Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Whip it good!"

whattheshock (whattheshock) wrote in compass_comm,
@ 2022-04-06 20:23:00

Entry tags:

gabriel o'hara, miguel o'hara

Who? Miguel (one of them) and Gabe
Where? A ROOM
When? Tuesday night
What? Gabe can't sleep.

Gabe knew he shouldn't be awake but there was an itch all over his skin, a distinctive shock of a feeling that seemed to come from the port on the side of his head. It was disconnected, empty, hollow. He shouldn't be awake, away from home and his work and the things he could be doing. Miguel and Miguel (shock off, there's two of his big brother. Nightmare) had calmed him down from a full on freak out and done what he knew to be a regular thing here - acclimate, explain, guide, then show around.

He was fine. It was fine. He just could'nt sleep.

There was part of him that knew what felt wrong about his body, what made him itch and fall apart. The Cyber. The electric in the air, the conductivity was so shocking different, surging and waxing and moving in ways he could feel. It was happening now as he walked along hallways, dishevelled and exhausted, moving one foot in front of the other just to have something to do to keep his mind off how different he felt.

"Miguel..." he muttered, taking out the cellphone from his pocket, punching buttons (shocking buttons). Gabe had to know if this was normal.

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-06 07:49 pm UTC (link)

Surprise, Miguel also couldn't sleep. He didn't want to keep taking Neville's potions, because he hated the idea of being so... unavailable, really. So, he'd decided to try a few nights without them, and this was the first night. And so far, he'd managed an hour of sleep, ten minutes of "shock, shock, what the shock," and two hours of reading up on more magical theory out in the living room with Mouse drooling on his feet.

And then his phone started ringing. It was answered within one ring since everyone else in the apartment was asleep. "Need to get you a holo-agent," he said, rather than something boring like 'Hi' or whatever. "What's up?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-06 07:57 pm UTC (link)

The relief he felt just from hearing Miguel's voice made Gabriel feel instantly soothed, like they were kids again and Miguel would comfort him and bicker in equal measure. It seemed to go hand in hand for all their lives.

"Good to see it's not just me going through insomnia," Gabe muttered, deciding to walk as he talked to Miguel - maybe the itch would go away entirely. "Unless I woke you up - shock, did I?" he asked. "Screw it, too late now. I feel weird here, Miguel. Like... time displacement jet lag?"

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-06 08:05 pm UTC (link)

"You didn't wake me, don't worry," Miguel replied, just as Mouse started snoring and drooling a bit more. "Oh, that's shocking disgusting, Mouse," he muttered, and carefully removed his feet from under the dog.

"Time displacement jet lag is a new one on me, but I get the feeling weird thing. Where are you walking to? Or are you just walking? I can come join you if you'd like. I don't want to risk waking anyone else."

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whattheshock
2022-04-06 08:32 pm UTC (link)

It should make him feel guilty, pulling Miguel out of bed from his family and asking for company but Gabe hadn't made a friend. Normally, back home, he was fine with talking to strangers, eyeing them up quick and charming when he could. It was this place, he was so sure. It had to be fucking up his circuits or something.

"I think I'm close to you. I just paced back and forth, mostly, just thinking I can shake it out of me, you know?" Gabriel ran his hand through his hair. "This place is insane, Miguel. Shocking insane."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-06 08:56 pm UTC (link)

"It is, yeah," Miguel agreed easily, as Lyla manifested beside the kitchen sink and almost instantly switched to show a localized map of the station showing the locations of both O'Haras. "Lyla's shown me where you are. I'll come meet you," he said, getting to his feet and walking barefoot over to the sink beside Lyla so he could wipe away Mouse-drool.

Once he'd calmed down from his earlier nightmares, he had pulled on a tee-shirt and the jeans he wore when he did any kind of machine-tinkering, so they were full of holes from his talons and from getting caught in things, and had oil stains and the like all over them, but they were comfortable and as close as he could get to "lounging around"-type clothes. He saw no need to change out of them, even if he did intend to spider his way towards where Gabe was.

"Hang on a moment, Gabri," he said, and then spoke away from the phone. "Lyla, if Sarah wakes up, just tell her where I've gone, okay?"

"Of course, Miguel. Does Gabriel wish for any baked goods?" she asked, her voice pitched low enough that only Miguel (and Mouse if he was awake) could hear her.

"Gabe, Lyla's asking if you need fed. Will I bring bagels with me?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-06 09:04 pm UTC (link)

"Still think it's totally creepazoid how she knows where I am even here," Gabe chuckled, relieved at the notion in actuality. "I gotta get me one of those, she might be able to keep me alive."

