#impernaway

lots of instances in this one, lol

two sentences so you know who's speaking

dark choco’s hands hover over the sheep, and then sink down into the wool, fingers curling in an attempt to stop their shaking. cotton’s eyes are politely averted, her focus instead on the flowers growing around the edge of her snowy little home. she’s still talking to him, though. he manages to tune back in, the static in his brain fading to a quiet white noise.

“... and cocoa told us a story about her hometown the other day, one about cocoa powder and a dragon.” cotton laughs, shaking her head. “i’m pretty sure it’s a little exaggerated! who am i to judge, though? most stories in the winter regions are.”

“cocoa is from... the dark cacao kingdom, right?”

cotton brightens at the response. “i think so! i’m not sure, though. i’m not even entirely sure if my village counts as being from there, so i’m not the best to ask.”

dark choco hums. it does get a little fuzzy, around the edges of the kingdom, especially with how the aid from the citadel seems to have decayed. “i can... find out. if you point me to it on a map.”

“whenever you feel up to it!”

he refocuses on the feeling of wool between his fingers, and takes a deep breath. the sheep is patient with him.

there is a really delightful irm for kit honey on the lift that's like. kit honey is a children's cartoon character who solved mysteries and played blaseball. as a publicity stunt for the edgy reboot (where kit is divorced and still plays blaseball) the lift signed "kit honey" the fictional character to the roster. and then she got pulled out of the roster, and is being played by a very dedicated method actress named julie. i'm explaining this poorly consider reading the wiki page it's a total delight

ANYWAYS. two days before the lift get nullified, kit honey is thrown into the shadows again. and you know who else is in the lift’s shadows. who would absolutely adore an actress that stayed in characters for five entire seasons without breaking once. dunlap fucking figueroa. this is all to say, kit/dunlap slow burn

jaylen has accidentally kidnapped shaq by virtue of them pretending to be quill for a grift and is now going to dallas to hostage exchange them. i think that’s all the necessary context. takes place concurrently with this

“Hey, if you’re not gonna eat your pretzels, can I have ‘em?”

“Torres,” Jaylen says, grinding her teeth around the syllables. She should have taken a painkiller before they got on the plane - she had the stirrings of a headache when Mike dropped them off at the airport, and it hasn’t gotten any better since then. “I told you not to fucking speak to me.”

“If you’d let me get food before we got on the plane, this wouldn’t’ve been a problem,” Shaq says, leaning back in their seat next to her. Their window seat, which definitely isn’t a concession on Jaylen’s part, and is just a way to pen them in. To keep them from cutting and running the minute the plane lands. Definitely not because they muscled ahead of her and got there first.

“I’m not buying you dinner, Torres, you’re a hostage,” Jaylen says. She’s been reading the same sentence of the book in her hands over and over for the past five minutes, and she’s tempted to just snap it shut, but that would also be too much like a concession. 

Shaq whistles through his teeth. “Didn’t know you were a cheap date.”

“Watch a fucking movie or something,” she snaps back at him.

“Yeah, let me get on that. With the headphones I don’t have.”

“I have some,” Jaylen mutters, and reaches down to dig into her bag. She can’t put headphones on, because she needs to actually hear what Shaq’s saying, regardless of how little she wants to. The minute she stops paying attention will be the minute he starts telling people that he’s being held hostage by a mob boss, even if he’s doing it just to be funny. But Shaq with headphones, distracted by a movie? That would solve some of her problems. Or at least her headache.

“Aw, you do care.” Shaq grins broadly at her as she hands over the headphones. “And here I thought you were just using me for my good looks.”

“Torres, pick a movie or I’m going to give you a tracheotomy with a pen to make you stop talking.”