a lower voice.

“Maybe next time don’t try to sleep off a bender in the park dressed like a Renaissance fair.” The man’s taunt was barely audible over the racket of his keys against the bars. “Now, look,” he pointed a thick, stunted finger to his left. “You see that smartass lawyer over there?”

Logan squinted in the direction the man pointed. There was a large room filled with people bustling about, some in the same strange, navy blue clothing the man in front of him wore. They had insignias and angry, dangerous-looking tools attached to their belts. They appeared to be some sort of guards or military, but none Logan had ever seen before.

The man’s gesture had been vague, and Logan wasn’t sure if he was meant to look at the machines’ ringing alarm bells or at some animal or something else entirely. His gaze snagged on the way the guard’s hand hovered over the matte black tool holstered to his belt and he swallowed dryly. Logan nodded anyway. “Well,” the guard continued, “You can thank him for bailing your sorry ass out of here,” he muttered, slowly working his way through the keys on his giant ring.

“I believe the word you are looking for is releasing,” said a tall man with dark eyeglasses. “As in I am ensuring an innocent man is released for no other crime than hitting his head and losing consciousness in a public park. Your own field test proved Mr. Doe here had not been drinking.” The other man stood by the bars, and reached for him the moment a gate screeched open. “Consider it a professional courtesy, Officer Bardus, that you’re not being subpoenaed for unreasonable search and seizure for that breathalyzer test he was clearly too injured to consent to!”

A vague memory of some voice repeatedly instructing him to breathe floated through Logan’s mind, and he rocked gently, fighting for focus. “What is a—”

“Not another word,” the man in the dark eyeglasses murmured, shaking his head. “You see a cop? Shut up. C’mon, let’s get outta here.” The stranger with the glasses seemed at least marginally better than the guard, so Logan followed.

They walked in silence past a counter where two drunk men argued with another guard. As he walked, the man in the dark glasses held a flat black rectangle in his hand and hooked his arm through Logan’s, stabbing at the brightly colored side with his thumb before holding it up to the side of his face and speaking into it.

“Pigs fingerprinted him before rendering medical care.” He spoke into it as though having a conversation, pausing between phrases and listening. “Yeah, yeah, we’re on our way.”

“Pigs?” Logan began but the lawyer pointed to the box and shook his head again.

“Yeah, yeah, babes, relax. He’s fine. I’d like Doc to check him over, though.” Impossibly tall, taller even than Remus, he tucked the rectangle between his ear and his shoulder and lifted his eyeglasses. His other hand prodded at his hair. Logan flinched and pulled away. “Yeah, he’s got a nice lump. Yeah… Lemme see.” He peered into Logan’s eyes and asked. “What’s the last thing you remember before waking up in that holding cell?”

“Cell?” He looked back toward the building they’d just left. The masonry was broken up by large, dingy, glass windows that faced a narrow walkway. Two foot tall letters, some cracked and bent spelled out East Precinct. That horrible place was meant to be a monastery? Logan shook his head, the ache reminding him of the man’s question. “I… I was performing a traveling spell with my husband and our friend and—”

Laughing, he pressed the rectangle against Logan’s ear and Remus’ voice poured out of it. “Damn right, that’s what we did! It worked! Welcome to the 21st century, Lo Lo!”

“You’re a magician, too!” he said, and Remus’ laughter rang out from the little rectangle, sounding louder and less tinny as he pressed it closer to his ear.

“Remy wishes he coulda invented cell phones!” Logan clung to the strange device in his hand and wrapped Remus’ familiar laughter around him like a blanket. It gave him the courage to ask the question he’d been quietly dreading since he’d first opened his eyes.

“Remus… Remus is Virgil with you?” His hand shook and he pressed the rectangle to his face, afraid of dropping it.

“Yeah, Lo Lo, he’s right here.”

There was a muffled scraping sound and then Virgil’s voice poured from the device. “Logan? Is that really you in there?” His voice was rough and thick with tears.

