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#tpp fic – @northisnotup on Tumblr
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& South is not Down

@northisnotup / northisnotup.tumblr.com

Dramatique Dinner Guest, Fandom Muse & General Enthusiast // Officially in my 30s I guess
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oooh many tempting choices but I'm going with night moves 👀

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[Blows dust off]

I'm in a Position with Night Moves, cause i should probably finish S4&5 of Juno Steel but also I like the canon divergence semi-au I've made here and I want to shelter it. The struggle I have with Night Moves is that it wants to be long, which preemptively exhausts me. But i love it and it does haunt me.

The monitor at the front desk chimed just as Rita, who’d been unusually quiet piped up, “Oh! Mista Steel! Company is coming!” "Take your coat off, stay a while," Juno murmured, flicking his eye to the monitor on the desk. "I'm good," Alessandra's lip curled in distaste and Juno fought down the instinctive need to come to the crappy motel's defense. Sure it was faded and out of style and dim and dingy, but it was his, damn it. It was clean, and it was the last safe place left in the whole fucking galaxy as far as he was concerned. "If I wanted -" "Take your god damned coat off and throw it over your arm," he barked, standing up to his full height and putting his hands on his hips. The bell over the door sounded like a storm warning. Juno didn’t look. "Look, do I want to leave? Of course I do. But I don't. Because we don't have the coverage! You didn't clear your time off with me, Missy, now get your ass back in that kitchen and sweat in the jello for all I care, or good luck finding yourself another job." "Go to hell," Alessandra spat, never one to be slow on the uptake. She swept past him into the back, and for his sake, Juno hoped he could get rid of the potential new customer before she had time to start poking around and find something she shouldn't. Projecting as much Hyperion ‘what do you want and make it snappy,’ as he could into his voice, Juno didn’t bother to look up as he slipped back behind the front desk and prattled off the usual spiel. “Hello traveler, welcome to the Penumbra, the finest hotel/motel this side of nowhere. Show me your token, set your price limit and we’ll start talking rooms.” Key. Key. Key. Damn it all, where did R- “Prices? I’m terribly sorry, I know this is my first time patroning the establishment, but I’ve already purchased the token.” Said token was pushed across the front desk til it was just about under his nose. J-17, huh? “Purchased?” Juno whistled low, a grin beginning to creep onto his face even through the haze of annoyance that someone ‘tidying’ his space always inspired. “Damn, who’d you piss off, Buddy or Vespa?” He could have told the guy that token’s weren’t required to be handed in until checkout, but he was already annoyed this morning and had no qualms taking it out on whatever poor sod the captain sent his way. So, he pocketed the chip and hazarded a glance up. “Excuse me?” Oh! Wow. It wasn’t professional to whistle at guests. Not even ones as good looking as this guy. He was…sharp. It was the first word that came to Juno’s mind and lingered there. Sharp jaw, sharp smile, sharp suit. “The token,” he said slowly, tongue feeling thick in his mouth, “only means you’re able to rent a room here. If they made you pay for the token too, you must have pissed them off. My money’s on Vespa.” “Ah.” The man nodded, almost to himself. “That would be why the smile. And the laughter.” “Cackle, you can call it what it is.” Juno shrugged. “I would never.” The man held out his hand to shake. “Rex Glass.” “Juno Steel."
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I’m late!!

But I am still gonna play! Thank you @kelliealtogether for tagging me in the ‘five favourite fics that I've written (for writer appreciation day)’ 

This was the kindest thing you could have tagged me in, because as much as I love my fics when I post them, I tend to have a distorted view of them later on, thinking that my writing must have been so much worse, that I’m sure I fucked up the pacing, etc. But having now gone back and re-read a lot of these, I like them just as much - so much that choosing just 5 is gonna be hard! 

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“Do you think I’m dead?”

Nureyev sets down his pen. Wherever he’d been before now, whatever space his mind occupied, washes away with cold water. The voice behind him (on the bed, he imagines) sounds only mildly curious. “Again?” He barely breathes the question into the air in front of him, and it doesn’t reach that far back.

