ax_main | Percy and Gilmore, backdated to 11/16/18

Percy and Gilmore share inventions they've both been working on, and it leads to some very serious discussion.

Percy was lost in his work. He had a pencil stuck behind his ear, forgotten, and another in his hand as he studiously sketched away at a design. It would most likely end up amongst various other half-finished, discarded projects, but for now it held his attention like a dog with a bone. There were other things he’d much prefer to be working on in truth—A half-finished gift for Vax, a new dagger for Vex, an improvement on the gauntlets he’d built to house Grog’s “magic” gloves… But, he was tragically short on materials at the moment, and equally light on funds, so any real work would have to wait until either or, ideally, both of those things changed.

Until that time came, Percy would content himself with designing. He had an outline for a second gun, one with a bit more reach than the other, and a vague concept for a gauntlet that could use a modified version of the List’s power source on. There were ideas for future gifts too—Metal puzzle games for Vax, jewelry for Keyleth, Shaun, and Pike, a joke badge for Scanlan, a hair clasp for Vex… It was enough to keep him occupied for now.

Watching Percy work was something Shaun could never tire of. He was so fascinating when he was intent and focused, when his mind and his hands were working in concert and he forgot to be self-conscious. Shaun had been perched on a stool just watching him sketch, smiling fondly, for several minutes now. He doubted that Percy even remembered he was there.

Eventually, he cleared his throat, and waited for his friend to look up. Shaun wasn't going to get any further on his current project without testing it out, and he wasn't fully sure what would happen when he did. Best to get Percy's attention on the gadget as well. It was a palm-sized, vaguely ball-shaped metallic item that he was passing back and forth between his hands idly. He'd not yet mentioned what it was for. If it worked, Shaun really wanted this to be a surprise. "Got a minute, da Vinci?" Shaun asked warmly when he thought he had Percy's attention.

Percy smiled, amused. “For you, Michelangelo, I have more than one.” He set his pencil down, closed his sketchbook over, and turned his chair to face Shaun fully. His eyes flicked briefly to the metal ball in Shaun’s hands. He’d been him working on it for a few days now, and he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been curious.

Gilmore pressed one hand to his heart and gazed skyward (ceiling-ward?) for a moment after Percy bestowed on him such a heavenly epithet. To be nicknamed, by Percy, as one of the most prolific -- and gayest -- artists of all time was an honor Shaun could absolutely accept. Grinning, he returned his attention to more secular matters.

"I've got a bauble that needs testing. Remember that portable shadow we talked about for Vax? I think the unstable molecules can do it, assuming I've got them thinned out enough. This," he indicated the ball, which was steadied by an o-ring slid around one of his fingers, "is just the housing and release mechanism. But since you know Vax's powers better than I do, think you can lend me your eyes to see if the shadow is dark enough?”

Percy’s admiration was marred by a spike of envy that he immediately felt guilty for. He should be happy for Shaun—He was happy for Shaun, but…what he wouldn’t have given for a mutation that could help him invent? He’d been trying to figure out some kind of portable shadow since Vax had arrived at the school with no results, but, hey, at least he could turn into a bloody monster.

“Of course,” Percy said with a smile. “What do you need me to do exactly?”

Gilmore clapped his hands together once, and stepped out to the middle of the room. He gestured toward one of the daylight lamps that he used for fine jewelry work. "I'm going to activate this, and I need you to point that directly at me, cool? We need to see if the shadow is going to be dark enough for Vax to work with." He waited for Percy to agree and get the lamp aimed in his direction, full of brash confidence that this would work exactly as he thought.

The unique ability granted by Shaun’s X-gene left no doubt that the release mechanism would work exactly as intended when Shaun thumbed the catch and aimed the shadow between himself and Percy. The unstable molecules... well, they were named so for a reason.

Absolute blackness flared out of the sphere, barely even resembling the cloth material that Shaun had originally started with. At first it looked like mist, or a solid cloud, and indeed the bright lamp light seemed sucked right in. An instant later, though, the black haze coalesced again into six long arm-like tendrils, and without warning, all six wrapped themselves tightly around Percy’s arms and upper body.

It happened so fast that by the time Percy let out a startled shout, the sound was silence by the final band clapping over his mouth. The restraints squeezed, like a seatbelt tightening, then didn’t move again, binding him like some poorly wrapped mummy, his arms trapped against his sides and his legs pinned together.

