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ryqoshay · 1 year

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UW - A Perfect World: Legacy Code

Flagship: AiRina Rating: T Words: 472 AU: A Perfect Dimension (?) Fandom: Love Live Nijigasaki Parent Fic: Unstable World Time Frame: ??? Event: Promptober 2022 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Legacy

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Author’s Note: Bonus 3rd entry for Oct 30th

Summary: Ai and Rina attempt to escape after raiding a government facility

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Shifting shadows caught Ai’s attention as searching sentries eclipsed the scanning spotlights.

Not good.

She tapped on Rina’s shoulder.

The pink-haired girl held up a hand, splaying all fingers apart.

Five? Five minutes? They didn’t have five minutes.

A soft, but distinct clack sounded, denoting the deadbolt sliding open.

Oh. Five seconds.

Rina unplugged her board from the terminal and reached for the handle.

Suddenly, a guard stepped around the corner. “There you…”

He was cut off as Ai’s hand chopped at his throat. Then he collapsed as she delivered a taser enhanced punch to his gut.

“Junpei, did you find something?” A voice came over the radio.

Ai grabbed it and adjusted her voice changer.

“This is Junpei, sorry, just a rat.”

“Are you alright? You sound odd.”

“Sorry, I think I’m getting stuffed up. Must be allergic or something.”

Laughter came over the device. “Gods, how old fashioned are you? You should really look into getting that fixed. Anyway, keep looking. Those two have to be around here somewhere.”

“Roger that.”

Ai sighed and reached for the handle again, still insisting she go through first. With all that had happened tonight, who knew what lay in wait for them on the other side. And Ai wasn’t going to risk Rina being harmed, not when they were this close to finally escaping.

Slowly, she cracked the door, checking fervently to see where the light from the other side could be seen from where she knew guards were looking. Next, she poked her head through the door.

Damnit. Camera!

She ducked back in.

“I overrode it.” Rina whispered. “It’s showing a loop.”

Ai flashed a thumbs up and slipped back through the door. A moment later Rina followed.

As tempting as it was to run, the couple instead began to walk casually down the street.

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“Man, I should demand a refund for that intel.” Ai complained after she closed the door of their apartment behind them. “What a waste of time.”

“Not necessarily.” Rina responded, sitting down at her desk.

“Oh?” Ai moved behind her girlfriend to drape herself over her.

Rina’s fingers tapped furiously at her keyboard while numerous windows popped up across her many screens, displaying an ungodly amount of data.

“What is all that?”

“Unpatched legacy code.” Rina explained.

“You mean…?”

“Yes. I can exploit weaknesses in their security with this. I should be able to find the real location of the device we need.”

“That’s awesome!”

“And, I left a small present for them before we left.”

“Oh? What kind of present?”

“The kind that will set them back months.”

“That’s my Rinari!” Ai hugged her girlfriend tight. “Maybe we can all tonight a success after all.”

“Mm.” Rina agreed.

“Right, then Ai’m going to go make dinner.”

“I’ll keep working here.”

And with that the couple went about their plans.

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Author’s Note Continued: Rushed this one a bit when I realized my first two entries for the prompt excluded my self-challenge of including last year’s prompt. As such, I will most definitely expand on this one when I get around to adding it into its parent fic. Which also means I need to create said parent fic... I’m torn between creating two collections or one for UW. I could do one to collect the stories I write for the side with Emperor Yohane and another for the Paragon homeworld side, or I could combine them. Not sure yet.

#AiRina #Tennoji Rina #Ai Miyashita #A Perfect World #Love Live #Promptober 2022 #fanfic

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tinknevertalks · 5 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Sanctuary (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Helen Magnus/Nikola Tesla Characters: Helen Magnus, Nikola Tesla Additional Tags: Victorian, Alternate Universe, Smut, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Series: Part 2 of The Oxford Years Reimagined Summary: Nikola has magic fingers and Helen’s addicted.

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rinari7 · 6 years

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I'm going to try crocheting a black and pink scarf for my dreamwalker and I'm going to get some yuri mangas for Christmas and I'm happy!

#ebonfeather is the best #he's been so supportive and just... he's so precious #rinari loves her friends #i'll probably make this during a season one who rewatch #for that one fic you said i should do rach xD #i've started it but i need tp figure out what rose knows about the tardis when #also this fic is going to be so weird but also sexy (i hope)#rinari does not often write crack but when she does apparently she doesn't really treat it like crack xD

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liketolaugh-writes · 7 years

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Hey I love your stories! I especially love your Miranda/Noise one and I was wondering if you had any fic recs for stories about Miranda?

Thank you! *beam* I’m glad you like it! Miranda fics are an endangered species, unfortunately, but I found some nice ones in the tag. (I, ah. May not have had any on file already. *wry*)

This is an adorable M&M fic by @mirandalottotimeexorcist (who might be able to give you more fic recs if you go ask her.)

This is a sweet moment between Lenalee (*cough* Excuse me, Rinari) and Miranda, after the Level 3 fight. More about Lenalee than Miranda, admittedly... *sigh*

This one might be the best Miranda-centric fic I’ve read? Miranda can see ghosts, basically. It has plot and shit. (I’ve seen it around, but I only just now read it, hehe. My mistake.)

This one’s by @nea-writes, it’s one of her Timothy fics - Miranda sings Timothy a lullaby. Perfectly lovely. *smile*

This is half a moment of Miranda thoughts, her reaction to the rewinding incident even months after, but still worth reading.

Some Miranda backstory, this time about how her childhood brought her to where she is.

A lovely look at Miranda in the Ark arc, and her perspective on her Innocence.

And finally, a moment between Kanda and Miranda, in a universe where the war lasts many more years but not much else changes.

#ask #fic recs #miranda lotto #thanks for the ask!#i'm glad to have gone looking for these tbh #MIRANDA #Anonymous

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 10 months

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So. @purlturtle tagged me in a thing and now we all get to suffer for it. ;3

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Okay, to start with: I do not have a WIP folder. My Google Docs is a conglomerate of utter disorganization that somehow manages to still function as a repository of writing. Sort of.

Many of these are just snippets that are more or less a ghost of an idea, or that probably deserve their rest in the quiet soil of the cemetery of fleeting ideas. Others are determined to haunt me until I give them some sort of manifestation, or finish shaping their forms. Who knows, maybe y'all will turn one into the other?

To make all of this a little easier on everyone, I am going to organize this by ship and/or fandom. Buckle the fuck up.

