fandomtownies | Fandom Fire Station

Liz wasn’t sure if she really was ready for this but things seemed to have settled now and felt like if there ever going to be a time to face her fear of the fire station that now was it.

She hadn’t been back since that day so she was rather nervous as she entered. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to bring anything for this so she stopped by the bakery and got some donuts and hopefully Travis liked donuts.

She took a deep breath, steadying herself as she entered, “um…hello?” she said trying to keep her nerves steady but wasn’t doing a very good job.

Travis absolutely did like donuts.

He looked up from where he was leading Probie through a series of cones and flashed her a smile. "Hey! You decided to come."

Liz nodded, still feeling rather awkward, “I ..I meant to come by sooner but …” she didn’t know if Travis had heard radio or not this past month, “it ..well …I’ve had …some …issues this past month,” she admitted.

Travis nodded. "Plus, you know. Winter. Only fools want to go do things in the winter."

Seattle, it should be noted, did not tend to get a lot of traditional winter weather.

Liz personally liked the cold and winter but well Travis probably already thought she was weird so there was a pause and she hesitated, “oh um … I got these for you,” she said as she she handed over the donuts, “I wasn’t ..er …I didn’t know what you liked so I got donuts,”

"Ooo!" Travis accepted the box and opened it up. "Donuts are always a good call," he said. He signaled for Probie to join them and led the way towards the office. "Come on in. Let's chat."

Liz tried to not feel so nervous as she nodded, “okay,” she said trying to remind herself that this was a good thing and she followed him to his office, trying not to think about the fact that the last time she had been here this building had been on fire.

That she had caused.

Travis leaned against the donuts down and picked one out, then leaned against the desk and just watched her for a moment.

"Are you still worried I'll be mad about something I don't even remember happening?"

“I …” Liz hesitated, “um…well …partly,” she admitted.

“I’m not used to …well …” she glanced around, “I …I had an episode before I moved back to Fandom and that was …really bad,” she revealed, “only …” her voice trailed off, “I’m not used to …” she tried again, “well time resetting and it being like nothing ever happened…except it did happen…at least I remember it happening,” she said quietly.

“Really hoping no one’s actually used to that,” Travis said. “But yeah. I can see where that’d throw you.”

He too k a bite of his donut and chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

“You want to tell me about it? Either this, uh, episode or the last one?”

Liz was quiet as she considered and then finally nodded.

“I … my … the episode I had before I moved back to Fandom,” she began, thinking it might be easier to have the context on why everything had happened last year had been as bad as it was even if nothing was permanent, “it … I used to work for a secret government agency that protected the public from the paranormal,” she said softly, “I was on a mission in a Pittsburg … it was supposed to be routine, reports of demonic activity in the area … we were supposed to just go there and investigate but there were six other six agents that were with me and Hellboy,” she paused, “um … he’s a demon who worked with us,” because of course he was, “I … the other agents got possessed, “it set off my powers … Hellboy and I were the only survivors,”

She stared down at her hands, “I was arrested and because the public can’t know about us and the work we do … it was strongly suggested I take the blame so I did, I was charged with arson and murder … they were later dropped but my file basically reads like I’m a serial arsonist,” she said quietly, not quite ready to look back up at Travis.

Travis had not been trained in how to respond to this kind of thing. Forgive him for a moment here, Liz, while he processed you working with a demon named “Hellboy”.

“That, uh. That — really sucks. Did your, um, agency at least support you after you took the blame? Help clear the charges?”

Liz was honestly kind of used to that reaction, those WW11 soldiers had had a rather unusual sense of humour.

“They … well I pleaded guilty to avoid a lengthy trial, there was a lot of media interest in the case at the time,” Liz admitted, finally looking back up, “but they got the charges dropped before I faced sentencing, they … they didn’t blame me personally for what happened … I could have stayed, I just didn’t feel right,” she finally looked back up at him, “I … I was going to check myself into a psychiatric hospital,” she hesitated, she had only ever told Prompto what her original Fandom alternative was, “but I decided to come back here instead,” she said softly.

