Having dissociation be your main coping mechanism for your entire childhood and knowing that you’ve had many traumatic experiences feels like your memory is a bookshelf that should be full. Each memory is supposed to be a book and your shelves should be full, but at some point you took out every book with the letter Q in the title. But all the books still stand straight despite the gaps and on a good day you can convince yourself that enough are there for it to be fine, everyone has books that get lost or damaged or never make it on the shelf to begin with, until you talk to someone and they say something that reminds of a book you know you had but when you go to pick it off the shelf there’s a gap where it should go. But you know the title didn’t have a Q so why isn’t it there, then you realize that as a kid you couldn’t really tell the difference between Q and O. And looking at the shelf suddenly it’s a lot more bare than you realized, too much to be explained away by your general untidiness and leaving books stacked to the side out of order, at least you can still find those ones if you remember they’re there. You can see the shape and size of the missing books and sometimes you can even guess what they contained based on the bits of titles or authors you vaguely remember, but the poor copies you try to make stand out worse than the original gaps. They’re like folders with what little information you can remember that are far too wide and thin to fit well on the shelf, leaning and sticking out past the spines around them. And your fingers catch on them as you run them along the spines of the books, interrupting and frustrating your browsing occasionally even giving you paper cuts. And now you find yourself shelving new books on the most recent shelf, holding a book with Q in the title, stuck between the urge to get rid of it asap and the fear of losing it forever that makes you want to sit down and read it over and over, annotating the pages and writing a whole separate copy just in case because you’d rather have a thousand paper cuts than look at another shelf with more empty spaces than occupied ones.
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Thade Adventures: Parkour
OCs: Thade Orech-Pabat, Caladea Ores-Pabat, and Pirianus Orech-Pabat
Words: 500
Content warnings: heights, getting kinda made fun of in front of your crush
Taglist: @vacantgodling
“Do you think it’s possible to parkour all the way down to the ground floor from here?” Thade said, leaning against the railing at the edge of the open space that cut all the way down to said ground floor.
“Maybe,” Caladea said, barely looking up from her phone.
He grinned. “You think I should try?”
She looked up for real. “No, you can’t parkour.”
“I can totally parkour,” he said, pushing himself up on his arms so that his hips rested against the top of the railing. He brought one sandaled foot up between his hands—he wasn’t going to go further than crouching on the rail, because he couldn’t parkour, but his foot slipped out from under him and his arms betrayed him and he found himself bent double over the railing, clinging to the slats, his feet barely skimming the carpet. The fourth floor suddenly looked very high up.
“Okay, I take it back,” he said. “Can you help me?” If he’d been with anyone but Caladea, they probably would have left him there to think about his actions for a while, but she came over right away to haul him back up by his pants waistband. Which would have worked if he hadn’t chosen this moment to be wearing sweatpants. Instead of helping, she just pulled down his pants, and he suspected also his boxer briefs.
“Oh no, I’m sorry,” she said like it was an accident, but she was also giggling.
“Callie, you better not be filming this.”
“I’m not.” Giggle giggle. She must be, because she certainly wasn’t helping him. He kicked his legs a little bit and felt a cold rush of fear as he shifted forward on the rail. Well, this was fine. He could just work his way back up the slats with his hands, and he would eventually slide back onto the floor. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be faster. He’d hardly started when he felt familiar rough-edged hands on his hips and he was ungraciously pulled back upright. As his blood stopped pooling in his head, he beheld Pirianus standing there, frowning as always. That is, until Caladea showed him something on her phone, and he cracked a tiny blue-edged smile.
“Thanks,” Thade said with zero gratitude, pulling up his stupid sweatpants. Before he could escape these two chucklefucks, though, Caladea turned her phone on him, and he was met with a photo of himself stranded over the rail, his panicked face looking through the slats, and his hairy asscrack surrounded by ironic hearts and sparkles. Across the top was the word PARKOUR flanked with party poppers and flames.
“Great, thank you,” he said with a fake smile. It should have been funny. He should have been laughing—he could take a joke at his expense any day of the week—but instead he felt his cheeks burning. “I’ll get that put on my calling cards.”
He didn’t look at her or Pirianus as he walked away.
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Guilty Pleasure - Epilogue
Author’s Note: This is a short continuation of my slight AU which I think I’m going to call the...”College Friends AU” (to be distinguished from the usual College AUs where everyone is jammed into one school for the heck of it lolol). I didn’t plan on writing more since I usually just peddle oneshots, but this whole blog is just an exercise in actually creating something when I get vivid mental pictures instead of just ruminating on it til it dies. Anyways so long story short here’s a short epilogue. At least it finally gave me a chance to write the dynamic with Vandy.
If you haven’t read the first fic, I’d recommend doing so in order to understand what’s going on here ^^
~~~~~
Seven tapped aimlessly on his desk as he reclined in his chair and looked over the code for his most recent assignment. He would be lying if he said he was entirely invested in the task at the moment. His mind couldn’t help but wander, which meant he had to frequently read through the same strings of data multiple times. He paused in his half-hearted work when he heard the telltale footsteps of his handler entering his bunker. Great. That guy always knew how to pick the worst times to check in. It’s like he had some sort of sixth sense that told him whenever Seven started slacking. Absolutely uncanny.
The rhythm of footsteps was interrupted by a thunk. Ah yes, one added benefit to leaving a mess everywhere was that it tended to make it a smidge more difficult for his poor handler to safely and efficiently move through the space. He wouldn’t necessarily call them booby traps…although his handler might think differently. Seven was unable to suppress his snicker as he listened to the agent curse loudly. Finally, the door opened, revealing the disgruntled brunette.