At least he could still keep walking and Miguel would know where he was. Gabriel had always looked up at his brother with jealousy and admiration, the person who picked up his pieces when Cyber got into his head. In truth, he owed Miguel a lot of thanks just for being there. For being here.

"You got the onion sesame ones with that furikake cream cheese?" Gabe asked, suddenly hungry. The AI had known that too. "Seriously, how do I get a Lyla?"

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-06 09:22 pm UTC (link)

"She's tracking your phone, estúpido, it's not creepazoid at all," Miguel replied, the grin obvious in his voice as he shoved a couple of the bagels Gabe had devoured when he'd been brought there before into a bag. "And you can get a Lyla pretty easily, because we have a number of spare data cores and projectors. Do you want a copy of Lyla herself, or would you like one of the basic stupid holoagents that Xina's been nowhere near?"

He left the apartment, closed the door behind him and headed towards his brother.

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whattheshock
2022-04-07 08:17 pm UTC (link)

"There's still trackers on these?" he didn't know how to feel about that. Gabe had long disabled any tracker on any tech he owned. Better to not take the risk. He guessed the risk of Miguel's secret identity getting out was null and void on this floating space station with insane constellations and weird electronics. "Hey, don't call me stupid, bit-head. You're supposed to be being nice to me, remember? I'm all vulnerable and naive right now. I blinked and my brother's a Dad. That's weird."

He thought for a moment, slowing down his pace. "She's not here, is she? Your ex?" he cleared his throat, the point still a little raw with him given what had happened. "Get me a basic model, then I can spend my insomnia time trying to figure out how to recode it. Maybe I'll make mine into Spider-Man." he smirked to himself.

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-07 08:57 pm UTC (link)

Miguel put his phone in his pocket, Lyla keeping the connection open via his watch, and hopped up onto the ceiling so he could move quicker. "There are trackers in the phones, yeah. It helps in case people wander off and get lost," he explained, before laughing a little at his brother's complaining. "I must've missed that update."

"Xina isn't here, no." Miguel cleared one of the junctions with ease as he spoke, and checked Gabe's location with Lyla as he made his way down another corridor. "Which Spider-Man?" he wondered, playing along as he sped along the ceiling, "Parker's here. And then you've got two of me. I can see you, by the way. You're about 2 junctions in front of me."

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whattheshock
2022-04-09 07:15 pm UTC (link)

Gabe had vaguely wondered what the size of this animal experiment was - he even kinda felt like a rat in a maze, getting electrocuted for going the wrong way down a tunnel. Even Miguel, as chaotic as his life had been back in Nueva York, this felt so much more chaotic. Two of his brothers, from different timelines and lives, with a whole other family and life that he was happily living. Did Gabe even have a place here? Maybe he was just the rat in the maze alone. He sure did feel lost.

"Well, I wandered off, I guess," he muttered, wondering if he should just hop through the next open door because it all felt the same to him. "Parker's here? As in a hundred-something years ago Peter Parker?" he shook his head. "Next you're gonna tell me there's unicorns or el chupacabra. Or mothman. Makes sense - spider-man, moth-man..."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-09 07:30 pm UTC (link)

"That Parker, yeah. And, uh, some of the others from back then," Miguel said. He knew this place was overwhelming at first, so he didn't want to do an info-dump on Gabri, but he also didn't think anyone would enjoy walking into a room and discovering legends from the Heroic Age without some warning. So, a bit of vagueness that could get cleared up later.

"There are, uh, unicorns, yeah. Somewhere, I've never gone to see them," he said, and managed not to make a face or sound like he'd rather the stabby horses weren't on the station, even though he really would prefer that. "And all sorts of other creatures in the parks, too. Not sure about el chupacabra or Mothman, though. Hang up, I'm almost with you now," he said, and Lyla cut the connection anyway.

He closed the gap between them in about 10 seconds and dropped back down onto the floor, landing softly on his bare feet. "So, what sort of thing do you want to do? Get a drink? Just walk for a bit? ...I could show you my lab or my classroom if you like?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-09 07:54 pm UTC (link)

"That Norse God-dude here?" Gabe chuckled mostly to himself, remembering the man's fanatics who he had seen even in 2099. Legends don't die, he supposed. "Can I try lifting his hammer? It's like The Sword in the Stone, right? Whoever lifteth the hammer shall be worthy of the power of Thor!"

Unicorns. He was still a little stuck on the idea of Gods, legendary heros and mythical creatures somehow living on a space station when he saw his big brother swing towards where Gabe was, still wearing a robe and his boxers with sunglasses dangling from the pocket. "I'm never gonna get used to you doing that," he said, tilting his had to look up at the ceiling where Miguel had just... stuck to?

