Writing: D&J // Fringe-Inspired AU

    Well this is embarrassing.

    I was trying to post at least once a month and I missed the entirety of August. Though, in the interest of fairness, that was a pretty up-in-the-air crazy month. Not that the next few months won't be as well, but hey. It's an excuse and I'll take it.

   But my fingers have not been completely idle. They've not been channeled into what they should be working on, but this AU idea was not to be ignored.

    Basically, I watched all five seasons of a show called Fringe (9/10 stars, would recommend) and got inspired by the final season, where the team was encased in amber and were woken up twenty years down the road.

    I know what you're thinking and oh yes I did. But just Jandy, because I'm sadistic that way. 

    There are going to be some inconsistencies and some POV swaps, because writing through Dechlan's eyes is not nearly as easy as you might think. There should also be more at some point, because I didn't even get to Teagan in my scribbles. And I kind of love Teagan. Some of the different bits are unfinished, as I'm sure will become apparent very quickly. Those would be the ones that got worked on in my head, but never got to the point where I could figure out how to put them down on the page.

    That said, shall we?


    Dusty and looted though it may have been, the majority of the furniture still remained in the upper levels of the abandoned research facility. Too heavy to transport, if he had to hazard a guess. Dechlan checked the desk drawers of the office he’d found a reasonable-looking couch in, searching for anything that might be of use. 
    As expected, nothing. Just indecipherable notes and appointment books. 
    He tossed a stack of papers onto the aged mahogany then went to drop onto the couch with an expelled breath. The electricity was out and they weren’t going to risk turning it on, so the only light available came through the dirty windows, making the interior a comfortable level of darkness to sleep in. 
    Dechlan closed his eyes but sleep couldn’t have been farther away in that moment. He started counting ceiling tiles, one arm crossed behind his head.
    Ten years. Almost eleven in a few weeks more.
    Pinching the bridge of his nose, Dechlan tried shutting his eyes again. It was his turn on the sleep rotation and if he didn’t sleep now then he wouldn’t get another opportunity for at least ten hours. 
    That knowledge did nothing to help calm his mind.
    All the evidence had pointed to her death. No one had heard from or seen her since the Takeover and with the silence and the gaping emptiness nearly driving him insane, he’d had to let go.
    If he hadn’t known better than to waste the energy, Dechlan would’ve been angry. Furious. That someone would’ve taken her, loaded her mind full of information, and stuck her in a high-tech freezer for someone to find down the road. For the resistance army to find after searching through whispers and rumors and fairytales for almost a decade to find a hail mary pass to save them all.
    Jandy.
    The emotions that came attached to that name had faded over time. She had become a fading memory. He’d let go and put her out of his mind years ago because he couldn’t handle trying to hold onto her. It’d been over thirteen months that he’d even thought about her in passing. There was just too much else going on to ruminate over the past.
    Except, it wasn’t the past anymore. 
    If they found Jandy here and if she’d survived the cryogenically frozen state she’d been suspended in for the last decade with her mind intact, then it would’ve been weeks for her since she’d last seen him. Her memories of him would be fresh. Outdated, but fresh.
    Dechlan could remember the facts about his counterpart. He knew that she’d had short brown hair and darker eyes, that’d she’d been 5’5” on the nose. He knew which hospital she’d been born in, the city she’d grown up in, all about her lost twin, Jane. He knew what her preferred foods were, that she hated sleeping with the curtains open, and that her sarcasm got caustic when she was scared.
    But her smile was gone.
    Staring at an overhead air vent coated with dust and cobwebs, Dechlan tried to remember her laugh and couldn’t. Her voice, the temperature of her skin, the smell of her hair after she’d showered.
    At some point over the years, he’d let it all slip away.
    The soldier forced himself back to stable territory again. It wasn’t worth it to linger in the past. 
    Yes, Jandelyn Sparks had been important to him. The only thing important to him, at one point.
    But there was a war going on. A fight for their survival where every pair of hands was needed and that meant he could not be crippled If they found a frozen corpse somewhere in the multiple sub-levels of this building.
    Coming to this conclusion, Dechlan turned on his side with his back to the wall and his fingers wrapped around the grip of his handgun.

//
    
    The office door banged open with an excited announcement of, “Sir!”
    Dechlan jerked into awareness, not even realizing he’d fallen asleep and sat up, resisting the urge to pull out his weapon. “Boweman. What?” A check of his watch said that he’d still had fifteen minutes.
    “The commander said to get you, sir. Nielsen found something.” Boweman was young, still full of vigor at the thought of being part of the resistance movement.
   It was usually amusing but it was downright annoying right now. Rubbing a hand over his face and feeling the foundations of stubble on his jaw, Dechlan nodded once. “Fine.” 
    The boy disappeared with a hundred-watt grin, leaving the door open as he left. 
    His body protested when he stood, an ache in his back making itself known, probably due to the decrepit couch. It wasn’t fun to remember but Dechlan was aware that he’d be forty-two in a handful of months. A fact that kids like Rick Boweman would not be learning, if he had any say in the matter. He already got enough “old man” jokes due to the graying hair at his temples.
    Boweman was waiting in the hall, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he leaned against the wall. The older man wanted to snap at him to straighten up and stand at attention, but this wasn’t the army. They pretended it was, with ranks and a chain of command, but half of their so-called troops were civilians, most of whom had never fired a weapon. Army could only be applied loosely to this group. What military procedures and regulations did show up were because of guys like him, who had been in the service at some point before the Takeover and had had it ingrained in them.
    Dechlan walked past the kid without acknowledging his presence, intent on getting to the stairwell to start down the eight flights of stairs to where their commander, Iain Ferrel, had set up his temporary headquarters. 
    A mumbled curse and a series of running steps told him that Boweman had noticed his rapid departure and had to hurry to catch up.
    “Sir!”
    Dechlan was already half way down the first set of stairs and didn’t pause. “What, Boweman?”
    “Do you think this is really going to work? Thawing out a popsicle and hoping whoever it is has enough marbles left to save the world?” He sounded out of breath already. 
    Making a mental note to suggest some extra PT to the commander, he answered, “The commander is in the business of exploring all our options, Boweman, and ours is to not ask questions and do as ordered.” He didn’t let it reach him that the “popsicle” the junior soldier was talking about was Jandy. 
    “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” The kid had gone from skeptical to subdued in less than a minute. 
    Silence reigned while they continued going down, footfalls echoing through the space. 
    Dechlan considered tacking on some of his own views on this endeavor to lighten Boweman’s mood again but decided against it. He was a superior, not a friend. And taking into consideration his own doubts about the matter, mentioning them to someone as impressionable as Boweman would be undermining Ferrel’s command in a punishable way. 

