Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Cowboy’s breath hitched when Syn towered over him, and pressed a foot to his heaving chest. The sun shone behind the cyborg’s strong back. His gaze had darkened despite the scorch of the dessert.

“It’s over.” Syn said coldly, yet Cowboy could hear the pain which hid in those words. It felt like time and its raving war had stopped to observe them; to bear witness to their final meeting. “Over for you and your little princess. Now you shall bear the consequences of your choices.” [write a better second response]

“Syn…” Cowboy struggled. Syn stepped on him harder and Cowboy clenched his breacans his trousers to his ankle [??????], making the cyborg draw an unsteady breath. “I hadn’t betrayed you, my friend. I—”

Syn laughed harshly. Cowboy bit his lips to blood., interrupting Cowboy. Cowboy bit his lips to blood. “Betrayed me? Friend?” His once-soft smile was gone, and replaced with [synonym of mournful and betrayed and angry, or just any of those]. His blue eyes stared down at Cowboy and Why, why did Cowboy do this? That’s not what he wanted, that’s not… “We are no friends, Space Cowboy. Have never been and never shall. Do you understand why?”

“Syn.” Cowboy repeated.
“Syn.” Cowboy pled again.
“Syn.” Cowboy repeated. [BE MORE PATHETIC COWBOY PLEASE]

He knew he sounded desperate. He knew that clenching onto last hope to make Syn see reason was futile. [sounds weird, change later] All those evenings they’d spent together, their reluctant companionship, theirfskjkhfHFJESAHJFDHSJHD

Fudge. Ryland leaned back and sighed. This was the fifth time he’d tried to finish this chapter and he was stuck. None of it sounded right and yet, this was supposed to be the ultimate culmination! Pain, regret, betrayal, reconciliation, longing, desire. He'd poured thousands of words into this fic and now...

"I need another beer." Ryland mumbled to himself, threw his laptop on the couch and went to the kitchen.

Perhaps if he watched the movie again, he'd make it work. The chapter was based on the last fight scene in Metalstorm, altered to fit the slow descent of Cowboy and Syn’s relationship he’d been building to for the majority of Dawn of Lamythia.

It was his proudest work yet. He had pages upon pages of plot; graphs and timelines for the story and characters, B- and C-plots, everything. He’d begun writing it shortly after the hype for Metalstorm had settled but it wasn’t until this year that he’d started posting it for real.

Most of his other SpaceSyn fics had gained plenty of traction already, and his fan account on Teeter had a couple thousand followers as well. Not that Ryland cared about the numbers but it felt nice to be a recognised author in the community. Because of Metalstorm, he’d also fallen in love with Syn’s actor, and he’d watched his whole cinematography because he couldn’t get enough of his pretty face.

The chemistry between Cowboy and Syn though… Heavens. The actors did a fantastic job at portraying the tension between the characters, and it didn’t help either that Jody had told them to “act like old lovers on opposite sides of the war” to make their scenes work.

Ryland swore, this was one of the best sci-fi movies to come out in the last century.

“Ugh.” Ryland leaned over the kitchen island and unlocked his phone. If only he was able to translate that tension to his draft, maybe he wouldn’t be behind his posting schedule right now. What was the point of having a thirty-page document with detailed notes if his writing sucked?

Silent notifications popped at the top of his screen – likes, comments, the every-once-in-a-while repost. Seemed like one of his Butcher posts was blowing up again. Couldn’t say he was surprised. Simon Butcher made his big-screen debut with Metalstorm and he’d been booked and busy ever since.

With the news of the second movie entering production too, the hype was larger than ever. Ryland was so excited that he kept begging Colt for any information his brother could share with him. Which was: not a lot. Unfortunately.

Butcher was on a promotional tour for his most recent movie and speculations were, he might be negotiating a bigger deal for Metalstorm 2. Some sources claimed he wasn’t content with the pay gap between him and Ryder, though Ryland had the most accurate fact-checker on his side who told him quite the opposite.

