#i will be so annoying with the self rbs on this one. on god

[ruvviks]

my liege what abt "rampage" with either vitali or vincent,,,,,,,

RAMPAGE [x] chapter >> 3 [x] characters >> vincent mayer (oc), vitali dobrynin (oc), [redacted] total >> 4.4k words (SORRY) warnings >> blood, brief mention of attempted sexual assault, injuries, torture mention, violence

‘Checkmate.’

It was dark.

Vincent lay unmoving, arms hooked in an uncomfortable angle behind his back. His head felt heavy; a dull, constant thrumming filled his ears and numbed his brain, putting painful pressure on the back of his eyes to the point he feared they could pop out of his skull at any given moment.

Checkmate.

God, he had been stupid- naive, but most of all stupid, believing Dupoint would let him walk. He should have known- he could have known, from the moment his gaze had caught that of the Frenchman- whatever was going to happen would not end well for him.

A quiet whimper left Vincent’s throat as he tried to move and he sank back onto the floor, unable to push himself up against the wall. His muscles were stiff, exhausted from the pain he’d had to endure, and each tiny move felt like the equivalent of a sharp knife carving away at his skin and flesh.

He had won. Of course he had. It had seemed dumb to him, even- why a game of chess, of all possibilities? But it did not matter. What mattered is he had won, which had meant his friends would get to walk away- with all limbs attached- and so would he.

Checkmate.

But of course Dupoint had refused to give him that satisfaction.

Vincent's stomach turned as the events of a few days before flooded back into his mind, a tidal wave of memories slamming itself violently into the inside of his skull.

‘Let them go. You can keep me- I don’t care, just- Please, let them go.’

Tears burned into the corners of his eyes. He had meant it. Of course he had. All he wanted was for his friends to be safe, to be as far away from that place as possible, and- well, rules are rules. Someone like Ravager would not understand- but Dupoint had to.

So he had let them go. A consolation prize, even though Vincent had won fair and square- but he had accepted it anyway, knowing the only alternative left at the time was far worse than what would have happened if he had lost.

And they had fought- had tried to, at least. They had screamed and begged Dupoint to let Vincent leave with them, and Ravager had needed to call in extra forces to remove all of them from the premises without anyone getting severely hurt.

Vincent squeezed his eyes shut when he remembered Vitali- kicking and screaming, held back by at least five men- perhaps six, or seven- and still nearly managing to escape their grasp; how he had tried to lunge at Dupoint, a bright fury in his eyes Vincent had never seen in them before, how he had sworn to come back- I’ll come back for you, душа моя, if it’s the last thing I do- and how he had warned for the violent rampage he would unleash on them once he would find his way back inside-

A quiet sob left Vincent’s throat.

It had been days. And he was terrified.

A sudden alarm cut through the deafening silence, blaring and echoing through the room and causing Vincent to bolt up; his body protested at the unexpected move and he winced in pain, muscles cramping up and the heavy thudding of his heartbeat rapidly filling his head. He sobbed again and crawled backwards, until his back hit solid wall- only then he noticed the sharp, cutting pain in his wrists, caused by the ziplock ties keeping them together.

Even now that his eyes had gotten plenty of time to adjust to the deep void surrounding him, not much had changed- either a room deprived from light entirely, or the horrifying possibility of Vincent’s eyesight no longer being with him.

He pulled his legs closer to his chest and pushed his head down onto his knees, the overwhelming noise burning through his skull- it hurt, and the longer it went on the louder it seemed to become, flooding the space around him until it felt like he was drowning, unable to keep his head above water-

Christ, V. Pull yourself together.

It wasn’t the first time Vincent had had to endure torture. Certainly not the last time either- it was something to be expected in his line of work, especially as someone prone to being captured by the enemy. An occurrence that happened to him, every now and then. A lot more often than he was willing to admit.

Though this was different. This was personal- Dupoint’s little power fantasy, starring no one other than himself, Vincent, and each and every single fucked up tool in Night City he had managed to get his hands on.

Still, Vincent endured. He had a decent pain tolerance, and was able to zone out on command in nearly every situation if desired- though the longer it went on, the wearier he became and the more he struggled holding himself together, and he feared he was going to have to rely on himself alone if he ever wished to see sunlight once again.

Similar to the alarm cutting through the silence, a sudden beam of light broke up the dark and nearly blinded Vincent- he squeezed his eyes shut and winced again, partially relieved he could still see, but most of all terrified of whoever had entered the room.

‘Alright, pretty boy- get up.’

A strong hand grabbed his upper arm and dragged him to his feet, giving him no time to adjust; a familiar voice, though all but the good kind of familiar, and Vincent struggled briefly as he tried to pull himself out of the grip of Ravager’s right hand man.

‘Relocating the merc to sector C-6.’

A second voice- female, unfamiliar. She sounded on edge, voice slightly unstable as she continued to exchange some words with whoever was on the other end of the comms.

The alarms were nothing new. A scare tactic- effective at that, but common enough for Vincent to have grown accustomed to it; though his earlier anxiety was entirely replaced by alertness, now, as it finally dawned on him something serious was going on inside Ravager’s facility.

Perhaps-?

‘Ready?’

Vincent blinked and lifted his head; he quickly realized the woman had not spoken to him, but instead looked expectantly at the man still holding on to Vincent’s arm, her jaw tightly clenched and her eyes restlessly darting around, scanning the man’s features as she waited for an answer.

Silence followed- a nearly agonizing hesitation, somehow frighteningly similar to the brief moments before combat Vincent sometimes shared with his friends, including the reluctant looks painted on their faces as they slowly realized it could easily be one of the last times they would look at each other-

Fuck- for your sake, I hope it is.

They left the room.

Vincent squinted as he was pushed into the hallway, the bright light causing his headache to flare up again. He was dragged through the hallway at a brisk pace; his legs could barely keep up, though he forced himself to continue, knowing whatever would happen to him were he to collapse to the floor would not be good.

He recognized the hallways. He had been there before- three times, to be exact, each a different occasion though all for the same reasons.

He had not been the first to end up in Ravager’s captivity, unfortunately; had managed to meet the same fate as Mikhail- ironically enough while on a path of revenge for what Ravager’s people had done, and had tried to do, to his friend- and had then been forced to deal with the consequences.

Dupoint was a new player, however- a somewhat unexpected turn of events. An important asset; though still merely a pawn in the game the Broker was trying to play with them. Like chess, almost- though Vincent was unsure if his opponent was still playing by the rules.

Something about it all felt wrong, somehow. For Ravager, it was the eddies; for Dupoint, it was personal, a burning hatred for Vincent over something that had happened long enough ago he had honestly already forgotten about it. But the Broker- what was in it for him?

The rook, the bishop, the king.

Who sat at the top? Who was looking down on them from their throne of bones and corpses, watching their every move, hunting them down like prey?

And why- Most of all, why-

Why a fucking game of chess?

Vincent clenched his jaw as he was yanked forward, his pace clearly too slow for his escort’s liking. The further they had walked, the busier the hallways had become- people gathering, yelling at each other, readying their weapons and putting on whatever makeshift armor they could find.

‘They started a fire in the lower levels,’ the woman suddenly said, slightly raising her voice to be able to carry it over the chaos surrounding them. ‘Partial lockdown’s been initiated to-’ A clearly audible sucked in breath, followed by a shaky exhale. ‘- to keep it under control.’

‘What-? Keep it under-’ The man cursed under his breath and momentarily slowed his pace. ‘Jesus- Boss cut off the fuckin’ oxygen?’

Killing his own people? Bold strategy.

Vincent watched the blood drain from the woman’s face as the harsh reality dawned on her. She opened her mouth as to speak; but no sound came out, and she quickly closed it again, bottom lip quivering ever so slightly as she averted her gaze and continued walking.

He nearly felt sorry for her. Nearly.

Until he remembered how they had found Mikhail- broken and bruised, hair thin from stress and fingernails torn and bleeding- how he had been screaming and begging for it all to stop only moments before they had entered the room he was being held in, hands tied above his head as three of Ravager’s people pushed him down over a table-

Had they found him only a minute later, had they taken any longer fighting their way through the facility, had they taken any wrong turns- they would have been too late. And Ravager’s men would have- they would have-

A wave of panic rushed through Vincent and the ziplock ties around his wrists suddenly felt a lot tighter than before. He sucked in a breath and felt new tears well up, stinging in his eyes and blurring his vision until he could barely see where he was going.

Hey- Keep it together, kid. Nothing’s happened yet. Eyes up.

Right.

Focus.

Vincent clenched his jaw and his gaze moved back up, a single tear escaping his eye and rolling down his cheek- though his previous panic was now replaced entirely by boiling rage, suddenly vividly remembering the look of pure relief on Mikhail’s face when he had noticed them enter, and the way he had clung to Vincent the moment his hands had no longer been tied together-

He was going to make them pay.

That’s why he had come back there in the first place, right?

Now that’s the V I know. Get ready.

Gunshots. Nearby. A few hallways away, perhaps- but they echoed through the entire facility, startling Vincent’s escort, and he was dragged out of the hallway into a side room. The man was squeezing his arm painfully tight now, to the point he could feel a bruise take shape underneath his fingertips; and the woman was cursing, turning her back toward the both of them as she stood in the doorway, gun at the ready, waiting for anyone to cross her path-

Now.

Vincent turned around and forcefully kicked up his knee, placing it right between the man’s legs and causing him to buckle over- a second knee kick, right to the nose, followed by a third kick in the stomach to send him flying backwards, tumbling over some machinery. Vincent immediately steadied himself again and ran toward the woman- he rammed his entire body into her before she could lift her gun, causing the both of them to crash onto the white tiling of the hallway floor.

He scrambled to his feet, struggling- without his hands he could barely get any grip, and by the time he’d positioned his legs underneath his body again the woman was already up as well; she grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him toward her, reaching for something in her belt-

Vincent used the momentum to launch himself directly onto her again, headbutting her on the nose in their fall- he landed on top of her and her head bounced off the floor with a loud thud, and a single shriek of pain left her lips before she lost consciousness.

Good. Now get out.

Get out.

Get out. Get out, get out, get out-

Vincent pushed himself back up, panting and gasping for air as he stumbled away from the room and quickly made his way through the still-empty hallway, begging for it to stay that way. He was running out of adrenaline- his only source of energy, the events of the past days having drained him entirely from his reserves, and his entire body felt heavy as he dragged himself around the corner.

Where to go, where to go- the monotonous hallways all looked the fucking same and he was not entirely sure what floor he found himself on and which way he had come from in the first place, and the narrow side hallways he was moving through were a disorienting clusterfuck to the point he believed he was just going in circles.

Another turn, another turn- Vincent lost his footing and the world spun around him as he crashed on the floor again, whimpering when his head collided with the cold tiles and he momentarily lost his vision.

Get up.

Get up.

‘Fuck all of this fuckin’ bullshit,’ Vincent whispered to himself, barely able to force the words out of his throat as he pushed himself back up, leaning heavily against the wall for support.

Alright, potty mouth. Done feeling sorry for yourself?

Shut the fuck up.

Kiss my ass.

Vincent grunted and continued to walk, listening closely to the distant gunfire and trying to pinpoint where it was coming from; he stumbled upon another t-junction and turned left, putting as much distance as possible between him and the ongoing armed confrontation.

He knew what- and who- he could possibly find there. Still, walking face-first into battle with his arms bound to his back sounded like the dumbest idea that had ever crossed his mind, and even though he knew he could stumble upon allies he preferred his body in one piece, rather than shot full of holes.

He just- he had to get out. He would find his way back home once he would set foot outside again.

Staircase.