//

    Riker Nielsen was at turns jittery, nervous, and excitable little man and no matter which it was, it always seemed as if he was on some form of a caffeine high. Or maybe a sugar high. It was hard to tell.
    He was waiting when Dechlan entered a couple of steps behind Ferrel. Twirling on a stool that let out a horrible screech with every turn he made.
    “Mr. Nielsen, if you would,” Ferrel’s voice was deceptively mild but all who knew him knew better than to not sit up and listen when he addressed you in that tone.
    Dechlan let him deal with the scientist, taking in the lab with subdued interest. It was in a back corner of the bottom most basement level, tucked away behind three prior labs. Ferrel said they’d almost not found it, except this floor had been Brisk and Counterman’s responsibility and Brisk was renowned for taking the time to do his job right. There was no other door, nor was there a person-sized freezer that was locatable, but he did spot a large part of the flooring that had been pulled up and displaced.
    While he wasn’t sure about what type of space one would need in order to hide a cryogenically frozen person but it looked large enough to him, especially if it spread out beneath the floor.
    A glance at Ferrel and Nielsen told Dechlan that the scientist was deep in the midst of explaining something long, complex, and mind-numbing to the only person who would listen to him. He had time. 
    There was no hesitation to the soldier’s stride as he moved to the hidden storage space, crouching down beside it to shove the steel piece of floor further out of the way. The lights of the lab couldn’t quite reach into the darkness, but there was a faint hum indicating a power source. 
    Dechlan lifted his head and checked his immediate surroundings for a flashlight.
    There. Tabletop, four paces away. 
    Retrieving it, he twisted it on, checking that the beam was strong before turning it downwards, fingers curling around the edge of the floor space to keep his balance. The light revealed wires, silver piping wrapping around and feeding into the coffin-like case, and a frosted glass pane that extended beyond the scope of the opening in the floor. 
    He let out a long breath. 
    Somewhere in the back of his mind, it registered that the conversation behind him had ceased, indicating that something of greater importance had caught their attention but he didn’t care. Gripping the flashlight with his left hand, Dechlan reached down to try and scrape off the thick layer of frost with his nails. 
    He had to know.
    It wasn’t coming off and he knew a flare of irritation before tamping it down again. Dechlan sat back on his heels to study the stasis chamber another moment before standing. Nielsen would have to do his thing and get it to open before they would know who was stored inside.
    Stored. Like frozen produce.
    Both the commander and their only capable scientist were watching him when he straightened, their expressions expectant.
    Dechlan turned off the flashlight and set it back on the nearby table. “Whenever you’re ready, Nielsen.”

//
    
    There was something about being told to stay far to the side that produced a feeling of general uselessness in Dechlan. If Nielsen was just going to put him on the sidelines, why ask him to come at all?
    He stood at ease near the wall farthest from the hidden cryogenics chamber, a desk piled high with test tubes and paperwork obscuring his view. Silence reigned over the lab, a mixture of tension and anticipation in the air. 
    No one knew what to expect. This find could be their saving or their undoing. 
    Part of Dechlan wanted to be right across from Nielsen, listening to every muttered word the nervous man had to say, but the rational portion of his mind knew here was better. If it was Jandy – he would not acknowledge how every fiber of him screamed it is her – and she woke up to see him vastly changed from her last memories of him, it could…
    Nielsen had had a slew of technical terms but what Dechlan had come away with was that the shock of seeing him could cause irreparable harm to her. If she woke up, she would be in a very fragile state, physically and mentally. The scientist had made sure to stress her fragility several times too many. The human body, he had explained, was not built to be frozen in untested conditions for so long and there was no telling what the side effects would be. At this point, it was better safe than sorry.
    So he would remain in the background while only Nielsen, a couple of needed aides, and a medic would be close to keep the trauma sustained during her reviving to a minimum. 
    Quiet murmurs reached his ears. It sounded like they were getting close. 
    Ferrel, standing a few paces away in full view of the happenings, shifted his footing, telling of his own apprehension over the matter.
    “Alright!” Nielsen’s voice shattered the quiet, too loud and too excited.
    Dechlan jerked, then gritted his teeth. Of all the scientists sympathetic to their cause to have been assigned to their unit, it had to be him.
    “Mr. Ferrel, boss, sir,” he spoke in a constant stream, words running together until it was almost impossible to understand him. “I found the deactivation sequence—masterful work, whoever built this beauty—buried in some subroutines and I can start the thawing process whenever you would like. It shouldn’t take too long—this is some great tech, taking into account its being ten years old—but I’m thinking maybe three minutes before we can get the subject out of the chamber.” 
    The commander checked his watch and then nodded to Nielsen, hidden from Dechlan’s view. “Alright. Get started. How long until she’ll be ready to transport?”
    “I won’t know until we get her out and breathing. It could be minutes, it could be days, depending on what type of medical attention she needs.
    
//

    He’d underestimated what it would do to him to have to stand on the sidelines.
    She couldn’t breathe.
    Nielsen had turned the stasis chamber off and there’d been a flurry of activity with orders being thrown to and fro between Doc, Nielsen, and the two aides then there had been gasping breaths.
    “Get me that oxygen tank now,” their field doctor ordered, voice tight with the stress everyone in the room was feeling.
    Dechlan gripped the countertop behind him, feeling the edge cut into his palms. His world was narrowing down to any noise he could hear from ten feet away.

