Dissensus

The Fourth Estate | multiship | nsfw | 13/? |

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

Summary:

"There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than them all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times." -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

The Fourth Estate: a segment of society that wields the soft but momentous power of public opinion despite its lack of formal recognition within the political system.

Or, the first thing that rebuilds itself after Sendak's defeat is the press. With the press comes social media. You know what you get when you have social media? Fandom. You get fandom.

(multimedia fic following the Paladins & the MFE-Ares pilots post-season 7)

Chapter 13 excerpt:

Something deep in James’ hindbrain wakes up with a start.

There’s a feeling of wrongdistortedunsafe sends a jolt of pure adrenaline through his entire system. There’s a half-second where he trembles, head to fucking toe, as his fight-or-flight response kicks into high gear. It takes all of his self-control not to come up swinging. Instead he continues to breathe slow and steady as he tries to take stock of his situation without opening his eyes or moving from his slack sprawl across half the bed.

Keith is a deadweight next to him—warm and solid and compact in ways his asshole brain helpfully reminds him of with a set of impressively tactile memories. The room is dark with a single point of light burning through his closed eyelids to the bottom left. An open tablet probably, Keith having a rare fit of attempted productivity and then falling asleep halfway through. Typical. James’d find that funny at any other time but the sense that something is wrong crawls down his spine like spider legs.

He catches the half-heartbeat when Keith’s breath stutters before evening back out into a smooth, steady rhythm again.

Waking up and then faking sleep, same as James.

[read the rest on Ao3]