#thunderscenes

Hey Fishy, hope you’re ok. Look, uh, I get why you’re hanging out with your fish right now and uh, yeah just to say that if you did wanna come and get your dinner it’s keeping warm in the oven. Oh and I’m going to head out for a walk before it gets too dark so if you wanted to go and get food without… y’know… I won’t be there so uh y’know it’s a good opportunity. If that’s what you wanted. Uh, please do eat something. Um… look if you wanted to y’know talk at some point, I mean no pressure, when you’re ready or if y’wanted… only if you did then uh, I would like that. But only if you want to… talk, that is. You know what I’m gonna start this again. Why did I say that out loud? Shut up Tracy y’grade A muppet. Ok stop button…

~~~~~~~ end voice note ~~~~~~~

If Gordon had played the voice note once, he had played it a dozen times.

Scott only rambled when he was actually bothered about something. Not annoyed, not frustrated but… actually bothered.

And the rumour that had landed in his inbox a few hours earlier - Scott at a psych place in Nashville - was still tumbling about his mind when he received it. He’d brushed it off as more useless gossip and speculation, but… what if it had been true?

Maybe his brother had meant it when he said he was going to see someone after… well. The lightning incident. Truthfully, Gordon hadn’t given it all that much thought - Scott was fine, One had been fished out of the water, and trying to break down exactly what had happened was…

Well.

Enough to push Scott into actually talking to someone for help? It seemed rather impossible but then, that word really did hold little meaning on the island.

“You know he’s going to come in here and watch you guys now. Don’t worry, he’s not an actual bird, just thinks he is one.”

His chat to the occupants of the tank had been ongoing for the last ten minutes as he’d gone about the daily tank routine, testing the water with practiced ease as he had vented at the rather unaware occupants.

That same noise had become a useful measuring tool for the man’s level of frustration, and tonight it rang out as his cane slammed against the villa’s wooden floors. Jeff Tracy paced under the moonlight, one hand trembling as he stared down at his phone.

“No no no no no…”

He halted, and the cane fell with a clatter as both hands gripped the device. His eyes scanned across the screen… and Jeff slammed his lower palm against his face, voice tight.

“Damn it…”

Call it a mother’s intuition, call it years of practice, but Sally needed no warning when something was amiss under her roof.

Something had woken her from the beginning of sleep, something beyond the familiar thunder of rainy season- out of habit, she reached for the communicator by her bed. After midnight. The glowing icons spread across the globe for Thunderbirds One, Two and Four were hardly a surprise. Thunder did seem to summon the ‘birds, as if by their namesake.

John would have woken her if it she was needed. He would be in a wake cycle.

That left two options.

Slipping her feet into soft slippers, worn with favouritism, and wrapping the purple housecoat about her, Sally made her way along the darkened corridor toward the main area. A pause at Alan’s door, long enough to poke her head around it and confirm the boy was out cold on his floor (again), left her with her answer.

She didn’t need the unfamiliar noise of the cane accompanying his footsteps to tell her she was correct.

“Jeff?”

A finger deftly tapped at the sensor for the low lights, the living room bathing in a warm glow, as she watched him, concern written across her face.

Surprise waiting for you down in the hangar 😇

Venture down when you dare!

- 🐠

... you were being so nice to me earlier why do you have to make this sound so Ominous ------

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Completed RPs:

#HowCanIHelpRP with John Tracy

Finished RP

#MiniBird4RP with Gordon Tracy

Finished RP

#AfterSaturnRP with Alan Tracy

Finished RP

Scott's Splashdown RP with Grandma Tracy, Gordon Tracy, and Scott Tracy

Finished RP

A Skyward Mystery RP with Becca Cadell (OC)

Finished RP

#MedicinalMechanicsRP with Jaya Dewi (OC)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

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Scott had suggested the rockpools, so here they were. It was always somewhere Gordon came for calm, the sheltered bay offering plenty of opportunity to get lost amongst the dozens of little pools of water and their inhabitants.

And it was warm, summer’s sunshine beating down on the island, and the fresh air seemed far less restrictive than walls of medbay had, and Gordon took a deep breath with a far calmer sigh.

