#anyway cockroaches are neat and pretty and hard to kill

[vespertine-legacy]

and to the NiM Raider™️ who was watching the stream last night and told me “congrats on your cockroach wings,” do you even remember what it’s like to just actually do stuff because you enjoy it and not because you’re trying to suck the fun out of things for everyone else?

[mysterioussinkhole]

Children of the Night

Statement Summary: Continued statement of Trevor Herbert, vampire hunter. (A few pages are missing, concurrent with the statement giver’s presumed death).

A woman died before he could save her. He wondered why it was only him that could find vampires, like he got a sort of sense for them.

1982, he murdered Allard DuPont. It was while he was in the middle of his addictions to both hunting and heroin, hunting being a much harder thing to quick. There was a deep need within him to kill a vampire. DuPont never spoke. He was a drug dealer and one of his clients told Trevor that he could always tell what his buyers wanted. The client also had scars on his neck. Trevor started watching him, until one day a few policeman walked past him as he sat on a bench. When the officers got close DuPont looked them in the eyes and they immediately walked away. This convinced him he was a vampire. He followed the man to a club (another common place for vampires as it covers up their inability to speak). He waited outside until DuPont emerged with a big man and led him down an alley and into a room off of it. He charged in, hit DuPont with a hammer, and the man screamed. Immediately he realized his mistake. This man was not a vampire. He killed him quickly to keep him quiet, burned the body, and ran.

1996, he saved a woman from a vampire named Hannah Edwards. It was his fifth vampire and the last one he’s killed.

2009, in the winter it is hard to be homeless. Most of the shelters were closed up. He started noticing sleepers at different shelters gathering their things and leaving in the middle of the night. It wasn’t a hallucination as he was sober at the time. A woman, the same woman, would take their place every time. No one knew anything about her. The fourth time she turned up he talked to her. She didn’t speak, but when she looked at him he got the feeling like he wanted to leave and get high. It wasn’t a vampire sort of thing, but it almost got him. He stood his ground. She ran so he followed her out into the street. He grabbed her arm only to feel his fingers sink in. She swung, he ducked, grabbed his knife, and slashed her. Spiders came streaming out of her. He screamed and ran.

This convinced him to talk to the Institute. This means there are other things out there.

Who Did It: The Hunt vs. whatever vampires serve and the Web

Spooky Rating: 7/10, The Life and Times of Trevor the Vampire Slayer

Archives Drama: Jon is pissed that Trevor is alive and that Martin told him he died. (And that spider filled people apparently exist). He confronts Martin over this. Martin didn’t intend to lie, he was convinced he died after he was told so by other researchers. Jon yells at him and questions him over the letter where he said he was lying. Martin tried to avoid answering and Jon fucking loses it, going in a paranoid rant about people keeping secrets. So Martin explains. He lied on his CV, after he dropped out of school at 17 to support his mother. The Magnus Institute was the only place that took him. He says he’s 29, which is implied to be much younger than everyone thought he was. Jon starts smiling like a lunatic, promises to keep it quiet, and realizes he finally has someone he can trust.

Stray Thoughts: Several thoughts, and the first one is that Martin is such a neat character. Everyone underestimates him, only for it to turn out that he’s incredibly resourceful and quick to pick up on things. He’s been working at the Institute for something like 11 years and nobody thought to question it. We all treat like a marshmallow but this boy is a cockroach, nothing takes him down. And Jon! Where to start with Jon. His paranoia is beginning to reach critical mass and it’s shown to be pretty fucking scary. No wonder they intervene soon. Honestly, a case could be made that this is the first time he properly compels someone. Martin doesn’t want to answer his questions but he ends up doing so anyway when he asks. It’s not immediate like it is in the future, though.

Also what was that Web lady even doing??

[kidzbopmallcop]

so our boys are in red base alone, becuse sarge and donut and Lopez left to go fight the reds, and Grif is about to ask Simmons a very important question when....

Dexter is sitting with the only person on the team he can stand, and not standing because why the hell would he do that when he doesn’t have to? It’s only been a year since they were shipped off to this canyon in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, every day feels like it’s forever until the last. But Richard is here sitting next to him, so it isn’t that bad, is it?

Dexter always gets sentimental in these moments. When they sit on the edge of red base, out of their armor and holding hands. They can only do this at night, when Sarge is across the canyon harassing the blues and Lope is charging. No one can steal these moments from them. The sky is unfamiliar with strange constellations and no moon, but the stars are so numerous it’s still illuminating enough that Dexter can steal glances at Richard.

Yeah, being here isn’t so bad if it’s with Richard. Dexter thinks that no star can be as fascinating as this man, but he doesn’t say it out loud. Their relationship is only two years old, but Dexter already feels like this is his forever man. Like he could sit with Richard forever and just stare at the stars.

If anyone caught him thinking those things in a way that would be out loud he’d beg to be killed on the spot. No one needs to hear that other than Richard.