“You know, in a cold ditch somewhere,” Juno continues, teasing. Nureyev knows what he’d see if he turned around, down to the last detail, so he looks at the desk in front of him instead. It’s familiar - the same whorls in the wood grain he’d seen hundreds of times, the same scattering of papers and the other paraphernalia inevitably collected when one lives in one space for an extended amount of time. Most of them don’t exist anymore, purposefully and dispassionately removed by his own hand. Left behind and lost in the chaos, not to be found again.

Something traitorous in his mind supplies: Just like the person behind you, isn’t that right?

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It shouldn’t be this hard.

When he stacks it up against the past month, Juno doesn’t think this moment, standing in front of Mick Mercury, even ranks. Finding Mick was hard. Working up the nerve to ask for the help he needed was hard. Getting to Puck, getting to Io, getting past every minute that meant another minute farther away from his family with no idea what he was doing - that was hard. How could he get through all of that, stand in front of his best friend since they were both kids in Oldtown, and feel afraid?

Maybe it’s because when he says the words and watches for the change in Mick’s face - disbelief or anger or whatever is coming next, whatever is about to be drawn out of Mick Mercury by force in the next few seconds - there isn’t anything. It’s almost like Juno didn’t say a thing, and Juno can half-believe that’s true - that he just didn’t work up the nerve yet, that he thought the words and didn’t spit them out - except for the awkward, stuttering stumble of a sentence that’s still ringing in his ears. And then Mick smiles, laughs a little, and that’s worse. That’s so much worse.

Shot you? What’d you say to her, Jayjay? Hope she wasn’t too close, I know I don’t have to tell you the kinda nasty burns those things can leave.”

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At times, the solution to a maze is to reduce it to embers and walk straight through the ashes.― Mary Doria Russell

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Juno has always wanted to save people. Juno has always loved mysteries. Juno always leaves his messes for other people to clean up.

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Used a random number generator! 76) Did They or Didn’t They and 95) Sleep Intimacy. Jupeter, por favor

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Buddy had intentions. Vespa had suspicions. Rita had hopes.

"Have you seen the way they're all over each other?" Vespa gagged.

Rita shushed her, waving her hands and staring, panicked, at the door which stayed resolutely shut.

Either not caring if she was caught gossiping or otherwise seeing no reason to comply, Vespa did not, in fact, lower her voice. "I'm telling you, those two are absolutely-"

"And yet," Buddy interrupted delicately, "while I have had to add ahem, personal supplies," She ignored Rita's shocked, embarrassed cry, and Vespa's flustered sputterings. "To resupply orders for each and every one of us in this room, I have never had been approached by Juno or Ransom. Have you, my Vespa?"

"Well! I... that's!" Vespa's pale skin flushed all over. "A breech of patient confidentiality. You know I can't answer that!"

"Just as well as I know you'd find some way to confirm without saying yes if you had." Buddy said.

"I mean, we packed up most of everything we had when we left," Rita said, thoughtful. "So maybe..."

"You think Juno brought supplies on board?" Buddy laughed, delighted. "Enough to last six months worth of sleep overs with a paramour?"

Rita took only a second to think it over before Buddy's meaning set in. "Oh! Well! No! Mista Steel ain't had anyone serious since...uh, well. Not for a long time anyway."

"So it's settled. Ransom and Juno are not, in fact-"

"Just 'cause the hacker says so?! Bud! You've seen them!" Vespa wasn't, it seemed, willing to let this go without a fight. "Sequliak! You share a wall with those two disgusting-"

"Miz. Vespa!"

"Disgusting fruit bats." Vespa finished, triumphant.

"Why fruit bats?" Rita blinked, eyes huge behind her thick lenses and busy frames.

"W..why not?!"