"Lab," he said instantly. It was familiar, it was Miguel through and through, a bit of normality. "I swear to shock, there's like this constant buzzing in my head from all the weird electrics here. Maybe you can poke a hole in me and stick a fork in me, jumble my brain around. Might help."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-09 08:16 pm UTC (link)

"Doubt it," Miguel said with a grin, and began steering his little brother in the direction of his lab. Head for the mall and then drop down to the bottom, and they'd be there in no time. And he began to wonder if Gabe might benefit a little from a couple of Sarah's crystals. There were a couple rattling round in the lab, he could check that out easy enough.

"Thor's here. And Loki and Frigga too, if you're wanting to call round and visit," he said, "and try lifting Mjolnir. What would you do if you had the power of Thor?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-09 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Miguel seemed to know this place like the back of his hand, considering the way he moved so seamlessly through the halls that kind of all blurred into one for Gabe. God, he still felt like an outsider in Miguel's life, but he knew he had to do the work to change that, to spend more time together without the insanity of Miguel's... job.

"What the shock..." he laughed shaking his head a little. "Dude, if I had the fucking power of Thor, I would rip this place apart to see how it worked. Do you not get curious about it, like... this shouldn't exist and yet it's here and it's wrong but real? I wanna dive into that database."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-09 09:12 pm UTC (link)

"I am writing that shocking database. Well, part of it," Miguel replied, laughing a little as he spoke. "I've been building a genetic database for here for almost four years now and I'm not running out of work any time soon. There are so many plants here, Gabe, and animals I never even heard of until I got here. It's amazing. It's shocking crazy, but it's amazing." He pointed out the turns they needed to take as they walked towards the Mall, zigzagging across the level as they went. He wanted to start explaining about all of the shocked-up stuff that could happen, like Gabe becoming a girl or swapping bodies with Tommy or Bryn or whoever, but he figured that would be best kept for when they were sitting in the lab, drinking coffee.

"Lyla, front and center," he said, holding his hand out for her to appear on the palm of it, tiny and yellow.

"Hello, Miguel. Hello, Gabriel, how are you?" she asked, and clasped her hands behind her back as she waited.

"Can you start the coffee down in the lab, please? We should be there in about five to seven minutes. And keep the lights low, I don't have my glasses or contacts with me," he asked.

"Of course, Miguel. It will be ready when you arrive."

"Will you let me get genetic samples from you?" he asked Gabri after Lyla vanished, "You don't have to, it's entirely voluntary and you have to fill out a form, same as back in Nueva York, but... it's a pretty comprehensive database, you know?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-09 09:50 pm UTC (link)

"Holy shock, is that why I can feel the electronics?" He smacked Miguel's arm, "My shocking brother is writing datacoding and I think it knows who I am!" Gabe dissolved into laughter at the absurdity, though he had to admit to some weird experiences with Cyber back at home, this was topping the sundae.

Gabe groaned and whined at the thought of Miguel poking him with sharp pointy things and swabbing his cheek and shock knows what else. "Fiiiiiiine," he complained, trying to grab the bag of bagels from Miguel. "What do you do with the samples?"

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-09 10:19 pm UTC (link)

Was Gabe going to fall over or something? Shocking hell. Miguel caught his elbow just in case, and kept them walking. They were almost at the right balcony anyway.

"Stop it, leave them be, you'll get them when we're in the lab. And I analyze the samples with my machines. The results get written into the database and the samples are destroyed. I can go over all the details of it later." Miguel moved the bag as he spoke so that Gabe couldn't get at the bagels, and then stopped once they had reached the balcony.

He leaned out over the safety rail and fired a webline up towards the ceiling, and then turned to face his brother again. "Come on, this is much quicker than using the elevators," he said, and gestured with his free hand for Gabe to come closer. "I'm not taking you webswinging, we're just going down to the bottom floor. I won't drop you. Just put your arms round my neck."

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whattheshock
2022-04-11 02:07 pm UTC (link)

Gabe rolled his eyes at Miguel bossing him around when all Gabe wanted to do was to poke and prod at the things around him. It was what he did, after all, dive deep into the meat and mechanics of things, tear them apart and slot them back together again. Admittedly, Miguel was the smarter of them for all their lives; Gabriel would put them back together wrong and Miguel would put them back together in a better way. With lasers or some other shit.

"Yeah, yeah, I get that you have a database, but what's it for? Posterity?" he asked annoyed that Miguel could easily dodge him now. He missed when they were younger and he could annoy Mig much easier.

