fandomtownies | Fandom fire station, Friday

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Fandom fire station, Friday

So tomorrow was the joint Police and Fire Departments Picnic, and Travis was going maybe a tiny bit overboard today making sure everything was in order in the station and in spic, span, and perfect condition.

He almost never let this side of his personality loose. There were white gloves involved. Buck and Eddie were probably going to hate him by the end of the weekend. But hey, at least they weren't going to try to do a charity 5K in turnouts like his station back in Seattle was going to do. . . .

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Steven wasn't even sure of the fire station's schedule but he had the day free so figured no harm in stopping by. He came inside and looked for someone to talk to. "Hello?"

A small, excited pitbull came trotting up, wearing a little work vest with a fire department shield on it, followed shortly by Travis, gloved up, a spray bottle in one hand and a rag in the other. "Heyyyy," he said, setting the bottle down and shoving the rag into the pocket of his uniform. "Wow, sorry, we don't get a lot of walk-ins here. Hi."

Probie, the pitbull, came right up to Steven and danced around in a very professional little circle.

"Hello there." Steven squat down and held his hand out for Probie to sniff because obviously saying hi to a dog takes priority. These are just facts. "Yeah, I imagine you must not. People coming in carrying a basket of fire in their hands asking you to put it out. Maybe convenient but probably not likely."

Though Steven did know someone who could bring fire with her so perhaps not as unlikely as all that.

"Or coming in because they have some emergency and don't want to rack up medical bills if they don't have to," Travis said. "In Seattle we also saw people with broken smoke alarms, people dropping off unwanted infants, homeless folks looking for somewhere warm or cool for a minute. . . ." He shook his head. "I'm babbling. And you made a joke. Sorry."

"No, no, it's all right," Steven said. He was used to people not getting his humor. "Must be a lot quieter for you here now, eh?"

"So long as I'm not getting sucked into a sinkhole, yeah." Travis shrugged. "Been thinking about moonlighting somewhere. Just for something to do."

"Yeah, moonlighting can keep you busy," Steven said. "'course runs the risk the one telling you what to do turns out to be a right twat. That part's not as nice."

"Speaking from experience?" Travis guessed. "I mean, you run that risk no matter what job you get. We had this fire chief. . . ." He shook his head, jaw clenched. He couldn't even think about Dixon without wanting to punch something. "I'm not sure 'right twat' even covers it."

"Very much from experience, yeah," Steven said. So what if he was speaking about a god? If Konshu didn't want to be thought of as a twat he could stop acting like one, in Steven's opinion. "And 'wanker' is another nice one if you need it. Which sounds like you might."

Travis laughed. "He'd absolutely hate the implication of 'wanker', thanks. Or . . . does 'bugger' mean what I think it does?"

"That's more like things not going your way," Steven said, making a so-so motion with his hand. "Like 'I missed the bus, oh bugger.' Sounds like what you're looking for is 'tosser.' That one's for right arseholes."

Travis nodded. "Tosser, then. Thanks!"

"No problem," Steven said. Not the sort of thing he usually gave lessons about but it was a nice change of pace, actually. "Anyway I was wondering if there's a Travis about?"

"That . . . would be me. My reputation precedes me, I guess."

For better or worse was yet to be determined.

"Oh! Hello then. I'm Steven," Steven said. "I'm a friend of Liz's? She sort of mentioned you. Told me a bit about how the two of you have a sort of history?"

Fandom really didn't lend itself to easy summaries of information. Especially when you didn't know how much the person you were talking to might remember.

"You could call it that," Travis said. "I was trying to help her get a handle on her powers. Or at least get a handle on not being as afraid of them, if she knew more about how they worked and how to handle the fire once it's started. You've been talking to her too, huh?"

"Yes!" Steven was happy to see they were starting on closer to the same page than he thought. "I've also been helping her out with that. Letting her practice on me. She's doing very well, actually. Wouldn't know she was having problems at all to watch her."

As with most times when Steven conveyed information, he was more focused on proudly talking about how well Liz was doing than he was on having buried a lede like "let Liz set me on fire."

". . . Practicing . . . on you," Travis said. "Um. What?"

"Yeah, you know, control?" Steven mimed the way Liz held her hands out when shooting her fire forward, as though that was the part that was hard for Travis to understand. "She's doing great. No blow ups at all. Which I guess you know because if it'd gone wrong we'd have had to call the fire brigade over to the Preserve and, well, here I am meeting you now for the first time."

". . . Okay, but where exactly is she aiming the fire she's controlling?"

"At me," Steven said, helpfully. "We figured that way worse case scenario I take the, well, worst of it. No harm to nature and all that."