“It’s me, Ember, I’m here… not inside…” He struggled to control the warble in his own voice. “I’m in a town…” He looked up at the man in the dark eyeglasses—Remy? “Where are we?”

“Pike Street, babes,” he grinned and hooked his arm through Logan’s. “If we hustle, we’ll get you to your sweeties in less than ten minutes.”

~~~

Tucked between Virgil and Remus on a giant plush chair, a mug of steaming tea in his hands, Logan listened as Remy explained the University’s reaction to Remus’ disappearance and the coinciding theft of the periwinkle glass artifact.

“My PI called me the second the cops’ BOLO alert hit the wires,” Logan’s brow furrowed. “The last thing you needed was another outstanding warrant.” Remy spoke English, but at times like this it sounded little more than garbled nonsense. “That was yesterday afternoon. Pat and I’ve been taking turns babysitting the police radio.”

“You got the timing right!” Virgil exclaimed, smiling at both Logan and Remus. “You’ve been gone for less than a day!”

“Yeah, about that,” Remy started, tugging at the sleeve of the roughspun tunic Remus wore. “You said you’ve been gone for four years?”

Logan nodded, sipping his tea. “Approximately. Remus first arrived in our town three years, ten months, and thirteen days ago.”

“A lot can happen in four years,” Remus grinned and Logan hid his face behind his mug. “Needed to make sure I didn’t give the cops—or the University—time to build a case.”

“They’re pressing charges,” Remy muttered, taking a long draw of the bitter black liquid in his own cup. “This isn’t like the last time you ‘borrowed’ an artifact.”

“No, it’s not,” Remus beamed. “This time I’ve brought back more.” He met Logan’s eyes, who nodded once. Remus retrieved the precious cargo from his pocket and opened it up on the low table before them, laying out the sparkling pieces on their burlap wrapping. “I think these will win over even the hardliners in the Archeology department.”

Remy poked at one of the pieces, yanking his hand back when the runes zapped, sparks lighting up their faces. He stuck both fingers in his mouth and frowned, pulling them out with an audible smack. “Yeah, and if they don’t believe it, you can always just zap them.”

“Nah, that’s only for later for a treat,” Remus laughed and Logan shook his head fondly. Even in his own time, Remus seemed to be a bit of an anachronism. Logan couldn’t quite decide what that meant for all of them.

“And so this is why you believe the portal looked so different coming here than it did in your original trip to our time?” He indicated the runes laid out before them. “The presence of these in my workshop?”

“As far as I can tell, yeah,” he shrugged, picking up one of the pieces without being zapped with a smirk in his lawyer’s direction. Remy flipped him off just as the doorbell rang and he leapt up to get it, suddenly smiling.

Virgil chuckled, watching Remy practically skip down the hallway. “He’s changeable.”

“Just lovesick,” Remus waved a hand without looking up. “His husband is the doc we called to check you for a concussion,” he nudged Logan’s shoulder. Logan pretended not to see the way Remus smirked when they both drew closer to him, nodding.

“Highly understandable behavior then,” Logan murmured, smiling at his husband and best everything else. “Well, then,” he looked up when a man in bright pink hair carrying a large bag bearing a staff with two snakes entered the room.

“You must be Logan and Virgil,” the man said, smiling with his hand outstretched. “I’m Dr. Picani. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

~~~

“Mr. Prince—” the tired voice of the Dean of Archeology began. She slouched over the polished mahogany desk between them Logan caught Virgil surreptitiously stroking the side, nodding appreciatively at the craftsmanship. He was curious at her treatment of the beautiful piece, and from where he stood, spotted where she’d spilled something, a sticky-looking dried splotch near her elbow.

“Ah, what was that?” asked Remus, his joking tone belied by the iron in his gaze. “I bled for that PhD.”

“Apologies,” the Dean sounded anything but sorry. “Dr. Prince,” she began again. “Will you explain why I shouldn’t call campus police right now and arrest you?”

