Tag: Writer: Gil Grissom

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Read more“Sylum Advent 2017: December 3rd”

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Title: A New Hobby: An Excerpt from Libera Nos a Malo

Author: Gil Grissom

Characters: Brian O’Conner, Dominic Toretto, Ronon Dex, Jason Doyle, Joaquin Lizardi, Daniel Boone, David Crockett

Rating: FRT (language)

Summary: Brian’s picked up a new hobby.

Timeline: June-ish 2009

Artist: Taibhrigh

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Dom parked his car in its usual spot in the garage and slid out of the driver’s seat, his mind drifting from the minor suspension issues his car was still having to his Mates, wondering where they’d wandered off to.

He hated to admit it, but Josiah had been right. They’d needed to let everything go for at least a week or two before diving back into the their horrible task. Brian had been stressing himself out to the point where he was snapping at everyone, including Lucas, who he spent the most time with.

When he’d heard Lucas muttering about borrowing the Black Pearl from his father so he could actually keelhaul Brian, he knew it there was a real problem. Brian’s stress and moodiness had also exacerbated his own to the point he was glaring at anyone who crossed his path. And Ronon…

Well, Dom really didn’t want to find out how Ronon reacted to intense stress, considering his background and what he’d lived through. He had no doubts that it would be extremely unpleasant, and everybody might not make it out alive.

Josiah had seen the issues as well, and he’d ordered a mandated vacation from their grim reality and they weren’t allowed in any of their offices. The one time Brian had tried to sneak into the research facility, Lucas had laughed in his face and had Spike and Harkness grab him by the arms and throw him into the ocean. As Dom and Ronon had both warned him not to go there, they’d simply watched and pointed and laughed at their sputtering, indignant Mate.

The first few days of their mandatory vacation was spent feeding, sleeping, having an obscene amount of sex in between the other two activities, and reminding each other that they really did love one another and didn’t actually want to shower each other with bricks to the head.

This was the first day they’d gone their separate ways to pursue hobbies and such, and Dom had taken the opportunity to work on the car he suspected Han had deliberately sabotaged on Josiah’s orders. After four hours, he’d fixed the mechanical problems with the engine, but he had no idea what Han had done to fuck up his suspension. What he did know was that at some point, Han was going to pay for it.

He strolled toward the main house, intending on looking to see what Ronon and Brian were up to, when he slowed to a halt as Ronon came into view. He was in between Daniel and David, surfboard under one arm, board shorts riding low on his hips, his bare torso glistening from the water that still dripped from his hair. He was laughing at whatever David was saying as one arm flailed this way and that with his storytelling. It struck him just how beautiful his Mate was, and how lucky he and Brian were to find this man. The very idea that Ronon might still be in another galaxy, running from monsters that ate someone with their hand, if it weren’t for John Sheppard made his heart hurt. He sent up a prayer of thanks that that wasn’t the case as he not-so-subtly checked out his Mate.

“Have fun?” he asked when the three men neared, glancing over with a frown as a car all but screeched to a halt about thirty feet behind him.

“Spent more time wiping out than surfing, but I’m getting better,” Ronon told him before glancing over Dom’s shoulder. “What’s his deal?”

Dom turned to see Joaquin getting out of his car. He was clearly disheveled and looked well fucked out, which wouldn’t be a concern if they weren’t well aware of who his Mate was, and it was clear as day what happened by the expression on his face. “You okay, Joaquin?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“I’m a horrible human being,” Joaquin muttered as he strode by, heading toward the house that held his quarters.

David blew out a heavy sigh. “I’ll go and talk to him.”

“Because our week was a little boring without a touch of drama,” Daniel said, taking David’s board so David could go and chase down Joaquin.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Dom said, staring in the direction of Joaquin’s house with sympathy. “Santa Anna’s been staying in Salina Cruz more than he usually does, and Joaquin has always acted as our go between, as the least volatile one for each side.”

“Maybe that was a mistake on our part,” Daniel murmured. “Throwing the two of them together.” He frowned. “You think this is why he’s still here? Trying to wear Joaquin down?”

Dom shook his head. “No, I think it’s the Rogue activity that’s been the problem in the last several years that keeps him here. He acts as a spy for them while he passes us the information he gleans from them. His intention is to protect Joaquin. They know he’s not good for Joaquin, and Santa Anna knows that their Mating is impossible if he wants Joaquin to remain with our Clan. Too much has happened and he can’t be trusted with anything but his Mate’s well-being. Going against the Clan in any meaningful way would hurt Joaquin in more ways than one, especially if it meant we had to hunt Santa Anna’s ass down.”

“So basically a moment of weakness,” Daniel murmured. “Well, if anyone can get through to him, it’s David. Out of all of us, his history with Santa Anna is the most volatile. I’m going to shower. My skin’s starting to itch.”

Dom wrapped an arm around Ronon’s waist and walked with him to the storage area where they kept their surfboards, following Daniel at a more leisurely pace. “You know where Brian is?”

“Last I saw him, he was inside talking to Doyle,” Ronon told him. “Don’t know what about, though. Figure if it’s anything interesting he’ll let us know.”