Vincent pushed the door open with his shoulder and began descending- he tripped over his feet again and tumbled down the stairs, unable to catch himself in his fall and crying out in pain when a sharp jab shot through his shoulder, all the way down his spine to his hips.

Careful.

‘God damnit, Johnny.’ Vincent let out a strangled sob as he rolled on his side, carefully moving his legs to feel if his bones were still intact.

It felt weird to say his name out loud.

Vincent knew he wasn’t there anymore.

He forced himself back up on his feet, grunting as his knees nearly buckled under his weight again- nothing felt broken, but everything felt battered and bruised and the burning pain in his hips was still there, clawing away at his muscles. He carefully straightened his back and glanced at the sign above the exit-

Ground floor. Good.

Vincent pushed himself back into another monotonous hallway, ducking behind some lockers just in time, only barely able to jump out of line of sight of an entire armed-to-the-tits squad of guards; Dupoint’s backup, he could only guess.

Another rush of panic. He had to get out. Get out of the building, and quick- Ravager’s men were one thing, a poor excuse of a street gang with lousy combat training under their belt and the aim of an eight-year-old on a sugar rush at the fair; but Dupoint’s people were something else, serious business, a selection of top-shelf quality hired guns who would, upon spotting him, riddle Vincent with bullets before he could even turn around.

Hallway. Corner- turn left. Hallway. Turn right. Another right.

It was a fucking maze- designed specifically like that to trap people inside forever, and the longer Vincent walked and the more he had to jump back around corners or dive behind any piece of furniture he could get cover behind in order to stay out of sight, the more he began fearing he would never find his way out-

Another squad.

Vincent immediately threw himself into a room, muscles cramping up the moment his shoulder came in contact with the door. He did not bother to close it properly behind him- the squad continued their hurried pace either way, unaware of him hiding right around the corner, right in arm’s reach had they bothered to pay a little more attention.

He exhaled sharply as he took a moment to catch his breath, allowing his heartbeat to settle down.

BANG-!

The room had not been empty.

Vincent flinched involuntarily upon hearing the noise, freezing as he listened to the sounds of someone whimpering and gasping for air, barely audible over the still blaring alarms of the facility. His eyes slowly trailed the room- and with that, the nauseating amount of corpses scattered across the floor, Ravager’s men and Dupoint’s security retinue alike, and he quickly found the perpetrator, in the midst of adding another body to the pile.

Vitali.

He sat with his back toward Vincent- though it was unmistakably him, his bleached hair tousled and white shirt torn and stained with blood and sweat, sleeves rolled up as he leaned heavily on his arms with his fingers wrapped tightly around the neck of one of Ravager’s people, his knuckles whitened underneath the dark bruising decorating the back of his hands.

Someone else walked in through the door on Vitali’s right, gun at the ready- though before they could do anything or Vincent could call out, Vitali was already back up on his feet, hand reaching for the knife in his belt while he dodged out of the guard’s line of fire and threw his body at them at full speed.

He worked fast- he always did. Vincent watched as he knocked the gun out of the guard’s hand and ripped their helmet off, revealing a pale, sweat-covered and most of all terrified face- and a single cry left their lips as Vitali plunged the knife into their throat, blood spraying into his face as he dragged the blade through their artery.

The alarms around them finally stopped.

Silence fell over the room like a sudden vacuum as the guard clawed at the gaping wound in their neck and sank down on the floor. They reached out, a bloody hand grasping at Vitali- he simply stepped back out of their range, spitting on the floor as he rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck.

Vincent was too scared to make a sound.

He watched Vitali drop his head as the guard spluttered incoherently before drawing their final breath, and a knot took shape in his torso as Vitali suddenly walked forward toward the door, getting ready to leave the room without as much as shooting another glance at the massacre he had left behind-

‘Vito?’

Vincent’s voice was barely audible, hoarse and weakened by the amount of screaming he had been doing- though Vitali heard him, loud and clear, and he turned around while steadying himself, knife at the ready, as if he was expecting more enemies to show.

He had the look in his eyes again.

The bright fury- the wild, blinding rage that had overtaken him once before, and Vincent could barely hold his gaze as the knot in his chest painfully tightened.

Though the moment Vitali realized it was him, his eyes softened, and he mouthed Vincent’s name in a relieved sigh- and he stood motionless as Vincent stumbled over to him, legs barely able to carry his weight anymore and knees buckling with each step but he did not care and it did not stop him, repeating Vitali’s name- once, twice- and crying out when his ankle twisted and he fell-

A soft landing.

Vincent buried his face in Vitali’s chest as he sobbed, exhaustion washing over him as the stress that had built up inside his chest finally released. Vitali spoke to him in Russian- it’s okay, I’ve got you; you’re safe, my love, you’re safe- and he dropped the knife, blood-covered hands trembling mid-air as he held Vincent in his arms.

Hesitation. Again- but still, still, he carefully cupped Vincent’s cheeks- hands that had choked, and carved, and killed- but ever so gentle and patient as they cradled his face, fingertips softly brushing over his skin and instantly easing his pain.

‘Look at me- V, please- please…’

Vitali’s voice broke.

Vincent sat unmoving. The situation had forced him to his knees; literally so, his hands still bound tightly behind his back, wrists and head bleeding, eyelids heavy and breathing shallow as he listened to Vitali’s pleads.

He forced himself to lift his head- and he felt vulnerable. Vulnerable and exposed, unable to defend himself would circumstances call for it, and he could not help but feel a rush of terror when Vitali’s hands moved dangerously close toward his neck as they caressed his jaw to tilt his head higher-

But Vitali merely kissed him.

Vincent was starving. But Vitali’s lips only softly brushed past his, a careful and hesitant gesture; a question, almost- May I? Will you still let me?

Of course, baby. Of course.

Vincent answered by leaning closer, gasping for air into their kiss as Vitali’s grip on his face momentarily tightened- and Vitali’s lips quivered as they finally parted, his hands dragging down Vincent’s neck and gently pulling him closer as he allowed Vincent to sate his hunger.

Vincent’s chest filled with relief and he collapsed further into Vitali’s arms, their kiss messy and entirely out of sync- but for a split second he was home, no longer in the facility, no longer in pain and no longer tied up, and no longer worrying about people running in and finding them there-

Sounds like you kinda should be worried about that, though.

But it wasn’t enough yet. Vincent wished his hands were unbound; oh, how he would have clung on to Vitali, then, like he was afraid if he would let go he would disappear- how he would have gently held his head, how his fingers would have explored each and every inch of his bare skin and how he would have tugged softly on the back of his hair in an attempt to pull him closer-

They broke the kiss, both gasping for air as their foreheads collided and Vitali dropped his hands on Vincent’s thighs. Vincent’s eyes fluttered shut again and he allowed Vitali to softly and reassuringly kiss his cheek- leaving a trail all the way down over his jaw and neck, like bandaids on his wounds.

Their gazes met again. Vitali’s eyes were hazy- a single tear rolled down his cheek, mixing with the dark red blood decorating his freckled skin. He hesitantly cupped Vincent’s cheek once more; and Vincent leaned in to his touch, resting his face against Vitali’s palm and exhaling slowly as the tension in his upper body finally released.

He still sometimes wondered how he had found his way to Vitali. Even more so, how he had managed to find his way to his heart- utterly convinced from the moment they had met that Vitali already had everything in the world and Vincent could never be someone he would long for or would want to be with.

Falling in love with him had been terrifying, in a way. Vincent had just been a merc- small, nearly insignificant compared to Vitali, or to anyone else in his inner circle for that matter. Just one from many, not close to him like Mikhail was- a lifelong friend, someone Vitali trusted with his life- and not nearly as powerful as Vitali himself to be able to call himself an equal.

Rook, bishop, king.

But it was worth it, right?

Vitali reached for the knife again. A sudden move that caught Vincent off guard; he froze, and held his breath, yet still allowed Vitali to move closer and lean over Vincent’s shoulder-

He carefully cut through the ziplock ties around Vincent’s wrists.

‘You came back for me,’ Vincent quietly said, embarrassment rising in his chest as he watched Vitali lean back and quickly push the knife back into his belt.

‘Of course I did.’ Vitali paused, and visibly clenched his jaw. ‘I… I am sorry it took this long. We did not waste any time- please know that.’

Vincent nodded, unable to speak.

He was unsure why he had doubted him before. He had watched how Ravager’s men had struggled to contain him- if Vitali’s rage alone had been able to kill, he would have left the entire facility littered with corpses right then and there.

Vitali reached out for him again- carefully, as not to startle him- and gently pulled him toward his chest once more. Vincent gratefully allowed him, eyes closing momentarily when Vitali’s arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders and his hands found their way to his hair.

Of course he had come back. Of course. Had it been the other way round, Vincent would have done the same for him.

‘We should go,’ Vitali mumbled, pressing a soft kiss on Vincent’s hair. ‘The others are waiting.’

Vincent slowly sat up again, exhaustion overtaking his body- but he paid it no mind, smiling up at Vitali as he scanned Vincent’s face, hands softly running over his shoulders.

Nearly over. Nearly safe again.

Vitali pressed a kiss on his forehead, and he carefully helped him back up on his feet, voice slightly shaking as he spoke again.

‘Let’s get out of here, my love. Let’s go home.’

[chisatowo]

Wowzie the gang is all here! Only two of them have names, but it's ok Ill figure smth out

[cynicalundead]

CYNICAL UNDEAD SYSTEM

cyn/graves

null/nullself unless we say otherwise

traumagenic osdd system w soulbonds n tulpas

lgbt in every imaginable way

mentally and physically disabled 🔥

audhd + npd/bpd/avpd on top of the system stuff

anti discourse , pro do whatever you want

buncha sillies :3

I vent and trauma post on main occasionally and I don't tag it jsyk

[If I violate your DNI just block me (or send hate, don't care). I don't do it on purpose. I just don't click on every profile I rb from]

opinions, DNI, personal info and userboxes below cut!!

WHAT WE BELIEVE -

• all systems and plurals deserve respect. however, medicalization of osddid is important and so is proper information. my intense respect for all plurals and my vehement belief in the importance of traumagenic focused discussion coexist. anti endos as a community are needlessly hateful and centered on vitriolic outburst rather than healing. it's repulsive.

• all queers are queer however they say they're queer (this includes contradictory, """"offensive"""" or annoying labels such as mspec monos, xenogenders, aroaces, pansexuals, toothpaste flag mlms, and more)

• 90% of people under 20 on the internet need to log off and talk to real people exclusively for a few weeks. I swear to God y'all need some Twitter detox I can't take it. Not everything is about you or your stupid self centered sensitive ass discourse stances. and before you say it, I have and continue to do this myself whenever the Internet becomes too much for me. this is a recommendation from experience.

• anybody who thinks the existence of people different from them (men, mlm, mspec monos, xenogenders, kin, systems, ""tme"", wtvr it is you're mad about) somehow attacks, belittles or erases them are neo conservatives. end of story! if a person is innocently existing or discussing their personal experience and identity and that MAKES YOU MAD, you are just as bad as them. your bigotry is driven by ignorant fear. cope

• fandom discourse is dumb and dangerous. especially shipcourse. harassing and harming folks over fiction is unbearable, and watering down words like csem and pedophile in the context of petty fandom drama is INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS and actively hurts the people you're pretending to protect. just fucking leave people alone, all of you, goddamnit

• "basic DNI criteria" and other DNI list tropes (like "racists and homophobes DNI" or "DNI endogenic """systems""" and mspec """lesbians""") are performative and idiotic means to express your opinions and stances. just fucking say what you believe this is so goddamn stupid. "pedos dni"? do you actually fucking hear yourself

that being said..