Bering and Wells / Warehouse 13

Save Thy Tears Bering & Wells

Under Your Gaze (I Could Conquer The World, Babe) ****

7. It Means She Never Wants to Hurt *

A Difference Of Opinion (Libidinous)

Bering/Wells Circus AU | In the Ring, In the Stall, Dear, For You, I'll Risk It All

Bering & Well Dawnguard Vol. 1 **

Like the Last Breath of a Dying Star

Bering/Wells Comfort Sex in Moscow

Bering/Wells "Vendetta" trip home

Myka/Helena "Fall into Heaven" insert

Omega!Myka

Bering/Wells kink AU

Bering & Wells ANR

Bering/Wells San Junipero D/s

Bering/Wells Greek mythology

Helena + Myka in waistcoats

5. (It Is So Much Harder To Live For Love Than To Die For It) *

Bering and Well Dawnguard Scene Outline **

Bering/Wells Pete and Amanda's bachelor/ette party ****

Bering & Wells Dawnguard Vol. 2 **

Bering & Wells Dawnguard Vol. 3 **

B&W Dawnguard Scenes/Scraps **

Bering and Wells Oblivion

Ophelia's Secret

14. Words Pierce Where Cupid's Arrow Missed *

8. Not Like That *

6. Now Survival Is Her Middle Name *

9. Never Again *

11. And Her Bruised Heart Shatters *

10. But Stone Meets Fire and Ice Meets Steel *

Bering/Wells Myka figures out she's bi

Bering & Wells bike shop AU

12. Just One More Time *

13. (How Many Times More?) *

Bering/Wells College AU

Bering/Wells High School

Helena "Running"/Memory by Kane Brown

Ghost Helena/Myka

Bering/Wells Consideration

Bering/Wells Letters

Bering and Wells Aftermath

DJane HG

Knight Myka/Sorceress Helena

Bering and Wells Secret Santa

Doctor Who

Nine/Ten one night stand (E)

A Fobwatch and a Sapphire-Studded Choker Vol. 3 ******

A Fobwatch and a Sapphire-Studded Choker Story Scraps ******

Rose/Doctor Beauty & Beast

Rose/trans!fem!Doctor

Nine/Rose Ballroom

Nine/Rose angst kiss

Doctor/Rose stranded (C's Christmas fic)

Nine/Rose Road Trip

Nine/Rose one-sided

How To Play Matchmaker for One (1) Idiot Time Lord

Werewolf!Bill x Holly

Rose as Fobwatched Time Lady

C's Birthday Banquet Fic

Fem!Ten/Rose New Year's Eve

Dom!Rose Wall Sex

Sanctuary

Kate/Helen Vampire *****

Helen x Nikolija

Afina/Helen Attempt 3 ***

Helen/Afina noncon v2 ***

Helen/Afina noncon ***

Helen/Kate for J *****

Helen/Kate/Kali (Server Spider Kink)

When the Blurred Line Breaks

Teslen vampire/hunter

Teslen Porn Star AU

Adolescence of a Mongrel Vampire (Graphic)

A Mermaid's Siren

Helen/Kate Vampire v1 *****

Teslen arranged marriage

Teslen tenderness & communication

Dancer Teslen

Helen/Nikola ecouterism

Sanctuary CYOA snippets

Sally x Kate (x Helen)

Sanctuary Soulmarks

Helen x Sally

Nikolija x Helen Magoi History

Teslen Letters During Exile

Star Trek

"Wild Frontier" Seven/B'Elanna

Queen/Knight Seven/B'Elanna

B7 Home

B/7 Heaven's Vault AU

Kirezri Post-Canon

B'Elanna x Seven New Year's Kiss

Superfluous Adornments (B7)

Lenara/Jadzia Aftermath

Human Emotions

B/7 Drunk "Came Here To Forget"

J7 Mentor Affection

B/7 Pride & Prejudice

B/7 BDSM

Video Games (with Original Characters as Protagonists)

Tearing Her Apart (in all the best ways) (Nerium x Fiana)

CharrRP Profiles *********

Charracter Roster *********

Amata'jah

Poisoner, Physician, Hist-Child, Dovahkiin: A Study in Apparent Contradictions

The Nature of Betrayal

Vesuvia's Story

ESO RP Char Profiles

Other Fandoms

Liberty's Secret Wedding Night

Sam/fem!Jack "Sir" angst locker room smut

Fem!Jack/Sam "Tin Man"

Fem!Jack/Sam

Villaneve Soulmarks ********

Villaneve Soulmarks Post S3 ********

Rhulana/Gladys Camp/Wound Care

Plague Tale Aftermath

Sheila/Ann Worship

Gwen/Morgana post Arthur's kiss

Alyanette vampire/hunter AU

Rena Rouge, On Her Own Terms

Stahma/Kenya

Teenage Aliya/Oroi

Her Own Heart's Poison, Barranyi's Gift

Safe Lack of Distance

Kibbs unintended confession

Catalyst

Jane Maura Almost-Kiss

Original Work/Original Characters/Other

Flash Fairy Tales Retold

B&W Author Questionnaire

Between Life and Death *******

Nuryeh x Kaliva *******

Kel'Reth arranged marriage *******

Nuryeh x Kaliva Story *******

Kel'Reth Saga *******

Zir'Rethi Temple Librarian *******

The Long Fall into Heaven

Dratschi mating rituals *******

Sci-Fi Romance Sel'thiak

Neytari/Melanie scrap

One Last Dance

Nerekhi x Viyera Letters *******

The Scent of Magic Snippets *******

Snake love story

I tried to denote different docs that belong to the same general work/universe via asterisks, at first, but at some point its accuracy is questionable. :P

(Okay, there's more, but I have to come to some kind of stopping point. I think once I come to documents I haven't actually opened in like four and a half years, where I have to check what the title actually means and whether or not I've published them… I think I can safely call those "in hibernation" and not really "WIP"s at that point… :P)

No pressure, but I'd love to know about @tinknevertalks and @ladyelysandra, and anyone else who wants to do this!

#rinari writes fic #purlturtle #you fucking asked schildkrötchen ;P #as for tink and elsyandra... you two have guided me down a lovely rabbithole of sanctuary femslash again recently thanks to ao3 and here #so thank you for that!#fanfiction #wips #too many wips #i think that can officially be made a tag #anyways this is what i've been doing this hot hot summer day #going through my docs folder #more like rummaging actually: stöbern #sometimes it's nice to find old stuff and think 'hey i really should...'

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 10 months

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Imma be cheeky: When The Blurred Line Breaks and Fobwatch And a Sapphire Stuffed Choker. (I need to know how they end. XD)

*chuckling* I suppose that's fair. I'll give you some hints. ;3 They are both still on my "these will haunt me until I finish the damn things, and I do not consider them abandoned" list. But they are also on my "being very obstinate about the next part, in particular" list, too.

When the Blurred Line Breaks

As you've noted, Helen seems inclined to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. She's certainly been vulnerable in a way she's not used to, not with Nikola, and I don't think either of them know how to navigate that very well. Emotional, snappish conversations, hard to write.

