patrxn

[patrxn]

The gentle touch, as surprising as it was confusing, stalled his rushing mind for a second before he turned away again. Unable to look at her, unable to show just how angered he was.

His whole deal was ruined by Kinga's ill timed show of sympathy. And now he had one asset less to work with.

"Fuck!!"

The hard bang against the wall brought a minuscule flinch from the shifter, eyes watching him a little sharper now.

Well, the asset was gone.

The control, in this moment and this room at least, lay in his hands. His back turned to her, and something in her expression cracked. Maybe the exhaustion showing through, the heavy chill of the room.

Maybe a passing memory of a boy who came searching for a way, to build a place in the world not just for him.

The door opened.

Grasping against the wall to help get herself up, she doesn’t take the directive with any hesitance or skepticism.

The click of her heels stepped past the man with his back turned, stopping for just a split second, did the shifter turn to look for his face. Ever so brief, a reach to touch his chin.

“Hm.”

A short hum, and then went on walking, the clicking steps eventually picking up speed to vacate the club as quickly as possible, lest there be any trap or change of heart.

[patrxn]

"...I didn't say that.." he tried to correct but the ignition had been turned on and whatever energy Kinga had he didn't want to dampen it.

Fuck.

She didn't want to see it? So what made Theo more special than everyone else who couldn't handle the diamond? She didn't care about them. Didn't care if those sons got back home to their families once the fun went a little too far in a overpriced nightclub in Hightown.

"What I want?? Well I don't know, Kinga! Maybe my fucking asset back!"

With a hard bang on the freezer's wall that made one of the guards flinch, Abel stepped away to try and collect himself, though his anger evident and huffed through his nose.

With a nod at the guard, the door to the freezer was opened. And with his back to her, the Patron spoke.

"Get out of here. Don't come back to my club."

I’ve killed people for less than this.

For Kinga this felt more like a tell; of showing his hand. Yes, she watched him, and yet here I am. But maybe to challenge him directly on this front would be over playing hers, and The Patron would be pushed to act.

She could only imagine what he was grappling with now, as to what to do about this.

What was she thinking?

Lips pulling into a frown, she shrugged a shoulder. Leaned her head back against the wall and watched him.

“He didn’t belong here, Abel.

You and I both know that.”

This place had already begun to eat him alive. And if he survived, there was really only one way about that.

“And maybe I didn’t want him to live, see him become..” A wry smile, a sigh. “Like us.”

[patrxn]

He scoffed, began to pace, his angry energy keeping him unbalanced, his options few and warring with each other. Nobody belongs anywhere until they make it their place. Their kingdom.

How could Kinga of all people forget that?

"..Like us?"

Turning around, there is disbelief on his face, a kind of offence.

"You mean having survived in a place where all odds were against us? Coming out on top instead of being the dirt under people's shoes??

Maybe you only see the ugly side of things, but I don't. Maybe that has always been your problem, Kinga, unable to grasp how others see you - the good things.

Maybe that's why you settled on being a drudge in someone else's factory when you could've- had more!"

I’ve killed people for less than this.

For Kinga this felt more like a tell; of showing his hand. Yes, she watched him, and yet here I am. But maybe to challenge him directly on this front would be over playing hers, and The Patron would be pushed to act.

She could only imagine what he was grappling with now, as to what to do about this.

What was she thinking?

Lips pulling into a frown, she shrugged a shoulder. Leaned her head back against the wall and watched him.

“He didn’t belong here, Abel.

You and I both know that.”

This place had already begun to eat him alive. And if he survived, there was really only one way about that.

“And maybe I didn’t want him to live, see him become..” A wry smile, a sigh. “Like us.”

[patrxn]

The moment Kinga's softened voice broke through the silence, he stopped in his anger, watching her. Less energetic than he was used to seeing her, there was no dulling that sharp tongue.

"I've killed people for less than this."

Stating a fact, or a threat, he doesn't sound too happy about it.

"What the hell were you thinking??"

The weakness in her body left Kinga needing to sit, feeling the cold floor beneath her.

The chill, a thick and heavy stillness that seemed to bear down and slow even thoughts. But at the sound of crisp footsteps she recognized, her eyes lift to lock onto the Patron.

“I liked my old room better.” At least wearing the pilot’s face she’d gotten to enjoy a room with champagne and single malt.

Now what??

She turned her head slightly to the side, some form of curiosity pulling the side of her mouth into a dubious smile.

“More of a question for you, isn’t it?”

Was he not in clear possession of the upper hand?

[patrxn]

@ourlxdy

The freezer - the small space big enough to fit one person at a time had come to be a very helpful tool along the years. It hadn't been too long since he'd last used it, to mold the perfect follower, keep their head straight, teach them what was really at stake.

A place where the occupant is neither dead nor really fully alive.

At least, that's what he'd been told..

The sound of a heavy door that opens and closes is followed by the Patron's quick crisp footsteps on the steel flooring, coming closer to the chamber.

"--You had your fun, now what??"

[patrxn]

Do you really have it in you to kill her?

"I should.

She fucked me over.

I don't take that sort of thing lightly."

[patrxn]

Kinga did this.

"Shouldn't be surprised. Really.."

[patrxn]

Daidō Moriyama.