Gabe raised an eyebrow, shaking his head at Miguel as he did as he was told, basically hugging his big brother. "You know, you're such a shocking show-off sometimes, bro."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-11 03:39 pm UTC (link)

"People use it, bit-head. I've helped people work out things about their families, we're working out all kinds of things about the weird plants like if they could be used in medbay or if they're edible, it's useful," Miguel protested, and then shrugged, "and besides, it's genetics. It's what I want to do."

He put his arm around his brother's waist and jumped the pair of them over the rail and then lowered them down with ease. "This isn't showing off. If I wanted to show off, we'd have gone from one end of the Mall to the other, and you'd be upside down for most of it," he pointed out, and then paused in mid-air with about four floors still to go, holding on to Gabe with ease - he could juggle cars if he wanted, so one human was more than fine. "Do you want me to show off?"

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whattheshock
2022-04-11 05:16 pm UTC (link)

"Hey, don't call me bit-head for not being psychic about what you're doing," Gabe laughed, the familiarity of bickering with his brother making this place feel like home somehow. "I've been here for like five minutes, I got questions on questions. Not all of us are geniuses, bit-head." His arm tightened around Miguel as if to say it was all okay. He was still Mig's brother, dumb as a bag of rocks sometimes, but always wanting to learn how shit worked.

While he would never quite get used to that squick feeling of swinging and climbing and all of Miguel's other Spider-man shit, even he had to admit it was kind of cool.

"Shock no, don't you show off," he said, thinking of the weird nausea he already had, adding in webswinging and upside-down-ness on top of it. "You can be Spider-man on your own time, I'll stick to being human-ish-man."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-11 08:45 pm UTC (link)

"You sure? I could just... swing over to that balcony right now? That one, over there..." Miguel asked, careful to keep a straight face as he spoke, before starting to gradually lower the pair of them down to the bottom floor again. He wondered when Gabri would notice, since he wasn't going nearly as fast as he had done earlier.

Eventually, they settled down onto the floor with a nice easy landing, and then Miguel let go of his brother and broke off the webline. "Come on, it's this way. I'll get Lyla to show you a map once we get to the lab, don't worry. You won't get lost," he said, and then set off towards his home-from-home.

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whattheshock
2022-04-15 07:47 am UTC (link)

If looks could kill, Miguel would have been dead and buried in the ground. Gabe wanted to smack the back of his head like when they were kids and he just wanted attention and to annoy his big brother. Gabe was sure this was payback for all of those years of sibling annoyances.

"I will actually murder you if you even shocking think of swinging me, Mig - no, I'll hurl all over you, then murder you." He held on tight to Miguel's body as he lowered them down. "God, just take the fuckin' elevator, man..." he mumbled.

He was more than relieved to hit the ground with solid feet, only letting go when he was sure Miguel couldn't play a prank on him.

Gabe rolled his eyes but smiled, shaking his head as he followed Mig. "I miss when I was cooler than you."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-16 05:11 pm UTC (link)

"You were never cooler than me," Miguel replied over his shoulder with a laugh. It didn't matter how true or not the statement was (Sure, Gabe was the one that actually had friends back home, and had a car, and was an artist, and shocking hell, his brain suddenly started sounding like their ma so he stopped that line of thinking straight away), he was just glad Gabe was here and there was no pressure on either of them to be a certain way, so he was talking shit.

"I'm going to see if some of Sarah's crystals might help you. It's not freaky weird twencen hippy bullshit, before you start in on that. Her magic sometimes gets too much and it'll interact with any electronics that are close to her, so she uses crystals to collect all the extra stuff. Like this one," he said, and turned to lift his own crystal out from under his tee-shirt to show his brother, walking backwards as he continued to talk. The dark blue from when he'd had her magic for a few weeks swirled round the pink of Sarah's magic, and neither color was ever still. "I know you've never shown any aptitude for magic, but it's worth a shot. They might just work to clear up static and brain-buzz as well."

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whattheshock
2022-04-16 07:19 pm UTC (link)

"I take deep personal offence to that, mi cabrón," Gabe replied, grinning wildly. "You might get the jump on me now days but I was totally shocking cool." They both knew it was kinda bullshit, he thought, they just both made the most outta what they had and while Miguel was older, Gabe had been given freedoms that Miguel never had. Miggy had always been and would always be the cooler brother out of the two of them.

Magic? Now that was something. He'd heard tales about magic, people who claimed to know sorcerors in hidden worlds through gates and portals. They knew Gods, for shock's sake, why couldn't magic be real? It just sounded fucking insane, right?