“Madam,” Logan stepped out from behind Remus and bowed his head. “Dr. Prince is telling the truth and we have brought the proof with us. Do you have a—” he turned to Remus when he forgot the name of the device, the onslaught of oddness in the day finally catching up with him.

“Put these under your microscope, Dean,” Remus said, dropping a velvet cloth in her palm with two of the rune stones inside. “Just don’t touch them with your bare hands unless—”

“Dammit, Prince!” she swore when the stone zapped her hand.

“The stones really don’t like to be handled by non-scientists,” Remus explained and Virgil stepped forward and reached for her hand.

She only glared at him and Virgil shrugged, rolling their eyes. Logan hid a smirk at that particular mannerism of Remus’ that Virgil had been quick to adopt. “I can heal that, if you want,” he mumbled. “We’re time travelers, not monsters.”

“Speak for yourself,” Remus chuckled before Logan could shush him with a poorly stifled laugh.

“And you wonder why I didn’t hire you,” the Dean muttered under her breath as she adjusted the microscope stage. She frowned into the eye piece for a long, long while before finally looking up at the trio. “We will need to verify this independently, you know,” she failed to disguise the excitement in her voice as she reached for a device on her desk and began speaking into it.

Logan peered at it. She held it similarly to how Remy had held the device he’d used to speak to Remus and he wondered if it was a primitive version of Remys’ device.

Remus merely shrugged and made himself comfortable on the sofa on the other side of the Dean’s decadent office. He waved his hand as though to say, be my guest, and reached over the armrest to click on a kettle. “Would anyone like something to drink?” he asked, helping himself to the box of teas at the center of the table.

The Dean reminded Logan of an angry bull and he almost expected her to plow across the room and throw Remus off the couch. Instead, she glared and continued to mutter into her device. Remus winked at them and patted the couch with a little tilt of his head. “Would you like some tea, Lo Lo? Virge?” he grinned, seemingly relishing his rudeness. He slid over to sit in the center of the couch, leaving space for Logan and Virgil on either side of him.

Laughing, Virgil shrugged at him. “Why not?” they whispered and made themself comfortable at his side. Shaking his head with his own surprised laugh, Logan joined them.

“You never fail to surprise me, Remus,” he smiled wryly, watching Remus prepare tea as though he was in their cozy kitchen back home. The modern magician’s ease in the office was slowly rubbing off on him. “Don’t ever stop.”

~~~

“Fine, just don’t damage it!” Remus snapped at the lab tech just before he plunged the rune stone into a graduated cylinder filled with a clear reactant. The tech had arrived quickly and unpacked his gear with shaking hands. He looked nearly as excited as Remus had the first time he’d seen the runestones in their home.

Logan reached for his hand, smiling when he saw Virgil do the same on his other side. “That solution will have no impact on the runestone,” he murmured. “It’s all right.” Remus just scowled at the tech, eyes narrowed as he watched him swirl the solution with a glass stirring rod. Within seconds, the solution turned bright blue.

“What did I tell you?” Remus stood a little taller. He was so careful with him and with Virgil, though, often sitting when they spoke, slouching as he leaned on some counter or the wall. It was easy to remember just how tall he was. Remus was easily the tallest in the room, even the 6 foot tall tech’s head would just graze the side of his jaw.

The Dean stared at Logan and Virgil. “And so you two really are—”

“They’re scientists from the fifth century,” Remus interrupted, his grin luminous. “Just like I said.”

The tech and the Dean exchanged a look. “You know what this means?” he murmured, leaning closer and whispering in her ear. Logan didn’t like the way she eyed them while she listened.

She didn’t speak at first, simply nodded to the tech and he left the office. “Why don’t you all have a seat,” she said, eyes on her desk. It wasn’t a question. “I need to clear my calendar. Drink you tea, and I’ll be right with you so we can discuss what this means.”