OUR DNI -

WHO WE ARE -

The Body - Cyn

• bisexual nonbinary afab

• disabled mentally and physically

• extremely traumatized and cynical

• radically inclusive, or at the very least radically neutral

The Host - David/DARCI

• bisexual cismale

• subsystem of 1 ANP + 2 EPs

- DARCI : persecutor, symptom holder

- David : host, protector, anp

- Little One : little, traumaholder

• introjects of Amphibia's Darcy (AU)

• spotted hyena, orange tabby and zombie kin

The Co-host - Vivienne

• @v-is-for-vivienne sideblog

• NPD holder + physical protector

• SD-V fictive

• she/her cis lesbian

• crazy bitch /pos

The Co-host - Jesse

• currently doesn't have a sideblog

• she/her+ aromantic aceflux lesbian

• BPD holder + social persecutor

• Vriska fictive

• TMNT fan

Honorable Mentions - Frequent Fronters

• Latte , Sir Fluff fictive , caretaker

• Karkat , transmasc , traumaholder

• Error , BPD holder, Godshard Soulbond

• Oculus , OCtive

• Lyria, Soulbonded Nonhuman, ex-host

• Falin, traumaholder, Dunmeshi fictive

• Kinito, symptom holder, agender & aroace

• Marcy, ex-host & traumaholder, middle

[nako-doodles]

i need your thesis on all the songs in the album i'm being so serious rn 😭 i'll rb it once a day for months and months don't deprive me like this of things i didn't even know i needed

ioaefjerjgioajo ill try my best aiofjoerjgiojao i was so annoying to my friends over my first impressions over all the songs so im gonna try my best to summarize my thoughts on these songs

joonie said this entire album was a recollection of everything hes done in his 20s aka the transformative years of his life and you can ABSOLUTELY hear the member influences (at first i heard the sope influences bc they have the biggest body of work so their style is most distinct but upon relistens its really a love album to his younger self (you can really tell its an evolution from rm and mono) and his members. ALSO i love how he modulates and changes his style and timbre to fit the style and quirks of his featuring artist? hes so fucking cool????? oh my GOD?????? anyways heres the impressions by song:

track one: yun ft. erykah badu very hot of him to start the entire album w 'FUCK THE TRENDSETTERS' the bassline the restraint of a laidback soundscape the reverb set to max the lines 'I wanna be a human / ‘Fore I do some art / It’s a cruel world / But there’s gon’ be my part' is so fucking insane? fuck. this song lyrically is all about uncertainty and the soundscape has a lot of space for growth and white space for art to be exhibited dare i say, its like the debut group's first stage? full of promises and expectations and uncertainty, but you march ahead regardless......what a sexy first song on the track track two: still life ft. anderson paak

BRING IN THE FUNK HELLS YEA VHOPE IS VIBING SO HARD RN I JUST KNOW IT now the empty space and reverb bassline is given some direction and happiness here. still life is a form of art and thus begins rm's first piece of art here in his lil art collection and joon accepting that things will come as they are and ppl will try to reduce him down to one thing, but hes still a fully realized human moving forwards like us all

track three: all day ft. tablo

ok this bassline and instrumental SCREAMS yoongi to me. the lil kick between verses the beats w the bassline the high melody line the bridge that sick transition from verse to chorus like no wonder tablo is here. i know yoongi draws lots of inspiration from epik high so it makes sense. sonically speaking this song takes the funky sounds of the previous track and condenses it and brings a hint of melancholy just in time for our next track. speaking on less fun notes, tablo is really the only other person who survived such vicious tonguelashing and emerged more powerful and a better person and im just glad joonie has someone to look up to.

track four: forgetful ft. kim sawol oh our queen of folk here to deliver some nice kindie chill vibes thank you i need it for our coming song mwah. here we slowly start to hear the funky bright poppy merge to a chill sound this song was for tae i just know it!!! sonically theres some fun stuff going on but it feels like a cooldown piece for the rest of the album. joonie really said i can pull off ALLLLLLLL genres.

track five: closer ft. paul blanco mahalia

the rnb influences the syncopation the pop beats i bet jk is having the time of his life singing to the chorus. the guitar and the beat and the piano makes me an immediate fan. also they modulated the message beep to be in the same key??? as the song?????? AND it gives us a diving board into the electronica of the next song and then the sound expands when joonie comes in???? i love it.

track six: change pt. 2

OOF KIM NAMJOON DID SUM NASTY WORK ON THIS SONG ITS SO GOOD ok ok ok so this sudden electronica synthpop isnt jarring bc joonie did a fantastic job ordering this album BUT you know whats the fucking kicker???? the way he arranged this song. on paper this song should NOT fucking work but it does bc they used the same chord from the synths as the piano that comes in later even tho it turns to double time half way thru the song and it would be amazing at there BUT(dont quote me on this) change and change pt 2 are either in the same key or are on relative keys AND if you listen to change ft wale which starts on the piano and goes to electronica, he does the exact opposite here???? fuck and the lyrics mirror each other as well????? fuckK

track seven: lonely

this is the love song to mono the reverb on that guitar the upbeat melancholy the tokyo forever rain vibes are THERE BUTTTTT hes added more complex transitions and layering? like even in this short amount of time hes grown exponentially fuck kim namjoon ur so sexy track eight: hectic ft colde

THIS IS THE HOBI SONG OF THE ALBUM YES KING GIVE ME THAT BOUNCY BASS AND HIGH AIRY SYNTH CITYPOP VIBES YES KING i NEEDD someone to give me a just dance x seesaw x hectic remix asap it would sound SO good. also as someone who listens to a lot of colde/offonoff, this collab is SO FUCKING good bc you can hear coldes influences as well? its so good my god the sax the lil touches the production FUCK. ANNNDDDDD they switched to double time again for this outro so the next song doesnt come in too jarring??? mr kim how did you fit so many genres into this album and yet they all belong together????? im in so much fucking awe man!!!!!

track nine: wildflower ft. youjeen

ive told you pretty much everything i wanted but fuck the production on this song is just so fucking good. the details. the expert control of the soundscape. the arrangement. i cant wait to hear vocal line sing youjeen's lines. i also love that he put his title song at the end bc hes at the end of his 20s. this is him currently. hes still growing and growing roots and stretching to the sun fuck man i cant believe this song took over my most played joonie song forever rain in a week.

track ten: no 2 ft. park jiyoon

and here we are returned to the starting spot but slightly to the left, like when you've walked thru the museum exhibition and am spat out the exit right where you started, but w the new insights and experiences that the you from an hour ago didnt have. joonie is a masterful curator and this song ouroboroses us right back to listen to this album again. the tongue in cheek of ending w 'no looking back' when im ready to replay this album again like you literally inviting me to replay this album youve made it a point to end like this?????? lmfao kim namjoon who do you take me for hmmm?????

if youve made it to the end here i love you nothing makes sense anymore i only know that i love kim namjoon and that ive had this album on loop and i STILL hear new things in it i have no words for how much respect and awe and love i have for this man. and when he said 'fuck the trendsetters' he really did it. he dabbled in ALL of the most popular sounds and genres you hear in the music industry, pulled it off w aplomb, and moved on. anyways i love kim namjoon.

[rexscanonwife]

OK I'M STILL LOSING MY MIND AND BEING CRAZY OVER THE IDEA OF DAVID WANTING MY ATTENTION AND WORKING HARD FOR IT WHETHER ITS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE....

[risottoneroo]

my period b hitting me hard bro my brain is rlly fucking telling me everyone hates me and im a fucking freak....... yay 

[annetteblog]

Intro & My take on KM

Hi!

I’m new around here so it’s supposed to be (not so short) introduction, since I don’t know how to start a blog heh. I hope to sprinkle my 0.5 cents into the KM conversation and maybe to bring a new perspective from someone, who is not a part of the typical English-speaking West.

Who /the hell/ Am I?  

(please, consider it to be said with NJ’s voice from Intro: Persona :D)

I was born in Siberia (it’s in the Asian part of Russia), currently live in the European part of the country while studying at a Uni (European in terms of geography, not in terms of everything else i’m definitely not shading rn lolllll). English is not my first language, I’ve just kind of learnt it to some extent. Due to this it takes me more time to write a post; and I may (and will) make some grammatical & other mistakes. Plus I’m lazy AND busy with Uni, so I won’t even promise to be consistent in posting smth lol. But I thought I need more practice in terms of writing in English, so here I am, actually scribbling something. This feels weird, because I’ve been around stan Tumblr since 2015, but never ever interacted, just read.

How I ended up around Jikook/Kookmin (and BTS) & My (long&messy) take on this matter

Although I had heard of BTS before, I became an Army only in October 2018. I had kinda avoided them, because you know... boybands.... sing songs about romantic love and how they love girls.......... (+I had been around Twitter when 1D been at their peak and I remember a quite toxic community of fans, whom always had scared me). Shortly, hello stereotypes. Obviously, after I got engaged I felt terribly sorry that I had been sleeping on them, but what is done cannot be undone. 

Someone I knew back then reposted one of their MVs and I, during my sad hours of procrastination, decided to watch it. Then I saw their live performance with the same song. And I thought “wow these guys can sing and dance and the music is kinda cool, i need to check this out maybe??” 

Then a funny thing happened. One of the next videos I watched (the same person had it added to their page) was a 2016 BangtanBomb where JM and JK practiced their Coming of Age dance. 

Do you know this moment with Gina from the 1st episode of Brooklyn 9-9:

Well, that was precisely me after I watched it. I don’t even know how to explain this, it was kind of a gut feeling? Whatever you call it, I started to get suspicious and couldn’t even explain to myself why. /actually now a do have questions to this vid and the main one - why does everyone cringe that much? if it’s a girly choreo than they had done some “girly” moves before. why is there such strong reaction??/

I started to get deeper and went to some ru-shipper communities. Shipping culture among Russian speaking fans is... well, weird to some extent, but I maybe address this topic some time later. You need to consider that (as far as you probably know) Russia is quite homophonic country and sadly is not the greatest place for LGBTQ+ community at the moment. The non-frienly influential attitudes hanging in the society + the general shippers’ weirdness = the result is not that nice honestly. 

I struggled for some time in order to find more mature people (not just in terms of age but in general sanity), failed, ended up with some EXTREMELY toxic ru-fans of TK, which was/is the most popular pairing here, spent among them like 15 minutes and ran away horrified. After that I didn’t even try to engage with shippers or believers or whatever of any pair and just decided to enjoy the music and the content (which is a great idea, highly recommend!)

After a couple of days I discovered that JK makes videos. I love video, films and visual art so I immediately found them on YT, saw the titles with names of different cities from all over the world and was like “Oh that must be so cool, he’s visited so many outstanding places I’ve never been to, so I really need to watch it! I shall enjoy some beautyyy”. Then I clicked on GCFt.

Well, what can I say. I did enjoy some beauty, but not the type I had initially anticipated. The biggest clickbait in my entire life. JK should be proud of himself.

                                       /as I said - the beauty/

I had already known Troy back then and I known the song’s lyrics so it would not be an underestimation to say - the video just blew my mind. I was like - hold on is this real? seriously?? no really really????? he manage to get away with something THAT obvious?????? dude how

As a person who edited videos AND is not a native English speaker, I don’t buy the explanation “oh he mustve didnt get the lyrics lmao”. You just don’t do that. You don’t. DON’T. You google and translate every shit you don’t understand, every word and idiom you’ve never encountered, because otherwise the possibility of an epic failure is very likely. You wouldn’t want to give your mum a video as a birthday present and then discover that you used a song with WAP-ish lyrics, right? (well maybe that would be okay in your family, I don’t judge, but that’s not the case for people I know). So don’t you dare to degrade JK’s intellectual capacities; such assumption is really offensive. He is a smart boii, he knows exactly what he’s doing in terms of his art.

