three things make a post

1) Sportsball! My baseball team is finally ridiculous in good ways instead of #LOLMets ways. They scored a touchdown in the ninth inning to turn a 7-1 impending loss into an 8-7 win and I'm glad I kept the game on while my attention was primarily on my hockey team. Which managed to win last night despite getting outshot because Igor was Igor and was dispensing indulgences for defensive sins like a Medieval pope with a cash shortage. The bookmakers still favor Pittsburgh in the series despite the Penguins needing to use their third-string goalie, so I'm not prepared to be optimistic, but it's been a few years since the Rangers were in the playoffs and I'm trying to enjoy it.

2) I have a car. It was a miserable experience to acquire except for the part where I have patient and generous friends who coached me through it. There was no haggling, no discussion of options or trims or colors or anything. There was instead a sticker that said "dealer profit markup: $1100" and I took what was on the lot that wasn't white. It's a Kona. I am not driving it as much as I should right now because I am still WFH and don't want to practice driving during rush hour, but I have gone out. And had a few misadventures because I'm still learning how to listen to Google Maps directions and Google Maps occasionally doesn't know where the hell I am. So I've seen a bit of Howard County that has a lot of farmland and golf courses and no place to pull over or turn around. And gone to Wegmans. I also finally went to the Maryland DMV... which is the MVA because DMV means something else here. And despite having an unrestricted NYS license, I had to surrender it in exchange for a Maryland Provisional License because I've been driving for less than 18 months. So now I have a clearly labeled teenager license, although I am allowed to drive after dark because I am not a teenager. I am not driving after dark because I am still a new driver and driving in daylight is stressful enough.

3) I wrote another 911 fic. I think what I find most appealing about the show is that there are actual 'books' on the characters that the show writers consult, that these writers favor not only continuity but also thrill to callbacks to earlier seasons and creating symmetry with earlier arcs and between characters. I come out of comicsfic, SGA, and the MCU and none of these canons had any use or capacity for character continuity -- it's impossible in comics with a gazillion writers and books, the MCU didn't really do character development, and SGA reduced every character to a single trait and then re-set them when growth and experience threatened that trait and then pretended past events didn't happen. And here's 911 last week explicitly mirroring old tragedies for Bobby and Chimney (allowing them both to avoid repeating it/a better ending), putting another single brick in the rebuild of Eddie's foundations that they spent the first half-season-plus blowing up, and showing Buck reacting exactly as he said he would a long time ago when Bobby is in danger. I like that every character beat in the show is essentially Chekhov's gun -- it will get used later, sometimes a few seasons later. Also, family-by-choice for reals, not the way MCU fandom tried to fanon it with the Avengers, who barely knew or tolerated each other.

Anyway, the fic:

Paterfamilias
Bobby, Buck, Eddie | 2300 words ; 5x13-14

“Eddie isn’t someone we can save like we do when the alarm rings and we ride out,” he goes on. “He’s not someone we can decide isn’t making clear decisions and override them.”

“He’s not making clear decisions,” Buck bites out.

“He’s not,” Bobby agrees. “But we still can’t force better ones on him because they wouldn’t stick. He’s not ready to acknowledge the problem – he’s still looking at the symptoms and not seeing the disease. And until he’s ready to do that… We have to wait. And be ready to catch him when he falls.”

Buck fights his own frustration, shifting around violently in his chair as he tries to swallow down the futility.

“I fell so many times,” Bobby says softly and Buck stills. “I still dream of falling. But I know – really know – that if I do fall again, I have so many hands who will help me up and hold me until I can stand. Yours among them.”

Buck gives him a ghost of a smile.

“If Eddie falls, we’ll catch him and we won’t let him go.”