Jet felt he had to explain before Rita started coming up with her own ideas and Vespa became defensive. "Fruit bats form family groups, and on Ranga, have been documented to have very involved mating rituals, which they engage in more often then any other species."

"Oh, yeah that makes sense."

"Sequliak!"

"No."

"No?" Buddy tittered.

Jet knew. The trick to making a ship fast is to make it light. Since it is inadvisable to sacrifice the integrity of the hull, which seperates the passengers from the crushing vacuum of space, most ships do this by making the inside walls very thin.

It was not just the common and banal sounds of sex which leaked through the thin barrier separating Juno's room from Jet's. If it was, Jet would have no problem in joining the gentle and almost affectionate mockery happening.

But it was not just sex between Juno and Ransom.

That was obvious, beyond what Jet could overhear. It was in the way they looked at one another. In the endearments that Ransom had long stopped smothering. The way that Juno looked first for Rita when he entered a room, and then, having found her, did another sweep, relaxing when Ransom was in sight. The way that Ransom would hold out a hand, inviting Juno into his space, and Juno - prickly, self conscious, over-independent - would accept that invitation.

And of course, there were the whispers of pillow talk Jet did overhear, when one or the other was a little too loud. Praises sang and nightmares soothed.

Jet knew.

He's just not telling.

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northisnotup

“There’s no point to this, Juno, neither you, nor your family are getting out of here.” 

Sasha didn’t bother to sneer. If Juno had to pick one thing that was really buzzing his bonnet over this whole thing, it was the way Sasha Wire, Ms. Teacher’s Pet, Ms. Everyone’s Favourite, Ms. Practically Perfect in Every Way, didn’t sound smug. 

She sounded tired.

Like she’d just…given up. Given in. Like this whole thing, all of it, was inevitable and they were just playing their roles.

He’d felt like that once. Not even that long ago. Like someone had attached wires to him and was dragging him along, puppeting him through his own life. Juno had felt the same desire then as he did now. And now, it wasn’t just his own life on the line, it was his family’s too.

Come on, buddy. You and your new family can get out of here. You got your ‘plan B’ option right here. You know what you gotta do…

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“There’s no point to this, Juno, neither you, nor your family are getting out of here.” 

Sasha didn’t bother to sneer. If Juno had to pick one thing that was really buzzing his bonnet over this whole thing, it was the way Sasha Wire, Ms. Teacher’s Pet, Ms. Everyone’s Favourite, Ms. Practically Perfect in Every Way, didn’t sound smug. 

She sounded tired.

Like she’d just…given up. Given in. Like this whole thing, all of it, was inevitable and they were just playing their roles.

He’d felt like that once. Not even that long ago. Like someone had attached wires to him and was dragging him along, puppeting him through his own life. Juno had felt the same desire then as he did now. And now, it wasn’t just his own life on the line, it was his family’s too.

Come on, buddy. You and your new family can get out of here. You got your ‘plan B’ option right here. You know what you gotta do...

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“Juno,” Nureyev says, and it’s...it’s not right. It’s not right to hear his name sound like that on Nureyev’s lips. Nureyev is supposed to say his name just the way he always has. Like it’s a gift and a blessing and a god damned delight. 

Not like it’s a sigh of surrender. A last prayer. 

And Juno knows, he knows what Nureyev is waiting for. He’s waiting for the Juno Steel special. He’s waiting for the outburst, the overflowing of moral outrage and righteous indignation. He’s waiting for Juno to give him something he can defend against, apologize for, weave around until Juno is wilted against him like a flower in the desert heat and… he can’t give that to him. Juno’s not sure if it’s the way his jacket is crisp and free of wrinkles, or the way his face is bare and his cheeks are flushed but Juno tries to reach for the hot core of fury that has kept him alive and moving and finds it empty. 

For as long as Juno can remember there’s been a crack in his heart that has welled a desperate angry need to prove himself. And when he tried to patch it up, it overflowed. And if he let it overwhelm him he burned but gladly. 