Thank you for your service, Colt.

Not only was his brother feeding his Metalstorm-obsessed brain, but Ryland had managed to turn quite a few of the early-scrapped plotlines of the film into fan content. He wasn't opposed to writing other things than SpaceSyn but... Well. SpaceSyn had the best "friends to enemies" arc one could hope for, and it didn't hurt to get them into lovers territory if he so desired.

Or, if those two wanted. And by the looks of his draft, they didn't.

Ryland should've picked a less frustrating hobby - one that, preferably, didn't feel like he was arguing with fictional characters. Nicole from school said she was learning to bind books. His neighbour Lee picked up furniture renovation and Dylan - an old friend of his and Colt from primary - started running. He'd even signed up for a marathon next spring but Ryland would lie if he said he hadn't expected it.

Why did every adult in his vicinity had decided to run a marathon these days? Maybe they knew something Ryland didn't. Maybe getting that medal of participation unlocked some kind of special superpower.

"It does though," his brother had said when they last talked on the phone. "And the superpower's called inflated ego and constant boasting. I mean, I'd know. I worked with Ryder right after he ran the Boston marathon. Dude couldn't shut up about it for months."

Just the thought of doing more exercise on top of riding his bike to school... Yeah, he'd rather flirt with himself actually.

He took his beer off the counter and (still on his phone) got back to the living room. Only the lights in the kitchen were turned on and their soft glow hid as Ryland laid opposite of his laptop. He'd gotten so used to sleeping on the couch that his head hit the pillow before he could think twice.

The clock showed three in the morning. He had to wake up in four hours and it was clear by now - he wouldn't make any more progress on Dawn of Lamythia even if he wanted to. Darn it, that was frustrating. There were a few times throughout its run that Ryland had complained to his followers about the mess in his head, and being completely stuck with writing.

Some gave the suggestion he should look for a beta reader. Clearly the fandom had no lack of those and many would be more than happy to help. With each passing night, Ryland was getting more and more convinced he should give it try. An outsider's perspective wouldn't hurt, right?

So, as Ryland's eyelids grew heavy, he wrote a quick post and sent it out. What was the worst that could happen?

Get a hundred and three responses. That's what.

He severely underestimated just how many people read his stories and both his replies and private messages were absolutely flooded. By the end of the school day, Ryland had to mute his phone because notifications kept interrupting his lessons. His students noticed it too, and joked how their science teacher was becoming "popular with the ladies".

If only they knew...

He deleted the post shortly after. The thought of having to reject fifty people's offers for beta-ing was a fate worse than death, and he apologised to those other six brave soldiers who'd decided to message him too.

Some folks, Ryland knew well. Contrary to Rocky's belief, he had quite a lot of (online) friends. What he liked about the Metalstorm fandom was that everyone were incredibly kind and friendly - something that could only happen when the source material was either this good, or this traumatising.

In Metalstorm's case, both. Syn's backstory and subsequent descend had been analysed time and time again, bringing one too many tears when he chose his blood family over his kinship with Cowboy and Dhyana. The second movie would be an even worse gut punch if the news about him being the main antagonist were true.

Hopefully it wouldn't retcon Damn of Lamythia's ending too badly, though Ryland didn't think it'd get to it. Albeit small, he did have a chance at convincing Jody how to progress Syn's character, so it wasn't ruined by the time the third movie rolled around. That was, if Colt let him meet his girlfriend.

Ryland understood why he was hesitating even after a year and half of dating Jody. If Colt got him in a room with her, it'd take less than five minutes before Metalstorm became all he would talk about. Ryland was passionate, alright? He loved Syn and Cowboy and, like any other fan, he wanted to see both of them get satisfying conclusions to their arcs.