~~~

At first, Remus didn’t move to the couch, and instead watched her pick up the device with the spiral tether. She muttered quietly but intensely into one end for several seconds, then abruptly pressed the device back in its cradle. “Go on,” she murmured, sitting down and typing at her computer. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“I don’t like this,” he whispered once he’d turned his back. “Keep your eyes open.”

“Do you believe they may turn violent?” Stories of the treatment of magicians in other towns were… stories, weren’t they? But if this age, with its technologies and incredible devices had lost its magic so much that Remus was a rarity…

It made the darkly fantastical tales of entire towns burning their magicians seem all the more likely.

“They’re cowards,” he muttered. “It’s why I stole the runestone in the first place.” He shook his head and poured their tea. “They were too afraid to try to use it. They had it locked away in a file box in the basement.”

“Armed cowards are still dangerous,” Virgil murmured behind his tea, watching the door.

Logan smiled when his husband angled their own body between the rest of the room and his and Remus’, then reached out and touched their knee. “We’ll all remain vigilant.”

The Dean left them waiting for long enough to start on a second round of tea. “Are you sure I can’t pour you a cup, Dean Croft?” He showily poured Virgil’s second cup. “It’s quite good.”

“Yes, I know,” she muttered, glaring at him over the top of her computer screen. “It’s imported.”

“Hmm,” Remus nodded as he sat back and stirred his cup.

Declining a second cup, Logan tucked his hands between his thighs and the plush seat to stop from fidgeting. He rocked gently, his only outlet for the buzzy tension in his chest. He couldn’t tell if Remus was purposefully antagonizing her or if their dislike ran both ways. Both left him feeling vulnerable and trapped in her office.

The Dean stiffened in her seat, eyes darting to the closed door at the sound of voices on the other side. Remus followed her gaze, setting down his cup when he saw several shadows under the door. The door burst open and a half dozen men dressed like the guards who’d imprisoned him poured into the office, angry-looking weapons with light crackling at the end in-hand.

“Hands up, if you will,” the Dean said, like it was an invitation.

Remus raised his hands and gestured for both of them to copy him. His expression was calm and respectful as he addressed the officers, even as he nudged Virgil’s side. Their knife was hidden near their hip. Logan had only seen them use the thing to free a trapped fox, but they practiced with it each week in the woods behind their home. Remus then looked down at his own pocket where the other runestones almost buzzed with energy.

“You do understand, Mr. Prince, that the moment you stole the artifact from the institution, any tangible results you obtained became our property.” She eyed Logan and Virgil. “Any tangible results.” She nodded toward the officers. “Arrest the tall one and bring the others—”

They never found out where they would be brought because the moment they lowered their weapons, Remus pulled out Virgil’s knife with one hand and a runestone with the other. “Let’s go!” he shouted to each of them and they formed a tight triangle. “We don’t have time for caution.” Remus threw the stone to the ground, muttering an incantation, rousing the few spirits left in this time. Tiny hairs stood up against Logan’s skin as a rush of power circled them.

There would be no return trip. Not to this day, at least.

A portal surrounded by reflective shards of glass bloomed in front of them, blues and greens and purples. Tiny pinpricks of light bloomed and sparked, exploding into a swirl of colors. The very center cleared, green grass and sunshine pouring through and reflecting off the teacups on the table. The center grew, slowly pulling apart as though invisible hands peeled back the colored lights. The center was large enough now to see a broad field of wildflowers, surrounded in the distance by rolling hills topped with maples and sycamores. Warm, fresh air poured from the portal and Logan inhaled deeply, relishing the familiar scents.

Home.

Smiling, they took each other’s hands and scrambled through just before the portal snapped shut behind them.

#Time Travelers Point and Laugh at Archeologists #ts logan #ts remus #ts virgil #ts remy #ts fanfic #analogical #platonic dukexiety #platonic intrulogical #dukexiety #intrulogical #modern magic #urban magic #time travel #why‚ yes‚ that is a Doctor Who reference‚ thank you for noticing

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southerndragontamer · 6 months

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Egotober Day 31: Happy Halloween

You’ve heard so many stories this month, some spooky, some cute, some scary, some moreso moments in their lives. But on this night of All Hallow’s Eve, Samhain, Halloween instead of telling a story….let’s see instead how those that the stories were about celebrate this night.