There is still a crack in his heart but now he thinks if someone were to put an ear to his chest they would just hear an echo of a chasm left behind. 

“Juno?” Nureyev looks worried now, his hand half reaching out like he wants to touch but can’t make himself bridge that gap. 

And he won’t. Between them, he was never the one who took leaps of faith. 

But Juno’s legs feel numb and his chest feels cold and he knows the dangers of moving when one can’t feel their limbs but he makes himself take a step anyway. 

“Come on, Ruby’s waiting.” 

“Juno… I,”

Again, there is the weight of expectation. Nureyev, trying to measure out the distance between them, waiting for the explosion he thinks is inevitable and what the terrain will look like afterward. 

But for once, for once, Juno can’t make his hands form fists. He can’t turn this space into a battlefield because he’s already lost the war. 

There’s a moment where Juno isn’t sure what to call him. He still thinks of the man before him as Nureyev, a name given to him like a gift and a blessing and a secret delight on his tongue whenever he said it. 

But the thought of saying it now sends a cold wind tearing through the crack in his heart and he can’t. He can’t

Juno thinks about the names he’s used before. Juno thinks about what a name is. Then he thinks about the camera’s he couldn’t disengage and the way walls have ears. Then he thinks about the sleepless nights spent planning, the way he didn’t expect the man to be here but is too tired to be surprised by it. He says, “We don’t have time for this. Come or don’t.” 

He turns his back and begins walking. 

“Juno don’t walk away from me.” 

He wishes there was enough left in him to flinch at that. But he’s tired and he stopped fighting the way this man made him feel so long ago. 

He keeps walking, and the knife never comes. 

“Juno, please.” 

There is nothing he can say, nothing he can give, nothing the man can steal. Juno doesn’t know if he will come. Doesn’t even know if he wants him too. But he also knows that it’s his family’s best hope if he does. 

There isn’t an echo behind him and Juno does not turn. 

But a shadow of a man slips into Ruby’s passenger seat and a smooth careful voice asks, “Where to, detective?” 

“Perdita.” 

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northisnotup

First rule of thieving: Do your own research.

First rule of thieving: Know what your mark wants.

First rule of thieving: Know what you, yourself, want.

What Peter Nureyev wants to wake up next to Juno Steel every day for the rest of his life. He wants to travel the galaxy at his side, day after day, until death at last parts them. He wants so deeply and with such fervor it weighs on his heart like nothing else, save the ring, which stays always in one of his many pockets, feeling like a star attempting to collapse in on itself.

And that is the problem.

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The machine - because he knows better than to ask for a name, it would be silly to think he had anything more than a serial number - wonders if this is how thinking usually goes. It seems inefficient to keep asking himself questions instead of just knowing the answers, but maybe that's just the way a mind works - one part to observe and ask, and another part to answer. He just woke up. He does not know how machines work.

(His programming starts to answer, and he tells it to be quiet.)

On a rescue mission for Juno, Rita picks up something else.

Sometimes the Dark Matters tech we steal is the friend we make along the way.

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northisnotup

I know this idea has been batted around before but it gripped me something FEIRCE last night: Juno Steel was never supposed to be a tribute. Now, they're calling him a legacy.

Twenty years ago, his mother won the Hunger Games. She was never the same.

Two years ago, his brother won. 16 and beautiful, he hid all the Steel ruthlessness he inherited from Sarah behind a smile.

Juno can remember the day he was chosen. How panic gripped him; how he started to yell and never got past "I VO-" before Ben's arm was around his neck and his hand was across his mouth, grinning at the cameras while his fingers dug tight into Juno's cheeks.

"Trust me," he whispered, just between them, "I got this."

And he had.

And Juno had almost. Just scraped by. Three more months and he would have been too old to be entered in the lottery.

Hell, what were the odds he'd be chosen anyway, after his mother and his brother?

100% if Sarah's drunken, paranoid ramblings had any truth to them.

Only - they did.