Butcher himself had mentioned how he was willing to go the extra mile for Syn; to give light to the conflict it came with being torn between duty and desire. Between destiny and free will. And while Syn was (objectively) the more compelling character to dissect, Cowboy wasn't too far off either.

Watching his lifelong friend abandon him to fulfil some myth-old prophecy wasn't for the weak. To see Syn get estranged by his family's totalitarian beliefs of a "higher polity" and "united front"; to hear him preach it, and for Cowboy to fight a losing battle against the current of a technologically-advanced society, which roots were deeply buried in religious propaganda.

The only thing Ryland found mildly infuriating about the movie was the love triangle between them and Dhyana. Except to further his family's scope of power, it didn't fit Syn to be in love with the Lamythian princess. It did, however, do a marvellous job to convince Syn he and Space Cowboy were the bearers of the Jaded prophecy.

"We have been pre-written to be damned," Ryland remembered Syn's final words to Cowboy, spoken with just as much anguish as there was anger. "Fated to see the other's blood and let it pool at our feet, with neither grace nor mercy. Only when I see you dead, my friend, will I mourn that I have ruined us both."

Seriously. And after all that, people still believed this wasn't Syn breaking up with Cowboy. It was right there!

"Aren't you a piece of work." Rocky's voice startled Ryland out of his thoughts. He'd gotten home a couple hours ago, back to his usual spot on the couch, nursing his flat beer from last night and his laptop.

Like he promised himself yesterday, Ryland was watching Metastorm again in hope it'd give him inspiration. The straight line in his draft kept blinking ominously, and Ryland could almost hear its demands of "C'mon! Write fudging something!". He'd gotten quite good at ignoring it though, and he felt terrible for it.

"Do you have no other job than to watch this shitty movie?" His best friend pushed himself off the arch of the hallway and the living room lights illuminated the six-pack of beers he was holding. "I'm starting to think you're skipping school because of it."

"When'd you get here?" Ryland asked as he moved to the right side of the couch. Rocky plopped himself down with a big ugh. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Like, two minutes ago." He put the beers on the coffee table, took two out and undid their taps with his thick, silver ring. It was his favourite trick but it never failed to amaze Ryland whenever he did it. "I was waiting to see if you'd notice me."

Ryland took the second bottle and clung it with Rocky's. For yet another day, he was going to kiss his draft goodbye. "Sorry. If it'll make you feel better though, I wasn't watching either. I was just... staring at it. I think."

"So even you got bored of it?" Rocky scoffed a laugh. "And there I thought that day would never come."

"It's not that." He hit his chest. "I was trying to figure out what to write 'cause I've been stuck with Lamythia for, like, a month already."

"I know. I saw your Teeter post." He put a hand on the backrest and leaned on it. "Shouldn't have deleted it though. Who knows? You could've met the love of your life like that, who'd be just as obsessed with sci-fi gay smut as you."

No matter what Rocky said, he liked Metalstorm. They went to the cinema to watch its premiere and the first week after, he was pretty stoked to talk about it with Ryland. Thing was, patience wasn't Rocky's strong suit and once Ryland started writing Dawn of Lamythia, the conversation surrounding it was... tight.

Ryland narrowed his brows, looking ahead. "If I wanted to write smut, I would've done by now but, I mean, does it even make sense? Syn and Cowboy, rolling around in the middle of the scorching desert and Dhyana's like... In the tent next door. That's freaking weird, man." 

Rocky grimaced. "You've watched the movie a thousand times already. I know you know beds exist in Lamythia. Also, why're you picking the most inconvenient place to begin with? When they arrive in Zhor, Cowboy and Dhyana sleep together! In a bed. You very well could've switched her with Syn and made them not get hot and bothered in a tent."

"Who's the fanfic writer now, huh?" Ryland joked. "I'm sure that trope's been used and abused too much, and I have better things to do than write SpaceSyn smut."