This, Percy was fairly certain, was not how that was supposed to work. He strained against the bindings, but no matter how much he tried to break them, they didn’t budge. It was like fighting against steel. A frustrated flush rose up the back of his neck, and he looked wide-eyed over at Shaun.

"Shit," Gilmore gasped, his own shocked stare proof enough that this was not supposed to happen. It was like the unstable metamaterial had a mind of its own. Which was patently ridiculous, he knew. Still, in a moment of panic it was the first thing that came to mind.

The container sphere had a retracting mechanism as well as a release, and Shaun missed pressing it twice in his haste to get Percy free. "Shit, shit, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's not supposed to do that!" Shaun swore frantically, until he finally hit the release button. Much to his relief, the black tentacles loosened, released Percy's limbs, and slithered back. Shaun thought it seemed almost a reluctant retreat, but he did have a very overactive imagination.

“The only injury was to my pride,” Percy reassured as he smoothed his shirt and straightened the knot of his tie, then, as if he hadn’t just been held hostage by wayward tech, lightly said, “Well, let’s take a look, shall we? May I?” He held out his hands for the metal sphere. Now that he was no longer trussed like a Christmas goose, he could appreciate the little menace for the clever, accidental invention that it was.

Gilmore bit his lip, frowning, but offered the baseball-sized sphere to Percy. It seemed to be made of sturdy, smooth plastic with a few interworking metal bits. Shaun had had most of the pieces 3D-printed as he was learning the wonders of modeling software to bring the ideas in his head to life. Clearly, Shaun was more concerned with Percy's well-being than with the object he was handing over.

"Seriously, Percy, I am sorry. I had no idea it was going to... I don't even know what that was. In my other tests, the fabric went misty with a specific electrical charge. It never... did that," Gilmore made a vague gesture, looking worried.

“It’s alright. If you’d wanted an excuse to tie me up, you would have found it long ago,” Percy replied, the hint of a smirk the only giveaway in an otherwise dry delivery that he was joking.

Percy set the sphere down on his desk, and looked it over. It had no discernible joints, or seams and, though the material it was made out of was clearly unchanged, it showed no sign of the flexibility that it had displayed moments ago. His brow furrowed, a small, thoughtful frown pinching the corners of his mouth.

Well, that was saucy, for Percy. Shaun's brows went up, and he was effectively hushed in his apologies. Squaring his shoulders, he grabbed his own stool and dragged it over to where Percy sat, plunking down beside him. Unwilling to touch the sphere again himself, he reached for a dowel rod to use as a pointer. "This is the release here," he explained, tapping one of the parts that was absolutely stable: a thumb-sized button attached to the light casing that kept the 'fabric' inside in place. "It delivers that electrical charge I mentioned at the same time it propels the, um, stuff outward.

"We really need a better name for this stuff than 'unstable molecules'," Shaun added with a sigh.

Percy slowly turned the sphere over so he could examine every side. “You should name it after yourself. As far as we know, outside of Arcade, you’re the first to discover it, and I’d say the bastard owes you. The Gilmore Molecule has quite the ring to it.” He faced the sphere back button-side-up. “Is there any way to see the inside without setting it off?”

"Not sure what Miss Crowley would have to say about that," Gilmore noted, but sotto voice. "Maybe we could name it unicorn-something instead. It's definitely unique enough. Here," he added, reaching for jewelry pliers and a slim file from his own tools. "If I just reverse how I put it together, you should be able to get a good look at the mechanism, and the way the stuff is wound up in there."

He set to work, and had it open in a matter of moments. It would hardly be difficult to put it back together again, now that he'd done it once. Removing the trigger left a window into the inner workings of the elegant little device. Inside, the unstable substance was wound into very tight coils of what looked like ultra-black nylon, but very much was not. "This is as thin as I could get it without the electric stimulus. That's part of what the trigger does, is shock it. The other part is releasing the coils. This seemed like the most efficient way to store something that had to cover a Vax-sized area once released.”