So I was shocked, but decided to look for the context - maybe I missed some previous events regarding this Tokyo thing (another great idea - always check the context). Well, apparently I didn’t, because the whole narrative with the trip for two, lovely selfies etc. made my poor brain lowkey explode. (I still don’t buy the rings theory thing though)

But I didn’t give up lol! I’m a bit stubborn and it’s very hard to convince me in anything, so I decided to search for more context, more of their interactions, moreeee. Remember, the late October 2018, there were no swan lakes, RB, and even MMA18 hadn’t happened yet. 

This time I ended up watching content in more or less consistent way, and when I saw all of these scenes with affectionate JM and a cool badass i-don’t-care-about-anyone-i’m-a-manly-man-with-no-feelings-whatsoever JK, I just hysterically laughed. 

Homophobic Russia, remember? I recognized this. Growing up here being LGBT myself, taught me the same type behaviour during my high school days. When a girl I kinda liked but didn’t what to admit it to myself was nice to me or (oh god) flirted with me, I did something similar. It’s like a huge panic mode. Being an introvert doesn’t help either. The funniest thing is that you may not entirely realise what exactly is going on in terms of your own feelings, especially at that age (16-18ish). In my personal case, I thought I liked her but as a friend, only later to realise that well not as a friend oops :DDD The second thing (already not so funny) is that you actually consciously or unconsciously try to avoid the subject as much as possible, as long as possible and pretend that nothing is going on. We’re just bros. Stop doing this stupid gayish thing and don’t look at me like that, you’re annoying. If you ever do this again I (gently) kick you. I’m straighter than a straight line in my math textbook. IDK, but probably that’s your brain is somehow trying to protect you. Again, in my case&position I knew that the consequences for any non-straight person being outed would be bad (TW not to the point of being killed bad, but to the point of being excluded from a big part of society). So for me it was a mixture of the internalized homophobia + lack of self reflection + just being a bit emotionally slow + very! straight community around. Shit happens, I was a teenager and made my share of mistakes, but that experience helps me to recognize the same pattern of behaviour up to this day.   

So coming back to KM, because the post is already waaay too long and I just ramble. It’s been 2+ years for me being a part of this fandom, and what can I say... Things become more intense and eventful with every year passing by ;) Funny how I felt that vibe from the 2016 dance practice video. Seeing the Black Swan performance a week ago almost had me choked, no joking. They are amazing.

                                                    Pure Art

However, and I would like to emphasize that, I do not incline that KM are 100% romantically involved and/or gay or whatever. I tend to treat people with respect and not to make too much assumptions about their private life. That’s not my business. However, I’m also not a fan of heteronormativity, so I’m just sitting here and observe everything that’s going on putting some distance and not forgetting being generally polite and critical thinking. But if they are just straightest besties please give them an Oscar before Grammy

Anyways, I hope this blog won’t kick the bucket from the very start and I will post something every now and then. You can always ask me questions about some BTS/Jikook related stuff or something about Russia and a Russian view on mass culture topics, since I’m pretty sure some of you have very stereotypical view of what is going on here :) However, do note that I’ve never been to America or Europe, therefore I may not be aware of something verrrry obvious to you or just have a completely different experience. 

P.S.  And yeah, I’m used to say Jikook, since it’s the name which is used much more frequently in Russian.  i like it better and what will u do haha

[woahajimes]

KXKAJS OKAY OKAY that was honetlwso sweet i love you. also I'm FINE thank you how arE YOU. i see you posting about your little ships and shows and i love that. keep going bestie you're making my day with your posts i love you. i also love seeing your tags they're FUNNY.

okay okay infodump about my life: I'm not failing any subject rn I've been studying since december but it was WORTH IT, i dyed my hair pink but it's been a couple weeks already so I'm probably gonna change that soon, ive been annoying my friend from school about battinson for months and she's gonna see it now!!! i won. also I'm closer everyday to convince my dad to get me a cat.

also i DON'T READ A LOT OF BOOKS I JUST READ REALLY FAST like.... radio silence I've read intwo days. the secret history in four. a winter's promis in five. but like.. i don't really have any time to read and that makes me super sad but im sacrificing this to the Self Validation God because they care about my academic life ahahah this is funny. ALSO im on the bus rn to go to school because today I'm starting school at 9.45 instead if 8 cus my latin teacher is sick :))) (that's a bad thing to be happy about ik but she's mean so i have reasons.)

DJKDKJDSSI LIKE THAY YOURE ENjoying my rbs bc sometimes im like mmm what if im being annoying and then i realize that i am the mighty op therefore cannot be annoyikng

THE SUBJECT THING IS GOOD!!! at least one of us is getting good grades! ALSO PINK HAIR MAKI WOOHOO (is it like soft pink of vibrant hot girl lava chick pink)

YOU SHOULD KEEP TALKING ABT BATTINSON girl (gender neutral) thaT movie was so fucking good like it was a bit slow but battinson was so. he was so AUH tell me when ou see it i wanna scream abt it w you

sometimes i forget that we're in diff time zones bc its literally 3am rn where im at and you're going to school this is so oomph (the teacher thing is totally understandable btw like i too would be happy to start school later)

[ethvn-torchio]

Walls Could Talk | Chapter Two

a/n: sorry this chapter took so long! writer’s block is a bitch 😩✌

Summary: Steve and Peggy's search brings them to Paris - where they happen to meet up with an old friend.

Warnings: an intense makeout session/implied sexual content (it’s not smut, i haven’t decided if I’m putting actual smut in this fic)

Wordcount: 1.5k (unedited, also I'm sorry it's so short 🙃)

AO3 | prev chapter | next chapter (coming soon!)

ᴏᴄᴛ 𝟸𝟿, 𝟷𝟿𝟺𝟿

ᴏxғᴏʀᴅ, ᴇɴɢʟᴀɴᴅ

Steve wakes up in a cold sweat, bolting upright in bed. Was he still dreaming? Was this...was this real?

He gazes at Peggy - to make sure she was there, that all of this wasn't a mere fantasy, who begins to stir.

So, not a dream then, at least. His heart is racing, his mind buzzing and yet still confused and his breathing erratic. She's speaking to him, saying something, and he isn't quite listening, his heart thundering his ears. Adrenaline surges through his veins.

“I’m...I’m sorry, Peg. I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he whispers. His pulse was still racing.

Lightning illuminates the room for a split second and he can see the sympathy in her eyes.

"It's quite alright, Darling. Will you tell me what's wrong?" She asks, trailing her fingers through his hair.

"I...I don't- I don't remember much," he admits. "It was just...some stuff from the past...or, future..." he could almost laugh at that if he was in a better mood.

She nods sympathetically. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

He drinks in her appearance, nodding slightly. He presses his lips against hers softly.

He kisses her, gently and imploringly at first.

His one hand softly trails down her back, and he notices her sharp intake of breath when his hand ghosts over her lower back.

"This hurt?" he asks.

She nods stiffly. "I do believe I forgot to tell you with everything that happened tonight. I had a bit of a scuffle in the restroom with a Hydra agent. She slammed me against the sink," Peggy explains.

An idea forms in Steve's head; a single minded goal to make her forget.

He would make the only thing on her mind be him.

Wordlessly, he smiles and dips his head towards her neck, brushing his lips against it. His teeth graze against a sensitive spot on her neck and she makes a soft "Oh,"

His hands go to rest against either of her thighs. He pulls back, pupils blown.

“Steve,” she whispers. She lifts her hips in a silent invitation.

He leans down to kiss her, his lips against hers, and she's already breathless. He doesn't want to rush things, but he can't resist her.

Her hand slides down his back, and she lets out a soft moan against his mouth. His hands trail up her shirt, he can feel the goosebumps on her skin. He kisses her neck, and she can feel his hot breath against her skin.

"God, you're so beautiful. I love you," he whispers.

"I love you too," she replies.

He pulls her in for a desperate kiss once again, pulling her close.

—

The rain came and went, and with it sunshine followed.

“Peggy. Peggy, wake up,” is the first thing Peggy is greeted with in the morning.

Peggy groans, rolling over in an effort to ignore him. “No, not now,” she mutters, burying her face in the pillow.

Peggy feels weight on the bed as Steve sits down next to her. She tries in vain to ignore him.

"Oh, c'mon now, Peg. It's a new day, it's time to get up," he says.

“You are far too cheerful considering how early it is,” Peggy complains, shielding her eyes from the light pouring in from the blinds.

“...Peggy, it’s eleven in the morning.”

Peggy groans, glancing at the clock as if to make sure he’s right. “Point withstanding, you’re still too cheerful.”

“Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Steve teases, narrowly missing a pillow flung haphazardly at him.

“Do shut up, Steve.”

He snickers.

Peggy yawns, stretching her sleep-infused joints. "Where are we going, again?"

"Word is our target's in Paris,” Steve replies. “Or at the very least, someone important is.”

Peggy hums, sitting up. The blanket wrapped around her falls off, revealing her bruised back.

"Jesus, Peg. Have you seen your back? That looks like it hurts," Steve notes.

"Yes, thank you for that insightful observation."

"I just mean- do you want ice or something?"

Peggy shrugs nonchalantly. "It doesn’t quite hurt. I can deal with it, I’ve faced worse."

“To be fair, you are the woman who fell asleep standing up in a trench.”

“Exactly,” Peggy winks. She stands up, beginning to sift through her suitcase. “So tell me, Steve. When’s our train leaving?”

—

ᴘᴀʀɪs, ғʀᴀɴᴄᴇ

A few hours later, they arrive at their dingy, rundown hotel just outside of Paris. The lobby smells like bleach and old carpet, and a radio plays a somber, mellow jazz tune.

Peggy clears her throat, waiting for the receptionist to acknowledge them.

The receptionist does not, however, care to notice.

“Can we have a room, please?” Peggy asks the woman at the front desk.

The woman hardly looks up from her magazine. “Name?”

“Carver,” Peggy answers automatically before Steve can.

The receptionist takes a long, seemingly never ending sip of her tea. Finally, she says. “Take the elevator to the third room, first one on the left. Here’s your key,” the woman says, sounding as disinterested as she possibly can. “Enjoy your stay,” she adds dryly.

Peggy eyes her warily. There was something a bit...off, about that woman.

Perhaps it was just her imagination.

They make their way to the elevator, and Steve finally breaks the silence. “So...is it just me or was there something weird about her? I mean, she could’ve just been a disgruntled employee, but…” he trails off, scratching the back of his neck.

Peggy hums. “No, I happen to agree. Though, perhaps we were just inconveniencing her by making her do her job.”

The smile fades from her face. “Stop,” Peggy whispers. She tilts her head toward the door, which was ajar. She clutches her gun in her purse.

Steve snorts. “Maybe,”

She laughs right along with him, but she pauses abruptly outside their door.

It could be the maid...but they haven’t even gotten into the room once.

Silently, the two stalk toward the door. The smell of smoke escapes from the room when Steve nudges the door open.

Which, in both of their experiences, usually did not happen to be a good thing.

In the chair in the corner, there sat...

Howard Stark.

A collective groan escapes the couple.

“Howard, must you break into our hotel room?” Peggy scolds, turning on the light.

“We thought you were an intruder.” Steve adds.

Howard smirks, taking a long drag of his cigar. “Technically, I am. But don’t you kids worry - I bring a peace offering. By peace offering, I mean I’m inviting you to stay in my Paris apartment instead of this dump,” Howard gestures loosely. “I mean, I don’t think this building even has heat.”

Steve shrugs. “Wouldn’t it be better to stay somewhere inconspicuous?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Peggy agrees, her arms crossed.

Howard sniffs. “Okay, fine, don’t accept my extremely generous offer to let you stay at my apartment. I know when I’m not wanted. Just know I’ll remember that in the summer when you want to come over because I have air conditioning and you don’t.”