Of course, this piece was always intended to slot into canon, to take them more or less to where we find them in S1 of the actual show. Nikola's borderline antagonism, Helen's wary, exasperated tolerance that turns to something like horror when faced with what he's been up to. So they're not going to end in a good place, I'm afraid, and I think knowing that is also part of what's blocking me from writing the rest, because there's very little that's fun about the rest.

Irritable early morning, a slow, torturous, snowy drive up to the safehouse, and a fraught parting: Nikola asking Helen if she won't consider staying, because he wants her to, and imagine what they could do, just the two of them together with peace and time and a lab, and they just shared something and he can't not ask knowing he likely won't see her for goodness-knows-how-long... Helen feeling a little betrayed that he would ask that in the first place, putting his own selfish desires first, despite knowing what her work means to her... it's perhaps bittersweet, but mostly bitter, in the end. They'll need those years in the interim to reflect a little and mellow out. Helen realizing she was perhaps a little unfair to him, emotionally; Nikola making the extremely misguided decision to impress her with The Monsters and propose a project she certainly can't refuse.(Spoiler alert: she definitely will. xD)

A Fobwatch and a Sapphire-Studded Choker

So, the next chapter is, broadly speaking, a whole fuckton of worldbuilding. In particular, living conditions and the nuances of the vampire society public transportation system, and also Rose and J'aen settling into their new place. The further alienation of J'aen having to give/set "permissions" for Rose for everything. The lovely awkwardness of settling into bed and cuddling with/being cuddled by someone who is... well. Everything J'aen is to Rose. >:3

Obviously the beginning is... intense. Time is pretty dilated, and I'm not quite sure how to transition it from that almost minute-by-minute framing, with small chapter "jumps" in between, to a more measured thing that will likely be necessary for the longer time frame (of at least a few weeks) that I'd envisioned this story taking place over the course of.

J'aen actually works for the big tech company that creates and manufactures those lovely oppressive scanners. So that's gonna be a fun conflict. Rose, meanwhile, more or less left to her own devices as a stay-at-home "bondmate," makes contact with the InRiCol underground - in part because that's what she believes in, in part because that's the only way she sees any possibility of getting the fobwatch back.

Rose has a fuckton to balance, between her obvious personal mission with the fobwatch, her dealings with the InRiCol while trying to stay under the radar, not arousing J'aen's suspicions, and also negotiating the boundaries of her status as "bondmate" and what seems to be expected of her. (And, hrm, maybe she's not actually all that averse to it... But she and the Doctor don't have that kind of relationship. But she also really needs to keep up this charade to be able to get the Doctor back. And she cares about J'aen, too, this gorgeous woman who obviously adores her, and the continued distance from her bondmate for no reason Rose can honestly give her is obviously weighing on her, too...)

I don't really want to spoil the ending, because I do intend to finish it myself! (...someday.) I can assure you that an eventual happy ending is planned. Hopefully this is enough fodder to let your imagination run wild in the meantime. ;3

#a fobwatch and a sapphire-studded choker #when the blurred line breaks #tinknevertalks #thank you for asking lovely!#it's good to like get to properly thinking and expressing myself about these again #i need to try making a scene-by-scene outline for the fobwatch fic #when the blurred line breaks will have to wait until i can actually handle and enjoy that level of prolonged angst... which may be a while #rinari writes fic #rinari responds #ask rinari

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ryqoshay · 2 years

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Tri-Arame: Thyme for Gourmet

Primary Pairing: N/A, Yuu & Ai Secondary Ships: YuuAyuSetsu, AiRina Rating: G Words: 476 Fandom: Love Live Nijigasaki Parent Fic: Tri-Arame Time Frame: Probably sometime late in Season 2 Event: Promptober 2022 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Thyme Time

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Author’s Note: Bonus 4th entry for Oct 2nd’s prompt

Summary: Thyme for cooking puns!

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Goro Goro…

“Sounds like Yuyu is hungry.” Ai commented, reaching over the pause the anime the group was watching.

“Eh heh…” Yuu put a hand on the back of her head in embarrassment. “Yeah, I was so caught up writing the club’s new song that I kinda forgot to eat lunch.”

“Yuu-chan!” Ayumu scolded. “You should have said something earlier.”

“Sorry, but like I said, I forgot.”

“I knew I should have brought over the leftovers from our lunch…” The redhead lamented.

“No worries!” Ai bounced up to her feet. “Ai’ll have something whipped up in no time.” She paused for half a second. “Or rather, lots of thyme. Rinari’s family has plenty of thyme on their hands.”

Yuu started to giggle.

“I��ll help.” Ayumu and Setsuna offered, almost at the same time.

“Setsu, Ayupyon and Ai-san, the perfect dream steam.” Ai said, leading them into the kitchen. “Rinari, Yuyu, kick bake and relax.”

Yuu guffawed.

“Mom bought a lot of eggs yesterday, since they were on sale.” Rina said as she and Yuu found seats at the table with a view of the kitchen. “And there is plenty of leftover rice.”

“Eggcellent! Omurice it is!”

“A… Ai-chan…” Yuu giggled. “Give me a bake… I can’t…” She continued laughing.

“Good one, Yuyu! You go grill!”

Yuu almost fell out of her chair. “Are you sure there aren’t too many cooks in the kitchen?”

“It’s oil good!” Ai assured. “It will all pan out. Setsu! Veggies. Chop chop!” She set a cutting board on counter.

“Yes, Chef!” Setsuna looked like she might salute before grabbing a knife.

“Ayupyon! Omlets. Get crackin’!” Ai plugged in an induction hotplate.

”Y-Yes, Chef…?” Ayumu fumbled through mimicking Setsuna’s response.

“And now for Ai-san to rice to the challenge of the main ovent!” Ai pushed up her sleeves before igniting the stove. “Good thing omurice is as easy as a wok in the park.” She poured oil into the deep pan. “Especially when Ai’ve got such skillet friends like Setsu and Ayupyon to wok with.”

“Ai-san,” Rina spoke up, “I think you may be poaching your luck with all these puns.”

“Ah ha! Even Rinari’s getting her pizza the pie!”

“I think Rina-chan wants to avoid all Hell to baking loose,” Yuu pointed out, should Ayumu or Setsuna-chan boil over if Gordon RamsAi treats them too much like Red team and Blue team.”

“I’m good.” Setsuna said before turning to Ai. “Vegetables have been chopped, Chef. What’s next?”

“Chicken.” Ai responded.

“Ai, Chef!”

“I’m good too.” Ayumu added. “Although I'm already on my second one, will you be done in time, Ai-chan?”

“Ai’ve got plenty of thyme.” Ai held up the jar for effect.

