straydog733 asked: Eugene/Archie Obviously you don't have to do all of these. I'm honestly just having fun coming up with them :P
Eugene doesn’t get why New Canton is wasting a runner on Abel’s recovery missions, but he doesn’t care much either. What matters is Runner 20 can keep up and follows instructions and doesn’t care if he talks back at all after the first time he snaps at her.
Sometimes the other runner she’s paired with will make conversation, but when it’s her and Five Archie’s mostly talking to herself. Not that it stops her. Eugene hears about every synonym for search there is, learns the menu of the New Canton commissary for the next week, finds out which of 20’s bunkmates have bad breath or talk in their sleep, and what she thinks of the plot of Coronation Street — which is running every afternoon in her designated rec hall.
Eugene listens and doesn’t say anything and pretends the all-too-familiar thread of laughter that runs through her words doesn’t make something in him ache with loss every time he hears it.
It’s grasping at straws, but he’s got to have something to hold on to now.
Soooo… apparently this is my 1000th tumblr post.
It seems like a good moment to quickly pause and say just an immense thank you to everyone who has followed and supported me through this very entertaining and unexpected zombie fitness app obsession.
You are all wonderful, fun, friendly and terrifically talented people and it is a pleasure hanging out in virtual space with you all.
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straydog733 asked: Jody/Sam/Simon
SPOILERS FOR S2M16
Sam admits, he probably throws himself into it a little too much when Jody approaches him about cheering up Runner Three. But things have gotten even darker than usual around Abel, and if planning a 90s disco rave can keep him from thinking about Archie’s screams ringing in his ears for at least a few seconds a day, he’ll take it.
And if near the end of the night — some time after the Macarena but before Jack’s shockingly on-point karaoke of the Spice Girls’ Wannabe — Simon slings an arm covered in snap bracelets around Sam’s neck and slurs something about joining him and Four for a members-only-if-you-get-what-I-mean afterparty…
Well, he’ll take that too.
HOLY SHIT, YOU RESPONDED TO A RADIO ABEL(+Radio New Tomorrow) PROMPT WITH SLINGS AND ARROWS!?!?! I BOW AT THE ALTAR OF YOUR AWESOMENESS!!!
Wait you like Slings and Arrows? Dude, it is one of my top three all time favourite TV shows ever!
Darren Nichols… deal with that!
pawlikethebear asked: After failing to acquire a lady friend to party with, Tequila Man and his posse proceeded to make their own ideal woman using whatever was left in the distillery. Luana, as she was called, was a half-ingredient, half-machine beauty who never minded the men's fondness for loud parties and union jack sombreros.
…this is the most beautiful thing I have ever read.
straydog733 asked: Eugene/Jack/Phil/Zoe
[NOTE: This will make no sense if you don’t watch that link embedded in the text.]
It is, shockingly, not Phil’s idea.
(Maybe not shockingly. If Zoe hadn’t already been entirely convinced of her co-host’s virginity the way he gawps when she pulls her top off is enough to seal it.)
No, this particularly odd “team bonding activity” came at the suggestion of Eugene, who had seemed the more logical and buttoned up of their Abel Township counterparts. Right up until Esteban had declared in no uncertain terms that they should find ways to improve their “group cohesiveness” — at which point Eugene’s eyes had gone bright and he’d hissed “Belkovsky exercise” loudly enough that everyone had turned to stare.
So, here they are. She doesn’t know exactly where Eugene found glow-in-the-dark paint so quickly, and Phill looks like he might faint, but based on what she’s seen so far, Zoe rather thinks she, at least, is going to enjoy this.
straydog733 asked: Paula/Sam
It doesn’t seem fair, really. Sam’s spent all this time hoping desperately, with all his heart, beyond anything he wants for himself, that they might get Paula away from Van Ark and to Abel.
But… he’d wanted Maxine to be here for it.
Now Paula’s here but all they’ve ended up with is her memory, and her lab notes, and each other.
Hollow victory.
straydog733 asked: Lem/Esteban
“Come now, whisper it into my ear in your perplexing accent!”
“Oh Mr. Sosa, I want to… find workflow synergies with you?”
Like he’s said before, Esteban knows that leadership is all about finding the best use for the tools he is given. And Lem has a particularly impressive, ahem, tool.
straydog733 asked: Redeye/Father Michael
The first time he meets the man in the woods, Father Michael assumes the poor soul’s in need of some charity and possibly some anti-histamine eye drops. The second time he turns back a horde of the risen head a flick of the wrist and a strange noise, and Michael knows a messiah when he sees one.
straydog733 asked: Bella/Nadia
One of the better things to come of the “Fraternal Alliance” is the New Canton-Abel Township information exchange program.
Janine brings in horticulturalists, builders, architects, anyone who can get the township back up to speed. In return New Canton gets tactical support from Major De Santa, a course in heavy arms maintenance from Runner Seven and, from Bella, several weeks worth of consultation on their shockingly inadequate wastewater reclamation program.
She isn’t meant to meet the New Canton operator, she doesn’t think, but the settlement keeps its grey water storage and isolation housing in the same part of the compound. And there’s no sense walking all the way back to her designated barrack and toilets in sector 7A just to use the loo when Nadia’s house has a perfectly functioning (well hardly perfect — that’s partially why she’s here) toilet of its own.
They don’t have much in common beyond a high degree of specialized knowledge in slightly obscure fields, but if anything that seems to help. Nadia talks about ground delay programs and runway layouts and laments that runners aren’t so orderly as planes. And Bella talks about the difficulty of finding proper membranes for filtration and bad infrastructure and the region’s groundwater problems.
Bella doesn’t tell her about Birkmyre until one afternoon near the end of her exchange, while she’s tracing pipeline routes against the soft skin of Nadia’s hip.
In return, Nadia tells her about Lem.
And so guilt’s a thing they’ve got in common too.
