Fire in The Sky • •

[phoenix austin mckenzie]

Nix was supposed to meet Elle last week. He had been halfway to the bar when she had messaged him to cancel. He had replied asking if everything was okay, but he just got a short reply telling him not to worry. He hadn’t – not after the message – but he had found it to be pretty strange. Normally, conversations between Elle and himself were detailed, got derailed, and they ended up down some rabbit hole that had no relevance to the start of their conversation. There were times when the initial question hadn’t even been answered by the time phones were down and life had moved on. Nix blamed himself for that because he was often easily distracted and had crazy thoughts that he just needed to share with whoever was convenient at the time. The only time the blonde headed man was quiet and focused was in the lab, and more often than not he still had music coming through his earbuds while he prepped tests and awaited search results. Forensics was nothing like TV. Results took days, and some evidence was sitting there for a week or two before they finally got around to it. Then something would come through as priority because it was high profile and things got pushed back even further. Nix wasn’t all that surprised that a lot of calls to the lab were from angry detectives who needed something physical to hold a suspect.

Despite that, he enjoyed his job. Doing something right, doing it well, meant that someone could be put behind bars for a very long time, making the streets that little bit safer for everyone else. He wasn’t the arresting officer, or the man who got to bask in the glory of throwing away the key on a drug lord, but Nix knew that without the team he was a part of so many of those criminals would be able to walk free on appeal. He was also glad that he wasn’t the man who had to interview witnesses or take statements. Sure, he had to handle the blood, or comb through broken glass looking for a hair or scrap of fabric. None of that was going to talk to him though. Broken windows didn’t get emotional and blood couldn’t cry. Nix wasn’t good at handling that sort of thing and feared he would foolishly make a joke if ever put in that situation. He was better in the background, dusting for prints and hiding his bright colours underneath plastic jumpsuits.

After a day in the lab, he was thrilled to be heading out for a drink. He even messaged Elle when he was on his way to check she wasn’t going to cancel on him again. He didn’t think she would, but a playful couple of emojis at the end of the message hopefully signified that. He was coming right from work, so he wanted to grab something to eat, too. It was Friday and he was positively ravenous. Nix always tried to get whatever he had started in the week done before his allotted two days off. It wasn’t always the weekend he had free; obviously that wouldn’t be fair to the others if he was always off on the weekends, when the crime rate went that little bit higher. However, after working through lunch he wanted the biggest burger on the menu with a literal bucket of spiced wedges to go with it. He was almost tempted to order before Elle came, but she walked in right behind him. Then he noticed her arm. “What happened to you? Fall out of a tree?” It wouldn’t be Nix if he hadn’t said it without a huge goofy grin.

• • •

TAGGED! Elspeth Lenora Wayde
WORDS! 622!
LYRICS! Diamond Days - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Elspeth Lenora Wayde]

Elle was still exhausted from the accident the week before. She'd been more pissed about having to cancel her plans than she was about the fact that she'd been the one injured. At the end of the day, Elle would rather be the one to get hurt than someone else. It was just a good thing that she always double-checked the work of her staff, even though she trusted them completely to do their job correctly. It only took one, seemingly insignificant mistake, to cause a massive accident that could potentially kill someone. Elle had caught it a couple of times before, usually a split in the wiring that could have been too easily missed, something she might have even missed if her father had meticulously checked her work growing up. She had been taught by the very best in the industry so she knew what she was talking about and why she was paid the big bucks to do it correctly.

The stunt her team had been setting up wasn't anything big. It was meant to be more of a shock factor than anything else but if done incorrectly, it would potentially kill the stunt driver who had to drive through it. It should have been so insignificant that the actor could have driven through it with relative ease but it was still a stunt and the people in charge wanted the professionals to take care of the stunts; it was their job after all. So the charges were small and the tubes almost looked like they were empty but weren't. Elle wasn't expecting the charge to go off because it shouldn't have. Her team was the best and knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, someone's uncle's cousin's whatever had recently graduated from some school with a degree in film, thought he knew everything and was hired on for more experience; which, to everyone else, indicated he was not qualified to touch anything. To him, it meant he could touch everything. Just because Elle could apply makeup, fix her hair in the morning or pick out clothes that match, didn't mean she was qualified for either of those departments so she left them to the professionals.

At the end of it, the fact that he was fired was the least of his problems and Elle was shipped by ambulance to the hospital to be checked out. The emergency doctor on call scolded her, she yelled right back because she hadn't done it to herself and if he liked his action movies, he'd shut up so she could go back to help make him another one to watch. She'd been hit so hard and fast that it hadn't burnt her as badly as it should have but it did give her a lovely clean break. After that, it was a week of talking to investigators, three different police officers and the director of the film. She could do her job so filming would resume after the investigation closed. They already agreed that the idiot was at fault and would be in serious trouble and Elle was just lucky she'd grown up around fireworks and knew how to duck and cover. She felt bad about having to cancel her plans with Nix so when she was finally able to actually do something, she agreed to the plans and got herself dressed up to meet him. She was just walking through the door when she spotted him almost directly in front of her. She must have just missed him on the street. "Oh, you know me." She said with a wink, trying to get over the fact that her injury was the reason production had to be shut down for over a week.