"Sure." He rolled his eyes. "I still think Lamythia could've done even better if they fucked at least once. Or, like, cut to black right before they do it. It might ruffle a few feathers but I'll do the trick. Heightened the sense of betrayal Syn has for Cowboy when he picked Dhyana."

Crap. Should he add a "cut to black" in the fic? No. No. The story was way beyond that. Ryland should've done it five chapters ago, when they were still on good terms. He didn't think he'd be able to add it retroactively either, like a memory in Cowboy's mind where "they'd felt each other's embrace, once, a little too strong than they allowed other people to see".

Ryland sighed loudly. His head was a mess again but thankfully, Rocky changed the topic.

"D'you make any plans for this summer?"

"No." He slumped further on the couch. "I was hoping I could tag along with you and Adri if you guys have any."

"Mm." Rocky tipped the bottle higher and higher, until it was empty of beer. "Kinda. Not really. Was thinking we could pass by Puerto Rico for a couple weeks 'cause Mamita's been complaining we haven't seen her in a while."

"You guys went for Christmas though, didn't you?" Ryland stared as Rocky used his ring again. "I remember you sending pictures of Adri and your dad as you were redoing the living room."

"Don't remind me." Rocky mumbled in the throat of the next bottle. "I've never felt more like the woman in the relationship than when I was cooking with Mamita and Adri was, like, cutting shelves in the garden and shit."

"You have to give it to them though. Adri's pretty crafty. Bet your dad's absolutely thrilled to have them as a, uhm." Ryland paused. "Child-in-law?"

"Sure." His best friend laughed. "An in-law's also fine, I think."

"Nevertheless," Ryland continued, "let me know if you plan anything else or I'd be holed up trying to write the ending for Lamythia until the next school year... Please, don't make me do that."

"Why don't you go to Colt for the summer?" Rocky suggested then. "I mean, if I remember correctly, you haven't seen each other in two years or something. It'd be nice to spend some time with your brother, no?"

He looked down, feeling a little stumped. There was an explosion in the background but Ryland didn't need to see the screen to know the movie was entering its final scenes. "I guess but... You know. They'll start filming Metalstorm 2 soon and considering he's Ryder's stunt double, he'll be busy for most of it. I don't want to bother him."

Rocky hummed and let the conversation die down until Metalstorm was almost over.

"We have been pre-written to be damned. Fated to see the other's blood and let it pool at our feet, with neither grace nor mercy."

"You can ask him to tag along." Rocky said, interrupting Syn's monologue.

Ryland whipped his head to him. "What?"

"Like, for you to join him on set." His best friend clarified. "I don't think he'll mind. I've heard movie stars bring their families all the time and it's not like he's just a random guy there. He's both the director's boyfriend and Ryder's closest friend. He can do whatever he wants."

"I don't think that's true, Rock." He crossed his arms but he could feel his heart accelerating at the thought.

Him? Watching Metalstorm 2 come to life with his own eyes? If that ever happened, he might just die then and there.

"The others might call it favouritism. I don't want to put him on the spot like that."

"Oh c'mon, Grace." Rocky nudged him. "You're Metalstorm's biggest fan!"

"Which is all that more reason I shouldn't do it." He shook his head. "Have you never heard of the phrase "Don't meet your heroes"? I already know from Colt that, like, half the cast have those Hollywood "Look at me, I'm so rich and successful!" personalities, especially Tom Ryder."

"Do you blame him though?"

"With those looks and talents, obviously not but that's different. I don't want my impression of the franchise to change if I start holding grudges against the actors. That'd be even worse." 

Rocky sighed. "Fine. If not for Metalstorm, do it for Dawn of Lamythia. Either way you're stuck with it, so why not get some inspiration from the source itself? To me, it sounds like a great opportunity and! You'll spend time with Colt. He hasn't stopped inviting to go down to LA since, like, forever. Call it brother-bonding time, if you will."