Dom nodded and leaned back against the wall, watching with undisguised interest as Ronon wiped his board down and set it in his proper slot. He smiled when Ronon turned around and looked at him curiously. “You’re really hot in nothing but your board shorts.”

Ronon growled and stalked closer. “I’m even hotter out of them.”

“You’re telling me something I’m well-aware of,” Dom replied, pulling him in for a slow, deep kiss. “Wanna go find Brian and see if he wants to play with us?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Dom and Ronon walked toward the house hand in hand, running into Missouri down one of the hallways. “You seen Brian?”

Missouri grinned broadly and then said, “He’s in the living room with Jason.”

“Thanks!” Dom said, bemused by her reaction. “Let’s go see what it is he’s gotten up to that’s clearly got her amused.”

They wound their way through the house to the main living room and Dom stopped short in the doorway. He could feel his eyebrows trying to crawl their way up to the top of their head as he took in the picture Jason and Brian made.

Jason was sitting on the chaise lounge with Brian sitting between his legs, Brian’s back to Doyle’s chest. Jason had his arms wrapped around Brian as he helped instruct him manipulate the yarn and needles that Brian had in hand. “Are you learning to knit?”

Brian looked up at him and beamed. “Yep! Jason’s teaching me the basics right now.”

Dom nodded slowly. “Okay. Though I don’t remember him teaching his other students this way,” he commented, motioning to their current position.

“Well, Brian is both hot and legal, and I don’t feel like a dirty old man,” Jason said, almost primly, as he corrected Brian’s hands.

Beside him, Ronon cocked his head. “You think you can teach me?”

Jason’s grin could only be described as wicked. “I’ll be more than happy to teach you anything you want, Ronon.”

Dom looked between the three and shook his head. “You know what? You three do whatever weird projects you want to do. Just remember that I don’t even want to know,” he said, amused as Brian stuck his tongue out at him.

“You’re just jealous because you’re all thumbs when it comes to working with yarn,” Jason called out.

“Yeah. Real jealous. I don’t know how I function with this level of envy I have at your ability to twist and loop yarn into usable products,” Dom said dryly as he leaned against the doorway, watching Ronon with amusement as he pulled a chair up next to Brian and Jason to watch.

“Hey, your favorite sweater is one of my creations,” Jason said, pointing a knitting needle his direction. “No dissing the needlecraft going on in this house.”

Dom held his hands up, resigned to the fact that he was going to have to wait to get his Mates into the bedroom for awhile. “Not dissing anything. I’m simply refuting the claim that I am in any way envious of your talent. Now, since you three are busy, I’m going to go hunt Han down and make him fix my car.”

The three waved at him distractedly, and with a snort Dom left the room, rolling his eyes. His Mates and Clan Members we so weird sometimes.

 

 

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Title: Something Cool: A Libera Nos A Malo Excerpt

Author: Gil Grissom

Characters: Nico Meridius, Lucas Harrison

Rating: FREO/Everyone

Summary: Lucas reveals his latest projects to Nick on his visit to Sylum Manor

Timeline: April 2007

Author’s Note: This is a brief excerpt from Libera Nos A Malo, and takes place during a very long segment. This is subject to change somewhat by the time it gets to the final draft, due to editing needs and the fact that this is from a very rough first draft.

Artist: Taibhrigh

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Sighing, Lucas tilted his head back from his position slouching against Nick’s side and stared at him. “Now that the emo, angst-filled meltdown portion of my visit is done, wanna see something cool?”

Nick laughed at him and ruffled his hair. “Always. You always have the most interesting toys when you decide to share them.”

Grinning, Lucas scrambled up with a little bit of help from Nick as he failed to keep his balance. “I am beauty, I am grace,” he quipped as he stumbled toward his laptop bag, which was all the way across the room.

“Yeah, we thought being a Vampire would give you some semblance of preternatural coordination. We were so wrong,” Nick replied dryly as Lucas plopped down in Nick’s desk chair. “Please, make yourself at home.”

“Don’t I always?” Lucas said lightly as he booted up his laptop.

“Remind me why we put up with you?” Nick asked as he got up and walked over to stand behind Lucas.

“It’s the baby face. You’re all suckers for me because I’m adorable,” he said, tilting his head back and grinning up at him. “It’s part one of my nefarious plan for world domination.”

Nick snorted. “You’d be fleeing to a remote mountaintop inside of a week. World domination means you have to deal with people. You’ve never been good with people, since…what was it you said? Ninety-five percent of people in the world were too stupid to live?”

Lucas scrunched his nose. “Yes I did say that and yeah, that’s a problem since I really don’t like most people. I mean, they’re okay as long as I don’t have to deal with them and they stay way over there, away from me. Guess I’ll just have to be content to be ruler of my own personal little corner of the world.”

He pulled up the folder he was looking for and clicked on the schematic program, moving so that Nick could take his place.

“‘Project That Thing We Do’?” Nick asked as he sat down and slid closer to the desk.

“Everyone always asks if Nathan and I are doing that thing we do, since they have no idea what the fuck we’re doing, so we thought it was appropriate,” Lucas told him.