♦ ♦ ♦

 
TAG; phoenix austin mckenzie
WORDS; 621
LYRICS; The Balcony Scene --Pierce the Veil
NOTES; <3

[phoenix austin mckenzie]

Nix was no stranger to hospitals and injuries; he had spent most of his life sporting some kind of bandage or cast. He was clumsy and usually always up for a dare and that was a combination that rarely ended without a bruise at the very least. The only time he’d wound up in hospital through no fault of his own was when he’d been shot and that was probably the singular time everyone had fussed over him. Before that it was always “well, you did this to yourself, now get on with it!” and honestly, Nix had preferred that over the worrying and coddling that had come with the not quite near-death experience. He was used to the injuries and the pain and while the gunshot and the physio that followed had definitely trumped all that had come before, he liked being able to shrug it off like it was nothing. It was how he dealt with it, be it a stitch or two from a slip in the kitchen or a knee brace from a half-assed skate ramp cobbled together in the street from junk found in garages.

He wasn’t skating around New York as frequently as he was during his college days, but that was a part of growing up. Maybe someday, if he ever had kids, he’d find an excuse to do it again and not just every weekend in a blue moon when he had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning when his joints felt stiff and no one was responding to his text messages. Until then, he’d combat this whole “growing up” thing with cartoons, doodles and as many immature moments as he could cram into his twenties, insisting that he was actually Peter Pan with white blonde hair and that employment was only because even Neverland had to charge rent these days. Nix was never going to be the type of guy who outgrew his wild ways – at least not entirely. They were too much a part of him for that to ever happen, as much as his mother would probably love for her youngest son to come home with a side part, a button down and the keys to a home in the suburbs. He also knew she wasn’t delusional and was certain if he did that then she’d insist he wasn’t her son, but some kind of clone replacement.

“And people have the nerve to say I’m the clumsy one.” He joked, nudging his way through the gathering crowd near the bar to get them a table somewhere that would be away from the hustle and bustle of people going to and fro, but also somewhere they could see and hear the acts well once they kicked off a little later. Right now it was just whatever music was playing over the speakers while the staff set up for whoever was playing tonight. Nix hadn’t even checked to see if it was one artist, a band, or an open night slot. Considering it was a Friday at Font it could be just about anything. “You hungry? I’m starving. I could eat that arm if it’s easier to chop it off than try to save it.” He sat down, instantly reaching for a menu from the middle of the table. It might only be quick bar food, but Nix felt like he could eat just about everything on offer.

• • •

TAGGED! Elspeth Lenora Wayde
WORDS! 573!
LYRICS! Diamond Days - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Elspeth Lenora Wayde]

Elle couldn't wait to get back on set and get back to work. She missed work more than she cared to admit, even if she did design a couple of new firework displays in the week she'd been left to her own devices. She hated having to talk to people who didn't understand what really went into these safe explosions. They saw what the movies showed, they didn't see all the work that went into making them. It generally ruined the fantasy and the fun when people learn the truth about their favourite movie scenes. Unless, of course, they were super movie buffs and loved those little behind-the-scenes tidbits. Elle wasn't really looking forward to being one of those "fun facts", at least, not in the way she was going to be. She didn't mind it when things went according to plan and played out as smoothly as silk. Those times, she thrived on sitting down in front of the camera for an "interview" of sorts about how she planned and executed a particular explosion, or why she did something the way she did it. That was a lot of fun actually. She enjoyed getting to sit in the hair and makeup trailer getting dolled up for the little interviews, playing the part of herself and getting jumpy like a kid going to Disneyland, knowing they were going to meet that infamous mouse.

If there ever came a day when Elle stopped loving her job, well, she must be dead. Her job wasn't just a job or a career, it was quite literally, her entire life. She'd been born into fireworks, her family even set them off in the hospital car park when she was born! Show and tell in school had to send home a note that she wasn't allowed to bring in anything that could potentially go "boom" and all because her brother didn't warn his teacher, who had been new and didn't know the family. Someone should have warned her but she told them they could bring in anything they wanted, and when Tuck double-checked with her and she told him, again that he could bring in anything, he did. And following in the footsteps of their uncle in nearly blowing up a classroom.

Elle smirked, glancing down at her arm for a second before looking back up at her blonde partner-in-crime. "Would you believe I didn't actually do this myself?" She asked, shaking her head. She had fully expected to get through a fair amount of her pyrotechnics career without incident or injury because she'd been very well trained. Of course, she also hadn't expected some idiot to touch what was clearly above his paygrade. Elle followed Nix through the crowd to a table and took up the other menu. Grinning, Elle shook her head. "I need both arms to properly blow things up but if I manage to break a leg, I'll make sure they just hack it off and send it your way. No worries!" She said, finally looking down at the menu in her hand for a second but not really seeing a damn thing on it because she already knew what she was getting. Font was famous for many things, mostly music and the bar staff but the nachos were their true secret weapon. "Fully loaded nachos with extra jalapenos, salsa and cream, no onions or olives." She said, shoving the menu forward again and looking up at her friend. "I'd ask you to share but you stole all the salsa last time and left all the purple corn chips. They're the best ones!" She scolded with the sternest face she could make in the middle of a bar.

♦ ♦ ♦

 
TAG; phoenix austin mckenzie
WORDS; 617
LYRICS; The Balcony Scene --Pierce the Veil
NOTES; <3