Peggy rolls her eyes. “Quit the melodramatics, Howard. We’ll stay with you,”

Steve wraps an arm around her. “Yeah, we- wait, we will?”

“...What? This building doesn’t have heat, and quite frankly I enjoy summer visits to Howard’s house.”

“Attagirl, Peg.” Howard beams. “I’ll meet you two in the lobby,”

—

Later, the trio eats lunch at Howard’s apartment.

"-you are not funny, Howard." Peggy informs him, pointing at him with her fork. "You could've at least feigned innocence."

"Innocent? If you looked up "innocent' in the dictionary, you'd see my picture on it," Howard says defensively.

Peggy snorts at that. "Oh, please, Howard. With your history you could easily father a small country,"

Howard grimaces. "Eugh, kids hate me. Plus, who has time to tend to a baby all the time? I mean sure, kids probably aren't annoying when they're...late teenagers? But for most of their lives, kids just seem so clingy and needy."

Steve picks at his plate absentmindedly, reminded of a conversation he had with Tony.

"Clearly, you must've met a different version of my father. He was cold. He was calculating. He never told me he loved me, he never even told me he liked me."

The sound of Peggy’s voice brings him back to reality. "...That's because they're children, Howard. Babies aren't self-sufficient from birth. Do you expect them to come out of the womb ready for rocket science?"

"Well, thank you for absolutely shattering my argument, Agent Carter." Howard mutters, downing his coffee. Deciding to change the subject in order to deflect attention off of himself, he says, "Steve, you still with us?"

Steve snaps to attention. "I, uh, yeah. I was just daydreaming, I guess."

Peggy makes a mental note to ask Steve about that later.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Howard asks.

Steve shrugs noncommittally, continuing to eat with much less gusto than before. "Just thinking about our mission,”

Peggy eyes him carefully, choosing to say nothing but clearly knowing something was wrong. In due time, she would ask.

In due time hopefully meant whenever Howard left the room.

—

lmao so like i was listening to a bunch of james bond songs bc they’re dramatic and spy-ey right (cough cough tho a song that fits the general tone of the fic would be "the world is not enough" by garbage)?? and then there’s absolutely none of that in this chapter lmao. sorry if this chapter was boring compared to last one but i mean we can’t have constant action in the fic, silly goose. 

also can we talk about how it took me like 8 DAYS TO WRITE THIS and it’s this short i’m sorry ajsjdfkgjjklk 😶✌

taglist (dm me if you’d like to be added!):

everything taglist: @return-of-the-simp​ @thereblogcrusader @stillmourningtonystark ​

walls could talk taglist: @deedepee​ @rizwritesfandom​ (extra thanks to riz for helping me when i was struggling with being descriptive u a real one) @mcu-academy​​

If you enjoyed, please rb/leave a comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[british-bombs]

( TO BEAT THE DEVIL ) An introduction.

FORMAT: teleplay / novel

GENRE: horror, coming of age

LOGLINE: An interning demon drives a pair of twins cursed with obedience and honesty to kill their cult leader.

THEMES: Trauma, sexual abuse, domestic violence, victim blaming (particularly self blame), peer pressure, redemption, internalized homophobia, and religion.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual abuse, violence, domestic and otherwise, manipulation, and death

EXTENDED SUMMARY, CHARACTERS, EXCERPT AND NOTES:

Carmine can taste it. They're hiding something. Humans have such a silly smell about them, turns an overwhelming shade of sweet when they've made a demonic deal. All four of these children have. He just can't figure out what, and more importantly: why.

It keeps him on the surface longer than he should be. Long enough that Lilith sees it fit to send him a fucking trainee? And if that wasn't insult enough, the trainees one of the eternal teenage know-it-alls.

He's already got four annoying toddlers to trail, and now there's one tugging his hand in the new generation's approach to soul-catching like Carmine isn't one of the best employees they've had since the turn of the century.

And somehow, to make it all worse, the trainee is good at it. And if Carmine wants to keep his spot at the top of the food chain, he's going to have to get the soul of that dumb bitch who's running the joint.

But, of course, the kid gets him murdered??? And then has the nerve to figure out how what those toddlers managed to stick their syrupy, grubby little hands in. What gives?

But two can play at that game. If he can't get the dead guy's, then he can have the next best thing.

Jesse has lived just under seventeen years, but he's ready to check out. Or he was. But of course, some selfish bastard had to come along and say you can't ever act on those thoughts again! Don't think like that!

And then the hole kept getting deeper.

Six feet deep, to be exact. He's got blood on his hands and no matter how fucking good it felt to cut off the air supply to the God who stole his innocence, it's probably not going to feel very good to watch his mom suffer through a highly publicized trial with headlines like CHILD MURDERS HIGH PROFILE BENEFACTOR!!!

Oh. Well. Billy did say if he really got in that deep, he could always strike up a deal. His soul, everything wrapped up in a nice little bow, sweet as Easter Sunday. But until then? Yeah, he's content to live in a stupid fucking Sherlock Holmes novel.

CHARACTERS:

JESSE NIX: A soon-to-be seventeen-year-old saddled with the curse of obedience. Unlike miss-lucky-Ella-Enchanted, he wasn't told to give away his mommy's locket. No-siree. He was told to give away his virginity. In his opinion, the only appropriate payback is a life. Maybe, one day, if he really snaps, he'll dig up Pastor Dallin's corpse and chop his dick off. Really stick it to the man. If he doesn't go to prison first, anyway. (spotify playlist)

NANCY NIX: Also a soon-to-be-seventeen-year-old, though saddled with the curse of honesty. It's really not so bad. That is, until she stumbles across the sight of her dearest little brother covered in blood for no reason he can push through his metal braces. She refuses to believe he did it on purpose. If only she could convince the cops without sounding like a nutjob. (spotify playlist)

BEVERLY PINES: A seventeen-year-old cursed to feel the pain of those around her. It makes for some fun family dinners with a sadistic mom and a missing dad. Distance nulls pain, but she can't ever seem to make it past state lines before her mom gets wise and breaks one of her ribs. Oh, well. She's got a bone to pick with psychos like her mom. Apparently, Pastor Dallin was one of them. She doesn't think she could stomach the pain of killing someone, so next best thing, right? (spotify playlist)

CLARICE ANDERMANN: Also a seventeen-year-old cursed to be constantly in motion. It's honestly not that bad. She's Yale bound! Perks of having endless energy for everything to cheerleading to debate contests, though she can't imagine her heart's going to keep up like this. It's already hanging on by a thread. That thread is named Beverly Pines and like hell she's letting it go to prison for nothing. (spotify playlist)

BILLY: An annoying fuck trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body. No curses. The opposite, in fact - blessed with a silver tongue and a keen sense of deduction. It takes him all of two hours to put together (almost) everything about Jesse Nix. He just didn't think he could push the repressed little fuck to murder that quick. (All the more power to him, though. Prison always makes people desperate and paranoid, AKA: an easy mark.) (spotify playlist)

MAVIS EVANGELISTA: Former housewife turned grieving widow turned revered prophet. If she got a little help from someone downstairs, then who's to know? They love her all the same. Now, she really, really wants to see how far she can push them all. (spotify playlist)

CARMINE: Just a helpful guy, passing through. Really doesn't need anything, just a little pledge, is all! And then? Then, you can have everything you want, fame, money, power, love. The sky is your limit. The water's fine! (Ignore the piranhas, they'll wait till you're dead to eat your face, just a little bit.) (spotify playlist)

NOTES:

- all of these characters have equal importance within the story.

- personal tag system for story stuff is '#tbtd' and character tags are just first name (ex: '#jesse')

- this is kind of really fucked up. the only reason i wrote it was cause i was thinking damn ella enchanted really is NOT fucked up enough. like i don't think the author of ella enchanted went dark enough. a locket? that's it? a bitch move. i'm taking it to straight murder and sexual abuse

- jesse transgender, no character straight except evil people

- i'm not entirely sure how tag lists work but i think i get the gist of them?? idk if you want rb or ask or something </3

EXCERPT:

There were moments, where she was reminded just how different this voice was, how violent.

She had found Lynette, making off with her makeup that she’d spent her own allowance on. Mavis doted on her and, from what she’d seen of other families, everyone else looked upon their little siblings with contempt, despising the burden they dragged along with their existence.

But Mavis adored Lyn. When she'd been born, her mother had come home with a tiny thing bundled in pink fleece. Mavis had taken to Lyn on sight, thinking Lynette’s headband adorned with a baby blue bow was the universe’s way of telling her happy birthday! as reparations for the ones her mother had missed while she was enduring her week long stay at the hospital.

But that mindset was a disease, one that had finally caught up with her. Had Lynette not become her burden? She was nineteen, busting her back day and night so Lynette wouldn’t have to, that she might avoid the life that Mavis had lived in those blissful six years where it was her and her alone.

Had her mother not tampered down her birthday celebrations since Lynette’s was so very close and they couldn’t afford double anyway? Had Lynette not deprived her of the teenage experiences she heard her classmates speak of, going out and tasting alcohol for the first time while Mavis followed a ten year old Lynette house to house so she could complain of a stomach ache after she’d devoured all the candy on the walk back home?

And now this! Stealing her few precious items, the few things she bothered to save up for, few things she bothered to keep hidden. For what? It wasn’t as though she was ever going to have the courage to ask a peer of her’s out. She was a thief.

One Mavis had made the mistake of taking care of. She should’ve embraced those stirrings of resentment, should’ve left Lynette to her own devices since Lynette didn’t appreciate anything, or even half of what Mavis afforded her. She should’ve left her out in the cold that Christmas. How could anyone have known? It wasn’t as though corpses could talk--

She had let Lyn take off with the whole case, as if to remind herself when she woke up the next morning what she had considered, how vile the thought was.

Lyn had never done anything unforgivable to Mavis. Mavis didn’t suppose she ever could. It was no fault of Lyn’s she didn’t understand what it was like to live with their father. How could she? It was a topic off limits to Lyn by both Mavis and their mother. After all, a child born blind doesn’t know until it’s pointed out to them.

And yet, she found guilt hard to summon. She did, but the speed at which it came, the strength, made her uneasy. What had happened to the girl she was? Lyn had been her world. What had changed?

Then, dully, that other voice, entirely of its own volition, said You did.

[ruvviks]

Chapter >> 2 [x] Characters >> Ivan Dupoint (oc), Mikhail Koshechkin (oc), Ravager (oc), Vincent Mayer (oc), Vitali Dobrynin (oc), a long list of side characters, [redacted] Total >> 9.2k words Warnings >> Blood mention, chess :/, torture mention, violence mention

‘May I come in?’

Vincent patiently waited at the door of the bathroom, knowing it was unlocked yet hesitant to open it himself. He heard the voice of Vitali on the other side, speaking softly to Mikhail; too muffled for Vincent to understand what he was saying, yet still loud enough for him to hear the exhaustion dripping from his words.

It was already far past midnight. Vincent had only just arrived home; he had decided to hang around the office for a little longer, to take care of unfinished business in Vitali’s absence and to give other mercs an update on the situation. Not his brightest idea- he was about as exhausted as the rest of them, battered and bruised from earlier that evening and he had nearly fallen asleep behind the wheel on his way home.

The door carefully opened and Vitali appeared in the doorway. He still wore the same outfit as earlier; though he had taken off his chest armor as well as his holsters, and his dark gray henley had several large blood stains in it and his black cargo pants were covered in water and soap.

‘Hey, baby,’ Vincent quietly said, stepping forward and kissing Vitali on the cheek. He made sure to move slowly, and kept his hands to himself- Vitali was always a little jumpy after combat situations, and especially considering the severity of the one they had found themselves in that day, Vincent knew to watch his footing around him.