"The fuck you pull that from, Mig?" Gabe asked, bewildered. "You just have a magic crystal on your body because your wife's magic and she has too much of it?" He blinked. "Am I high still?"

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-17 12:32 am UTC (link)

"I wear it all the time, and yeah, that's about it. I... don't think you're high. Are you?" Miguel replied, pausing for a few seconds until Gabe caught up with him, and then trying to check his brother's eyes to see if he was high on something.

"Sarah's a technomage," he began to explain after that. "She can create machines that use both regular components and magic to work. The crystals are kind of like magical capacitors. All my stuff in the lab has been reworked to include them in case there are any power surges from Sarah. It's why Lyla has a purple tinge to her when she manifests in the apartment or the lab. You'll see in about a minute."

He let the crystal go as he spoke, the chain around his neck now feeling cold for a moment, and then tucked it back in under his tee-shirt to keep it safe.

"The door up ahead on the left is the lab. I'll introduce you to the big spider while we're there."

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whattheshock
2022-04-17 06:16 pm UTC (link)

"Fuck, I don't know, man, I might be. All this energy's got me feelin' it, like what the actual shock is this place running on?" Gabe replied, only half kidding about it. God knows how his brain would interact with whatever magic and power and electric and techno-whatsits they had running through the walls; he'd been hooked into the Cyber for so long that his head could only process things a certain way.

Gabe arched a brow in disbelief, though Miguel had no reason to fuck with him other than Miguel being his brother. "Technomage." Gabe repeated, getting his tongue around the word. He watched as Miguel tucked the crystal away back into his shirt, wondering how much his brother actually believed in it. Miguel was the smartest idiot Gabe had ever known - a bonafide genius even - and he thought it helped. To Gabe it just looked like the fable of the rock that kept lions away. The Emperor's New Clothes. But Miguel had to have seen its effects. Gabe just wanted to poke it.

He began to take a step when he realised; "I'm sorry, did you jsut say big spider??" he asked, laughing and backing away from Miguel. "You been experimenting again, bro?"

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-17 09:21 pm UTC (link)

"Technomage. Sarah, her brother Tommy and her sister Sookie, they're all technomages but in different ways. Tommy's the guy that teaches math and physics in the school, and he's running Magic class with Remus now as well. Sookie's looking to set up a hydroponics garden, which sounds really interesting, and I'm going to have to pick her brains about it later."

He palmed open the door to the lab once they got there, and Lyla had done what he'd asked. The lights were low so Gabe would still be able to see well enough and Miguel wouldn't be blinded, and he could smell the coffee that was brewing so everything was great. Except for Gabe backing away. Because of the spider? Weird. "It's not going to hurt you, it's just a skin. And I wasn't the one doing the experimenting."

He walked into the lab, leaving the door open, and headed back to where the spiderskin was. It was still standing, which was pretty cool given how long it had been since he'd been that spider. "Come on, Gabe, get inside. There's nothing in here that'll hurt you unless you walk into something and smack your leg."

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whattheshock
2022-04-17 10:15 pm UTC (link)

"Holy shock, you mean there's more than one of them?!" he asked, impressed and more than a little concerned at how many people on this space station were impressive, genius, superheros or otherwise perfect in every way. Shit, he was just a guy, a hanger-on, a D-list nothing compared to all this crap. Miguel had always been special, Gabe knew that even if their mother was too self-involved to appreciate it. "I'm gonna have to take orientation just to remember what everyone can do..."

But nevertheless Gabe followed his brother dutifully, though slightly peturbed by the notion of giant spiders, even if it was just their skins. "I'm still not gonna get used to all this, am I?" he asked, shuddering at the sight of a literal giant spider skin hanging as if taxidermied. Shock. As much as Gabe loved his brother to death, it was still more than weird to see.

As if he predicted it, Gabe stubbed his toe hard against a metal something, distracted by everything around him familiar and unfamiliar. He cursed under his breath, "...you laugh and I'm out."

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miguel_ohara
2022-04-18 04:49 pm UTC (link)

The door slid closed behind Gabe as he walked in and smacked into something. Miguel didn't laugh, but he did look over and raise an eyebrow. "Do you want the lights to be brighter? There might be spare contacts here, but I don't know about glasses," he offered, and crossed over to his desk. Last time he'd checked, there were a couple of sets of contacts in the drawers, but that had been just after he'd stopped being a teenager so who knew where they might be.

"I'll get you coffee in a minute if you want to sit down," he said as he rummaged through his top drawer, and then grinned as he found one set. "And I've found contacts so I'll put them in and then Lyla can turn up the lights for you. And then I can explain about the spider if you want to know."

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