Percy poked at the device’s innards as he nodded along to Shaun’s explanation. It was a marvel of engineering. The work was absolutely beautiful. He could have spent a long time just admiring it, but there were more important things to do… The fabric looked and felt unremarkable, but he remembered the outfit it had come from. Nothing about its ability to withstand damage, though, suggested the tensile strength it had just exhibited. That kind of resistance would be impossible to fashion into clothing, or to coil it within the sphere the way Shaun had.

“What did the Unicorn Molecule do when you first applied an electrical charge?” Percy asked, finally looking up from his examination.

Never able to keep his hands still for long, Shaun toyed with his pliers as Percy examined the device. "It went taut at first, stiff like it had been starched. That was when I first figured that it responded to stimulus at all. This was back at the start, when I was trying to figure out how to cut it, sew it, and make more of it. Finding the right charge to make it loosen up took some doing." He gave a small, wry smile. "It reacts in specific ways to nearly anything, which means you sort of have to try everything.”

That was fascinating. Percy regretted never getting his hands on the original fabric. It would have been incredible to study it. “Maybe it has something to do with the electrical current combined with the metal shell...” He shook his head, frowning. “But I can’t be sure. I’d need more time with it to be sure.”

"You can spend as much time as you like with it," Shaun sighed. "I don't have any use for something that wants to wrap my friends in weird tentacles." As much as Shaun loved creating things, a number of his latest works had been pretty conflict-focused. The suits for X-force, the Right collar, even the bow for Clint. He had wanted to work on something useful, but peaceful. "It's yours, if you want it.”

“Are you sure?” Percy asked, looking at Shaun in surprise.

Shaun offered a lopsided smile. "It's better if the portable shadow comes from you, anyway." Given... everything. Percy and Vax were his family, but he'd drawn some boundary lines that he probably shouldn't test too hard.

“I don’t think Vax will care where it comes from. He’ll just be happy to have it. But, if you’re sure…” Percy looked back to the disassembled sphere and considered it thoughtfully. “I think I’ll call it Manners. If you don’t mind, of course.”

One black brow quirked up, as Shaun gave Percy one of those looks. It would have been flirtatious if this had been six months ago. Because hearing Percy say that was oddly hot. "Manners? I don't mind at all.”

Percy’s grin was delighted. “Excellent.” He set aside the sphere to reassemble later, which would be a fun project, and half-turned in his chair so he was facing the other boy. “If I get anywhere with the portable shadow, I’ll let you know. The gift should come from both of us considering we’ll both have put the work in.”

"You're so generous," Shaun praised him, with all the standard doe-eyed devotion that Shaun Gilmore always heaped upon his friends (when he wasn't giving them shit). "But then again, so am I. We work and slave, and Pretty Boy reaps the benefits."

“It’s the cost of immense genius,” Percy joked in his typical dryness.

Shaun clapped Percy lightly on the shoulder, companionably. "Better than worrying your work will be used for evil, I suppose. You'll only teach very naughty people their Manners, right?" He was mostly teasing. Mostly. The fact that he'd built essentially a weapon for Clint still weighed on him a bit -- even if it had been fun.

“Only the worst,” Percy promised, though there was clearly something else on his mind as he considered Shaun for a long moment before finally saying, “I need to show you something I’ve been working on.” It was time. He’d avoided it long enough.

Something in Percy's tone, or maybe something in his eyes, tempered Shaun's usual enthusiasm for his friend's work. "Of course. You know I'm always fascinated with your creative talents." Curious, yes, but also maybe a little concerned.

Percy got down off his stool, and crouched down in front of his workbench, leaning forward to reached under it. There was a rustle of cloth, then a quick succession of quiet beeping followed by one long beep and a click. He stood back up, an object wrapped in a tea towel in his hands. He set it down.

“Just a moment.” Percy checked the door to their workshop, making sure it was locked, then returned to the workbench. He unfolded the cloth and, lying in its center, was a gun inside a holster. The holster was plain, leather, but the gun was anything but plain. It looked steampunk, in a way, like the meeting of two vastly different technologies—One old, and one very new. Six barrels arranged in a circle were attached to on what modern guns would be the chamber, but on his gun was both a revolver-like chamber for ammunition and a housing unit for the power source. It had a grip of metal inlaid with wood that was designed with the de Rolo family crest—A stylized sun over a stylized tree.