‘Thank you for staying behind,’ Vitali mumbled, his eyes closed when Vincent pulled back. ‘I hope they didn’t give you too much trouble.’

‘It’s all good, no worries.’

Partially a lie. Vincent had handled it well, but the entire office had been chaos once again, comparable to the time Vitali’s cargo trucks had been intercepted, or comparable to- well, the attack, of course. Still less so, but exhausting nonetheless.

Vitali glanced over his shoulder and stepped aside, now allowing Vincent to look further into the bathroom; the bathtub shoved against the wall on the left side of the room was occupied by Mikhail, sitting with his back toward the door and his arms and legs pulled close to his body.

It had all happened so fast.

One moment, they had been doing paperwork together during a quiet afternoon at the office. And the next, they had been fighting side by side against a horde of mercenaries and their people, raiding the place like it was nothing but a fucking toy store to them; and to make it even worse, Vitali had been absent at the time, leaving his mercs entirely to their own devices.

But as sudden as the attack had started, it had been over as well. No casualties, only a handful of injuries- yet they had still suffered a loss, as Mikhail had been nowhere to be found.

Vincent slowly walked closer to the bathtub, pulling one of the wooden stools near the sink with him and he sat down next to Mikhail. Said man did not even look up, nor did he flinch when Vincent reached for the tub and checked the water’s temperature with his fingers- the water was hot, yet Mikhail was still visibly shivering.

Vincent had followed them. Had tracked them down all the way to a construction site- one of the Broker’s vantage points, not much to his surprise- but had found it abandoned, and it had remained untouched from that moment on, no longer in use by the fixer’s mercenaries now that Vincent had shown his face around.

He had not been able to find Mikhail. And neither had anyone else.

‘Has he talked yet?’ Vincent asked, glancing at Vitali as he joined him, sitting down on a stool as well with his leg stretched out to the side.

‘Barely.’ Vitali clearly tried his best to hold it together, but the slight tremble in his voice gave him away. ‘Has not even been able to look me in the eyes, yet.’

It hadn’t taken them all too long to find a lead, though; a man by the name of Ravager, ex-Maelstrom, now one of the Broker’s mercenaries- and a fierce one at that. More cyberware than human, and whatever little sliver of humanity he had left in him was just another representation of that.

Vincent reluctantly reached out for Mikhail’s face, stopping the moment Mikhail leaned away from him; his eyes were unfocused when they finally found Vincent’s, and he looked- he looked scared, almost.

‘It’s just me,’ Vincent quietly said, slightly lowering his hand but still holding it close, as if he was waiting for permission to close the distance. He repeated himself in broken Russian, and added- ‘I’m not gonna hurt you.’

Ravager had hurt him. Plenty.

Vincent and Vitali had not heard the full story yet, but Ravager’s factory had already done most of the work; the tools they had found there, the torture rooms and the remains of other people- corpses, though not always entirely in one piece-

Mikhail slightly leaned in to Vincent again and shivered when Vincent’s fingertips collided with his cheek. Vincent softly caressed his skin, until Mikhail closed his eyes. Then, he carefully moved his hand up a bit; there was still some dried up blood covering Mikhail’s forehead, causing strands of his ash blond hair to stick together.

He had been captured for only a few days. Still, it had been too long. Vincent dreaded finding out what Ravager’s people had done to him exactly, and the thought of it all alone already caused his blood to boil.

‘Am I allowed to wash your hair?’ Vincent asked. He knew it was of no use trying to coax Mikhail toward a conversation about his captivity- they would be lucky if he was going to speak at all, both well aware of the fact Mikhail could go mute for days if something terrible had happened, either to him or someone else.

Mikhail nodded- it was barely a nod, but visible enough for Vincent to understand, and he allowed Vincent to gently pull him back a little until his back touched the end of the tub and his head was closer to the water.

They had rescued him just in time. Ravager’s people were exactly like their boss- stripped from all their humanity and in it for the eddies and, above all, a good time- and they clearly did not draw the line at torture and murder.

But it was over, now. Mikhail was back home, safe, and Ravager’s factory had been left behind littered with corpses and a clear message for him, as well as his boss- though Vincent wondered how much the Broker had been involved in all of this, considering how out of place it felt compared to every other attack thus far.

‘None of ‘em came after us,’ Vincent said to Vitali, while he carefully scooped up some water to let it stream through Mikhail’s hair. ‘They left the facility, went elsewhere- probably moved districts, but so far we haven’t been able to pick ‘em up on the radar.’

‘Let’s hope it stays that way,’ Vitali mumbled, his eyes still slowly scanning Mikhail’s features. ‘The further they are away from us, the better.’

His answer surprised Vincent a bit.

Ravager was still alive- they knew, because they had not been able to get to him in time when they had attacked the facility to rescue Mikhail. Of course they didn’t know where he had run off to, yet; but Vitali was not one to just let people walk away, especially if they had hurt one of his loved ones.

What was different this time, then?

‘I think if we wanna strike back we gotta act quickly,’ Vincent continued, knowing his words would probably not be nearly enough to convince Vitali to act; yet he still spoke up, too stubborn to just let the conversation end there.

‘If we can track him down, launch another attack before he gets the opportunity to reorganize- we might be able to, you know-’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

Vitali still spoke gently, despite clearly being exhausted and having little patience left in him; possibly only because Mikhail was still in the room with them, but Vincent was not entirely sure.

‘It’s been chaos for weeks now,’ he quietly said, noticing Vincent’s clenched jaw and reaching out to place a hand on his knee; a gentle reassurance, and Vincent carefully allowed the built-up tension to leave his body.

‘Everyone is tired. We have Mikhail back- we are all safe, now, and I would like for things to stay that way. We can deal with Ravager later, just- right now, I- I would like for us to stay together. You understand?’

Vincent understood.

Vitali was right. Ever since the explosion near the escort, since Vincent’s fight with some mercs, since the cargo delivery went wrong- since Ravager’s raid- the entire office had been upside down. Eddie and Lauren were both still out of commission, the latter only awake for a few days now; and the encounters with the Broker’s mercs they’d had in the meantime had not done the rest of Vitali’s network much good.

Vincent understood- Vitali felt guilty. He had left so briefly, only to return to a mess bigger than anything he had ever had to handle before. Mikhail taken, Vincent on the hunt, mercs injured and their supplies raided and sabotaged- and he had blamed himself for it all.

Vincent understood. But as much as he wanted to answer Vitali-

He said nothing.

Instead, he grabbed a bottle of shampoo and began soaping Mikhail’s hair, gently massaging his scalp as he worked. Mikhail leaned in and rested heavily against the side of the tub to move closer to him, and he exhaled deeply while Vincent brushed his fingers all the way through his hair.

Vitali watched in silence, his hand still on Vincent’s knee. He briefly opened his mouth to speak, but visibly changed his mind- and instead, he just gave Vincent’s leg a soft squeeze and pulled back his hand.

‘How are you feeling?’ Vincent asked Mikhail, a weak attempt at shifting the conversation and not even expecting a reply- though much to his surprise, Mikhail actually responded.

‘I’m tired.’ His voice was barely audible, and hoarse from the amount of screaming he had done earlier that evening. ‘My back hurts. And my head.’

Okay, a horrible attempt at shifting the conversation, then.

Not surprisingly, Mikhail’s words only made Vincent angrier and he tightly gripped the edge of the tub to prevent himself from storming out of the bathroom and leaving home, to go back outside and scour all of Night City to find Ravager and-

‘We can’t just do nothing,’ he promptly said. Instant regret hit him, and he quickly moved his hands back to the water to scoop up some more and rinse Mikhail’s hair.

‘I know.’

Vincent had never heard Vitali sound as defeated as in that moment.

He slightly turned his head to look at him, a painful hesitance in his movements- and the look in Vitali’s eyes instantly made him look away again, unable to tell who the anger in them was meant for.

Vitali was rarely angry. Sure, he could get frustrated at times, but the pure, seething rage Vincent had seen a lot more on him recently had once been an uncommon sight. Thus far, it had not been directed at him, or any of Vitali’s other mercs- at least, he hoped-

But in that moment… Well, it was a little hard to tell.

‘Can I tell you a story?’ Vitali asked, moving a little closer to the tub to lean on the edge with one elbow. He hesitated for a moment, jaw briefly clenching when his eyes met Vincent’s. ‘I- I am not upset with you. I just… I just want to try and explain myself, if that’s alright.’

Vincent unclenched his own jaw, and quickly nodded.

That helps.

‘When I was younger, my brother always got on my nerves,’ Vitali quietly began. He paused and scoffed softly, momentarily glancing at Mikhail. ‘To put it plainly- he was a fucking cunt. And it got… It got bad at times. To the point Mikhail had to step in.’

Vincent looked at Mikhail, who had opened his eyes upon the mention of his name and had managed to force a small smile out of himself. Vincent gently cupped his cheek again and Mikhail instantly leaned in to his touch, resting his head entirely against Vincent’s hand.

‘He never got punished.’ Vitali’s voice faltered for a moment, though he quickly regained his composure. ‘Always got away with everything; mother told me I was old enough to handle myself and I had to stop being a baby about it, and my father- well, I don’t even think he ever even noticed.’

Somehow, a very familiar situation to Vincent- though he knew it was still different, knowing Vitali was the eldest of his siblings and Vincent himself the youngest. They had not shared the same feelings of responsibility; and that still often reflected in their behavior.

‘I dealt with it myself, most of the time. I would find clever ways to make Daniil regret what he did- nothing serious, of course, please don’t take that the wrong way- but someone had to teach him the things he did and said to me were hurtful and unfair.’

‘Did you get punished for that?’ Vincent asked, already knowing how the story was probably going to end.

‘Usually not, no. Only once, actually.’ Vitali shifted on his seat, pausing again as memories momentarily overtook him.

‘I was fed up with his bullshit,’ he said, a shadow washing over his face. ‘Normally I could control myself, but- I lashed out. Screamed at him, told him exactly how I felt- and, well, he started crying. He was told to “man up” by mother, but she also gave me house arrest. For the rest of the month. Was only allowed to leave my room for bathroom visits and dinner.’

‘Dinner?’ Vincent repeated, voice unwillingly a little louder than before. ‘And- breakfast? Lunch?’

Vitali simply shrugged. ‘Not important, apparently. But Mikhail brought food to my window nearly every day. Even my father brought me some, on occasion. But that’s not my point, here.’

He paused again, inhaling and exhaling deeply as he looked back up at Vincent.

‘I lashed out, and suffered direct consequences,’ he said. ‘Had never happened before, because I had always acted clear-headed- except that once. And right now? Everyone is tired. Everyone feels like shit, and I- I don’t think things will turn out the way we want them to if we rush this now.’

Vincent averted his gaze and lowered his hands, a sudden wave of embarrassment rushing through him; Vitali was right, as per usual, and he felt bad having brought any of it up in the first place.

‘We’ll get our revenge, in time,’ Vitali quietly said, reaching out again to gently touch Vincent’s shoulder. ‘But right now, I think we should focus on staying together- all of us. I do not want anyone else to get hurt. Especially the two of you.’

Vincent found himself unable to speak and quickly nodded, the knot in his throat nearly bringing tears to his eyes.

He looked at Mikhail again, and carefully brushed a wet strand of his hair out of his face. Mikhail immediately reacted- but instead of pulling away like Vincent had expected him to do, he leaned in closer until his head rested comfortably against Vincent’s shoulder.

‘Will you stay?’ he quietly asked, his breath shaky against Vincent’s skin. An unexpected question, and Vincent loosely wrapped his arms around Mikhail’s shoulders and neck before responding.