Travis nodded slowly. “Fandom seemed like the better option?”

He wasn’t sure he agreed.

“I used to be a student at the school,” she said quietly, “ten years ago, I …it helped being here before, I …” she hesitated, bit her lip and stared down at her hands, “I never knew there were people like me who had powers until I was at Fandom,” she looked back up, “I was a child when I started getting my powers …I …for a long time I believed that they were because of sin…that I’d committed some sin …my parents they…didn’t know how to cope …they tried going to the local priest…I was told I had to pray my powers away…” her voice trailed off.

Travis choked a little on his donut.

“Yeah, I, uh. I get that.”

He’d gotten that same pressure from his father for being gay.

Liz was quiet for a while and then finally added.

"They were really strict Catholics so I believed them, that this was my ... well that my powers were my fault, even though I was ten when I was first started getting my powers," she had started to work through this in therapy but there was a lot of trauma that she had to process so her issues with her powers and her complicated relationship with her faith ... it was a lot to process.

"It's ... taken a long time to reconcile both my powers and my faith, the man who became my guardian was devout as well but he researched the paranormal, his son was a demon he'd adopted from another dimension ...it was a completely different viewpoint and world to the one I'd grown up in," she said quietly.

Travis felt like he got that one as well, by virtue of, you know, Fandom, but didn’t say so. Instead he went with: “I was a state champion in competitive Bible quoting as a kid.”

Most people probably didn’t even know competitive Bible quoting was a thing.

“Going to Mass on Sundays was my favorite thing. You know, right up until I got old enough to realize that I’m one of the filthy sinners the priest liked to sermonize about. Just because I’m attracted to men.”

That was actually news to Liz as well, which considering she had grown up in a strict Catholic household in the south was probably a bit more surprising.

"That must have been hard, I'm sorry you had to go through that," Liz wasn’t sure what to say because again her parents hadn't exactly been the most tolerant of people, "were ... I ... " she wasn't sure if it was the best question to ask because she knew how personal it could be, "were you still able to keep going to Mass?"

Edited 2022-02-06 00:33 (UTC)

“For a little while.” Travis shrugged. “But better than that was finding other people of faith who didn’t think I’m an abomination. Learning that my parents’ church wasn’t the only place I could find God.” He tilted his head. “I’m guessing a bit like, uh, Hellboy and his adoptive father were for you.”

Liz nodded, “it helped finding others who understood what was happening …that I wasn’t alone, even though at that point when I started living with them, I was afraid of what I was …what I’d done,” she said quietly, “I was afraid of learning more about my powers, accepting them … I guess I still am in a way,” she said thinking back to her recent therapy session, “I think a part of me thought that if I learnt about my powers, how to control them … that I would learn where they came from and that it was because of something I did ... that they were a punishment after all, which I know is a rather messed up way of thinking ...it's something I'm still trying to process,"

“We’ll, if it helps, I have definitely met people who had way more messed up ideas than just being afraid of what you might find out,” Travis said. “Trust me, you meet all sorts in my line of work.”

Liz smiled softly at that, “I must admit this is a first for me, I’ve never actually talked to a firefighter about my powers before,” she admitted, admittedly most firefighters back home thought she was an arsonist so it wasn’t like she was able to tell anyone about her powers.

“Yeah, sounds like you haven’t talked to a lot of people about your powers. Understandably.”

“Most people … really don’t react well when they find out that you’ve killed people with your powers, at least back home,” Liz said softly, “after moving back to Fandom … it’s been easier being able to tell people this time ... when I first started at Fandom, I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong that I could keep it hidden," she paused, "that plan didn't really go so well,"

She'd blown up several alien ships a couple of months after she'd started at the school, it was kind of hard to not have people notice her powers after that.

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NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!

Re: NFB from here please!