The puns did eventually subside as the meal preparation neared completion. And conversation turned to the anime series they had been watching as the five girls began eating.

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Author’s Note Continued: Yeah... I really don’t know what to say about this one. It was written and posted in a short break at work, so...

#YuuAyuSetsu #AiRina #Takasaki Yuu #Miyashita Ai #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tennoji Rina #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #Promptober 2022 #fanfic

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 5 years

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Love, I’ve Missed You In A Million Different Ways (How Is It We Keep On Writing Tragedies Together?) 4/14-ish

This is shorter than I would have liked, but eventually it just felt like, this is where the story wanted to end. Nonetheless, @dapperdorian, I hope you continue to enjoy.

4. To Live That Perfect Dream

Myka started awake to a high mechanical keen. Blinking softly, with bleary sleep still clouding her thoughts, the second thing she became truly aware of was the heat coiling in her abdomen, the warmth in her chest. A languid feeling of contentment, one that slowly faded away as fragments of her dream filtered in.

There had been a woman, that much she remembered, and she frowned, because she wasn't — but —

They had fought, and Myka could still feel her — Helena's — neck under her fingers, smooth pale skin, her startled gasp.

But they also — and here Myka's thoughts stopped, swirled, stuttered. Because she tasted of bronze and gunpowder, electricity and blood and bitterness, rich, savory and Myka couldn't remember being so turned on in her life.

And she was marvelous, so smart and and utterly dashing, and Myka's chest seized up every time she looked at her.

The keen had morphed to beeping, like a particularly annoying alarm clock, and Myka finally connected the pieces to prop herself up and glare at the weather radio on the dresser.

“Bunny?” Sam's arm tightened around her, and she sucked in a deep breath.

She wasn't trapped, she wasn't, she was exactly where she wanted to be and H.G. Wells was a man — “It's probably just another thunderstorm watch.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed.

Helena bit, often, everywhere. “I love seeing my marks on you,” she'd said, a little haltingly, and Myka had understood the unspoken, “It's proof I'm really here, alive.” For someone who hated hickeys no matter the giver, dream-Myka had been pretty lax about purple teeth marks. Dream-Myka had liked having Helena's marks on her, too.

Dream-Myka hadn't needed to catch her breath, either, to consciously relax, when her bed partner clutched at her. That Myka had taken in the pained grimace, the tangled damp sheets, and held Helena, murmuring reassurances until the nightmare passed.

The weather radio was complaining at her again, and she hit the button with a little more force than necessary.

“The National Weather Service in Denver has issued a flash flood warning for the entire state of Colorado.” The hacked-up, monotone mechanical voice prevented it from sinking in, for a split second, and then the broadcast left the familiar script far behind. “A large mass of water is pouring from northwest through the state. All residents are urged to seek high ground immediately.”

Tears streamed down Helena's cheeks in an abandoned cavern in Egypt, on a patch of gravel in Yellowstone, as Myka kissed her, held her. As Helena held her in return, reassured her she hadn't been wrong, that Myka had known her better than she'd known herself, that she was magnificent and so very intelligent and she should never give up the Warehouse… Twisted realistic sleep-stories, her father had called them once upon a time. “You're not afraid of stories, are you?” And she'd shaken her head and tried very hard not to be.

Sam was sitting up, a frown creasing his forehead. “Flooding?”

“It sounds like it.” She headed back to the bed, snagging her phone from the nightstand on the way. “We’re already on the second floor. They haven’t called for an evacuation. The emergency bag is in the closet up here, right?”

“‘Course, bunny. Same place it was when you checked last month.” Sam wrapped his arm around her and nuzzled into her hair.

Myka hunched her shoulders and looked up the news.

Massive Flooding Sweeping Tri-State Area; Deluge Strikes Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, and Spreading Outwards; Yellowstone National Park Apparent Epicenter Of Catastrophic Flooding; Second Noah's Flood Heralded By Evangelicals As Beginning Of The Apocalypse. Myka rolled her eyes at the last.

“Atlantis,” Helena mused, with a soft nip to Myka's wrist, “Have you ever wondered what really happened to it?”

#love i've missed you in a million different ways (how is it we keep on writing tragedies together?)#dapperdorian #myka x sam #bering and wells #angst #all the angst #and missed opportunities #what if myka was never there to stop helena at yellowstone?#i have a love-hate relationship with that 'bunny' nickname #on one hand it's unique and kind of fitting for myka #but on the other hand rather belittling in some way #rinari's fic #it seems i couldn't quite resist sneaking a bit of smut or kink into it #i hope you don't mind

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 5 years

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Love, I’ve Missed You In A Million Different Ways (How Is It We Keep On Writing Tragedies Together?) 1/14-ish

So. My @bering-and-wells-exchange gift for @dapperdorian kind of exploded. As in this will be long, posted hopefully over the course of the next two weeks. You requested unrequited love, all the sad/loving feels. I hope this delivers, and Merry Christmas! Basically I couldn’t quite decide on one story so I set myself to writing them all. (Because Rinari is totally crazy, it seems. What else is new?) Each chapter is more or less a self-contained story, but they do more or less tie together (I hope).

1. In The Beginning

She read science fiction. It was the first week of junior year, and Myka Bering was sitting in the corner of the lunchroom, Journey to the Center of the Earth open in front of her, glasses pushed up her nose and her curls tumbling in her face. And she read, flipping the page every now and again, not at all seeming to care about who did or didn't pay attention to her. “Tracy.” Helena nudged the freshman beside her with her shoulder, tilting her head towards the corner. “Isn't that your sister?” Tracy glanced over her shoulder, quickly, a little furtively. “Yeah, that's Myka,” she murmured, hunching her shoulders, her attention focused on the others at the table — Kurt, Giselle, Megan, Zack, Taylor — as if checking to see if they'd heard. “Why don't you invite her to sit with us?” Helena wasn't above taking advantage of the social privilege her “cool new foreign student” status gave her. And she wanted to know this girl better. But Tracy shook her head. “Trust me,” she muttered, “My sister is happiest just as she is.” She didn't look particularly happy, Helena thought, as she glanced back at Myka again. But wouldn't her sister know her best?

They had sports together — “P.E.” as the Americans called it, “physical education.” As if there was anything particularly educational about getting shoved around a basketball court for forty-five minutes. (It wasn't as if Helena had anything against being skin to sweaty skin with another girl. She would just have preferred it be during something useful, like Kenpo, or in a decidedly different and much more appealing context.) Helena was competitive, by nature. Myka was not particularly good at the sport, despite her height. But then came the laps, and Myka took off, leaping ahead like a gangly gazelle, all awkward grace. She looked a little freer, in that moment, free from something one only noticed had been haunting her once it was gone. Helena's breath came hard and fast and she watched Myka run.