First for Metalstorm, then for his fic, then his brother... Really, what other reason would Rocky pull to convince him to ask? Frankly, the bar for convincing had been buried in Hell's basement but wouldn't that be crossing some kind of a line? He was writing gay stories about the two main characters after all. If they found out... Jeez...

"I don't know." Ryland rubbed the throat of his bottle unsurely. Fanboying aside, "I'll probably be in the way if, if he even agrees."

"Do you have anything better to do? Seems like you'll spend a pretty boring summer if you miss this opportunity, Grace. C'mon." He said and yep, there was the fourth reason. "It's not gonna hurt to ask, no?"

"Fine, yeah." He relented, but only to shut the conversation down. "Okay. I'll just. I'll bring it up when I call him tomorrow."

"Why not now?"

"Rock." Ryland rolled his eyes at him and Rocky raised his hands in retrieval.

"Okay, okay. Point taken," reaching for the remote. "Can we watch something else now? And please don't say any of Butcher's movies."

Which were only three, and in one of them he was barely a supporting character. When Ryland said he fell in love with the man, he wasn't kidding. Butcher was a good-looking guy and even more talented actor. He was kind during interviews, albeit a little closed-off and timid. He usually let Ryder do his thing and charm the interviewer but, Heavens.

The moment Butcher started talking and Ryland felt like he was being wrapped in a warm blanket, with the way his deep voice reverberated through Ryland's speakers. It was near-enchanting and one too many had Ryland fallen asleep while a compilation of him played in the background.

Truly, kudos to his PR team for using the crap out of Metalstorm's success to promote him. Ryland had seen Butcher play with puppies while answering questions, show what's in his bag, give out book and game recommendations (surprisingly big video game nerd, he was) and dip in just about any interview medium under the sun.

If he ever showed up in someone's podcast one day, Ryland would be there for it.

Did that make him an obsessed fan? He didn't think he was. His students liked to use the word "dig" to express interest, and Ryland dug Butcher. His vibes were cool, or whatever.

Now that he thought about it too, he'd be able to meet with Butcher if Colt agreed to take him in LA for the summer. Butcher would know his name and maybe they'd shake hands and Butcher would smile at him— him— and...

Ryland's heart thumped.

Okay, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to ask. For Dawn of Lamythia, and not to be a weird fudging fan willing to fulfil some sick "meeting their idol" fantasy. It'd be pretty interesting to see what happens behind the scenes as well. As much as he enjoyed Colt ranting about his work, he overexaggerated sometimes.

Made things seem way less complicated than (allegedly) they were. Then again though, he'd been in the industry for over a decade. Obviously he'd find it easy to navigate the stresses of day-long shoots and risky stunt doubling.

Once Adri came to pick Rocky up - and Ryland convinced them to stay a little longer for dinner - he sat on his kitchen counter and stared towards the open living room. The news played in low volume. His coffee table was a mess of beers and takeout. Adri mentioned that every time they came by, and the trash in Ryland's apartment grew larger than the space it held.

He sighed deeply. His gaze swam from the alcohol but he knew that, sooner or later, he had to clean up. The school year was ending this Friday and he liked to do a pre-summer purge before he decided what he'd do with those three months break.

Tomorrow. He was going to call Colt for company and clean up tomorrow.

That "tomorrow", of course, moved to the day after. Then he stayed over at Rocky and Adrian on Thursday, and when the weekend rolled around, he knew he couldn't delay it any longer.

Colt answered on the fifth ring. Ryland had already started on the empty takeout boxes, haphazardly throwing dirty laundry towards the hallway, separating the trash for recycling as well.

"Ry!" Colt's voice came through his earphones. "Sorry. I didn't hear my phone ringing."

"It's alright." Ryland smelled a shirt and quickly threw it with the others. He didn't know why he was doing a smell test when he knew he wore it three times this week (not to school). "I'm not interrupting something, right?"

"No, no. It was in the other room 'cause I've been cleaning. You know how it is. Pre-summer purging and whatnot."