The first home we’ll visit in the Septic home, it’s a few stories and more like a bunch of apartments fused together in one building with help from Marvin’s magic. They didn’t go completely all crazy with decorating, oh they love the holiday but a certain glitch has made them all wary about a few aspects of it. Still, there’s paper jack o lanterns hanging up, a candy bowl out for trick or treaters, streamers in orange and black, baked goods in the oven, a Halloween movie marathon set to play when they get ready and they’re all dressed up.

Chase is Hawkeye, his favorite Avenger, Marvin is Doctor Strange, his ears hid in the sweeps of his hair, Henrik is a plague doctor, Jackie is in a new version of a Spider-Man suit because obviously, and Jameson was convinced into a Bloodborne Good Hunter costume. They’re all happy and enjoying themselves, planning to visit Jack before the night is out, but there’s a little worry that they can’t really help about what the glitch might do tonight. But they’re all prepared just in case, Marvin’s cards are charged with spells, Chase has iron arrows, James has his throwing knives and watch, Jackie has his powers and Henrik has a few potions Marvin helped him make.

Anti, isn’t at the Septic house tonight, he’s out enjoying the freedom the night brings the hunters like him. He may go have fun with the Septics later, he might not, he hasn’t decided yet as he’s having too much fun ‘playing’ with whatever human catches his fancy. His costume? It changes depending on who he wants to leave a message for, he’s sometimes Venom, sometimes a blood starved Beast, sometimes a plague ridden creature, or Bullseye or Mephisto…but he knows even without a costume his puppets will recognize him tonight.

The next home we’ll go to is the old manor that is a home to the Ipliers. It’s decorated to the nines with cute, spooky, creepy and terrifying all mixed together. Ghosts, skeletons, spiders, black cats, spider webbing, fake blood, you name it Wilford put it in along with a gigantic bowl of candy on the porch. He even managed to convince Dark to let him put up orange and black and green confetti poppers as long as there was no glitter. The manor is in the middle of a party, there’s a movie and decompression area if all the social interaction gets too much, and of course everyone’s in costume.

Dark, as much as he sighed about the idea at first, was talked into being Moon Knight, Wilford is Willy Wonka, The Host decided to be the Prophet from Darkest Dungeon, Bim is Alucard from Hellsing, Eric was coaxed into dressing up as Lucio from Overwatch, Prime, Red, Green, Ollie all dressed up as circus characters, Prime the ringleader, Red the strongman, Green the fire breathed and Ollie the Lion tamer, Bing came as Freddy due ti the upcoming movie they’re all excited for and Night is in a black purple Greek toga as one of his older incarnations as Erebus.

There’s food and drink set out and one of them is there whenever Wilford goes to get a drink as everyone remembers last time his powers got out of control when he was a bit too sugared up or tipsy and no one needs to reset the house tonight. But all in all…it’s really nice that they can all relax and enjoy themselves.

The last home we’ll go to is the Sanders Sides residence, a match for Thomas’ home in reality. It’s less scary and more spooky/creepy and cute, bowl of big candy bars on the porch for trick or treaters, a few pun ghost plushies holding cards or buckets to be taken home. Inside it’s set up for movies and food and fun. There’s a few more tastefully bloody things inside from Remus begging and promising to save the slasher films for after Patton went to bed.

Patton is a cat, Logan is Iron Man, Virgil is a version of the Crow from the cult classic films with a plushie crow on one shoulder, Remus is a less gorey zombie, Roman is Cinderella’s Prince Charming and Janus is Jekyll and Hyde.

Who will you go to visit? Will you go and share stories with them again tonight, scary or otherwise? Regardless of what you choose my friends, there will be plenty of T̡̛r͟i͜c̵̡k҉̕s͏ and Treats waiting for you.

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