‘Of course,’ he answered, a shiver running down his spine when some water trickled down his neck into his t-shirt. He glanced at Vitali again, and was met with a look of relief- he reached out his hand and took Vitali’s, then pulled him closer to hug him with one arm and plant a reassuring kiss on his cheek.

As much as he wanted to go after Ravager, Vitali made a good point; and Mikhail needed them, both of them, and Vincent knew it was of no use to try and track down the merc himself.

So he stayed.

For a little while, that is.

The poorly lit room was suffocating, weighing down heavily on Vincent’s chest and making it difficult for him to breathe; each raspy exhale scoured the inside of his windpipe and the lack of oxygen kept him in a constant state of near-fainting.

He was bound to a chair, wrists and ankles and waist and neck held in place tightly by metal clasps. His heartbeat painfully thrummed in his side, where he’d been kicked repeatedly earlier that day- no stab wounds or bullet wounds yet, much to his relief, but most definitely a broken bone or two.

Vincent grunted softly as he tried to look up; the instant he did that, the metal clasp around his neck put pressure on his throat and he almost lost his ability to breathe entirely, to the point he quickly dropped his head back when a rush of panic overtook his muscles.

Yes, yes- of course he had not been able to sit still. Had lasted a record period of two days at home before his hands had gotten so itchy he’d just had to get back to work. It was fine, though, he had been allowed to go back to the office; Vitali had been at home as well anyway, to take care of Mikhail.

And at first, Vincent had just helped out around the office, like he had promised Vitali. He’d even spoken with clients- a terrifying experience he really did not want to go through ever again, now with a sudden newfound respect for Vitali on top of the respect he’d already had for him- and he had taken care of some small gigs that hadn’t been closed yet since the Broker had taken the stage.

But it hadn’t stayed at that for long. Of course not.

Vincent was fucking pissed.

Mikhail had barely slept, haunted by nightmares and memories, and he had often woken up screaming and in tears, begging for it all to stop. Vitali had not wanted him to sleep anywhere other than in their bed, so naturally the two of them had also had trouble closing their eyes at night. Vincent hadn’t minded at all- he wanted to be there for his friend, even if that meant losing sleep, but all of it together-

It had only made him angrier than he had already been.

Of course he hadn’t been able to stay put.

Vincent tried to move again, going for his legs this time. He was able to turn his feet slightly, but did not have enough space between his ankles and the metal clasps to pull them free; and his arms were very much dealing with the same issue.

They hadn’t done anything to him. Yet. He’d been brought in after his solo attack on the building- a different facility than before, and it had been hell to track it down- and after putting him in the chair they had left him there, to wait for Ravager’s return.

Ravager.

Vincent shivered by the thought of him. He had only seen him from a distance, a few times; Mikhail’s capture had unfortunately not been his last attack, and he had continued to be a pain in the ass for Vitali’s mercs over the last week or two- and he was terrifying.

Vincent dreaded seeing him up close.

He was no longer sure why he had decided to go on his path of revenge. It was something that he had wanted to do- of course, Mikhail was in pain because of Ravager- but now it just seemed stupid and dumb. He had gone after the guy all by himself; had only asked Judy for help once when he’d had trouble figuring out how her equipment worked, but that was about it.

Normally it was Mikhail who helped Vincent with his dumb suicide missions, sharing about the same level of impulse control and the burning desire to deal with a soluble situation as fast as possible; but now he had been unable to do so, and it had been Vincent alone against all of Ravager’s people. Worst part is, he had actually been doing fairly well; until the explosion, and he’d been blasted off his feet and then kicked down until he had lost consciousness.

Vincent was still unsure why they had not just killed him.

His eyes had finally gotten used to the semi-darkness surrounding him and he took a moment to look around. Apart from the chair, there was not much else to see; dark walls and barely any furniture apart from some lockers, an empty desk and a hospital trolley right on the edge of his peripheral.

In the distance, he could hear a door open. Footsteps followed- two sets of them, slowly but surely approaching the room Vincent was stuck in. His heart jumped and sped up significantly, and he momentarily lost his vision as he gasped for breath.

Please, no- Not yet-

But the door already opened.

Ravager was a tall man with muscular build- though because of the various cybernetic body parts connected to his person it was hard to tell what was muscle and what was machine. His jet black hair was slicked back, framing a face of mostly cyberware; blood red eyes with black sclera, plating covering his temples and the bridge of his nose, and a broad cyberjaw decorating the lower half of his head.

The few bits and pieces of pale white skin he still had looked almost rotten, for some reason. Vincent had not been able to tell before; but he could see it clearly this time round, now that Ravager was standing right beside him, looking down on him with a wide grin on his face- revealing pearly white, sharpened teeth.

‘Well, well, well,’ Ravager said, his raspy voice carrying through the entire room and bouncing off the walls. ‘If it isn’t one of Night City’s most feared mercenaries. Gotta be honest, I still find that a little hard to believe- You are surprisingly small.’

In any other situation, Vincent would have easily been able to come up with a clever response; yet in that moment he found himself frozen in fear, unable to even string together a coherent enough sentence in his head to reply with.

He watched in silence as the other person- Ravager’s right hand man, a skinny guy with almost as much cyberware as his boss- walked around the chair, and placed something on the trolley just out of Vincent’s line of sight. However, he was able to tell by the soft metal clank alone it was probably a handgun.

‘Good job, though- you found me again. Not many would’a been able to pull that one off.’ Ravager walked a little closer and Vincent instinctively flinched when the man patted him on his arm with cold, cybernetic fingers. ‘Clever idea, hacking into the GPS of our scout. Reminded me I gotta take those goddang computers out of the vehicles before I put ‘em back on the road.’

Vincent still could not speak. He was a little unsure why; he had been in similar situations before, many times before, yet for some reason this specific one was getting to him even though nothing had happened yet.

Yet.

That was probably the issue.

The other man handed something to Ravager- a device, similar to the ones Vincent knew were used by the NCPD to identify people with. Ravager held it in front of Vincent’s face, and patiently waited as the screen on his side lit up, accompanied by a bright, red light on the other, blinding Vincent instantly.

‘What are you doing?’ he finally managed to ask. He didn’t even want to know all that bad; but it was nice to have control of his vocal cords again.

‘Scanning you, clearly,’ Ravager simply answered. ‘Just a formality- to get your detes into the system. Saves me the paperwork when we’re done with you.’

Ah. Okay.

Vincent lay unmoving as Ravager continued, knowing it was of no use to attempt and break free- he knew he was better off saving his energy for a better opportunity, and especially considering the fact he still had trouble breathing it was probably in his best interest to just stay as calm as the situation allowed him to.

As calm as the situation allowed him to. Not all that much, at that moment. Ravager had started to hum a tune and scanned Vincent a second time, a hint of a frown taking shape on his face; though it was a little hard to tell, considering he barely had eyebrows anymore.

‘Interesting,’ he mumbled, double-checking the screen then turning it to the other man, who stared at it with a similar look on his face. ‘Picks up a whole second person, for some reason- info’s all jumbled. What’d you do? Illegally download a new fucken’ personality?’

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Vincent dryly answered.

Hehe. Got ‘em.

‘Well! Problem for later, I guess.’ Ravager stuffed the device away and huffed, for some reason appearing to be a little pissed about it. ‘It was all so much easier with your friend, but- whatever.’

Mikhail.

The mention of him made Vincent’s blood boil again. He had probably been in that position as well- a different facility, a different chair, but tied up exactly like that- with Ravager standing over him like a predator looking at its prey.

‘Oh- Don’t ya worry, we made sure he had a fun time,’ Ravager suddenly said. Vincent looked back up at him; the man had clearly noticed the shadow that had washed over his face, and was staring at him with another lingering, toothy grin.

‘He really didn’t wanna talk, but- that’s fine. We’ve got our ways to make people talk. He dropped some nice info about your fixer- and about you. Stuff we already knew, o’course, so that was unfortunate. The look of guilt on his face was worth it, though.’

None of that was new information to Vincent. Mikhail had already told them about it- once he had been able to speak again. Though he had still been barely comprehensible, sobbing so uncontrollably it had nearly caused both Vitali and Vincent to cry as well; but the information he had told Ravager about them was not nearly as important as his safety and well-being, and of course neither of them had been upset about it.

But still, it got to him. He knew Mikhail felt guilty, but to hear it out of Ravager’s own mouth-

A sudden alarm cut through the room and Vincent flinched, throat tightening painfully when he accidentally lifted his head and the metal clasp around his neck punched the air out of his windpipe. Ravager and his right hand man both jolted up, and shared a somewhat panicked look; but then, triumph washed over Ravager’s face, and he left the room without saying another word.

The other man left as well, and Vincent was alone again; though he hoped it would not be for long, knowing exactly why the alarms were blasting through the facility. A relieved smile took shape on his face and he relaxed in the chair, eyes briefly fluttering shut when he realized soon he wouldn’t be tied down anymore, and he would be reunited with-

He was relieved they had found him so quickly. Finding Mikhail had taken longer, and rescuing him from the building had not been easy either; everything had looked exactly the same and they had needed to travel deep into the factory to even reach him in the first place.

Vincent vividly remembered it, though. How they had moved through the hallways together, losing more and more people the further they traveled- they had to stay behind to fight off Ravager’s men, keeping them busy while Vitali and Vincent continued on. How they had found Mikhail, how he had barely been able to walk, and how he had clung to Vincent so tightly-

Only a few days. Yet still, still, it had been way too long.

Vincent closed his eyes, exhaling shakily as he tried to picture Vitali- he was probably there as well, unable to sit back and let others handle things for him, on his way to Vincent, killing anyone who got in his way-

Should he call out for him? Let him know where he was?

‘I’m here!’ Vincent yelled as loud as he could, not giving it a second thought and slightly moving in the chair as he tried to peek around the door into the hallway. ‘Guys- I’m over here!’

Minutes had gone by. They were probably nearby by now, right? This facility was a lot less confusing than the other one. The room Vincent was being held in was probably essentially right around the corner of the entrance.

Vincent nervously bit the inside of his cheek, listening to the distant sounds of a scuffle. He could hear some screams, and some gunfire- but it was a lot less than he had expected, and the longer he waited the more it seemed to die down until it was no longer audible over the alarms.

There had been alarms last time, too. Louder than these, to the point it had nearly overwhelmed Vincent. But he had been able to hold it together, knowing he’d had a job to do- and he couldn’t afford to lose it before ensuring Mikhail’s safety.

It had taken them some time- but they had found him.

They had found him.

The alarms stopped.

And Vincent was still alone.

They brought him back to the previous facility the next day.

Not much else had happened, other than the failed scan and the brief scuffle with some intruders; Ravager had not shown his face anymore and Vincent had been left alone with his thoughts for most of the day.

That morning had been more eventful, though. Vincent had in fact managed to fall asleep at some point- cold and hungry and exhausted as hell, and even though his night had remained dreamless it had been nice to lose consciousness for a little while, at least.

But he had been woken up with a solid punch to the face and he’d been dragged off the chair, kicked around a bit for the entertainment of whoever had been in the room with him and he’d been blinded and gagged and tied up with ziplock ties and he’d been thrown violently in the back of a car and they had left him there, once again on a constant brink of passing out because of lack of oxygen.

Vincent nearly fell to the floor when he was suddenly pushed forward, mind instantly pulled back to reality and away from the events that had happened earlier that day; he was already there now, walking the same hallways he had ran through while rescuing Mikhail yet this time he had no idea where he was going, and what to expect.

He wasn’t scared. At least, that’s what he was telling himself. And it helped, for the time being- his head was surprisingly clear and he looked around intently, memorizing each turn they took to map out the facility’s layout in his head.