//
    
    The world was blinding white and icy cold. Every lungful of air she dragged in burned her from the inside out and then cooled the blazing path when she expelled the breath. The sensation caused Jandy to gag and she had to fight for every breath after that, battling breathlessness.
    “Get me that oxygen tank now.” Foreign voice and what must’ve been a touch that just felt like fire on the back of her neck, around her wrists.
    And… emptiness. Sharp, aching, a frozen blade cutting through her mind.
    Oh dear God, no.
    A mask was pressed against her nose and mouth and Jandy fought it, struggling to pull free because he couldn’t just be gone.
    He’d been there. He’d been there, she’d felt him… before. Before.
    Before this. He’d been there and now there was nothing but her own thoughts and her own feelings and Dechlan could not be gone.
    “Please,” she tried to speak, her mouth almost too dry to manage it. As it was, she choked on the single word, still trying to twist away from the insistent hands that held her.
    “Don’t try to speak. There’ll be time enough for that later.” That same voice, firm and unyielding, somewhere above her in the white-out when she dared open her eyes.
    “Please,” Jandy jerked her head from side to side, the movement only partly controlled, as she felt a tear ignite a fiery path down her temple and into her hairline. “Please, Dech…” Her throat closed then, making it impossible to speak further, but a helpless whimper escaped.
    It was so cold. Why did it have to be so cold?
    Another tear escaped, slipping across her skin unimpeded. 
    It was getting easier to breath—or at least the air she was getting was doing more—and she realized that she’d lost the fight against the mask. The lightheaded spinning feeling was beginning to diminish, if she focused on it.
    Jandy attempted opening her eyes again and found it easier to see. There was the black shape of a person now instead of an all-encompassing white blotting out everything and everyone.
    “Miss Sparks, I’m Doc Dempsey. I’m going to hold your hand in mine and I want you to squeeze my hand to answer my questions. Once for yes, twice for no. Do you understand?”
    It took her a moment to relate the burning pain in the palm of her left hand as the man’s touch. She fought the reflex to pull away. It felt like brushing against a hot stove except without the part where her skin was singed.
    But she did as asked, contracting her fingers into what she hoped was a squeeze. It was hard to say. She couldn’t quite feel her body, where everything was and if she was even grounded. The only surety was the cold. An icy blanket wrapped tight around her entire being, from the pain in her heart and extending outwards with a numbing presence.
    “Good. That’s good. Do you remember what happened?”
    Jandy tried, but the memories weren’t there. None at all, in fact. Impressions and moments and feelings, but locations and dates and images were lacking. She tightened the tendons in her arm and hand. Once, twice. She blinked her eyes to try and remove the film making the world hazy. It didn’t do any good.
    “Okay. That’s fine. It should come back in time. Are you in any pain right now?” His voice never changed tone, maintaining consistency, probably for her sake.
    Everything had faded to a dull roar. Jandy figured she couldn’t have told pleasure from pain at that point and squeezed the doctor’s fingers twice. No. 
    “Good to hear. I expect for that to change in the next while, but I’m glad you’re comfortable for the moment.”
    If she could’ve, Jandy would’ve rolled her eyes. She’d never said anything about comfortable.
    She waited and felt panic tighten her chest. There should’ve been exasperation and it wasn’t there.
    Dechlan.
    Dechlan was gone, she couldn’t feel him anymore, and she’d already come to that realization. What was happening? What already had happened?
    Jandy pulled her hand from the doctor’s, trying to find the floor beneath her and ground herself.  
    “Miss Sparks? Jandelyn? You’re going to be alright. I need you to stay calm, please.” Dempsey’s voice was low and soothing overhead.
    It was driving her insane. 
    “Get off.” She forced the words out, trying to raise her voice because she knew the mask would muffle it. “Tell me… what happened… to him.”

// 

    They were in the middle of a meeting, maps that covered over half the country strewn across the table. Dechlan listened to Ferrel as he laid out their path for the following week, zigzagging through the mountains to avoid detection and returning to either the safe zone or to their designated infiltration points. They wanted a strong resistance presence in high-profile target cities at all times.
    “Then Enjolras, you’re going to take squad tango and cut across to Central City…”
    A cold feeling washed through Dechlan, but it wasn’t from anything in his immediate vicinity. The last time he’d felt something like this had been…
    “Call an assembly.” He cut across what the commander was saying, not caring about the repercussions.
    The room froze. 
    “What?” Ferrel’s brow was smooth. Not a good sign.
    “Sir, I will explain but I need you to call a company-wide assembly in the front hall right now.” Dechlan shot Ferrel a look, dead serious.
    The older man measured him for a long beat and then nodded once. “Charleston, 