Myka's locker was three down from Helena's. Three down, and Helena caught a glimpse of the inside of the door. No photos, just words: Pablo Neruda, and “Do not go quietly into the cold dark night,” and “By their fruits you shall know them,” in an elegant cursive hand Helena was almost certain belonged to Myka. She looked at the inside of her own locker, sketches of imaginary planetscapes strewn in between the magnetic chessboard Caturanga had given her and several pictures of Buffy and B'Elanna Torres. When she looked back, Myka was walking away, fencing épée in hand.

“Is this seat free?” Myka started, stiffened, and then tucked her hair behind her ear, glancing sideways at Helena. She lifted one shoulder, hunching down like a turtle retreating into its shell. “Yeah, I guess.” “Aces.” Helena grinned, setting her tray down and sliding in next to her. Myka blinked, with wide, startled eyes, and shifted a little further away, to give her more room. “I'm Helena.” She picked up her fork to stab at what the cafeteria called lasagna, wrinkling her nose. “Though you can also call me H.G. Most everyone does. You're Tracy's sister, aren't you? Myka?” “Yeah,” she responded, after a moment's hesitation, and minutely inspected the contents of her lunchbox. “So you're a fan of H.G. Wells?” Helena nodded towards The Time Machine lying on the table. “My mother was a great admirer of his. Hence my initials.” “I guess you could say that,” Myka murmured. “My dad used to read me his novels, when I was younger.” “H.G.!” Giselle stopped in front of the table, with a bemused wrinkle to her nose. “Why don't you come sit with us?” “The table here is free, so far as I can tell.” Helena shrugged, gesturing to the empty space. “Kurt!” she called over to the quarterback. “Join us, why don't you?” Turning to Myka, she asked,“You don't mind, do you?” Mutely, Myka shook her head, pressing her lips together. Kurt trotted over like the hulking puppy dog he was, and sat opposite them. “Hi, uh, Myka, wasn't it?” Myka squeaked, then cleared her throat and tried again. “Yeah, yeah, that's me. Myka Bering, right here.” “Is that for English?” Megan sounded a tad horrified, as she set her tray down beside Kurt's and pointed at the book. Helena only just suppressed a sigh. “No.” Myka looked down at her food again. Tracy shot Helena an exasperated-embarrassed-helpless look as she slid in beside her. “Our father owns a bookstore,” she offered, as though one needed some sort of excuse for liking to read. Giselle finally settled in at the end of their row, combing a finger through her red curls. “I would write an essay on how annoying it is so few ‘classic’ books we're supposed to read have women in them, but I'm already swamped with Trig. I should not have taken that AP class.” Kurt made a face. “I’ve done geometry, but coach says if I don't pass algebra this year I can't stay on the team.” There was a round of appropriately sympathetic noises. “I could tutor you,” Myka said suddenly, unexpectedly loudly. Everyone quieted and looked at her. Her cheeks colored. “I got an A in it last year. I mean, if you want. You don't have to —” “No, that's — that's real sweet of you, Myka.” Kurt was tilting his head, as if looking at her in a new light. “You wouldn't mind? I could find a way to pay you a bit, if you wanted.” “No!” She shook her head. “No, I'm happy to help.” “Well, then, thanks. You want my number? We'll have to work around football practice, but let me know whatever time works for you and I'll be there.” He was already pulling out his phone, apparently oblivious to the way Megan tossed him and Myka suspicious, sulky glances, and Giselle and Tracy held themselves stiff with discomfort. “Of course! I — I have fencing practice after school anyways, so it's not like — I wouldn't be waiting.” Myka was fumbling with her phone, too, taking the number down as he dictates it, offering hers right back. This wasn't — this wasn’t how it was supposed to go, and Helena floundered in the disappointment welling up in her throat. She'd never had any problems with school, but now she almost wished she had. Myka tucked her phone away, biting her lip on a happy little smile. “I, uh, I have to head by the library before my next class, but I'll see you around.” She zipped up her almost-untouched lunch, tucking The Time Machine to her side. “Let me know when you have time, Kurt.” Helena closed her mouth, and watched her go. “Told you so,” Tracy muttered around the straw in her milk carton.

Helena tried again, the day after. “Do you mind if I sit here?” “If you want.” Myka shifted over, not even looking up from The War Of The Worlds. Halfway to setting down her tray, Helena stopped, suddenly exasperated. “Would you prefer I not? I have no desire to force my company upon you.” At this, Myka finally looked up, looked her in the eyes. A melancholy sort of fire flickered in her gaze, sucking all the air from Helena's lungs. “Look, your crowd isn't my thing. I won't be taken advantage of, and I don't want to be some kind of social charity case. So whatever you're trying to do, you might as well just, not.” Helena rolled her eyes against the sting of those words. “Yes, because heaven forbid someone might actually want to get to know you.” Giselle was waving her over towards their usual table, so she went, bristling and disappointed.

Megan complained into the girls’ chat that Kurt had blown her off after practice, because Myka hqd been waiting. Helena could only imagine: Myka sitting on the bleachers, hunched over the book in her lap, fencing foil at her side to complete her awkward-solid-ethereal aura, the way she'd look up when the coach called for them to finish... Helena wasn't telling Megan she'd have done exactly the same.

The next day, Helena headed for the little group's usual table. She could tell where she wasn’t wanted — though she couldn't think of what she might have done to deserve Myka snubbing her like that. Yet that twinge of bitterness did nothing to dampen her curiosity. “How was your first tutoring session?” she asked Kurt, sliding into the spot next to him. “What's she like?” Kurt paused for a moment, forehead wrinkling, obviously having to think it over. “She's all right, I guess. She's really smart. It took a little while, like she had to explain things a couple of times before I got it, but then, like, we just clicked, you know? She said I could pay her in Twizzlers, you know, the red kind?” Helena assumed he wasn't actually looking for a response, and at any rate she wouldn't have trusted herself to give one. “She’s got a sense of humor, too, once she loosens up.” Slowly, Kurt smiled, in his bright-charming-handsome way Helena was beginning to fucking hate. Like it was a sudden realization, he added, “I guess she’s actually sort of hot, in a cute, dorky kind of way.” You don't bloody have to tell me that. Helena stabbed at one of her chicken nuggets, and the plastic fork snapped.

The next day, Myka had Sense and Sensibility with her at lunch. Silently, Helena cursed. She might just be in love, bloody weakness for bloody gorgeous girls with bloody adorable glasses and my bloody favorite books.

(She took Giselle to the winter formal. She was proud of herself, for only tossing three — fine, four — longing, envious glances at the way Myka rested her head on Kurt's shoulder during a slow song, rested it there with a joyously contented smile Helena wanted to fucking kiss off her lips.)

