Rise in Revolution (Chapter Twenty-Three)
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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Twenty-Three
Drop of Emotion
Tac’s Room, Sector IAL. February 5, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Shawn really had no idea what was going on.
He had woken up the morning after Geek’s birthday party with no recollection of how he had come to fall asleep in a room that was not his own with a smaller form snuggled against him. Fortunately, his clothes seemed to be firmly on, so nothing too bad had happened.
Hopefully.
Shawn was pretty sure he knew who it was snuggled against him, but he shifted to look anyway. Tac grumbled quietly and snuggled against him again, and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly. Despite the fact that he had no idea what was going on or what had happened, he felt almost at home, if uncomfortably aware that this would be very, very awkward later.
He shut his eyes. He could worry about that then.
He was about to drift off again when he felt Tac shift, pulling away and then freezing.
“...Shawn?” Tac’s voice sounded half-asleep.
Shawn opened his eyes. “Yeah?”
“Why are you here?”
“I have no idea,” he confessed, reluctantly moving away from her. Tac quickly sat up and got out of bed, crossing her arms and blinking sleepily.
“So...I’m awake?” She didn’t seem totally convinced.
“Yep. Unless I’m asleep too.”
“..Okay. So you’re sure you don’t know?”
“Yes!” Shawn stood up as well, looking at her somewhat awkwardly. “Last thing I remember is Geek’s party in the Black Market, and then waking up here.”
“Yeah, that’s…” Tac trailed off, frowning. “That’s all I remember, too. What happened?” She looked at him suspiciously.
“I don’t know!” He held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not responsible for this!” His eyes caught upon his trenchcoat hanging on the back of a chair and he quickly put it on, feeling more secure with it around him. A slip of paper fluttered to the floor and he stooped to retrieve it, groaning as he looked it over.
All that was on it was a bright green heart, drawn with clear sarcasm in its lines. The ink glowed faintly, betraying its magical nature.
Shawn crumpled the paper. “Geeeeeeeek!”
Tac’s eyes narrowed. “What did she do?”
“This!” Shawn motioned vaguely at Tac and then himself. He picked up his shotgun off the table, thankful that it hadn’t been misplaced, and stalked out of the room, Tac not far behind.
Geek looked up as they stormed into the Black Market, a grin pulling itself across her face. “Did you two have fun?”
Shawn threw the crumpled paper at her. “Fuck off. What did you do?”
“All I did was have you guys stay together. What you did is up to you.” Geek shrugged.
Tac’s metal fingers clicked as she pulled them into fists. “What. Did. You. Do.”
“Just an enchantment. Nothing major. If you woke up with clothes on, you’re all good.” Geek shrugged and got to her feet. Without a backwards glance, she strode off through the wall into her room.
Shawn sighed and slumped into the nearest seat, crossing his arms. Tac vanished from sight, likely too awkward to deal with him at the moment.
Well, shit.
~~~
It was two days later when Tanadin tapped Shawn’s shoulder. He jumped in surprise, having not been paying attention.
“Don’t do that!”
“Sorry. Phasing out again?”
“Yeah.”
Tanadin sat down in a chair next to him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine. It’s Tac. She’s been avoiding me ever since Geek pulled her prank or whatever the hell that was. I think she’s mad at me, even though it’s not my fault. At the very least it’s really awkward, and, yeah, it kinda is, but…” Shawn sighed unhappily. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Hmm.” Tanadin frowned. “Try talking to her. Ask her what’s going on. Getting a confirmation is nice, and if you can break that awkwardness, then things can go back to normal.”
“Yeah, but…” Shawn hesitated.
“Look, it literally can’t get worse if you talk to her. Only better. Or no change at all. Whichever.” Tanadin shrugged.
Shawn sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Thanks, I guess.”
“Hey, it’s what friends are for, right? And we don’t need a heartbroken Shawn shooting at cyborgs once we’ve got that tunnel done. We’re about halfway there, you know.”
“What do you mean, heartbroken?” Shawn demanded.
Tanadin grinned at him. “Dude. It’s really obvious you like her.”
Shawn started to protest but stopped, sighing. “Is it really that obvious?”
“To me, yes. But I know you a lot better than most people here.” Tanadin smiled at him and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We don’t all have bets on when you’ll get with her.”
Shawn glared. “What do you mean, not all of you?”
