#01 - Comfort
When the baby in his arms begins to squirm and cry, Mark realizes that he doesn't know the first thing about comforting, let alone rearing a child.
#02 - Kiss
"I don't mind keeping him--just so long as his father behaves as well as he does," Albert says with a smile, turning in just enough that his lips graze Mark's temple.
#03 - Soft
Mark finds himself far too pleased when he discovers that despite all of the work Albert's done with harsh chemicals, that the man's skin is still soft to the touch.
#04 - Pain
Albert still doesn't know the significance of rainy days on Big Lake, and it's killing Mark.
#05 - Potatoes
Albert is used to cracks made against his stone, but the first time Mark dares call it the "Philosopher's Potato", Albert transmutes the man's mouth shut.
#06 - Rain
"And here I thought I got away from Massachusetts..." Albert sighs in a grouse about Portsmouth, hoping Mark will take the hint for sunshine.
#07 - Chocolate
Albert's old college roommate, with his chocolate brown hair and a smug, shit-eating smirk to match has gotten Mark's mind made up that he hates Herbert West long before the man can properly introduce himself.
#08 - Happiness
His happiness is shortlived when Mark realizes that despite the chance at his brother's revival, he'll have to relegate control of the night to the fucking Re-Animator.
#09 - Telephone
Mark can't stand West, no matter what the medium, but for what he wants, a telephone call to the man is worth the small sacrifice.
#10 - Ears
Pushing all the wrong buttons, West murmurs into the Weather Wizard's ear, asking him if he's willing to raise the dead up at the old observatory.
#11 - Name
"He's more than his name--he's my brother, so stop asking for it."
#12 - Sensual
Standing back to the sidelines, biting gently at the inside of his lower lip, Albert can't help but think that Mark's put too much passion into the physical description of his brother.
#13 - Death
They say that nothing is certain but death and taxed--but when Clyde Mardon gasps for breath, bare skin against a cold floor, it seems that not even death can be counted on.
#14 - Sex
He's never done the deed, but West knows the clinicals of sex and if it's anywhere near as exhausting as creating a body from scratch and forcing life back into it, he'll just give up early and stay a virgin.
#15 - Touch
Still trembling, Clyde can feel Mark's hands on his face before he can see his brother, before he can hear his voice.
#16 - Weakness
Strengths have gotten the Weather Wizard where is within world of crime, but when directing these very same things toward his only kin outside his son, Mark finds that he can barely speak to the man, held back by shame.
#17 - Tears
His span of death disregarded, Clyde hasn't cried in years and probably won't for ages more--but the fact that Mark suddenly refuses to speak to him is enough to test him to his limits.
#18 - Speed
Propped in front of a radio, it's not hard to get Clyde up to speed with the world, but rather, with his open-mindedness to music, the hard part is to stop getting him to hum the latest pop sensations at the dinner table.
#19 - Wind
"It's getting a little stuffy in here, so I think I'm going to open dome today."
#20 - Freedom
Though usually the strictest abider of the law, after living up in the renovated observatory on his own for two weeks (with a few appearances by West on his way to crash between shifts at the morgue), when Clyde works his way down into town one day, the first thing he does is lift a coffee shop yuppie's bicycle.
#21 - Life
After over a decade of absence and backlog in general, what does one do with their life?
#22 - Jealousy
After a quick and generally amiable meeting between Albert and West, Mark let's his agitation known when he shoves Albert back against the wall, tongue down the man's throat and hands down his pants.
#23 - Hands
Hands linked together, Clyde lets a held breath escape him and closes his eyes, hoping that with West's focus, he'll be able to break into himself finally.
#24 - Taste
Thick, the air smells sweet like ozone and Clyde swears he can taste himself against West's lips.
#25 - Devotion
Both of the Mardon brothers have an incredibly hard time expressing their affections to their fullest extent, but Mark's been with Albert for so long now that words don't even seem necessary.
#26 - Forever
When confronted, asking how long he intended to keep his criminal past from Clyde, Mark simply responded with, "Forever."
#27 - Blood
Somewhere in the world, albeit belatedly, Mark's certain he's felt a disturbance ripple through the force, and from that, he's sure he'll have to draw blood over it.
#28 - Sickness
The needle in West's arm is the first thing that upsets Clyde--the second is that he needs that disgusting green liquid to survive.
#29 - Melody
Caught humming a tune their mother used to sing them to sleep with, Clyde wonders if Mark remembers it like he does.
#30 - Star
When Clyde was four, he named one, then all of the stars in the Gemini constellation after Mark, showing his adoration to his baby brother.