[patrxn]

MANNY JACINTO Balestra (2024)

[patrxn]

No. No he didn't want the intruder to prove it. The Patron already knew the lengths they'd go to save that kid. Coming in like a bulldozer, taking down anyone who got in their way, was proof enough for him.

Ultimatum after ultimatum, a challenge the Patron wasn't ready for and it showed in his cracking demeanor - the anger flushing his cheeks and balling up his hands into fists.

With a press of a button on his device, he muted the call and stood there, hunched over his desk. Even in the silence he could hear the other occupants breathing, watching and waiting for what he would do next. There was no advice or comment from anyone, vocally or telepathically.

The silence ended with an abrupt press of a button.

"—You don't come back here.. or I will kill you.

Tell the kid to stay warm." he told them bitterly.

“Want me to prove it?” He breathed back into the headset, already targeting a warning shot he didn’t want to fire.

Calm breathing through his nose, eyes only hardened hearing the Patron talk about Kinga, the one who’d organized this plan to get Theo out.

He’d offered the woman egress but for some reason had been met with flat out refusal to entertain the notion of leaving the island.

Could he really take her out, along with every other soul in that place? Would they have to find out?

“Nobody has to die today.” He answered steadily.

“You leave him alone, you don’t come looking or I promise you- I promise you,

I will be a much more expensive fucking problem than his work can make up for.

I’m ready to pull that trigger now, are you? “

[patrxn]

MANNY JACINTO NUVO Magazine (2024)

[patrxn]

say it with me

D U A L I T Y

[patrxn]

Manny Jacinto attends the Joopiter Dinner Party during Paris Fashion Week Menswear Fall/Winter 2025 at Le Royal Monceau - Raffles on January 22, 2025 in Paris, France

[patrxn]

Kinga's call out to him lingered as he tried to have some kind of conversation with the guy up above, the ultimatum was as laughable a it was to be taken seriously.

His leverage.

His mouth pressed in a thin line, taking a beat before answering.

"You really would kill innocent people? How very military man of you." grabbing a pen from his desk, he quickly jotted down 'jam' onto the nearest paper document. His lieutenant nodded and walked out the door.

"I don't bar people from the Brass Monkey. Especially when they've been let down by everyone around them. Unless, they go behind my back—

Kinga sends her regards, by the way. I've.. never seen her sacrifice her life like his, for anyone or anything. It was very touching. I'm sure she'll appreciate dying by your hand."

Nothing about Theo screamed control. Over anything. And Damien let him vent it out, the same rage, the hurt and betrayal again and the pilot knew there’d be no getting the kid to sit back, and listen.

Hearing the rattling of the plane, he had to get back to the cockpit.

“Theo- Theo!”

This was a losing battle, and a volatile kid in crisis with the power to pull their plane down from the sky was no good.

“I know- hey? I know,” And like that, he had the kid grabbed, arm going around him and the other to the back of his head in a sleeper.

“I love you kid- sorry, go to sleep

go to sleep.” He panted, lowering the kid down to the floor.

[patrxn]

"...what a pleasant surprise, calling me from the skies where I can't reach you. Not advantageous at all." sarcasm dripped from his every word as he spoke into the intercom.

"What do you want?"

Nothing about Theo screamed control. Over anything. And Damien let him vent it out, the same rage, the hurt and betrayal again and the pilot knew there’d be no getting the kid to sit back, and listen.

Hearing the rattling of the plane, he had to get back to the cockpit.

“Theo- Theo!”

This was a losing battle, and a volatile kid in crisis with the power to pull their plane down from the sky was no good.

“I know- hey? I know,” And like that, he had the kid grabbed, arm going around him and the other to the back of his head in a sleeper.

“I love you kid- sorry, go to sleep

go to sleep.” He panted, lowering the kid down to the floor.

[patrxn]

The lack of reaction from the other made Abel take a big leap over the line of assumption and into suspicion, to...

Their reaction to the rumble overhead distracted him, following the visitor's movement with his eyes, the one who wasn't so bothered about being caught drinking, but worried about it having been poisoned?

"... what—?"

Suddenly the door to his office burst open and in came his right hand man with quick steps. She leaned in to whisper.

"Sir,there is an incoming aircraft, we need to take you to safety."

But soon the rumble overhead grew louder, heavier.

"Sir.. they're calling for you."

Abel stared hard at the visitor,

"They say it's Daisy."

a snarl shaping his mouth, he looked down to compose himself and not let the anger take over.

"Put her in the freezer." he ordered the guards, "Put him through." what the fuck did he want now...

Unflinchingly, they watch the man come closer.

Their own smile didn’t waver, but froze slightly on Damien’s face, eyes sharper now, intently taking him in, to be ready for just about anything.

It’s that sharp curiosity that notes Abel becoming.. upset.

Chin jutting upwards, her arms folded across her chest, aglimmer with the game only one of them knew they were playing.

“What’s it to you, who shares my bed?” They asked, puffing their chest out like the proud sort of man they took Damien to be.

“How ‘bout you? You got somebody to go home to, Patron?” A shrug. “Or you do all this fuckin’ work just to crawl back into an empty bed alone at night?

Got all this..” A gesture about at this place they were so proud to have built up. A deep pensive frown, sympathetic.

“Don’t nobody want to share it with you?”

[patrxn]

manny jacinto in cora bora (2023)