“Emma and I might have one going.”
“Tanadin!”
Tanadin snorted with laughter. “Get out of here, Hite. You have a handless girl to seduce.”
“I’M NOT GOING TO SEDUCE HER!” Shawn’s voice was practically a shout, earning a few odd looks from other members of the Black Market.
“Whatever! Get going!”
Shawn grumbled but did as Tanadin said, getting up and stalking out of the Black Market.
Tanadin giggled to herself until Emma came and sat next to her.
“How’d that go?”
“Fucking beautifully.”
~~~
“Never again,” Tanadin vowed as she sat down next to Emma and Seven in the Black Market on the morning of the fifteenth. “Never again.”
Emma nodded in quiet agreement.
“I dunno, I thought it was fun,” Scott said, leaning on the table. “I had a great Valentine’s Day.”
Emma pointed an accusing finger at him. “You’re the one that spiked the fucking drinks! Everyone was drunk except for the cyborgs!”
Seven nodded. “Everyone seemed like their inhibitions were lowered yesterday. It was a disturbing experience that I’d rather not repeat.”
“I agree,” Nine muttered from a couple tables over. “I never want to see Mars doing that again.”
“Look, not everyone was drunk,” Scott reasoned. “I warned Clash and Sub, and Cap somehow knew to bring her own drink. And alcohol doesn’t affect aven as much! They were just kinda dizzy.”
“Fuck you,” Devan cawed from across the room where he was handing out headache medication. “Fuck you and your face.”
“It’s a good thing elementals can transform and get rid of all of the effects,” Tanadin mumbled. “Or I’d have a terrible hangover. Shame I forgot until I woke up, though.”
“How was that, by the way?” Fan asked, dizzily walking over and leaning on the table. “How far did you and Seven go last night?”
Tanadin glared and protested, while Seven just looked confused. “Not far. We were just stuck in Geek’s room until she let us out. Only a few feet away.” He pointed vaguely at the wall.
“That’s not what I meant,” Fan practically purred. “What did you do? Did you have fun?”
“Tanadin fell asleep and I went through Geek’s things. I don’t know what the function of half of that stuff was but I’m very curious.”
“Yooou might not want to do that,” Tanadin told him. “Just...don’t.”
“Hunh? Why?”
“You don’t want to know the function of most of that stuff.”
“...Explain?”
“My room isn’t full of all bad things!” Geek protested. “Most of it is pre-invasion stuff I’ve scavenged! It’s only in that one box!” She frowned. “Seven, why were you going through my things?”
He shrugged. “You locked me in there and I had nothing to do.”
“What about Tanadin?” Fan suggested. Tanadin jumped to her feet and threatened to slap her.
“Go away, Fan!”
“You’re just mad because he didn’t!”
“That’s not how it is and you know it!”
“Huh?” Seven’s voice rose in confusion. “What is going on? What is Fan talking about?”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Tanadin mumbled as she sat back down.
“What!” Seven looked offended. “No! I’m twice the chronological age than any of the humans here, and probably have a higher maturity level than most of the remainder!”
Nine made eye contact and shook his head. “Trust her. She knows what she’s doing.”
“But...but…”
Emma patted his shoulder. “You don’t want to know.”
“Hang on, now that I think about it, where was M yesterday?” Scott asked, frowning and looking around.
Emma shrugged. “Out, probably. Doesn’t he usually vanish for things like this? He wasn’t at Geek’s party either.”
“Not that I blame him. I’m never attending anything Valentine’s Day-related with you guys ever again,” Nine grumbled. “You all went nuts.”
“Not my fault you didn’t have fun. Should have shut your blood filters off.” Scott shrugged.
“No! There is a good reason why we have those filters, and it’s to avoid getting ridiculously drunk every time someone decides to spike the drinks!” Nine protested.
“Alcohol is bad for you, particularly younger people. At least you warned Sub and Clash to avoid the drinks. I wish you had done the same for everyone else.” Seven crossed his arms, glaring at Scott.
“But where’s the fun in that?”
As he spoke, Zahnra stormed into the room. Her eyes were blazing in fury and her fists were clenched. She stalked right up to the table. “WHO SPIKED THE DRINKS?”
Everyone pointed at Scott. Zahnra grabbed him by the front of the shirt.
“Never do that again. I will not repeat this incident.”