At first, Shaun could only blink and wonder how he'd never managed to notice that Percy's pet project was a gun. Was Percy that good at hiding his work, or was Shaun just that unobservant and ignorant? They shared space every day. He should have noticed. He should have known.

Shaun looked up at Percy with knit brows, a solemn mouth, and those dark brown baby-deer eyes. He said nothing judgmental, nothing opinionated, nothing that came from his own heart. If he told Percy what he thought right now, he risked damaging the nearly year-long closeness and friendship they had built. After a long moment, Shaun asked, quietly, "What does it do?”

“It utilizes an energy source of my own design that temporarily disrupts the electrical impulses in a mutant’s body that control the use of their abilities,” Percy answered like he was reeling off a definition he’d committed to memory. “It also hurts. A lot.”

Percy didn’t look at Shaun. His eyes, serious and dark, were on the gun as he said, “I know what you’re thinking and, trust me, I’m well aware.”

Percy didn't need Shaun scolding him, or lecturing him, no matter how much he might want to. In fact, he sort of wanted to yell, and shake Percy for being a fool, and hug him close for being so reckless. The hell of the thing was that Shaun knew exactly what it did. And he also knew exactly how brilliant it was. This masterpiece of craftsmanship was in many ways superior to the very similar weapon the Right had invented, and yet Percy had done this with just his incredible mind and the tools available to him.

He hadn't needed to ask the gun's purpose; he'd only wanted, perversely, to make Percy say it out loud. Shaun also didn't need to ask his next question, but he would, and for the same reasons. "Percy... who is it for?”

Percy thought that answer was rather obvious. “The Briarwoods.” When the time came, and, as terrified as the prospect made him, it would come, he’d be ready for them. “I told you I planned to stop them. I’ve been working on this for some time.”

Rare was the occasion that Shaun didn't know what to say. Asking something like Are you sure? would be stupid. Of course Percy was sure. He wouldn't have created this weapon if he weren't. Silently, Shaun rested a hand on Percy's shoulder, and gave a tiny squeeze. He didn't like this. He didn't want Percy's brilliance bent toward revenge. But he also didn't have any right to tell his friend to stop.

Shaun didn’t need to say anything. Percy knew he had done a terrible thing. He knew it was wrong to have built the gun, that if it fell into the wrong hands the results would be disastrous. He knew what kind of person he was. In that moment of silence, he laid a hand on a gun, letting it stretch out for a little longer before finally saying, “I need to do this.”

"You don't, though," Shaun finally said, turning so his back was to the work table and he could look at Percy directly. "You want justice, of course you do, but this can't be the only way. What if... what if you get caught? Sent to prison? Or what if they're stronger than you think, and they..." He stopped himself, somehow, his words tight and awful in his throat. "What would we do without you, Percy?”

Percy focused on rewrapping the gun in the tea towel, so he could avoid Shaun’s hurt, worried expression. “I know there are risks,” he said, skirting the question entirely. What was he supposed to say when Shaun was looking at him like that? “I plan on being careful. There’s no one else, Shaun. It has to be me.”

Shaun disagreed with that vehemently, but some part of him knew that shouting and anger weren't going to do much good here. Maybe it wasn't fair, but maybe guilt was his only option. "You're not just you, though," he pointed out, the words still small and straining. "What about Vax? What about everyone else? You know we aren't going to let you go do this all by yourself.”

Hearing his own thoughts voiced by someone else struck Percy like a blow that took the wind from him. It showed briefly in his face, aching and haunted, before it was masked. “I’m not asking anyone else to get involved,” he said calmly like he didn’t feel sick thinking about any one of them being harmed. “I’d rather if you didn’t.”

"You can't tell me the twins agreed to staying out of it," said Shaun flatly. They both knew Vax and Vex, and the chances of that happening were less than zero.

Percy’s insides were churning. “I’m not going to let anything happen to them.”

Shaun knew how clever and careful Percival could be with his words -- and how single-minded he could be when he got something into his head. Percy hadn't answered him directly. It all boiled down to one sickening, awful truth, that Shaun understood with hateful clarity. Finally he did grab Percy's shoulder, just short of shaking him, and accused, "You ... you're planning to do this alone.”

