Althea Gold put her notebook down and looked across at her partner. "Lan, do you think?"

"Not a chance." Oriana Gardner was lounging. She had finally managed to persuade the Quartermaster that a Roman-style lounging couch was essential equipment for their RC, and she wasn't getting up for anything. "Far too sedate. Since we 'got back together', she's been more of a rat-tat-tat-tat girl."

"Hmm." Althea got up with the usual grunt of effort and pulled open the door. "And it's-- Tracer?!"

The woman outside was in fact dressed in professional-quality Tracer-from-Overwatch cosplay, but that wasn't the reason for Althea's outburst. "Agent Gold," said Department of Bad Parody Agent Tracer. "Your reserve commission has been reactivated. Get your kit."

Althea blinked. "Say that again, but this time make it make sense."

Tracer shrugged one-sidedly. "That's about all I've got. Partner and I were, um, off-duty when the call came in-"

"Is that the same as 'distracted'?" Oriana called from the background. "I remember Lan dropping a few 'modesty quotes' like that."

Tracer rolled her eyes, then pulled off her orange goggles so she could roll them more effectively. "All right, yes, we were making out. You'd know all about that."

Althea gave a long-practised huff of annoyance. "We're really not together like that, whatever the tabloids say."

Tracer propped a hand on her hip. "Are you telling me the Real Actual Honestly Truly Multiverse Monitor (Promise!) lied to me?" she demanded. "The nerve of you!"

Oriana coughed. "You're getting distracted by banter," she noted. "Honestly, when I have to be the sensible one, you know it's bad."

"Right." Tracer pulled herself upright and dropped back into a formal tone. "Agent Gold, the Inverted Cactus requires your presence. There is-"

"The Cactus?" Althea's hand dropped to the custom, spikeless DMS flashpatch on her shoulder. "This is WMD business?"

Tracer nodded. "It seems the Board have discovered some sort of music-based alternate multiverse. You heard how DoSAT and DAS were roped in to deal with the mathsy people last year?"

"Vaguely." Althea frowned. "But I was only in the WMD for about a year, surely I'm bottom of the list."

Tracer shrugged. "There were only about six of us to start with," she said, "not counting Intern Intern. I know the Cats got one, two have retired, and another is on long-term snapped... I think we're the experts, Althea." She held out her hand as if to shake, then turned it palm-up to reveal a metal badge: gold wire, twisted into a mathematically perfect spiral. "You've been reactivated. Welcome back to the Wrecked Music Department."

---

Yes, when the Board of Flowers heard rumours of the Bandverse, someone had the bright idea of dragging in what's left of their own Wrecked Music Department to help out. Frankly, even if Althea and Tracer actually encountered the crossovers, I doubt they'd be any use, but that's never stopped Upstairs before.

WMD: Ephemerals

Althea (& Oriana): By Any Other Name, Constance's Recruitment, Talk Like 15 Pirates

Tracer (& Partner): Talk Like 15 Pirates

hS

That part of the 'verse will be expanded upon with the three stray inhabitants that wandered into the Prime verse. I'll give them their own arc.

I wasn't going to comment on this, since romance is pretty far out of my wheelhouse, but I actually really liked the detail at the end, that Kaguya had kept Momoka's gift all those years, and wore it out of respect for her. Very nice!

—doctorlit learned today that there's apparently a difference between lip gloss and lipstick!?

Both the real world and the fictional ones have good examples of artists who are good both at singing and playing one (or maybe even more!) instruments. In the very famous series K-On, the main character group's guitarist and bassist double as vocalists, and the same do the Fire Bomber band in Macross 7.

I'm pretty sure there are some bands in real life who do the same, but one of my favourite artists, Edoardo Bennato, takes the cake here. He's not just a singer-songwriter, but he also can play the guitar, harmonica and a drum... simultaneously, with the help of an harmonica support and of course the drum being pedal-operated.

Granted, we can't have all Agents be musical geniuses - just like most Agents of the Prime Multiverse are not spec-ops operatives but people just scraping by. But the fact that an Agent can sing and play an instrument doesn't mean that they can do both well. Or any. Heck, I technically can sing and play the recorder (not simultaneously, of course!), but I'm definitely not pleasant to listen to doing either.

and of course, feel free to expand on the AU.