“Cute,” Nick murmured, sitting forward as the screen shifted to the outer view of their final design. Curiosity shifted to fascination as it did. “What is this?”

“That is, or will be at least, the largest deep submergence vehicle in existence,” Lucas told him, ignoring the obvious opening begging for a smartass comment and hopping up on the desk next to the laptop. “Completely designed as a scientific research vessel, to study our oceans, the life within it, and figure out how to fix the fucked up shit we’ve done to it since civilization occurred.”

“It’s very squid-like in appearance.” Nick reached out and ran his fingers over the hull. “What are the specs on this thing? It looks enormous.”

“It is for what it is and where it’s going. Nearly 400 meters long, approximately 100,000 tons, give or take some tonnage. It’s designed to hit a maximum speed of 180 knots and will have a crush depth of over nine kilometers. The skin is my special design, and I’ve already had success in the initial creation. Now I’m just working on making it better. It should be ready for testing in the field in a couple more years. It’s a genetically-engineered bioskin that will be resistant to microbes and bacteria in the ocean, and will have nanites that aid in self-healing. She’ll hold a complement of about 400 scientists and crew.”

“You’re building this on Border’s property,” Nick said as the screen switched to a virtual reality type visual of the inside, starting with the massive bridge. “Josiah and Javier said you were lurking around that area, but hadn’t hinted about anything like this.”

“Because they really didn’t know much. Aside from Josiah and Jose, and my Mates, obviously since they’re helping us, no one has seen these schematics,” Lucas replied, looking down at his shoes as he crossed his ankles and flexed his feet.

“And yes, we’re building on Border’s property. We’ve already scouted out the area and have begun the building of the science and research building. Josiah is taking care of buying off and blackmailing the Mexican government to look the other way, and by the time anyone else gets wind of what we’re doing, Nathan and I will be up to our eyeballs in patents and have everything locked up so tight that if anyone even thinks of stealing my technology, I’ll know about it and make them wish they’d never been born.”

“I have no doubt about that,” Nick murmured. “This is incredible, and has to be damned expensive. How are you paying for this?”

“Aside from sinking a good chunk of my own money and Nathan’s into it? We’re going to be looking for investors. We’ll be extremely picky. We have to be with Galileo and his people all over the damned place,” Lucas said with a sigh.

Then he grinned at Nick slyly. “Thought you might like to help out or know some people I can trust. I’m not naive enough to think that I won’t need some way to protect her once she’s in the water. Thought maybe you could think on that. You seem to know people more weapon-oriented than I do. Well, weaponry that didn’t originate before the turn of the twentieth century. I don’t think swords and cannons are gonna cut it.”

Nick nodded, a calculating gleam lighting his eyes. “I’m definitely in. You two pull this off, and it could be extremely useful. I’ll think about who would be best for weaponry. It’s not something you’ll really need to worry about until you get to the actual building of it. When do you think that’ll happen?”

“We’re estimating that initial construction on the ship itself will start in late 2015 or early 2016.” Lucas’ eyebrows rose. He could practically see the wheels turning in Nick’s brain. “Thinking we’ll need another mode of transportation?”

“I’m thinking a lot of things. Always good to have backup plans even when you don’t know why you’d need them,” Nick said, cycling through more VR shots of the inner workings of the ship. “What are these tube things for?”

“Smaller dolphins and porpoises for research purposes and to help treat damaged ones, without them having the stress of leaving the water. They’ll be able to get into and out of the ship via these tubes,” Lucas told him. “There’s a big pool on the bridge, and an even bigger one in one of the life science laboratories. They can also be used by people to get through the ship by a secondary means in the case of damage or infiltration.”

Nick nodded. “You should go and see Bruce. He’s always looking for new investments, and something like this would be right up his alley. Of course, it’d probably end up being a movie or television series in the future knowing him, but he does know some of the most interesting people, and he has rich, smart friends that can help with research or just to throw money at you.”

Lucas snorted. “And what, pray tell, did Wayne do to you to inflict me upon him?”

“Nothing I’m aware of, but it’s him. There’s always something he’s probably done or will do to deserve it. Let’s just call it a preemptive strike.”

Lucas threw his head back and laughed, tilting to the side and back when he heard a throat clear to see who it was.

“And just what are the two of you up to?” Warrick asked as he leaned in the doorway.

“We’re having a torrid love affair. Can’t you tell by the state of our undress?” Lucas deadpanned.

“And you didn’t invite me?” Warrick replied, stepping all the way in and closing the door behind him.

Nick rolled his eyes at the two of them and motioned Warrick over. “Get your ass over here and look at Lucas and Bridger’s brain child.”

Warrick strode over, stopping briefly to give Lucas a one-armed hug, and sat down in the seat Nick vacated. “What was all the laughing about?”

“Nick’s throwing Bruce in front of my metaphorical bus,” Lucas replied lightly.

“Somewhere in Los Angeles the feeling of sheer terror has crawled up Bruce’s spine and he has no idea why,” Warrick commented. “What the hell am I looking at?”

Lucas and Nick smirked at one another and Lucas proceeded to tell Warrick all about his little project.