“Geez, how many times do I have to tell you to pick up your junk?? It’s like a minefield out there.” The agent spat as he stomped into the room.
“My deepest apologies, Madam Vanderwood. I’ve just been sooo busy being a good little slave that I haven’t the time to tidy up!” Seven moaned dramatically.
Vanderwood laughed bitterly at that. “Hah, if that were true, I wouldn’t be on the phone with the boss half the time making excuses for why we’re behind schedule.” He moved closer, looking over Seven’s casual reclined posture with disapproval. “Let me guess, you’re still not finished yet.”
Seven leaned his head back, shooting Vanderwood his best carefree smile. “Ding ding! You would guess correctly!”
Vanderwood only scowled deeper at that, letting out a groan as he brought a hand up to rub at his tired eyes. “Is something going on with your RFA group or something?” He threw out a guess. He could tell something was different with Seven, but he wasn’t sure what.
Seven’s smile fell and turned to a look of genuine confusion. “Huh? No. Why?”
“I don’t know, you’ve just seemed more distracted than usual ever since we came back from our last mission. I know you have no problem with traveling overseas, so do you want to tell me what’s actually going on?” He asked firmly, looking not much different from a scolding parent as he placed a hand on his hip, waiting for an answer.
Seven brought a hand up to his face as he hummed in thought. “Hmmmmmm…Nope, not really. But I wasn’t aware we were sharing feelings now!” He sat up and whirled his chair around to face his handler with a sneering grin. “This is news to me, but by all means, go ahead and start the sharing circle. Ol’ reliable agent 707 is here with open arms!”
Vanderwood let out an aggravated huff, lifting his hands in surrender. “Okay okay, fine! Don’t tell me. But whatever it is, if I catch it affecting your work, we’re going to be having a much less pleasant conversation,” he growled halfheartedly, already too exasperated by Seven’s antics to remain as intimidating as he initially intended.
“Aye aye, Captain!” Seven chirped, giving a mocking salute.
“...Tsk, and get back to work! We both know you’ve barely touched your assignment all day!” He hissed, turning on his heel and stomping back out of the room.
Wow. He really did have some sort of Seven Slacking Sense. The thought nearly gave Seven chills. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and listened closely to the sound of Vanderwood’s retreating footsteps. He sat completely silent, waiting until he was absolutely sure the agent was long gone before he jumped up from his chair.
Vanderwood was right. He was distracted. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he had done during that last mission. That line he had crossed. The line he was…still crossing.
Seven gave one more suspicious glance around the room for good measure before he clambered his way on top of his bed. Fishing out a screwdriver from under a pillow, he rose up onto his tiptoes to reach a small vent high above the bed. With practiced precision, he removed the screws and slid off the vent cover, retrieving the prize stashed away inside. A small plain phone, clearly a burner. He had ensured that this device was completely untraceable so that he could make contact without leaving any kind of digital trail. That was the only way he could justify this.
He let himself drop down onto the bed as he booted up the device. A quick glance at the clock. Yes, it shouldn’t be too early in the morning over there…
The device powered on and he quickly punched in the number he had been careful to memorize. His tired eyes stayed trained eagerly on the screen as he sent the first text and waited for a response. Several long moments ticked by as he waited with bated breath. Maybe it was too soon. This was a bad idea. He shouldn't have…
Before he could spiral into deeper self-hatred, a response came through. He felt the weight immediately lift from his chest and he felt himself grinning as he read over the warm greeting that he'd received. Just like that, his mood was a little bit lighter and all he wanted to do was sit here and talk with Y/N all day.
As more texts were sent back and forth, he settled into a comfortable position sprawled out on the bed. He knew he was playing with fire. This was far too dangerous for both parties involved. He should smash this phone before something terrible happens… But man did the warmth of these flames feel good.
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i wanna hear more ab your raz age up (mostly so I can draw ours together sffbgnv)
Ohgh I'm always willing to talk about him more I've been thinking so much about him recently, especially with how he reacts when he comes to the realization that being a Psychonaut is a lot more paper work than he would have expected it to be.
After being in the field for roughly 18+ years the awe and wonder of being a Psychonaut has eventually lost its charm. He still wouldn't be any other place though, since it is, in fact, his dream job still (to some extent) and he feels like after being there for so long he's stuck with it. He's always so buried in paperwork, always trying to sort it out in his dorm room (which at this point has become a den full of mountains made of files and inevitable papercuts)
Sure once he finally gets a mission to go on he can actually stretch his legs and do something somewhat entertaining, but even the mission work has gotten repetitive. Like, yeah alright we get it you want to take over the world, can you just skip to the part where you tell us where the bomb is please.
The downright repetition of it all has taken a toll on his childlike sense of adventure, and all the little things keep getting more and more mildly annoying by the day. When he was around 22 he decided to go to college in an attempt to break away from it for just a little bit, and that's where he and Chloe became acquainted.
Because of the predictability of it all, he's become quite fluent in snark and sarcasm, and while he still upholds the professional demeanor and performance he's always had since he was younger, he also tends to act quite nonchalant in what would be quite dire situations to most regular people. Usually shrugging off or rolling his eyes to all the empty threats the villains tend make. He's a younger sibling as well, so of course he knows a thing or two about how to push buttons and get into mischief and get away with it. While hes not as much of a wild card as Bobby or Lili, he tries to use these skills to his advantage to try and bring back some kind of thrill into his work.
All in all, he's tired. He still manages to have fun, but he's tired. Unless he can find a good case or mystery to keep him occupied for a while, he'll be sitting in his dorm sifting through paperwork while going through a pack of cigarettes. The boredom man... It wasn't until he started his counselor job at Whispering Rock that things started to get a little more interesting
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