//

    It was fourteen hours in a truck to get to North Central City and Dechlan was not pleased to learn that Nielsen would be among the occupants of their transport.
    Fourteen hours of the scientist’s constant jittery rambles. Maybe their medic could give him some extra sedative for Nielsen, for when the urge to murder the man became too overpowering.
    Dechlan nodded to the other soldiers he passed. It was early, well before sunrise, but everyone was up and prepping for a company-wide departure. There were eight different trucks, all going to a variety of destinations and all slated for a different departure time. 
    The temporary infirmary was on the first floor, just down the hall from Ferrel’s office. He made his way that direction, running a hand over his hair. Once they got back to North Central, he’d need a haircut. It’d been too long since his last one. Too long equating to almost two weeks.
    Jandy had guessed where his mind was at one morning and then had laughed at him, apparently reading small tell-tales that she’d remembered despite the time. 
    His step slowed as his mind began to churn again. She wasn’t doing well. Not since that absolutely idiotic kidnapping. Doc said with her system as broken down as it was, even the two hours of exposure she’d had to endure before Boweman had found her had had a catastrophic effect.
    It made Dechlan want to get access to those two and put a bullet between both of their eyes.
    The fact that she had valuable information aside, this was Jandy. 
    The soldier’s heavy boots caused a loud echo in the stairwell as he traveled down. They had an hour and a half until the truck for North Central left and he still needed to talk to Doc and figure out what he’d need to do so that Jandy would be okay until they got to the city and another resistance doctor could be summoned.
    Green eyes surveyed the large entryway for a moment, picking out faces and putting names to them before he continued to his destination.
    Most of the lights were off when Dechlan stepped across the threshold, pausing to let his eyes adjust. The space had been a filing room when they’d first arrived, with rows of cabinets filled with documents and records lining the walls. Dust layered everything in this room as well, although Doc had been meticulous in cleaning at least the front half of it while Nielsen had been working out how to unfreeze Jandelyn.
    “Oh, Scott, good. I was hoping you’d get here sooner rather than later. It’s only going to be a day, maybe two tops, unsupervised by a physician, but the more you know, the better off Miss Sparks is going to be.” Doc’s voice was low from where he sat at his desk, feet settling back on the floor from where they’d been propped up.
    Jandy must’ve still been asleep. “We’re scheduled for 0630 departure, so whatever you’ve got for me before then will be appreciated.” Dechlan tempered his voice as well, making his way through the mostly empty room to where he knew Jandy’s cot was.
    The doctor rose from his chair to come stand a few paces back.
    Ignoring his presence for the time being, Dech crouched down at her bed side, reaching out to carefully shift the blankets away from her face. Her skin was a pale splotch in the darkness, white against the black. 
    Even as she slept, there was a shiver to the breaths she took in and let back out.

//

    Jandy rounded on him, eyes sparking with kindling anger. “Don’t even start with that, Dechlan Scott. I will not believe for an instant that a single one of those gray hair made you forget about it.”
    “It’s been ten years, Jandy, and you deserve—“ he tried again, struggling to not fight fire with fire. He was supposed to be the cool-headed one.
    She shook her head, emotions running across her face almost faster than he could process. “No. No. You don’t get to tell me what you think I deserve, Dech. That’s my right. I get to choose and I will not let you take that from me.”
    Just as soon as her ire had blazed, it was dying down, leaving a raw pain behind. It took a lot to keep from responding to the hurt in her brown eyes.
    As it was, Dechlan reached out to gather the open flaps of her oversized jacket in his hands and tow her closer to him. Jandy’s body trembled with a cold that seemed to have manifested itself deep within her. He was reminded once again of what Doc had said—that she’d probably never be the same, physically, again.
    Taking in a quiet breath, he bent to touch his forehead to hers, breathing her in, recommitting her to memory, restoring fragments of what he’d lost.
    “I don’t care about the years, Dech. You know that I don’t. You know that I’m not going to. I married you because I love you. And if you want me gone, then you have to tell me right now, because I can’t take this.” Jandy’s breath caught in her throat and he knew she was close to tears. “I can’t live with you so close and so far away. I can’t. It’s going to kill me.”
    He knew what she meant. Some of the physical barriers had fallen away—he was the only one she trusted enough to allow close and keep her warm when the nights dropped below freezing in the unheated building—but many of the emotional dividers remained. It’d been so much easier before. All they’d had to do was feel. Not it was similar to trying to sail a boat through dark, foggy conditions with no lighthouse to guide them. That is to say, difficult.
    “Jandy…”
    Her hands found his, her skin’s temperature chilling in comparison to her own, and Jandy slipped her slim fingers between Dechlan’s.
    Jandy cut in before he could get anything more out, her words halting even as she said them. “I—I’ll understand. If there’s somebody else, Dechlan. It’s been a really long time for you. But you’ve got to talk to me.  Please—“


//


    And that's mostly where my brain has been for the last few weeks, though I did get some scribbles penned down for Trinity's prompt that I need to type up and then fill in the inbetween space for. 

    Again, there's some blank spaces and inconsistencies. Apologies. I was just trying to get it out of my head and on the page.

    So. Let me know what you think. I'm going to see about some other stuff I scribbled early last month and consider posting that as well, though it probably won't be going anywhere else. I've been watching too much television.

    As always, thank you ever so much for reading and for your patience. You guys are amazing.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Sunshine Award

    One post a month, woohoo. By the skin of my teeth. 

    Lots of stuff has happened in this month, though. To explain my lack of activity for the last few weeks. We traveled the Alaska Highway as a family in a two-vehicle caravan. I have several thousand miles and lots of drive time under my belt now. Lots of drive time. And lots of miles.

    And we made it here to Alaska. And then got a call that we're not going to Japan any longer. Which led to a day of crying and so now we're working out what to do and are going to start trickling back east. 

    At any rate, Sarah and Hannah over at Sister Sketches nominated me for the Sunshine Award. In accordance with the guidelines, I would like to give them my most hearty thanks for nominating me!

 

    Rules:

    1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to his/her blog.

    2. Nominate other bloggers and let them know on their blog.

    3. Answer the list of ten questions given. 

    4. The Sunshine Award must be posted on your blog.

    I will see about the nominations in a little bit. I really need to see about following some more blogs. Sigh. 

    Now for the questions!

    1. What is your favorite Bible verse?

       I have difficulty narrowing down anything to the "favorites" category, but I'm going to go with Isaiah 43:2. "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you." Just because we're treading through some pretty deep waters and it really is a comfort to think about.

    2. Would you sacrifice your life if it would save that of a stranger's?

       It would depend on the situation, but I like to believe that I would do whatever I could to save a life.

    3. Given the chance to swim with dolphins...would you accept?

       Eh.... maybe. If it was in a controlled pool that wasn't awful deep with people around. Not in the open sea, though. Not a fan of deep water.

    4. Are you more "fascinated" by light or darkness? Why?

       I'm really not sure, because I love sunshine because it brings the world to life but at the same time I'm a nocturnal creature who thrives in the night hours and prefers late nights to any other times in the day. So both, I suppose, just because of the brilliance of the afternoon sunlight and the peace and quiet of the dark.