Because he's 17 and shaking, feeling...not betrayed, but something like it as Julian DiMaggio's smile slips, doe like eyes widening in horror as he calls out: "Juno Steel."

@spiky-lesbian asked so: Benzaiten won his games by playing it like a game show. He addressed the cameras, talking to the viewership as if they were there with him, and it won a LOT of sponsors.

He was the smooth talker, the charismatic one who hid everything behind a smile. He played his allies and opponents off each other and hid his strength and sharp mind until the very end.

It's not that he didn't believe Sarah when she would insist on their training, on their preparation, that someone was conspiring against their family...but...she didn't always inspire confidence, okay? At least, not until the first dinner when Ramses O'Flaherty put his wizened hand on his shoulder, and smiled at him sadly.

"Well, not the Steel we expected, but I speak for the whole of the council when I say we expect great things..." he sighed, "We all know what happened to Sarah was a shame, my boy. But she's a good mentor - if not for..."

Ben suppressed a twitch, kept his smile wide and empty.

Ma was right.

Her nails had dug hard into his shoulders the night before the lottery. Her eyes were red and she smelled like stale sweat rather then fresh booze. She was sober and she was snarling "Listen to me, Benzaiten! You volunteer. If they call your idiot brother's name, you yell as loudly as you can and if they call on you, you stop him from doing the same - do you understand me?"

"Ma-"

She shook him slightly and the wiry strength left in her rattled him. "Do you understand me?!"

"Yes!"

Yes, he did.

Because Sarah knew this man worked, and Ben knew understood how this place worked - the way they both masked their poison with honey. And standing in that dining room, rich food in his stomach, champagne bubbling on his tongue and this man offering his condolences for Sarah Steel being Sarah Steel...Ben was glad he listened. He's glad it's him and not his twin

Because Juno? Juno would have lapped that up without thinking twice.

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I know this idea has been batted around before but it gripped me something FEIRCE last night: Juno Steel was never supposed to be a tribute. Now, they're calling him a legacy.

Twenty years ago, his mother won the Hunger Games. She was never the same.

Two years ago, his brother won. 16 and beautiful, he hid all the Steel ruthlessness he inherited from Sarah behind a smile.

Juno can remember the day he was chosen. How panic gripped him; how he started to yell and never got past "I VO-" before Ben's arm was around his neck and his hand was across his mouth, grinning at the cameras while his fingers dug tight into Juno's cheeks.

"Trust me," he whispered, just between them, "I got this."

And he had.

And Juno had almost. Just scraped by. Three more months and he would have been too old to be entered in the lottery.

Hell, what were the odds he'd be chosen anyway, after his mother and his brother?

100% if Sarah's drunken, paranoid ramblings had any truth to them.

Only - they did.

Because he's 17 and shaking, feeling...not betrayed, but something like it as Julian DiMaggio's smile slips, doe like eyes widening in horror as he calls out: "Juno Steel."

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TPP Nano: 11/11

Nureyev hums thoughtfully, gaze darting keenly through the documents Buddy has sent them all. He flips through the files, landing on the floor plan as Juno scrolls down to the bios of their targets. There are a few people of interest running this particular mansion: Charles Fletching, Ngobi Ifeoma, and some of their relatives, most of whom live off-property.

“Am I to assume the Water’s Jewel is held in the vault, then?”

“We’re not sure,” Buddy admits. “That is, obviously, where precious gems are typically stored. However, it seems a little…obvious.”

“Maybe they’re idiots,” Juno suggests. “Maybe this one will be straightforward.”

“As much as I admire your optimism, darling, I don’t quite share it. Several of the residents have proved themselves quite competent with technology, and as such, much like Miss Zolatovna’s ball, I cannot definitively vouch for the accuracy of the plans. Ransom, I would recommend memorizing them as per usual, darling, but do be ready to improvise.”

Juno takes a long sip of coffee, still flipping through the brief. Close relatives, previous acquisitions, security measures. He pulls up that last. “Rita, did you look into it?”

