#crushng

“fuck.”

fuh.

“you.”

yoo.

“daddy.”

baba.

“good. now say it all together.”

fuh yoo camman.

“what? no. what’s a cam man? that’s not what you said.”

star giggles. the candy man doesn’t know his name. silly candy man. fuh yoo camman!

gin rolls his eyes. “okayyyyy, let’s try this again, huh? fuck, you, daddy.”

fuh you camman!

“no!”

big laughs! belly laughs! star throws a crayon at him. yes! fuh YOO! camman! camman! my daddy gets you candies. i know you. candy man.

“what the fuck, kid? that’s — that’s not even my name. my name is —”

gin.

“… okay, that’s creepy. how in the fuck —”

go way gin cambee man. meanie. bully man. shadows boogie man. i know you. i know you much.

baba love gin. star love gin. no fuh yoo daddy.

gin stands there, flabbergasted, staring down at the shape of the toddler. the star child is barely two, if that, babbling away. this is by far the most articulate thing they’ve ever heard come out of his mouth. “oh, you’re far more interesting than i thought.”

star giggles. gin isn’t even here. he pretends, he slideys down the slide into the stories and watches outside them. gin can’t hurt him or daddy. is why he tries star to do it. bye-bye gin!

“bye-bye? no, what? i’m not done! you go bye-bye.” stomped foot and a huff!

placid gaze, dark brown eyes meet white starshine. go way peas. or no cambee. daddy says so.

gin doesn’t care about the stupid candy. they do not like the way this toddler is staring at them, though. they growl. “fine. bad timing, sure, whatever. i’ll be back.”

nuh-uh.

“yuh-huh.”

nuh-uh.

“yuh-huh — why the fuck am i arguing with a toddler. jesus christ.”

Charlie leans back against his hands, legs swinging over the edge of the wooden dock he sat upon. He knew he was dreaming, this time. But he hadn’t been sure if he’d see Gin or not. It had been a while.

There was a storm in the distance, the clouds black and ugly, roiling around the fury of itself. The waves slapped at the dock. But Charlie wasn’t afraid.

For once.

﹣﹣  ·    𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 & 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠   ·   //    ❖    @crushng  ❖    accepting    

         ❛❛       𝐈'𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐘 𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍.      ❜❜         

-

"- means you can keep better track of who has stepped into this particular control room."

Noah stood beside Gunther as the ADS lead explained one of the newest upgrades to the control board. Noah had expressed his concern over the lack of further protection beyond guessing a code, and Gunther had taken that to heart. It brought a sense of relief to know that, at the very least, no random crew member could cause chaos and reduce the protective measures that ought to be in place. The more things Noah could have under control, the better.

(There was a reason he was pushing back the use of the warp core, after all.)

"And what about the turrets? How are they behaving with the new -"

Both men turned their heads to the corridor. A voice was calling for the Captain. Noah gave a brief nod to dismiss himself before hurrying out. A pause bought him enough time to catch that the voice was coming from the bridge. That was never a good sign. Everything had been in working order when he was there earlier. Had something malfunctioned in the mean time? Or was there a fight about to break out?

He hurried through the door in time to catch a figure approaching the Head Engineer. That was unusual. Noah knew everyone who was currently awake on the Invincible, yet this stranger was not one of them.

“ Consider this your subscription notice. ” He’s standing with hands in his pockets, looking up at a towering apartment building that had no apparent top floor. He doesn’t remember writing anything for this. The void continues to do what it wills when he’s not watching.

@crushng // oxen’s prowl

Oxen scoffed, more amused than anything. They were childish words, really. Nothing that wouldn’t roll off the puppet’s back like rain on leaves. Did someone spend too long listening to emo?

“‘Die in a fire’? Please, you’re so unimaginative. Here I thought the eater of everything had more creative prowess than this!” Oxen snickered as he strolled on in the dark. It wouldn’t help to look for Gin when the entity could be anything and nothing at the same time. Just like his own puppet master.

“When I thought about how you were going to make your presence known again, I was hoping it would’ve been more… terrifying. As it is, you’re nothingness talking to void. Hardly scary when you have no bite behind your toddler-like screams. Run along, go.” Oxen waved Gin away as he stepped through a universe tear, glancing back at the void from a city sidewalk.

Illinois slowly closes the journal he’d been writing in at his desk. He sets down his pen and steeples his fingers “ Really, it’s not any of your business, ” he says, his voice calm, but gently stern. “ Gin is a complicated individual, and I’m not sure I appreciate your tone. ”

Illinois sighs, and sits back a bit in his chair. “ A great many of you have already formed your opinions of him. Enabling or chastising him freely. Neither of those things are what I feel he needs. I’m striving to assure him that I am a safe, neutral party he can come to. It’s a great, big sprawling mess of stories these days, and those of us adrift in them that can remember more than others— ”

He cuts himself off, and softens. There’s no sense in lecturing. “ Gin doesn’t allow himself many true allies. I’d like to think I’m equipped to be one of them, given my… history. But of course he’s skittish. Still learning what to expect of me. Hence my ‘deal’ with him, I suppose. Patience, at least, is something I have to spare. ” He could wait as long as he needed. He knew in the way he knew where each trap lay that Gin would come to him when he was ready.