Perhaps coming out here had been a sensible suggestion after all. Somewhere both of them maybe felt a little less… under pressure. Still, the tension between the pair hung in the most uncomfortable way; Gordon hated it.

“Things must be bad if you’re willing to get this close to ‘things in the sea’, Scotty.”

"Happy Birthday, Scott." He adds, when things have quietened down. John's fingers are cool around his wrist as he clasps their hands together. "Another flight around the sun complete, huh?"

Scott gently squeezes back, trying his best to channel into that small application of pressure all the strength of emotion he’d instinctively put into a lengthy bear-hug-with-obligatory-lift-of-recipient- from-ground-and-spin. The restraint makes his eyes water, just a li’l, and blinks a couple of times while he marshals his thoughts.

Because Scott has no idea how to express how pleased he is that John is here, in person, without seeming like he was complaining about how infrequently it seemed to happen. John knew, anyway, he was sure. That was why he’d come down today after all. Best. Present. Ever.

Finally lifting his gaze from the amazingly three dimensional hand gripping his own, big brother finally meets his brother’s eye and grins.

“Surprising huh? And I guess compared to everything else out there, I’m not so very very old.”

He studied John’s face a moment, noting the marginal increase in the depth of the creases around his nose, his forehead, his eye sockets… the slightest hint of lightening of vivid hair just above his ears. They said that prolonged spells in space could increase the speed of aging, but Scott could never be sure if there was any real change or just the contrast with the smoothed-out-blued-out image he usually got to speak with.

Either way, the tell-tale signs of his more ethereal brother’s humanity were Scott’s to notice and his secret to keep.

John’s eyebrow twitched under his scrutiny and Scott leaned forward to rest his forehead against the only other in the family that didn’t require him to lean down.

Hey Fish, hope y’all having fun with the big road trip. You taken Penelope to the Big Well yet? If you haven’t you gotta. Thanks again for stopping by Mom. Did a tanker rescue in Four last night. Nailed it by the way. She and I have come to an understanding I think and not a scratch on her you’ll be pleased to know. Virg even called me Squid at one point so I can’t have been doin’ too bad right?

ANYWAY I don’t wanna intrude on your time together so no rush on this but I have a meeting next week with you know who because he wants to discuss some visionary new scheme and by the way I’m doing air quote round visionary because y’know. Uh, anyhow it’s to do with some attachment for ships that’s supposed to collect sea trash and while that is objectively a good thing and we want to encourage him to do something actually useful I’m uh, well. Cagey. Suspicious. Because it’s HIM and I just worry it’s gonna be some kind of whale-shredding robot or I mean who knows. Anyway any chance you could tag in? I have to let his people who know is coming a week ahead cos their security is weirdly intense heh maybe a lot of people want to kill him huh but anyway no pressure, totally get that it’s not what anyone wants to have to do with their time and you may well have plans and I won’t be offended just thought I’d ask. Maybe we could grab dinner or see a show in Auckland after if you wanted or we can just shoot back home pretty fast if not.

Uh, right that was all it was. Have a fab time in Vegas if you get shotgun married then send some photos! Catch ya later kiddo. Wait no not kid. Bro. Fishy. Love ya, take care of yourself and OH don’t forget…

:::voice note time limit exceeded:::

He had only just settled down in a perfectly positioned lounger by the pool for a rather welcome bake in the sun, when the voice note pinged through to his comms.

Huh. Scooter.

He hit play as he circled on the last of his sunscreen - and immediately grew suspicious.

So he listened to it again.

Then a third time.

Before finally concluding that Scott was very much Not Alright (and ironically, he very much doubted it was anything to do with Langstrom Fischler’s latest revolutionary attempt to the unrevolutionise himself into a million pieces).

A rather soggy big brother, as it turned out, drenched beneath his hoodie as he made his way closer. Gordon hit the lever for the stairs before sliding out of the pilot’s seat and shuffling his way back toward the passenger area. Leaving a bag of pastries in his place and moving to one side to leave space for Scott.

“You weren’t kidding about the rain! Get in here before all the tropical air gets out!”