“Sure did, boss! It wasn’t too tricky, but there were a coupla things I ain’t seen before. Kinda like…” Rita trails off. “Well. The information you’ve got right now’s definitely updated to right now, but I’ll keep working as you two move through the mansion. Just in case!”

“Good,” Juno says distractedly. So long as Rita’s on the case, Juno’s not worried. He scrolls through the security details more closely, tracking past estates of the mansion’s owners. There are a few threads, and a few names that keep popping up in their measures: Tiffany Revelio, Sophie Orion, Moira Hashemi….

Wait. Hashemi. He knows that name, doesn’t he?

Nureyev asks something about the jewel itself, fingers drumming on the tabletop inches from Juno’s own. Juno frowns, brows knit as he thinks. Moira Hashemi. He’s heard that name before. When? Maybe a previous client, but Juno remembers all his clients. Friend of a client, maybe?

Juno keeps scrolling through the documents, struggling to remember. It feels so familiar, it feels important, but he can’t…quite….

Evolving security. High-tech defenses. Moira Hashemi.

Juno freezes. Then, deliberately, he closes his pad. “Buddy,” he says, hearing his own voice come out strangled, “I don’t think I’ll be able to join Ransom on this case.”

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TPP Nano, 11/08

“Mista Steel, hurry up, you’re takin’ forever!”

“Not my fault you eat enough snacks for five people all on your own, Rita, that makes my job a little more difficult!”

Rita scoffs audibly from the other room. Juno finishes dumping her heart-attack-in-a-snack into a bowl and brushes into the streaming room, three bowls balanced between two arms. He passes one off to Nureyev, the other to Rita, and in the middle of handing the third to Jet, his shoulder seizes and he drops it.

“Oh, goddamn it,” he swears, swatting for it on instinct and hissing through his teeth as he misses. His hand goes to his shoulder, like digging his fingers into the joints will make him feel better. “Shit. Sorry, Jet.”

“It is not a problem, Juno,” Jet says, and stands, bowl in hand. “I will refill it.”

Juno sits on the couch by Nureyev, a guilty frown twisting across his face as he massages his shoulder. Stupid injury. Stupid body.  Now there’s old Earth popcorn scattered around where Jet sat, breaching the cushion that holds Vespa and Buddy, and mostly Juno feels like an idiot.

“Juno, are you all right, love?”

“Fine,” Juno grunts, rotating his shoulder experimentally as the pain fades. “Sorry, guys.”

“That doesn’t look fine, Steel,” Vespa interjects.

“Yeah, well, it’s an old injury,” Juno says. Rita’s being quiet. Too quiet. “Like, really old.”

“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me about it, Steel!”

“It’s not normally a big deal! At least I wasn’t making a shot when that happened!”

“You do understand how even that possibility is bad, right?”

“Lay off,” Juno snaps. At his side, Rita has shrunk in on herself, and guilt claws its way up his throat. “Leave it, Vespa. We’ll talk about this later.”

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infuse me with your rhythm- NanoWrimo 11/04

“You suck at this, Glass.”

Nureyev glares at the detective, frustrated. They were both in the Kanagawa Studio on a Sunday, when most dancers would be taking advantage of their day off. Juno was sitting to the side, watching him perform the dance again, and again, and again, criticising every movement he made. 

“I certainly don’t know what you mean, detective,” he says airily, his tone at odds with the set of his jaw. “I am following the instructions perfectly.”

Juno makes a disgusted noise. “Did you just call the choreography instructions?

"They’re synonymous, yes.”

“That’s not-!” Juno throws up his hands. “How did you even get this position?”

I’m excellent at passport forgery, Nureyev nearly says, then bites his tongue. This detective had an inconvenient way of making him want to tell the truth. “The talent scouts at the Kanagawa Dance Corps saw potential in me, I suppose." 

"Shows what they know,” Juno mutters. Nureyev ignores the comment.

“Try again, Glass.”

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