It’s been so long since I’ve shared my stories online a bunch of stuff has chang

It’s been so long since I’ve shared my stories online a bunch of stuff has changed, and so has the following here. Trying to remember to reintroduce things that are familiar to me but not to the internets. If you’ve been around a while you know these two bffs. Over two years ago I realized Tom and Cornelius are definitely more than friends, but I don’t think I’ve shared that online yet. So, surprise! This isn’t a retcon, this is the continuation of their story. Cornelius had his relationship with Diana, but she understandably got tired of his… strong personality, and she bowed out to move on with her life. Tom was prepared to always just be Cornelius’ best friend and secret admirer, so it’s been a pleasant surprise to find his feelings are reciprocated. Diana ships it, lol. –If you haven’t been around a while…My second and third oldest OCs, these guys have managed to stay alive and well in my head since 2005. Ambassador Cornelius Montrey is an old-blood multi-billionaire politician who spent his life championing free market capitalism and social segregation of the races. Until he got infected with a (usually) lethal virus that mutated him into a giant talking newt thing. He lost his support base when he lost his humanity, but after a few years of back-breaking, pride-wrenching soul searching has come back swinging for the other side as a powerful voice for the ‘otherwise’ community. Still widely considered a pompous, arrogant bastard (not for no reason), and attacked on both sides for merely supporting his self-interests (also not wrong). Ultimately a good person, but can be hard to be around. Dr. Thomas Destastiel was born with rich parents and a chronic, wasting autoimmune disease. Wheelchair-bound and physically weak, Tom’s mind was razorwire lightning, a young genius obsessed with prosthetics (self-interest, hm? says Cornelius). People with Tom’s disorder basically don’t make it past thirty, but the young engineer was ready to meet his expiration date head-on. With his instructions, his loyal team of surgeons, mechanics, and doctors helped him jump ship in a way never seen before or since: moving his brain to a permanent life support system wired to contraptions allowing him to speak and see. Living inside a network of machines was clumsy as hell for a few decades, but Tom and team are constantly refining the system, and what they discover and invent along the way they develop for the public and their patients. Most people today are not remotely aware the good doctor is a totally hollow machine controlled by a distant brain in a tube. –Tom casually hated then-Senator Montrey through the television for the entirety of his political career, the imperial, privileged Ahjeean and his ilk helping hold back the advancement of non-humans across the entire union. His hard stances on medical insurance and welfare certainly did the disabled community no favors. So when news blew up that Montrey had been mauled and inflected by the rabid creature that carries the mutating virus, he said a grim huzzah. Little could he have imagined that months later close alchemist friends of his would drag across his doorstep the ragged, pathetic, dead-eyed, clumsy, thoroughly-broken, miserably amphibious and shockingly not-dead remains of the politician and beg his help caring for him. Tom nearly kicked them all out. But they convinced him that studying Montrey’s virus was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and could save many thousands from terrible deaths. Reluctant doctor and combative patient got on like wet cats. Tom kicked his tail out of the lab a few times early on after nasty fights. But his team would remind Tom of the greater good, and Cornelius’ sister would remind him he wouldn’t even have figured out what to eat without poisoning himself without the doctor, and they would growlingly meet again for more tests and study. As Cornelius became aware of exactly what Tom IS, despite himself he was morbidly fascinated. This man with no body, who controls a network of machinery with his MIND. Cannot touch, cannot eat, cannot venture out of signal reach of his control tower… he should be miserable. Being a newt thing is just peanuts in comparison. And what he does for others… truly lives for others, saves lives, repairs bodies. He isn’t talking about the future, he is building it. For the first time in his life Cornelius truly felt… sorry for someone else. And finally given an outlet, the feelings exploded. His heart broke for this man, he couldn’t get his head around him, he just wanted to see good things happen to him, begged the universe to fix what had befallen him, felt fairly honored to work with him and fairly rotten about how he’d been acting. Tom wasn’t sure what to do with this. He knew what Cornelius was feeling was more than 'pity,’ and yet Tom just isn’t that broken up over his condition. He’s found better things to do than feel sorry for himself. He loves his work and is charmed to be alive to continue it. But after this turning point Cornelius became infinitely more pleasant to work with. He learned to relax around Tom and trust him, the only person he would let his hair down around and lower his defensive shields. Behind the thick layer of pride Tom found a friend: a witty sharp mind that could spar effortlessly with his own, boiling over with ambition and energy. He became the rock in Cornelius’ sea of constantly churning personal and political machinations, misadventures, and victories. He cares deeply for him, sees in him the fire of his younger self to stay alive despite the odds. Former enemies became best mates, and maybe more. When Cornelius fell in love with fellow politician Diana Brooks, Tom heartily celebrated with his friend for finally finding love and encouraged him at every turn, being his loyal wingman and their number one supporter. But in complete secret he fought down a feeling he felt unworthy to even have. Cornelius and Diana were happy together for a few years, but both were strong personalities and neither would bend to the will of the other. In the end, Diana had too much self-respect to put up with her fiance’s bull any longer, his stubbornness, his alcoholism, his general self-harm and bottomless self-pity. She didn’t blame herself for any of it, but she figured she clearly wasn’t the right person for him if she couldn’t help him climb out of these things, and she had her own life to get on with. As you probably expect, Cornelius is not a fun ex. They still need to work together from time to time and he is just stiff and cold and weird af around her. Diana is not, she is amiable and gives him his space. It was many months after they ended things that Tom lightly, carefully left the door open to the notion that maybe… you know, perhaps, that which is beyond cordial friendship would not be, as such, unwelcome… He was shocked to his mechanical core to find Cornelius feeling similarly inclined. In fact Cornelius was horrified to learn exactly how long Tom had felt this way and had quietly set it aside while he was with Diana. –Their transition from best friends to partners was almost imperceptible, and yet the entire world had changed. They aren’t a very public couple and outside of their friend circles nobody really knows how close they are. To address the elephant, yeah, this is the first time either has been in love with another man and they are processing this very differently. They both consider themselves straight because they are in love with each other’s minds. (Take that as hypocrisy if you want, you wouldn’t be alone either way.)  Cornelius feels like he doesn’t need the drama of having a male partner muddying his professional life, but also it’s not like it would be any worse than what his public relations have been through in the past. Tom doesn’t give a shiiiiii what other people think but as Cornelius is the one with a big public presence he defers to his wishes there. Realistically it’s unlikely to stay much of a secret, and honestly unlikely to be much of a stir. Tom and Diana remain friends. She still worries about Cornelius a bit and checks in on him through Tom. They like to commiserate about him and laugh. Roles have reversed and she is happy for Tom, thinks they’re a sweet match, and wishes him and her crazy ex the best. It’s really a relief for her to know Cornelius moved on into good hands and won’t be drunkenly blowing her phone up. Tom is a natural caretaker and Cornelius is a wreck lightly held together by stubbornness and wine. Tom often doesn’t feel enough while Cornelius feels too much, and they moderate each other. Tom is also like, ten or twenty years older than Cornelius at least (yeah I should probably know that kind of thing, right?) and like a hundred years more mature. They will probably last as a couple merely because Tom is independent and confident and Cornelius knows he’s just lucky to be part of his life and it keeps his privilege in check. Cornelius is dependent af as much as he refuses to even consider the thought. The real glue in their relationship is just how much they have in common intellectually. They’ve been happily yakking semi-constantly for ten years and still haven’t run short on conversation.   -- source link

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