#bering and wells exchange #bering and wells #dapperdorian #rinari is categorically incapable of limiting her gift fics to any reasonable length apparently #rinari's fic #love i've missed you in a million different ways (how is it we keep on writing tragedies together?)#angst #unrequited love #high school au #(yes yes i know it's overdone but some stories in this series will be less clichéd — promise!)#and some just kind of wrote themselves and _fit_ so I had to include them

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 5 years

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So this is for @the-goofball, just because, and for @ladyelysandra for her fan-rambling and encouragement. I wanted to write this before Valentine’s Day, but, hey, it’s still Femslash February. *cough* That’s what counts, right? *sheepish grin*

Contains, uh, D/s overtones, Helen being her usual emotionally repressed and control freak self, uh, mistaken perceptions of others? Not at lot to tag I don’t think.

Basically Kate attempts to organize something for Valentine’s Day. Helen learns about it, and has a couple of things she wants to say.

"Kate, do you have a moment?"

Kate turned to find Helen standing in the doorway to her office, forearm braced on the doorjamb, hip cocked, a posture she usually only took during other moments. She swallowed, darting her tongue over her lips — by now a pavlovian reflex. Helen's smile widened.

"Uh, yeah, of course." Kate stepped into the room, turning to face her as she closed the door. That tiny click, significant and yet not all at once, the sound both setting her at ease and setting her on edge, rife with echoes of past meanings. Kate shoved her hands in her pockets. "What's this about?"

Helen settled against her desk, not quite sitting, fingers curling around the edge. "I called Alfredo's yesterday, to request a table for the 14th. Imagine my surprise when I'm informed there's already a reservation for that evening, in my name."

Kate opened her mouth, almost prepared to protest, and then she just shrugged slightly. "Yeah, I wanted to do something. I mean, I'm not really into the schmoopy clichéd Valentine's Day stuff, but I figured..." She searched for the right words. "You kinda have this thing about being 'courted properly'," and she made sure the fond air quotes were audible, "And I figured doing something for Valentine's Day was part of that."

"Kate..." Helen shook her head, with something gently coaxing in her tone Kate couldn't quite pinpoint. "Why?"

Kate shrugged, feeling a little helpless, off-balance yet again. Helen's specialty, almost like an aura. "Why not? I thought — I was trying to do it right. " She shook her head, glanced at the floor. "It seemed like something you'd like, and, like, care about."

Helen straightened, pushed herself gently off of her desk, and held her hands out. "Come here?"

Kate went, and was kissed: softly, thoroughly, until she threaded her fingers through Helen's locks and flicked her tongue across Helen's lower lip.

"I appreciate what you've tried to do. The forethought and intention behind this..." She brushed a lock of hair behind Kate's shoulder, fingers ghosting over that sensitive patch of skin on Kate's neck. "But is this you?"

"What do you mean?" Kate shook her head, taking half a step back, to create space for her confusion.

"I mean, are you doing this for yourself, or out of some attempt to do what you think will please me?" A quiet quirk of her eyebrow that drove the breath from Kate's lungs.

She looked down, embarrassment flooding her face. "You don't like it?"

"May I be frank?" Helen ran her thumb along Kate's jaw, tilting her chin up.

Kate laughed, meeting Helen's eyes for only a brief moment. "Since when have you ever not been?"

"Touché." Helen smiled, that truly pleased smile that brought out her dimples, that Kate never got enough chances to bask in. "What I mean to say is, I want to be romanced by Kate Freelander. Not by some person who Kate Freelander might think I want to be romanced by. Now, which one came up with this idea?"

"I — I don't know." She really didn't. Because she wanted to please Helen, wanted to be the sort of person who pleased her. And she had nothing against chocolate and champagne.

"I've been wined and dined by kings, czars, celebrities, and millionaires." Kate hunched her shoulders, sullenly kicking down the self-recrimination rising up at Helen's words. "I don't say that to belittle what you've arranged, not at all. It's the intention behind it that counts. Which is why I don't want you to feel as though you need to arrange something fancy for me. Kate, please look at me, if you can." Slowly, Kate raised her eyes to meet Helen's, to meet that soft gaze of hers she could get lost in. "Anyone can arrange a fancy dinner. Not everyone can offer me an evening Kate Freelander's way."

She never knew how Helen managed to find just the words, just the tone that made her feel small and loved and powerful at the same time. "How do you do that?"

"I most certainly can't tell you how to do things your way." There was the arched eyebrow, the wry amusement.

Kate snorted, half a relieved laugh. "That wasn't what I meant. But, I'm confused. Like, you want effort, but you don't want this kind of effort. What kind do you want?"

"Please don't confuse effort and forethought with extravagance. And don't lose your originality, either."

Kate exhaled, nodding to the rush of another small puzzle piece slotting into place. "I got it. I think."

"How are you?" Quiet, caring. "I'm aware I can be... exacting, at times."

"Hey, I knew I was getting into something with a woman who knows her own mind." Kate lifted one hand, and let it fall to her thigh again. "It just takes a bit of getting used to."

"I didn't want you to —" Helen stopped, and pressed her lips together. "No, that's not quite it. I'm aware I don't exactly perceive high society as 'your element,' and I doubt you do either, but I am confident you could navigate that environment perfectly well if you needed or desired to." Helen glanced down, that Victorian reserve flashing across her expression for a moment, before she took a deep breath. "I'm afraid my motivations were somewhat selfish. I'm not all antiques and fine wines, despite whatever lines I'm sure Will has employed when Nikola and I spend an evening reminiscing. You know I also appreciate leather and keen weaponry." Kate swallowed, acutely aware of said appreciation as it rose to her mind's eye. "My view of romance has... evolved over the years, and I was rather looking forward to being courted your way. So... if you were seeking to please me..." Helen tilted her head, and the gesture filled in the rest of the sentence more elegantly than words.

"You really aren't used to asking for things, are you?" With a strange sort of elation filling her, Kate surged forwards, to kiss Helen again. Helen let out a small, surprised noise, and curled her hand around the nape of Kate's neck.

"I'm really not," she admitted when they broke apart for air. "I hope you can make your peace with that."

Kate laughed, grinned, shook her head with something approaching fond exasperation. "Already have."

#helen/kate #helen x kate #sanctuary #helen magnus #kate freelander #rinari's fic #the-goofball #ladyelysandra #femslash #femslash february #i don't even know what this is #i think this is the closest to fluff i come xD #also i want to endorse the free writing program ghostwriter here #it has somehow radically improved my productivity these past few days #at least until it becomes my new 'official writing' interface and then i psych myself out and need to switch things up visually again #but it's nicely minimalistic and i can definitely endorse it #also somehow writing is taking less brainpower than betaing at the moment and i don't know how or why

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tryingthisfangirlthing · 5 years

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Love, I’ve Missed You In A Million Different Ways (How Is It We Keep On Writing Tragedies Together?) 3/14-ish

So this is part 3 of my @bering-and-wells-exchange gift for @dapperdorian. This section kept kicking my behind, and I wasn’t happy with it, and I wasn’t happy with it but I had a plan to follow. Then last Friday this idea bowled me over out of left field, and exploded, and, well. It’s not soft longing, more like love-hate if-things-were-different repressed wanting.