“Hey, come on, it was just a joke! C’mon, no one got hurt!”
“I am a werewolf. We do not drink alcohol. I had to go purify myself of its toxins in the lake and in a minute you’ll be going right in there too. It’s February and freezing.”
A shorter figure grabbed Zahnra’s arm and yanked it away from Scott. “Let him go.” Clash’s snarl wasn’t as threatening as he had perhaps intended it to be, considering the fact that he looked around eleven years old, but Zahnra growled and let go anyway.
“Control him.” She left.
Jimmy blinked a few times and walked over to the table. “What happened?”
Emma shrugged. “Not much. Same shit as always.”
~~~
After several hours, the table had cleared except for Tanadin, Emma, and the two cyborgs. Eventually, Seven set down his book and motioned for Nine to follow him. “Right. There’s something we need to do. We’ll be back later.” Without another glance, he stood and started walking, the other cyborg not far behind.
“Bye, Seven!” Tanadin called.
“Bye, Tana.”
Tanadin smiled faintly as he left, leading Emma to look at her oddly. “I notice that, whenever you’re accidentally intoxicated, you immediately cling to Seven.”
“What? No I don’t!”
“...Yeah. Yeah you do.”
Tanadin crossed her arms. “Two times doesn’t count as always.”
“It’s every time I’ve seen you intoxicated.” A smile pulled itself across Emma’s face. “And you hang out with him all the time even when you’re fine. You like him, don’t you?”
“Pfff, what? What’s...what’s to…”
“Tana, I like him and I’ve been doing nothing but ranting about him for the past five days.” Emma crossed her arms, mimicking Tanadin’s pose.
“I had wondered. But...oh. I mean...fuck. Me too. Fuck fuck.”
Emma giggled. “We’re in the same boat, aren’t we?”
“Liking the same aro/ace guy? Yep.” Tanadin groaned and held her head in her hands. “Emma, we’re really stupid.”
“Very,” she agreed. “Do you want to join me outside? I was thinking of taking a walk around the lake. I’d like to see if Zahnra throws Scott in.”
Tanadin grinned. “Alright. Let’s go.”
As they stood up and left, Fan, from where she had been silently sitting in the corner for several hours, watched.
And smiled to herself.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-18 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-18 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-18 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-19 03:10 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-05-18 11:02 am (UTC)“No! I’m twice the chronological age than any of the humans here, and probably have a higher maturity level than most of the remainder!” That is...accurate.
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-05-18 05:57 pm (UTC)Sadie
Date: 2016-05-18 11:48 am (UTC)Re: Sadie
Date: 2016-05-18 12:47 pm (UTC)Re: Sadie
Date: 2016-05-18 05:58 pm (UTC)Re: Sadie
Date: 2016-05-19 11:21 am (UTC)Re: Sadie
Date: 2016-05-19 03:10 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-05-18 01:54 pm (UTC)“I’M NOT GOING TO SEDUCE HER!” Shawn’s voice was practically a shout, earning a few odd looks from other members of the Black Market.
Ah so it was Shawn's line that Tana teased in the chat the other day :)
“Tanadin fell asleep and I went through Geek’s things. I don’t know what the function of half of that stuff was but I’m very curious.”
“Yooou might not want to do that,” Tanadin told him. “Just...don’t.”
“Hunh? Why?”
“You don’t want to know the function of most of that stuff.”
“...Explain?”
Seven's cyborg/Dalek voice EXPLAAAAAAIN! lol XD
He shrugged. “You locked me in there and I had nothing to do.”
“What about Tanadin?” Fan suggested. Tanadin jumped to her feet and threatened to slap her.
*looks at Tana and Seven* lol No comment XD
“Let him go.” Clash’s snarl wasn’t as threatening as he had perhaps intended it to be, considering the fact that he looked around eleven years old
Awwww baby Clash standing up for Scott *pats Clash on head*
Mars can we please have some art of Clash hugging Scott's leg and saying "I love you"? XD
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Date: 2016-05-18 05:58 pm (UTC)A C E
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Date: 2016-05-18 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-19 03:09 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: 2016-05-19 08:50 pm (UTC)I like picking out the best quotes and sometimes throwing into the skype chat to see reactions XD
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Date: 2016-05-19 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-19 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-05-20 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-05-20 11:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 02:12 pm (UTC)