Travis could really only stare at him for a long moment.

"And, what, you're fire proof?"

Travis. How long have you lived on this island now?

"Sort of, yeah," Steven said. He gestured at himself, "Not now, obviously. Different outfit. Grants healing and the like. Actually that's why I was hoping to chat with you. Liz mentioned you dying and that makes you the second person I know of who's come back from the dead. Well third, I guess, if I'm counting myself."

Please excuse Travis a moment here, Steven, he has to reboot his brain.

"I don't . . . actually remember that happening. But apparently I died at least a few times one weekend, yes." A beat. "I mean I was also hit in the heart with a piece of glass in an explosion several years ago and I'm told my heart stopped a few times getting me to the hospital, but I don't really feel like that counts either."

"I mean it all depends, doesn't it?" Steven said. "I went to the afterlife but maybe that's not true for everyone else. It's why I wanted to try chatting with you. Compare notes in a way. Liz warned me you might not remember though. I understand that. My own memory's... not great either. It's better now but still have times of waking up not knowing what I was doing for the past five minutes or whatever."

“Yeah, I think maybe this was a different thing. Apparently the island got caught in a time loop? And not remembering details of the glass thing was because of the massive hemorrhage.”

"It was a gunshot wound when I died," Steven said, so Travis wasn't left feeling like he was the only one sharing personal experiences. "Liz mentioned the time loop. Apparently a lot of people didn't pick up on it? She said that's why you probably wouldn't remember but I thought might not hurt to check. Ah, hopefully it didn't. Apologize if it did."

“Oh. No, no you’re fine.” Travis was realizing he might just be in the presence of someone nearly as awkward as he was! “Honestly the whole ‘yes please aim fire at me’ thing was harder to process.”

Steven was relieved. "Ah. Good. I know what it's like when people try talking to me about things I can't remember. Bit stressful even when they're not yelling or shooting at me. Can understand why the fire part would sound worse, what with your job and all. I'm guessing you've been on the island a while? I'm only about three weeks in."

“About . . . a year and a half? Honestly sometimes I think I’ll never fully adjust. People where I’m from don’t have magic suits or superpowers. As a rule.”

"Ah, see, that's where I was ahead of you," Steven said. "We had super powered beings on my world already. Between that on the news and meeting a talking hippo the island hasn't seemed so bad, really."

“You’ve . . . met a talking hippo.”

"Taweret, goddess of mothers and children," Steven said. "That was when I died. She helps guide the way in the afterworld. She's lovely. Didn't know if maybe you'd met her as well."

“Well . . . no. Not that I recall.” Travis shrugged. “Maybe because I’m Catholic? And Korean?”

"I'm Jewish, turned out not to matter as much as you'd think," Steven said. "Granted I was sort of pledged to an Egyptian god at the time so that probably had something to do with it."

“That . . . might do it. That’s really a thing, huh?”

"On my world, yeah," Steven said. "That's how I can help Liz with the fire or come back from the dead. It's not common. Like there's only three of us right now, depending on how you count it. But even when there was more it wasn't that many. Mostly the Ennead and a few others."

“You know, I have . . . no idea what to do with that information.”

"I thought it sounded stupid when I heard it the first time as well," Steven admitted. "And I even like ancient Egypt."

“I’m not anti-Egypt or anything,” Travis assured him quickly. “I’m pretty glad there aren’t gods running around my home town though. We have enough trouble with just garden variety dirt bags.”

"Yeah, well the one I deal with has been staying out of things mostly since I got here," Steven said. "Which is nice. I mean you must be a good person. He hasn't said a peep about you. 'course Liz also told me that about you as well."

“Wait, your god is actively judging us?!”

"Not mine," Steven said, holding his hands up to cut that off at the pass. "I work with him, doesn't mean I like him. And more... passive, I suppose? I mean if he doesn't like someone he's in my ear telling me what he wants me to do about it. But that's, like, people who are evil. Not, I don't know, people who didn't put a biro back after they borrowed one."

“A — biro — oh. Pen. Right.” Travis shook his head. “Well . . . good to know I’m not evil.”

"Liz recommending you ranks higher with me if I'm honest," Steven said. "But Konshu not caring is also nice. Anyway, sorry to be a bother. I can see you're busy with trying to keep things tidy. Is that normal? Must be hard to keep a fire station clean with soot and all."

“I’m, we’ll, ideally there isn’t any fire in the station.” Travis looked around the station proudly. “But I try to keep a clean shop.”

"It looks great," Steven said. Then, he had to admit, "Not that I've seen many but still. Imagine this is better than most."

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Fandom fire station, Friday

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