And warning for implied major character death.

3. She Would Have Given Everything

“I never want to meet you like this again,” Myka bit out, as she grabbed Helena's hand and jumped them both to the posh downtown lobby.

“Well, don't.” Helena lifted one shoulder. “But I'm not going to aside while this plague wrecks —”

“If you want to help, go back to your lab. You are not Batman! Or — Batwoman, or whoever. One of these days you're going to get yourself killed!” And her concern was very real. “And we need you.”

“That fictional, pouty, playboy Gary Stu? I should hope not!” Helena arched her eyebrows at Myka, and shook her head in disbelief. “Quite frankly, I’m offended that comparison even occurred to you.”

“Helena, you’re not super,” Myka hissed at her. “And you have —”

A loud crash rang out above them. Amanda lost the queen, Steve relayed.

On it. “Get out of here, and stay out,” Myka grit out, and jumped back to the 10th floor to search.

Higher than 10. Lower than 15. Closer to 15 than 10, judging by the volume of the ruckus. Coming higher, the screech of metal giving way under demonic claws. Elevator shaft. To confirm, she jumped several floors below, inside the shaft.

The breathless cold split second of everywhere and nowhere. Steeling herself against the rushing freefall, the crack of instinctual panic. Up, look up.

A forked tail, lashing out, snagged her hair. That was too close. Closing her eyes, she jumped again, without those strands.

Solid ground beneath her feet, no large, otherworldly presence. Definitely in the elevator, and climbing, Steve. Then she fell onto all fours, shaky and ungainly.

“Don't you dare talk to me about risking my life, when they need you just as much.” A fierce murmur in her ear, and a vial was pressed against her hand. “Drink.”

Myka opened her eyes just in time to see the swarm zipping up the avenue, Helena flinging a grenade through the doors into the middle of it. Flame burst through the cloud of insects, licking at wings and silencing snapping mandibles. The drones are here. First wave is dealt with, but I'm sure more are coming.

Copy. She could hear the frown in Steve's thoughts. We need to get these civilians out of here.

Shit. Why here? It wasn't a food source for them (like the nuclear power plant just outside of town) or on the dessert menu (the slaughterhouse just across the county line) or even a good nesting spot (no large, open yet enclosed spaces).

Better here than almost anywhere else.

Office complex on a Saturday afternoon… You have a point.

Helena gave you something. Take it.

You connected her, too? A miserable foreboding rose in Myka's throat. But that was Pete's forte, not hers.

Safer for everyone, was all Steve offered in return.

Myka uncorked the vial and drank. It didn't happen all at once, but her heartbeat slowed, a new energy crackling through her veins.

“What was that stuff?” She called across the lobby, as she straightened, rising, testing her knees.

“Just something I cooked up.” Helena didn't spare her a glance, alternating between eyeing the street outside and a flashing gadget on the marble floor by her feet.

“Yeah, I got that much.” She rolled her shoulders, checking for any aches.

“Well, I don't have the time to explain the various biochemical process involved,” Helena snapped.

“I was pre-med, you know. Before —” She couldn't find the words for — this madness. “Before.”

“I didn't know,” Helena said, softly, and Myka glanced at her to find that this was the thing that got her attention. A kind of sorrow flickered in her dark eyes, and Myka almost wondered if she was thinking, for the first time, about how her screw-up had affected everyone else.

“I was going to switch over to pre-law, though.” She brushed it off. Something wasn't quite right, that last jump... “Just didn't know how to tell my dad. You kind of saved me the trouble.” Because the last thing she needed was pity from Helena fucking Wells.

Helena nodded, slowly, her gaze wandering back to the now-beeping device at her feet. “I was a writer, before.”

“I know. Writer, inventor, physicist, all-around polymath.” Something in Myka's back clicked into place, and all her atoms lined up again — sans that shorn-off hair, she reminded herself, running the flat of her hand over the ragged curls. If she tried to reassemble more matter than was there…

You good to go?

“You did?” There shouldn't be that much surprise in Helena's voice, for someone once heralded as “the next Jules Verne or Anne McCaffrey.”

Yep. Where?

They were all huddled in a storage closet on the 7th floor, eight weekend workaholics, one with a kid. Steve was shielding them all from the creature’s senses for now, but the effort it was taking him slipped over their connection as well.

She jumped.

Her eidetic memory served her unspeakably well, in that she could look at a roomful of people and know exactly how to reassemble them. “Hold hands, please,” as she reached for Steve to one side of her and the nearest civilian on the other. “No disabilities or chronic conditions?”

“Asthma,” one person in the back piped up.

“All right, noted. Shouldn't be a problem.” Where to?

Mall on King and McAllister. It was a good three blocks away, but definitely out of any potential lines of fire. Myka drew on all of her focus, making sure she could feel every one of them, and jumped.

A tug, a weight on her core, as she pulled them all through spacetime. Head throbbing as she stumbled onto the sidewalk, relief flooding her as they all came through all right.

Steve tightened his grip, wrapping his other arm around her to keep her from falling.

“You all right?” It was almost startling to her his voice in her ear, after so often hearing it only in her head.

“I will be,” she muttered.

“Get back to Helena. She'll look after you while you rest up.”

“Where the hell are Amanda and Pete?” Why couldn't one of them babysit me?

Amanda and Pete are doing their damn best to contain that queen.

Fine.

So she sucked in a breath and, for the third time in what felt like as many minutes, she jumped back to that damn lobby.

— Nearly jumped straight into Helena, careened as she shifted her destination at the last moment, Helena's startled “oh!” loud in her ear. Helena's arms wrapped around her, as she came to rest back in reality again.

“We've really got to stop meeting like this.” Low, teasing, warm breath feathering over her ear.

Myka let herself sag forward. “Screw you,” she muttered.

“You're quite welcome to, some other time.”

I just learned way more about you two than I ever wanted to know.

Butt out, Steve! And she could practically feel the same sentiment emanating from Helena, though she couldn't hear her directly.

Kinda hard right now, sorry.

Helena guided her over to a red leather armchair, Myka dragging her feet one after another. At least she shouldn't be crucial to operations now, unless they needed a scout, or bait, or a distraction, or a split-second save. Again.

Myka bent over, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands, hair falling in her face. Tried not to feel awkward about how sweaty and gross she was making this nice chair.