Ryland laughed hard. "Makes two of us. I'm doing the exact same thing right now."

"For real?" Colt scoffed in response. "Man, you just can't stop copying me, can you?"

"Hey, who's copying whom? I had that thought first."

"Since when? 'Cause I've been thinking about it since last month. Bet you were busy thinking about other things back then."

Talking to Colt had always been easy like that. Bickering, catching up, laughing at stupid, inside jokes or sharing nothing in particular, so long they could stay on the phone for longer. Ryland had never known a life without him and while Colt seemed plenty fine with going their separate ways post college, Ryland missed him a lot.

He was there when Ryland was shunned from the science world; when he moved to San Francisco and started teaching. When Colt broke his spine, he lived at Ryland's for a year and Ryland would lie if he said he wasn't happy to have his brother back, albeit for a short while.

It was thanks to Metalstorm that he returned to stunt doubling - yet another reason why Ryland loved the movie so much.

"When're the first shoots?" He asked as the topic gradually swerved in that direction. "You gonna be working from day one or what?"

"Nah, not really." Colt said with a sigh. "The schedule's bit all over the place but we won't be shooting any proper action scenes for at least another month. I mean, duh. Most of them are set outside and the on-sight locations are booked for later in the summer, so for now we're just blue-screening whatever we can."

"Mm." Ryland fidgeted with his school badge. He had no idea how to breach the conversation. "You know... Rocky and Adrian might be going to Puerto Rico sometime soon."

Silence stretched for a few seconds. "Okay? Is that your way of telling me you're going too?"

"No. Gosh, no." He bit his lips. "But, um. We were talking about it and, you know how Rocky likes to joke about some things and... He said I could, like. I don't know. Spend the summer with you on set."

Ryland let out a strained laugh.

"That was kind of funny."

At that, the line fell quiet. Ryland's heart was trying to beat itself out of his chest as he knelt in front of his washing machine and jammed half his clothes inside. He wasn't going to separate anything by colour. Who did that anyway? With white clothes he understood but except his fox cardigan, he didn't own a lot of those.

From the other send of the line, Colt puffed slowly. "I mean... Do you want to?"

"Want to what?"

"To come spend the summer with me."

A pang of thrill shot through Ryland's whole body. He tried to keep his voice levelled when he said, "Why not? It's been a couple years since we've seen each other, so I thought... You know. Seeing you in action seems nice. I'll also get to meet Jody, much to your displeasure."

"C'mon, Ry. You know it's not like that." Colt sighed but didn't argue. He gave it some thought. Huffed a little more. "Look. I can't promise anything but I'll ask. I don't think Jody would mind but we're gonna have to figure out how to get you clearance and, like, find a way to entertain you when it gets boring."

"What am I? Five?" Ryland rolled his eyes. "I don't need a babysitter, Colt. I'll just bring my laptop and do my own thing. It's okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, of course." He put an overwhelming amount of detergent in the machine and started it. "You know I can keep to myself. You won't even notice I'm there."

"Maybe I won't. We'll see what the others think." They talked for another half hour before Ryland's apartment finally looked decent and Colt was getting ready to leave. "You gonna be alright with the travel though? First to LA and then to Australia."

Ryland's skin hadn't stopped buzzing, ever since Colt told him he might have a chance to come on set. On set! To Metalstorm 2! "That's the last thing you'll have to worry about, really. I can also cover the flight expenses if I have to."

"No way." Colt cut him off. "You're gonna make me feel bad I'm taking money from a school teacher. Not happening."

Well. Those were the perks of having a wealthy brother, Ryland thought. Colt liked to cover expenses left and right, and who was Ryland to refuse him?

Colt ended the call with the promise to call in a couple days. If Jody gave them a green light, Ryland could be on a plane to LA as soon as Wednesday. Sweet and mighty Heavens. Even with the uncertainty, Ryland felt like he'd burst from excitement.