    5. Can you speak in a different accent?

       Sort of. I can't keep my British/Irish/Scottish very straight, which equates to a very garbled accent, but Australian isn't too difficult for me.

    6. Would you rather be disliked or forgotten?

       Forgotten, I think. It feels more mysterious that way. I dislike conflict, too, so yeah, I'd prefer to be a passing memory then a remembered annoyance.

    7. Has the ocean ever filled your dreams?

       To be quite honest, I really don't understand this question. If you mean, have I ever dreamed of the ocean, it's possible. I don't tend to remember my dreams all too often, though.

    8. Assuming you have one, how often is your journal put to use?

       Well, I was doing pretty well with it two months ago and now I've dropped off again but hopefully am going to pick it back up again before too long. Just to try and chronicle this massive upset in our lives and other details like Sam Anders and such. (Don't ask.)

    9. What is your favorite fictional character of all time?

       Dear heavens, what a question. I can't answer that. I have too many favorites. If you narrowed it down by show or movie, then I could help you out, but all time? Nuh uh. Not possible. Too many awesome characters to pick from. My current love is Starbuck. But I could name a dozen more. 

    10. What is your favorite hymn?

        I'm not really a huge hymn person--I prefer my Christian music to be contemporary-- but All Creatures of Our God and King is one I enjoy. If that counts as a hymn. Which it might not. I'm not sure...

    So yes. There we go. 

    Writing is all gorked up currently. Got a new show in the brain along with adjusting to the part where we're not going to be living in Japan for the next three years. Hopefully I'll be able to kick my brain into gear before too long, but we'll see. 

    As always, thank you for your patience and thank you again for the nomination, Sarah and Hannah!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, with difficulty.

Greet + Writing: Prompt Challenge // Trinity (pt. 1)

    Hey, hey, look who's keeping with a monthly goal of at least one blog post. I'm really proud of myself right now, to be honest. Sort of. The "part one" is the reason for the sort of.

    You know, when you cram in a lot of television, a horde of people visiting, and a transcontinental move into a couple of months, brain power really starts taking a nose-dive on you. 

    But. Two new followers to my blog in the last couple of weeks. I have no idea where you two came from, but welcome aboard and be prepared for an erratic schedule. ^_^

    To catch people up, last month (at least, I think it was last month...) I posted a prompt challenge here on my blog for my followers to get a little bit of dream world alternate 'verse reward and as a challenge to myself and lovely follower Trinity sent me the following prompt.

    "Okay, so Jandy and Dech play bodyguard to Sean and Lindsey, because Jaydn and Jasen are trying to kill them. Then use, "Where did it go?" she mumbled over and over again, sitting on the floor, back against the door, half empty bottle of wine in one hand and a handgun in the other." And I want to know who snores."

    I have been slowly (slowly) working on this prompt since then and am just now hitting four pages/2,912 words. Since I anticipate a continued slow productivity rate, I'm going to post what I've got every three pages. So today is the first three pages, then the next post will be pages four through six, and so on and so forth.

     Hopefully that makes sense, and if anyone has questions, leave a comment on any of my posts. I don't bite, will get an email heads-up, and get back to you as soon a I can. Which could either be hours or days, depending on when you catch me. Cough.

    Also, all characters within the following writing excerpt have been featured in previous posts. You can check the tags somewhere off to the right of your browser for the name of the character in question and read up on them. The world(s) this prompt is situated in has not been before featured. Brand new 'verse for alternate 'verse characters. But, just for a quick run down, J&J are Jasen and Jaydn. They're complicated. D&J are Dechlan and Jandy. They're mentally linked. S&L are Sean and Lindsey. Her parents are recently dead and he's a childhood friend. Check previous posts for further explanations. 

    With that said, forward ho!


// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.
    Eliminate.
    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.
    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.
    
// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep. 
    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.
    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.
    There was amusement with her train of thought that she poked at and then ignored.
    “G’way, Dech. Sleeping.” She managed, bleary and disoriented as she tried to roll over and away from awareness.
    The bed dipped behind her and the air felt very close all of a sudden. Wrapping her arms tighter around her pillow and burying her face in it, Jandy squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “No. No charm. No cajoling. I’m tired.”
    “And we have work to do.” There was a firm, albeit gentle, tug on her pillow.
    Relinquishing it without much fight, Jandy flopped onto her back again, reaching up to push her hair out of her eyes and blink at Dechlan.
    He was dressed and ready to walk out the door, no doubt having shaved and maybe even cut his hair while she slept, on top of eating and the rest of his morning routine. His brows raised under her scrutiny and a hint of a smile formed on his features. “Morning.”
    “I look like crap, don’t I?” she croaked, blinking sleep from her gaze before going after it with one trimmed nail.
    “No comment,” Dechlan shrugged, retaining his place on the edge of her mattress, leaning back on one hand. 
    Jandy felt him searching their link and reached back out of habit, trying to ascertain what he was after, staring at a spot on the wall as her attention drifted inwards. A memory of long hours lying awake, not hers, watching dreams of her life with her sister back in Kaido was open to her perusal. A rueful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
    Sorry, she offered, turning her head to look at her partner again, realizing his initial investigation had been an attempt to find out if he’d overlooked anything that would’ve caused the vivid imaginings of her subconscious. It happens when I’m tired. Like I sleep too deeply to keep up some barrier against them.
    It’s fine. I don’t mind. Tells me where your head’s at. One of Dechlan’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. 
    She didn’t have to voice her mild amusement and acceptance with this, letting Dechlan feel them for himself over their link. Scoot over so I can sit up and tell me about this job.
    Her partner obliged, shifting further down the mattress without protest, mind already turning to the phone call he’d gotten earlier. Jandy followed his thoughts with her own, picking up details as they went, while she pushed herself upright. Pushing her fingers through her hair again, except in an attempt to tame it this time, Jandy pulled her knees up to her chest to get past Dechlan, resisting the urge to poke him, then let her legs drop over the edge to the rug on the floor.
    The cool air that inhabited the foot of space above the ground of her room caused gooseflesh to rise up along her arms and legs. Blowing out a long breath and trying to rub it away, she glanced over to find Dechlan already watching her.
    You’ve got that look again.
    Sorry.
    Jandy smiled, shaking her head a little. There was that grey area again, with that line they danced around, and that usual uncertainty about it. But she let it roll off her shoulders, straightening a bit and moving on. “Come on, you moved too fast through the call. What did Canton have for us?”
    “A couple in witness protection.” His focus was slower to follow hers, which was growing less unusual. She woke up sometimes with his residual thoughts from the prior night echoing through both their minds. It’d taken some getting used to but now, for the moment, she’d learned to just push past it. They couldn’t go there. Not yet. Even if it was on both of their minds and they both knew it. 
    “Doesn’t that make them the government’s responsibility?” She needed to move and so did, getting up to go rifle through her set of drawers, making sure the hem of her shirt was falling where it was supposed to. It was a curious case, though, and that made it easy to focus on.
    “Technically.” There was a muffled whoof and Jandy didn’t have to turn around to know that Dechlan had fallen backwards across her bed while they talked. “But they’ve already had two near misses and they want some extra hands on deck, so they reached out to Canton and he saw we had two free weeks.”
    “Two free weeks that were supposed to be just that—free.” Clothes, clothes. She needed clothes so they could go. Easier said than done. Being busy meant little time to do laundry. Or to get laundry done, more often. A lot of her stuff had to be dry-cleaned.  Company dress code policies be darned.
     Despite her train of thought, which tended to coax some amusement from her counterpart, Dechlan felt tired, though not with her. Pausing, she investigated. It was… their job, their schedule, their life.
     You know we’re almost done. Our contract is almost up and then we should be set financially to get out of here. Jandy dropped the button-up shirt and pinstripe pants—both of which she often entertained thoughts of burning--in her hands in a heap on the ground, going to crawl up the bed beside her partner again.
     He watched her progress, arms crossed behind his head, then leaned into her when she stretched out at his side, folding out one arm. Jandy settled into the dip between his forearm and bicep, cheek pressed against his skin as she sought eye contact. Those hazel green eyes that helped make up the person who embodied home for her now.
    What they shared allowed her to feel the gratitude in response to her thoughts, the reciprocation of the sentiment, the heavy weight of weariness they both carried, both their thoughts and emotions tangling and swirling together in an intangible and unexplainable mix. It was harder than ever to distinguish where her mind ended and his began with this proximity. Their connection worked over a distance, but the closer they were, the better the clarity. And here, inches from each other’s sides, with a large portion of their thoughts already in alignment, that clarity was crystal. Almost painful in its clearness, except not. 
    Jandy could feel his heartbeat echoing her own, beating near in sync with her own, and she drew in a quiet breath, unconsciously doing so in the same moment as Dechlan.
    Almost five years, they’d had this bridge between their minds. Five years, learning the inner workings of each other’s hearts and minds to the point of not being able to imagine anything else. Not being able to imagine anyone else. 
    She searched Dechlan’s face and he studied her in return, the arm that she’d rested her head on coming up so his fingertips could brush her hair. They were both so far past the human difficulty to hold eye contact by this point; those early days were fading memories now. No, it wasn’t perfect. They weren’t perfect. Sometimes their connection made her – both of them – feel as if their souls had been laid bare to each other. Which they had, but sometimes it hurt more than others.
    Her dark eyes stung with tears as she studied the thin, white scar leading down from his hairline to be just visible on his forehead. A mark that meant he could’ve been lost to her long before they’d ever crossed paths in Warren’s program. Jandy’s breath caught in her chest.
    The piercing ring of Dechlan’s communicator from the other room caused the pair to jerk, his head lifting in an instant to ascertain the situation and hers burying into his shoulder with a muffled grumble. 
    “That’s probably Canton telling us to get over there.” Dechlan commented, sounding far more at ease than he was actually feeling at that moment.
    Jandy stifled the urge to groan again, resigning herself to a sigh, and tilting her chin up so she could see his profile again, contemplating an attempt to plead for a day off. One brow rose as he glanced back in his peripherals.
    “No. We have to go.” He voiced his reply aloud instead of keeping it enclosed in their link, hoping to clear the weight in the air around them and get her moving.
    She didn’t want for it to work, but it was. Plus his comm. was still going off in the other room, which was doing nothing to keep the moment from slipping away, so Jandy resigned herself to another day of professional babysitting and sat up. Dechlan aided her effort with a hand on the small of her back as he got moving as well. 
    Following his silent request to clear off of the mattress, Jandy went to grab her dumped clothes—no doubt sporting a few wrinkles now that she could’ve cared less about—letting her partner shake out her comforter and leave it looking a bit more orderly before going to tend to his device.
    Jandy glanced a warning to Dechlan before going about getting ready for the day ahead, finding herself to be in the same place he’d been in just ten minutes earlier. Tired of this life and tired of having to put off shedding some light on their grey area. Very tired of it.
    As she sat down on her bed to zip into her short boots, they were both in silent agreement on that point.