She heard Helena make some kind of round of the space, muttering to herself, occasionally British-cursing at some gadget or another. Myka focused on breathing and getting her presence of mind back together. “Do you have another of those pick-me-ups?”

“I wouldn't recommend downing two in a row. Just as a precaution.”

“Okay.” She lifted her head, to watch as Helena watched the exterior. A laptop balanced on the narrow reception desk, floor plan of the building on display, surrounded by sporadically flashing indicators of, something, and now Helena paid this more attention than the view through the glass doors. A flash-bang off too their left, building lights flicking off and on again.

“Don’t tell me it wrecked the wiring somewhere.” God, she was getting fucking tired. Both right now, and of everything.

“That was me. Experimental chain-lightning —” she caught Myka's look — “Basically a super-sized swarm taser. Or, attempt at one.” And she frowned at the screen.

“Great. You can knock them out. Now just jump this entire freakshow back off of our plane of existence already.”

“Yes, thank you, I’ve been working on that for the past six months already.” Annoyance crackled through her voice.

“Stopping every time there's even the faintest hint of an attack to go play Batman with us. Or really more Lois Lane.” Myka knew only the vaguest of comic book premises from Pete. “Or whoever the mad scientist is. Harley Quinn, maybe?”

“That is low.” Helena's voice shuddered.

“I Encountered Aliens From Another Dimension,” Claims Sci-Fi Author; The Secret Crackpot Side of Physics’ Once-Rising Star; Local Mother Institutionalized, Daughter Left In Uncle's Care; the headlines flashed across her memory, and she hung her head again. “You're right. I'm sorry.”

Helena hummed vaguely. It wasn't quite acceptance, but Myka would take it.

“Hopper, 10 o'clock.” Myka winced inwardly as its spines shattered window after window on its zigzag path through downtown, thirty feet above ground.

“Yes, I'm aware. How about you do your job and let me do mine?”

“Sorry,” Myka muttered. “Just trying to be helpful.”

“Well, you're not.”

“Besides, I wouldn't exactly call this your job.”

Can you cool it with the negative energies? Really making things difficult right now.

Myka braced herself against the loud crash upstairs, the way the entire building shivered with the massive impact. Then a loud kreee! and the creature fell to the ground outside, writhing on its back, screaming as it melted from its eight feet down.

“What — did you coat the building in something? Or has someone nearby recently discovered the power of carapace-melting acid shields?”

A wicker café chair across the side street burst into flames, and Helena swore.

“Is that going to melt through the cement?” It would be kind of impressive, if this stuff did manage that trick. It almost looked like it might, as the hopper's screams died down to a low gurgle.

“It shouldn't. It should only react with their exoskeletons but —”

“It is.” The last of the creature utterly dissolved, the acidic puddle was now carving itself its own little pondspace, sinking into the middle of the intersection.

A loud sigh. “That's what field tests are for.”

“Really? In the middle of the city?” Myka stood, outrage eating away at her. “You are utterly insane.”

Helena glared at her, and for a split second, Myka was glad those piercing eyes weren't super. “Oh, I'm sorry. Was I supposed to try to lure one out into the middle of bloody nowhere, and try to contain it, just to douse it in deadly acid, and hear from you, ‘Oh, how could you, Helena? Doing something so dangerous on your own! You're too important and we need you working to fix this reality tear you ripped open! Think about others for once!’” Her mimic was mocking, annoyingly accurate for this familiar argument.

Stop it! Fight later!

If Helena heard Steve, she gave no sign. “Myka Bering, my entire life right now is dedicated to mitigating the damage I've caused the best I know how, and I don't need to hear that sort of shite from you!”

She was trembling; they both were. In her peripheral, something burst into flames; a window shattered, smoking shrapnel landing on the entryway carpet.

Myka kicked at it, and found herself swaying on her feet. “You set up a minefield?”

“A perimeter, yes. For the moment.”

“How did you lug all this stuff here on short notice?” She hadn't helped, she knew. She rested her head in her hands again.

(“You're lucky,” she'd told Pete once. “Your powers don't leave you feeling like three-day-old roadkill afterwards.”

“Yeah,” he'd returned, “but I do spend like a billion dollars on tacos now. Besides, your powers are way cooler. I'm just a regular guy who can lift a bunch of stuff.”

Myka had surrendered to eating sugar, in frankly pathetic quantities, to combat the roadkill feeling the day after. But that wasn't something she'd tell anyone, not even her best friend.)

“I didn't.” As nonchalant as you please.

Myka looked up, narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”

“It means, I didn't do it on short notice.” Helena glanced at her, assessingly. “It means I set up what I hoped would be a lure for the queen here. And once she's gone, the rest should shut down.”

“And you didn't think to tell us?” Myka was striding across the room, reaching out to — to strangle her, probably.

She told me, Steve interjected, and Myka stilled. The queen showed up sooner than anyone expected.

Pete might as well have punched her in the gut. We're supposed to be a team, Steve.

“Because we all know how much faith you have in my work.” Helena's momentary smile was saccharine, sardonic.

She sucked in a breath, mind reeling like the colors of a kaleidoscope. “I think you're brilliant,” slipped out. “You've got no common sense, but you're a genius. You're, what, five years older than me? And you've found a whole other universe. Like something out of one of your books.” Helena was staring at her, lips parted, that melting gaze soft and shocked. “You're just so stupid, and — and selfish sometimes!”

Incoming! Myka!

She didn't think, just grabbed Helena and jumped.

But she didn't have some destination in mind, not even some instinctive concept of safe harbor. And now Helena was here with her, floating in this strange stillness that was everywhere and nowhere. I'm sorry, she tried to say, but there was no way to hear.

Like being thrown under a waterfall, she had no idea which way was up, air, reality. Stupid stupid, she'd been so tired, she hadn't thought — and wasn't that what she always accused Helena of? The thing she feared most in herself, the not thinking, the reason for rules... So stupid.

She tried to picture the lobby they'd left, tried to reach for any anchor.

There, that stupid blinking laptop, she could almost see it, and the ceiling plaster raining down, the claws and slobbering mandibles and gigantic five-eyed frilled head.

She pushed Helena away, through, pushed her to stumble onto that ragged red lobby carpet, and then Myka met the monster's claws.

It thrashed, resisted, but Myka yanked it with her, and then everything went black.

#bering and wells #dapperdorian #rinari's fic #love i've missed you in a million different ways (how is it we keep on writing tragedies together?)#superhero au #angst #implied character death #love-hate #sci-fi au #this is so not in character #myka is a hot mess #actually they both are #but myka is more of one #so many issues #this just exploded into a whole world and trying to write a short piece for it was just... a little bit magic #i feel bad because it's probably not entirely what you wanted but i love it anyways

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