They never even consider telling anyone anything anyways. They’re as different as night and day, really. Richard with his strawberry hair and pasty pale skin dotted with freckles, all thin and lean and tall. Dexter is the opposite, dark hair as long as the military would allow, his skin brown and splotchy with a myriad of stretch marks and moles. There’s also their personalities, Dexter being lazy and chill while Richard is wound tighter than a spring, never calming down.

No one would understand, so they don’t bother trying to make people understand.

“You look like you’re thinking really hard.”’ Richard says, his bony shoulder nudging Dexter’s side. Richard’s hair almost looks red in the darkness, Dexter things with a rush of affection.

How the hell does he build up to what he wants to ask? “I was thinking.” Grif says. “I dunno what the fuck to call you.”

“You call me Simmons.” Richard said in reply. Right, that’s what they call each other when they’re not alone.

“No, I mean like in our relationship.” Dexter clarifies. “What are we?”

Richard gives him a long look. “You know, this makes me think after the first time we were together.”

“Are we talking about that date we took to that lake near the training camp or the first time we fucked in that tent before we weren’t sure about transfers?” Dexter asks. Fond memories. The first one was shooting the shit in between makeouts, and the second one was desperation in thinking they might end up somewhere away from each other.

“Dexter.” Richard warns. “I remember I asked you if you were gay or bi and-”

“Okay so this is the date at the lake.” Dexter nods.

Richard punches him in the shoulder, light enough to not actually hurt. “You gave me a hand wiggle, said ‘It’s whatever bro’, and then asked me if I’d be down for second base.”

Dexter snorts. “You totally were too.”

Richard blushes at the memory. “Whatever, so why are you worried about what we call our thing?”

The other red soldier rubs the back of his neck. “I just want to know what you think we are, you know?”

Richard looks oddly smug, and folds his hands. “I think I love you and you love me, do you want there to be something else?”

Dexter shakes his head, and just leans against Richard’s arm. He’s so neat and put together, even if he’s an anxious wreck he covers it well. He’s got on a tight tee shirt, and plain sweatpants for once. Dexter is wearing his ‘sex machine’ tank top and cargo shorts, which isn’t unusual. Not really something to wear to ask what he wants, but it’s not like he can go and find a nice restaurant to ask what he wants to.

“You’re still thinking really hard.” Richard comments.

Dexter takes a deep breath, trying to sort the words through his head. “Alright. So yeah, I love you and you love  me. And I kinda love you more than I think I love even oreos and every time I manage to make you take a nap with me I think that I just want to do that forever right? So I wanted to ask-”

Dexter gets cut off as Richard scrambles up, and then slams one knee down on the roof of red base. “Marry me!” He demands.

He catches on right away. “Hey, no, fuck you! You don’t get to do this!” Dexter demands, and shoves at Simmons to get him off his one knee. “I was just about to ask you! I have a ring, you can’t do this!”

“No, too late.” Richard says, and in his hands in a fucking box, the fucker! “I have a ring too, but you’ll have to take this one.”

The ring is obviously handmade, wrought from a gold-looking metal with a crude pretty stone that’s probably dug from the side of the canyon set into it. It almost looks like a pearl, which Richard knows is his favorite gemstone, the asshole.

Dexter gets out his own ring, yanking it out of his pocket. It’s not handmade, it’s a ring that he usually wears around his neck. It’s not special, just one of his mother’s old prettier rings that he hadn’t sold off when she left him and his sister. It’s silver with a few small yellow diamonds set in it. “I have an actual ring, take it and marry me!”

“I actually have the documents you’d need to sign downstairs, so you’ll have to marry me.” Richard says.

“You’ll get that ring on me once we make vows and say them to each other later!” Grif says. “But you’re going to put mine on first.”

Richard lunges at him, and then they’re rolling on the roof of red base trying to pin the other and force the ring onto the other’s hands. Dexter is losing, so he plays dirty and just lays on top of Richard and lets the man scramble like a cockroach on it’s back. They stay like that a few minutes until Richard is out of breath.

“Okay.” Richard says. “How about we both agree to try this later?”

“We’re going to talk about this in the  morning like regular people.” Dexter decides before he rolls off of his… fuck. He had hoped to use the word ‘husband’ after this but now it looks like that’s a moot point.

Richard just looks mortified with himself and pissed to hell. “Fuck, I had so much planned for when you said yes too. I was hoping you’d say yes and we’d make out and have really good sex and then sign the papers in the morning and just laugh with each other on private channels if anyone makes secretly married jokes about us!”

The other man grumbles at his ridiculous partner. “I was thinking that I’d give you the ring and we’d make vows to say when I ordered the papers and they got here and I’d make an Oreo pie instead of a cake since we don’t exactly have the means to make a cake.”

They just go back to holding hands. Labels can come later.