“I am not planning anything yet. I don’t even know where they are.” Percy used returning the gun to the safe as an escape to gather himself. He wanted to scream. He wanted to shake Shaun, and ask him what he wanted of him. His family was dead. He’d watched them get murdered in cold blood, and then he’d left his sister behind to die. He’d owed them this, he owed her this.

Strangely stung, Shaun dropped his hand and pulled it back to his chest as if it had been swatted away. Percy wasn't going to change his mind based on anything he said. That much was clear. Besides, Shaun felt sure that if Vax had seen this same thing, then he'd already had this conversation. If Vax hadn't talked Percy out of this crazed revenge idea, then Shaun sure as hell couldn't.

"This is insane," he lodged his objection, quietly, "but I love you, and I'm not going to let you do this by yourself.”

Percy didn’t deserve his friends. “You can.” Though he didn’t yet feel anything close to collected, he closed the safe and stood up to face Shaun. “You should. It would be better if you stayed out of it.”

“Yeah," said Shaun, tightly, folding his arms defiantly. "It probably would." But that fact wasn't changing his mind.

“Good. Then you’ll stay out of it,” Percy said as if they were in agreement.

No, Shaun had definitely not said that. His face tensed, like he was in actual physical pain and trying to hide it. "Is that what I have to say so that you won't turn away from me? So you'll still trust me?" This madness was a hundred times more difficult than declaring his intentions to monogamy. This, he was afraid, might actually persuade Percy to freeze him out, reject him.

“What do you want from me, Shaun?” Percy suddenly snapped, his emotions bubbling over despite his best efforts to keep them contained. “If I let you and the others help, it’s the wrong decision. If I don’t, it’s the wrong decision. I should turn you all away, but I can’t.

“I need to do this.” The words were spilling out now, catching with the threat of tears. “I owe it to my family. I left them, Shaun. I ran away.”

Shaun knew Percy was angry and hurting, and he also knew how difficult it could be for Percy to show anything like these kinds of emotions. This conversation -- argument? -- felt like a mad tug-of-war that neither of them were going to win. Shaun didn't even want to win. Maybe he could just... drop the rope.

He rested a warm hand on Percy's shoulder, and turned so that Percy could take a hug if he needed one. "I just want to keep my very good friend," said Shaun quietly. "That's all I want.”

Percy was taken aback. Of all things, he hadn’t expected that to be what Shaun was most focused on, not after what he’d just admitted. His mouth opened, then closed again, and a frown knit his brow. “I’m not going to stop being your friend, Shaun. It would take quite a bit more than a disagreement for that."

"That's good," said Shaun with a small, sad smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'd really like to try and keep you alive, too. Any objections to that?"

“No.” Percy hesitated, but then embraced Shaun, holding him close, and tight. He hadn’t intended to cause him any pain. He’d worried Shaun might be angry, or disappointed with him if anything, but not so upset. It would be all to easy to chalk it up to Shaun’s too-big heart, as he always had, but he was beginning to realize he may have underestimated how much Shaun cared for him.

"Good." Shaun pulled Percy close, just barely resisting the urge to ruck up his lovely white hair as he did. Had he been thinking clearly, and not just reacting in the moment to the sight of a gun Percy had built, Shaun might have guessed that this need for revenge came from somewhere very dark and very fragile somewhere in Percy's heart. Fighting it would only make Percy want to protect it all the more. No, you couldn't badger or berate Percival de Rolo into changing his mind. You had to love him into it, instead.

When Shaun pulled him closed, Percy held onto him tighter and stayed just like that for a minute, trying to give comfort just as much as he was trying to find it. He eventually let Shaun go, his hold loosening, then sliding away until his hands were left on Shaun’s arms before finally falling away completely. In that moment, it felt like there was so much still to say, yet at the same time nothing he could say except, “Thank you.”

That tiny sign that Percy did not want to let go -- that meant more to Shaun than he'd ever have the guts to say. And he was not someone who feared voicing his feelings. He offered Percy a very small smile and a shake of the head. He'd needed that, too.

"I think... I need to head upstairs and see the sun. What do you think?”

Percy returned Shaun’s small smile with one of his own. “I think I am going to go for a walk,” he said after giving it some thought. “I should find Vax.”

"Give him my love," Shaun suggested. With one last glance to make sure his workspace was tidy, he blew Percy a kiss and made for the door. Boyfriend time sounded like the perfect thing right now.