#31 - Home
The Mardon's home is together, which neither Albert or West can explain, what with the brothers' unending game of hide-and-seek.
#32 - Confusion
"You were never in a coma, Clyde--you were dead."
#33 - Fear
It's not fear of harm that lights in West's eyes when Clyde comes off the deep end, but that the other might actually put him out from mere association with the farce he's been kept in.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
A storm rolls in long before they meet face to face, though neither brother can feel the rain against is skin or hear the roll of thunder overhead.
#35 - Bonds
Clyde is still rolling with anger from Mark's secret-keeping, but there's something stronger than familial bonds that tie them all together now, like it or not.
#36 - Market
Feeling set out of place and time, Clyde found a certain comfort in taking up an eBay addiction, restoring collections of things he'd lost even before his death.
#37 - Technology
Times are dangerous, and though Mark considers that he might regret it later, he lets Iris Allen take Josh to her home century with the hopes that when the boy returns, he'll be able to help his son get a greater handle on his powers.
#38 - Gift
As backwards as it seems to Mark, West was the best 'welcome back to life' present anyone could have ever given Clyde.
#39 - Smile
They two are awkward and uncoordinated, trying to play with mismatched heights and gaps in experience, but between one's snark and the other's laughter, the fit couldn't be better.
#40 - Innocence
Because Clyde had been Mark's keeper, he sees his elder(?) brother as an innocent in full, though some days, that assumption couldn't be further from the truth.
#41 - Completion When Josh turns back up older and stronger, he's no less Mark's son, though the man realizes that they've still got a long way to go with things.
#42 - Clouds
The clouds open up into a downpour, drenching the three Mardons in their attempt to even on another out in ability, as they try to ignore the smart remarks and snickers from their tag-along Peanut Gallery.
#43 - Sky
For years, the sky has been an open pathway for Mark, and to training his son across it makes him more than a little nostalgic.
#44 - Heaven
Mark will never admit that any of them outside of his son and brother are his family, though he knows better that the set he has is the closest thing to perfection that he'll ever have.
#45 - Hell
Albert still can't stand when West and Mark stand in the same room for over five minutes, watching the sparks fly between them in more ways than should be physically possible.
#46 - Sun
Mark and Albert are, despite their obvious temperaments, the leaders within their lots, Rogues to the end.
#47 - Moon
For the most part, calm and collected, West and Clyde shift through each other's moods like the phases of the moon, making things up to fill in the gaps where they can't quite meet the other's harmony.
#48 - Waves
With Josh's quiet nature, no one quite excepted him to make such waves as he did when he told his father that he was dating the Green Arrow's -other- illegitimate son.
#49 - Hair
Albert finally realized just why Mark manipulated the humidity in their house, keeping it so low, when Mark explained to Albert his family history and the regrettably and easily inherited Jewfro that came with the Mardon bloodline.
#50 - Supernova
Each of the four men finds himself grounded to a cornerstone element, and together, they're sure they're going to move more than mountains in their world.
Yes, there is a LOT of squishy woobie things here, but this entire thing is taken in context from an RP with hatterrenoaxel and yuriko-kaijou (bothdA). There is still snark and wit--it's just off screen here.
Also, Herbert West, the Re-animator takes a stand. Cliff's Notes version;
*Albert Desmond went to Miskatonic U. with West.
*After graduating and raising cane (and the dead), West saw fit to extend his studies, and began looking into Necromancy
*After a spat on the East coast involving Dr. Alchemy getting kidnapped by cultists for Cthulhu, West remeets up with his old roommate
*Mark and West do not get along. Ever
*Just to see if his skills are up to par, West offers his services in resurrection, and Mark agrees.
*Clyde Mardon returns, and is given the idea that he's just come out from a coma after an 'accident' in his observatory. It's been over ten years. The schmuck believes it, poor thing.
*The Rogues step in quickly and help renovate the dump of an observatory and West, with no place to really go, takes a job at the city morgue, helping pay the bills for the lost Mardon.
Also a side note, the weather wand--we took a few liberties;
After years of use, Mark was told by Inertia that he no longer needed the wand, that his power had been internalized and that he was only using it as a crutch. This is obviously a trait passed in their family, as Mark's son, Josh inherits it as well. The creator of the wand, Mark's older brother Clyde had been the first to realize the potential their family had, after a lengthy bit of research into their tree. He hypothesized their abilities, but had no way to draw them out.
For that, he created the weather wand. Unfortunately, he died before he could see anything through, unwittingly leaving the testing to Mark. Now that Clyde has returned, he's got some catching up to do...West thinks he can help remove those pesky mental blocks, but when he does...