// S&L //

    “We’ve been talking with Miss Angelo and we’re going to set up an apartment a couple of districts over for the two of you under an alias we’re building. ” Maximoff Canton explained to Sean, who sat with his hands clasped together as he took in the security firm’s director’s words. “Before then, we have you two  booked at a hotel downtown.”
    As he always was nowadays, Sean remained aware of where Lindsey was at as best he could. She stood by the window a handful of paces away, watching the outside through the cracks in the shades. It’d been a better morning for her. And he hated to have to think in those terms, but Lindsey tended to ricochet from catatonic to temperamental to just plain broken depending on the day. Today she’d just been quiet. Responsive, but only when asked pointed questions.
    “Wasn’t Miss Angelo supposed to be here?” Sean asked, resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head, tamping down his mild frustration. No need to give an even greater dead giveaway that he had no idea what he was doing in this situation. Television and a year of university life didn’t do much in the way of preparing one for witness protection. And wasn’t the lawyer supposed to be in touch with him about all this?
    “She said she had something to attend and would be running late,” Canton wasn’t put out, though he did glance at the clock on his desk. “My people are behind schedule as well, so it should be fine.”
    “You said they weren’t your standard fare team. How did you mean?” If they had to sit here until everyone decided to show up, he might as well get as much information he could.
    “First, most of my teams of two or three are all male, for effectiveness and professionalism’s sake. If I need a female and the few on my payroll are otherwise engaged, I usually contract with another firm. Scott and Sparks are one of my more successful teams, despite her lack of professional military training.”
    Sean was pretty sure he heard an unspoken “which I still don’t understand” hanging off the man’s sentence, but didn’t say anything about it. He leveled his stare at the older man instead and said, “We appreciate whatever help you can lend, sir. She—“ Sean glanced at Lindsey, who had turned to listen to the conversation and was staring off into space. “She’s been through a lot and I’m really hoping to get through the hearing without any more incidents. Having a team on board whose purpose is to stick close will be welcome.”
    Canton took in his statements and then nodded once. “We don’t hire people who don’t know how to do this job, Mr. Becket. You both will be in good hands.”
    A sharp knock interrupted the conversation and Sean rose when the sudden noise startled Lindsey out of her reverie with a quiet gasp. 
    “Come,” the CEO called, standing and allowing the young pair a moment while the door opened .
    Lindsey was quick to nod that she was okay when Sean reached her, managing an unsteady smile. He caught her elbow to keep her close, seeing the glassy shine of tears in her eyes, and shifted to see who had come. 
    “Nice of you two show up,” Canton remarked with a disapproving downturn to his mouth that was noticed by all present.
    They had to be Scott and Sparks, as Canton had called them, Sean surmised after a few moments. Which was which, he didn’t know, but the man had a definite military aura to him and stood almost a full head taller than the woman at his side. Her dark eyes and darker complexion suggested different origins than her partner, and although she bore none of the trained professionalism of her counterpart, they both had an ease at each other’s side that bespoke a strong bond. 
    “Sorry, sir, we got back in late from our last engagement. It was a bit slow going this morning.” The male said by way of greeting, casting a glance towards Sean and Lindsey’s direction but then refocusing on his boss.
    “Just be on time next time.” Canton took his seat again. “Scott, Sparks, I’d like you two to meet Sean Becket and Lindsey Donovan, your next clients. Mr. Becket, Miss Donovan, this is Dechlan Scott and Jandelyn Sparks.”
    Sean towed Lindsey over and shook the hands of the bodyguards. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
    “Call me Jandy.” The woman said with a slight smile and a calculating gaze that rested on both him and Lindsey for a few beats before she exchanged a quick look with her partner. 
    “Shall we get down to business?” Canton addressed the four of them and Sean let his attention turn to the man behind the desk once more.


    Alright. So. I think that's all I have at the moment. I need to go help my mom find her brain, attempt to remember how to do a Spock-style mind meld, and act as a translator in general. Woot woot.

    As always, thank you for the patience, and all comments, thoughts, and critiques are welcome in the comments below.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

Who Does What: Jandy & Dechlan

    As a tide-over until I get my thoughts gathered and channeled into the writing prompt that Trinity submitted to my blog a couple weeks back, I scrawled out a mixture of the "who does what" prompts for Jandy and Dechlan. 

    It's not much, but I think they're kind of humorous, so it should suffice until I find a spare minute/brain cell for the full blown prompt.


       // shops for groceries //
    They do this together more often than not. Dechlan can cover the essentials on his own, but Jandy has some peculiar tastes that change almost weekly, and so it’s hard for Dechlan to do the shopping without forgetting something. At the same time, she can’t be trusted to remember the basic staples such as milk, eggs, or bread, so they go together and that way they’re both content.

    // kills the spiders //
    Jandy hates anything with an abnormal amount of legs and shouts for Dechlan whenever she comes across a creepy-crawly. He fulfills his duty as bug-killer with humor and great efficiency. And Dechlan always gives her a hard time about it, because she was able to mouth off to Warren, who would’ve killed her in a heartbeat, but when it comes to any sort of insect, she’s standing on top of the highest object nearby and waiting for him to rescue her. He wonders how she ever survived with just her sister to kill the bugs.

    // comes home drunk at 3AM //
    They both know the cost and effects of too much alcohol and Dechlan is too disciplined to allow himself to be that lax, but Jandy might, if it were the anniversary of her sister’s death and Dechlan wasn’t there to stop her from going out in the first place. 

    // makes breakfast //
    That would be one of Dechlan’s things he does in the morning, if they don’t have work. He’s up anyways and knows Jandy likes the slow wake-up call that she gets from him bumping around in the kitchen. Though she complains about her dreams featuring quite a few breakfast foods on the mornings that he puts together more than just cereal.

    // remembers to feed the fish //
    It’s usually Dechlan, unless he has a lot on his mind, then Jandy will quietly picks up the slack around the house that slips his memory. Those are the few times she will remember to get the staple items from the grocery mart as well. He just gets caught up in work and some things have to let, so Jandy just takes care of the things he normally does in their routine until he’s sorted everything out and is back on his a-game.

    // decorates the apartment //
    That’s a Jandy thing, to some extent. But it’s only when the urge really strikes. She and Jane lived week to week and didn’t have the money for much extra paraphernalia around the house around their apartment, so it’s hard for her to get over that and decorate. But Dechlan’s learned to pick up on when she really like a piece of art or décor and then eases her into a decision about getting it or not. They don’t have a lot, but their living space is tasteful in a somewhat eclectic manner as a result.

    // initiates duets //
    Good heavens does Dechlan not sing. Jandy will, if the mood strikes. Whatever song she’s heard on the radio lately is usually her song of choice and then she just sings it on a loop when she doesn’t know many of the lyrics. She’s usually too distracted to notice, but if she’s singing a catchy tune in the shower, Dechlan can sometimes be caught humming along. And that’s the closest they ever get to doing a duet.

    // falls asleep first //
    After so many years of working long hours with little sleep, Jandy values every extra hour of sleep she can get, so she’s usually the first to crawl into bed at night to sleep. Dechlan tends to stay up later on purpose,  because he likes being able to lay awake and listen to the whispers of Jandy’s dreams. It lets him know where she’s at emotionally in her subconscious and it brings him peace to know that she’s resting and is safe. Jandy’s aware of his habit and lets it continue unimpeded because she watches over him too when he’s stressed out and isn’t sleeping much. 

    // which one is abysmal at roller skating and has to hold onto the other //
    Jandy’s balance sucks when she’s not on her own two feet, planted on the ground. Jandy and Jane tried it once and they both ended up with bruised knees and scraped hands, so when Dechlan dragged her out to try again late one night when they both couldn’t sleep, she made him promise not to let her go because she was hurting too much from a rough two days already to add bruises from skating on top of them. He didn’t.

    // which one gets hiccups every time they drink something fizzy //
    That would be Dechlan. After Jandy worked as a serving girl at a night club for so many years, she’s pretty much immune to any weird side effects of the many weird drinks out there. But Dechlan, being the soldier he is and working off a pretty strict diet, has learned to steer away from anything carbonated. He made the mistake of drinking a soda in front of Jandy once. She didn’t stop laughing for an hour.

    // which one listens to new songs on loop until the other can’t stand it //
    It’s not always even new songs, but if Jandy finds a groove that she enjoys a lot, it can be put on replay for a couple of days until she has her fill of it. Which is two days too many for Dechlan, but they’re learning how to compromise. Two days of music in exchange for two days of quiet, depending on the situation. On very rare occasion, he enjoys the song too and doesn’t mind having it on a running loop. There is always the bonus of how very alive Jandy becomes when something loud and with a good beat comes on. 


    And so, yes. I have to run now. Memorial Day stuff. Thanks for the patience!

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.

The Sunshine Award + Prompt Blurb

    Wow is this late. It's been a crazy two weeks playing pseudo-mom while real mom is out of town and blog posts just don't factor into running a house.

    So the various blog awards continue to go around and I got nominated for the Sunshine Award by Hannah from Sister Sketches.

    The Rules for the Sunshine Award:
    - Thank the person who nominated you
    - Answer the questions they asked you on your respective blog
    - Nominate another batch of bloggers (eleven being the standard)
    - Question them (evil chuckle)
    - Notify them that they have been nominated
    - And post the award image on your blog

    I highly doubt I will fulfill all the rules, as I don't intend to spend very long on this post so I can try and work on other stuff this evening. 

    Thank You to Hannah for nominating me for the Sunshine Award over at Sister Sketches. It really means a lot to me that you nominated me for this award!

1. Which number (1, 2, 3, etc.) is the best, based on it's personality and morals? (Example: 7 is best because of his wise and patient personality.) I honestly do not know what to do with this. Really don't. I like the number 62 but I've never tried assigning personalities to numbers.
2. Fruit-flavored candy or chocolate? Ehhh... perhaps dark chocolate. 
3. Under what circumstances would you jump on a shark's back? Very, very extreme circumstances involving either my siblings or small children.
4. Would you rather grab a handful of cow poop or drink milk straight from the cow? Grab the cow poo, because I have no idea what type of bacteria might be in fresh, fresh cow milk.
5. Batman or Iron Man? Iron Man, all the way. I don't really like anything related to DC.
6. Fantasy or sci-fi? Sci-fi, but I'm not adverse to fantasy.
7. Three years of famine, three months to be destroyed by your foes, or three days of the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of the land? Uh.... maybe the three months, but I don't quite understand what's being destroyed by my foes. So I'll go with that one.
8. Favorite season? Spring/early summer.
9. Is the Lochness Monster real? Not in my opinion, no, though it does make for really cool story ideas.
10. Death by fire or death by ice? Death by ice. 
11. Out of any animal, what would be your dream pet? Recently, it's been a German Shepherd, maybe even an MWD, because you can adopt retired MWD's and that sounds like a really special experience.

    And I think that's all I'm going to do of the Sunshine Award stuffs. Which I apologize for.

But I need to work on some other things tonight as well while I still have a brain.

    In the lines of those other things, Trinity, I am working on your prompt. And I even have a small blurb to prove it.

// J&J //

    A face. A news report. A government file. A single word.

    Eliminate.

    Too young. Too relatable. Too close.

    She switched off the tablet and picked up her comm. to send a message with a meeting point. They had work to do. And the sooner it was done, the better.

   

// D&J //

    The rap was added into her odd mixture of a dream, featuring a mind-numbing club track playing through her old apartment but there was a wheat field growing in the middle of it that wasn’t in any portion of her own memories. There was another sharp knock and this one roused Jandy a bit, but she elected to ignore it in favor of a few extra seconds of sleep.

    They’d been in high demand as of late and thus their work schedule was hectic, equating to less sleep than she preferred getting. And judging by the clarity and insistence coming across her link to Dechlan, they were in even more demand than they had been ten minutes ago. Perfect time to bury her head under her pillow.

    “Hey, no, we got a call,” her partner’s voice came from somewhere overhead. Another soundless approach. Gold star to him.

    I went with a whole new setting in order to get everyone in the same spot more or less in the same time stream. Futuristic, almost sci-fi, with some inter-planetary travel going on. At least, Jandy and Dech are saving up to go elsewhere, and Jase and Jaydn have been everywhere. 

    With that, I believe I shall close.

    Thank you again for the nomination, Hannah!

    Ad astra per aspera.

    To the stars, through difficulty.