Soon enough they arrived at a door at the end of a hallway. Vincent was yanked back momentarily, and he stood back as two of the people bringing him there exchanged some words in a language he didn’t understand.

And for a moment, he saw an opportunity; it was four against one, but he was fast, and a lot stronger than most people thought he was. He could charge forward, ram the two people into the door- use their bodies as shields while freeing his hands from the ziplock ties- steal their guns and flatline them all before they could hurt him-

But he had no idea what was on the other side of the door. And it was too much of a risk.

So he did not move, and watched as the people opened the door- and they pushed him inside.

The room was bigger than Vincent had expected it to be. It reminded him of an office a little bit; though the desks were all shoved to the side, pushed together underneath the blinded windows on his right. All, except one, standing right in the middle of the room with two chairs adjacent to one another and right on top of the desk stood-

A chessboard?

Though that was not what Vincent’s attention was drawn toward.

On the left of the room, lined up against the wall, sat his friends-

All of them.

Including Mikhail and Vitali.

‘Ah, the star of the show. Welcome!’

Ravager’s voice boomed through the room and Vincent’s head snapped up, watching as the cyborg hopped off one of the desks on the other side of the room and slowly began wandering over, arms spread out and another one of his signature grins plastered on his face.

‘Couldn’t get the party started without you,’ he said. ‘Just a little longer, though- gotta wait for my friend to get here.’ A pause, and he glanced at his watch. ‘Dunno what’s takin’ him so long. Should’a gotten here before you.’

Vincent’s heart was going a million miles an hour. His eyes were drawn back toward his friends- fuck, even Eddie and Lauren were there- and his chest tightened painfully, mind wandering back to the day before, when- when he thought they-

He caught Vitali’s gaze. And Vitali’s eyes widened, mouth opening briefly as if to speak- to explain himself, perhaps, or to ask if Vincent was alright- or maybe just to scold him, to ask him- Why? Why did you leave?

But he closed it again, unspoken words lingering in the distance between them, and he defeatedly lowered his gaze.

He looked ashamed.

Vincent was pushed down into one of the chairs and three of the people who had entered with him joined the others that had already been inside; a small army, almost, presumably to keep Vincent’s friends in check.

The fourth stayed behind, and cut Vincent’s hands free- but then also took out their gun and briefly pushed it against the back of his head as a warning, and he knew the moment he would try something- anything- his blood would paint all the chess pieces in front of him the same color.

His eyes were drawn to his friends again. They did not appear injured; not all too terrible, at least, some scrapes and bruises decorating faces and visible arms and necks. Though all of them looked exhausted, drained from every last ounce of energy in their bodies as they sat there- some on their knees, others leaning against the wall- though all carrying the same defeated look in their eyes.

Vincent clenched his jaw. It felt wrong. So wrong- they had come back for him, and would now suffer the consequences of it all- whatever those were going to be.

Oh, had he just not left- had he just listened to Vitali-

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, V. Never got you anywhere before, won’t get you anywhere this time.

Shut up, Johnny.

Hey, I’m right. You know that.

Of course Vincent knew.

Suddenly, the door behind him opened again, though Vincent was not interested enough to turn around. Ravager, who was standing right beside him at that point, did look up- and grinned again when he noticed who had entered.

‘Ivan! Took you long enough. Come in.’ Ravager glanced at Vincent and tapped him on the shoulder, causing Vincent to flinch. ‘V, meet Ivan Dupoint. Though if I’m not mistaken- you two already know each other.’

Vincent frowned and finally turned his head to look up, his curiosity winning over his fear. He had no idea what to expect; the name did not sound familiar at all, and- not much to his surprise- the man who had entered the room did not look familiar to him either.

Tall, like Ravager, though a tad bit shorter- mostly just because of his hunched posture, and his slightly buckled knees. Short, slicked back hair and a tall forehead, dull gray eyes and a mustache adorning his upper lip- he had facial cyberware similar to Vincent’s, though somewhat asymmetrical and radically out of place in the rest of his face, as if he had attempted to superglue it there himself.

‘Pleased to make your acquaintance?’ Vincent said, the sentence more a question than a statement, and he frowned slightly as he watched Dupoint walk around the desk and sit down opposite of him while unbuttoning the jacket of his slightly too big suit.

‘Or not,’ Ravager mumbled, shrugging and wandering back to the pillar in the middle of the room to lean against it. ‘Fuck if I care, anyway.’

‘No, you were right, Edward,’ Dupoint said, his accent a strange mix of French and a hint of something Scandinavian. ‘We have met before. Curious, though, that V does not remember.’

‘V has had a lot of things on his mind, as of late,’ Vincent dryly said. ‘Please do enlighten me.’

Dupoint glared at him, jaw clenching slightly the moment one of Vincent’s friends snorted- Cato, probably, but Vincent could not check, his gaze still focused solidly on the man opposite of him.

‘Alabaster Whittaker,’ Dupoint plainly said, leaning back into his chair. ‘Rings a bell, perhaps?’

‘Oh- the Zetatech bootlicker? For sure.’ Despite the circumstances, Vincent was only just able to suppress a smile, and he finally turned his head toward his friends. ‘Remind me, boss- What did we call him at the office?’

‘If I am not mistaken you all affectionately nicknamed him “Albie”, at some point,’ Vitali answered, voice still calm and eyes focused straight ahead- though Vincent could tell by the way he clenched his jaw and and held his shoulders just a bit higher than usual, he was also barely holding it together.

‘He was my boss!’ Dupoint sharply said, raising his voice slightly when some light chuckling and snickering filled the room. ‘You stole from him, and- above all- ruined all my precious work. Months and months of calculations and predictions- all gone!’

‘I’m sorry, say what now?’ Vincent cut him off, slightly leaning forward in his seat and immediately- once again- feeling the cold barrel of a gun pressing against the back of his head; though it did not do him much, too confused by the situation to care.

Dupoint clenched his jaw again and leaned in too, face hardened and eyes nearly spitting fire.

‘You knocked over an entire mug of coffee and spilled it all over my laptop,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Whittaker was furious. And fired me on the spot. I lost everything because of you. Everything.’

Vincent sat unmoving, blinking slowly as Dupoint’s words slowly settled in his brain. He felt a strange knot in his chest- a feeling he genuinely could not place, confusion still tightly holding him in a chokehold-

Everything had been leading up to- to this?

‘Well, that’s a little pathetic.’

Judy’s voice shattered the deafening silence and Vincent slowly sank back into his chair, eyes wandering off until they met Judy’s- who appeared just as confused and pissed off as he felt.

‘Is that- Is that why we are all gathered here today?’ Lauren asked. Vincent was relieved to hear her voice; though she still sounded exhausted, and surely this entire situation was not doing her much good.

‘You could have just bought yourself a new laptop, or something,’ Mikhail chimed in now as well, as everyone else quietly started mumbling. ‘Instead of…doing this.’

‘A backup goes a long way,’ Vitali quietly added.

Dupoint opened his mouth to say something, though no sound came out as more insults and remarks were flung his way. Vincent glanced up a little, at Ravager- even he had covered his face with one hand, and was clearly desperately trying to focus on anything other than the scene in front of him.

It was fucking ridiculous.

Vincent genuinely had no idea what to think anymore. Dupoint was not- he was not the man at the top, right? Or was he? If he was, that would be even worse- considering everything that had happened thus far. Had it all been about this?

He looked at Dupoint again and watched him try to silence the small gathering of mercs, stammering and stumbling over his own words without much success-

No, this was not the man at the top. Couldn’t be. Vincent refused to believe it.

‘Shut the fuck up!’

Ravager had finally managed to regain his composure and stepped up, waving a gun around until everyone finally went quiet again.

‘V- You knocked over the man’s coffee,’ Cato quietly whispered, still. ‘How could you?’

‘I mean- I’m sorry, I guess?’ Vincent shared a quick look with Cato- nearly burst into laughter once more- and then turned back to Dupoint. ‘You’re telling me all of this- all of it- is just because I accidentally spilled some coffee on your stupid-’

BANG!

Vincent flinched involuntarily at the gunshot and his teeth clacked together so hard it sent vibrations through his skull. He immediately glanced back at his friends- though none of them appeared hit.

A warning shot.

For now.

‘Not all of it, no,’ Dupoint answered, his voice suddenly surprisingly much in control again. ‘You see, the Broker is in charge here- I am merely here to send a message. From him, to you- or, well…’ He paused, and his gaze wandered off to Vitali. ‘To you, actually.’

Another deafening silence filled the room and Dupoint looked back up at Vincent, a sudden, somewhat creepy smile on his face.

‘Though I thought it would be a great opportunity to make you, V, pay as well. For what you have taken from me. Feels only fair I take something back, no?’

Vincent did not answer.

Dupoint relaxed in his seat and cleared his throat, averting his gaze while pulling up the sleeves of his jacket a bit, and he gestured at the chessboard on the desk in front of them.

‘Today, V, we are going to play a game of chess,’ he said. ‘Fairly simple, I’d think. Do you know how to play?’

Of course Vincent knew how to play. Chess champion back in high school- twice, even. But Dupoint really did not need to know any of that.

‘Sure,’ he shrugged, using all his strength and willpower to keep a straight face. ‘I’m- I’m a quick learner.’

Dupoint stared at him for a moment, and Vincent watched as a sudden twinkle appeared in his eyes and a smile formed on his lips again.

Good.

‘Wonderful! However, there is a catch.’

Ah. Of course there is.

Dupoint reached out toward the board and let his hand hover over Vincent’s pieces. He hummed softly and grabbed one of the pawns, then slowly lifted it up, the bottom of it turned toward Vincent- and the moment he saw what was underneath he felt his throat tighten.

‘Go on, now, don’t be shy- read it,’ Dupoint slowly said, mockery dripping from his voice.

Vincent swallowed heavily, and clenched his jaw before opening his mouth.

‘Cato.’

A brief, but deafening silence fell over the room. Vincent did not dare avert his gaze from the tiny piece of paper taped to the bottom of the pawn.

‘Very good.’ Dupoint placed the pawn back on the board. ‘Now! The rules are simple. We play, one of us wins. You win- nothing is lost. You, your friends, all walk free. For now, that is, of course, “until we meet again” and so on. However, you lose- and each piece I managed to conquer from you, each name taped to the bottom- stays with us. With Ed, specifically. I won’t be staying long.’

‘Don’t-? Don’t call me that,’ Ravager muttered in the background.

‘So- all clear to you, V?’ Dupoint asked, entirely ignoring his colleague and looking back up at Vincent instead. Vincent was unsure how to describe the look on the Frenchman’s face- though the pure triumph and smugness in his eyes made him nauseous.

‘Crystal,’ he answered, eyes unwillingly moving back to his friends for a brief second and he sat up a little straighter, heart suddenly pounding rapidly in his chest once more. ‘White begins. Hit me.’

Even with his knowledge, he was still nervous. Why wouldn’t he be? The stakes were just a tad bit higher this time than merely losing his king- his friends’ lives were on the line now, and Vincent would be lying if he said he still vividly remembered every opening and sequence of moves he had once been taught.

At least they were playing without a timer. Vincent knew he still wouldn’t get all the time in the world, but at least it took away some of the pressure. Sure, there was of course still the cold metal of a gun’s barrel resting comfortably against the back of his head- but that wasn’t new to him.

He watched in silence as Dupoint moved his king’s pawn. A move that told Vincent very little; could be a beginner, could be a pro. Either way, he was going to have to keep up appearances for just a bit longer, his brain still whirring as his muscle memory of the game was only just coming back to him.

Vincent copied Dupoint’s move, putting his own king’s pawn directly against that of his opponent. Dupoint hummed, then moved his knight- and Vincent did the same, making sure to take an extra second to pretend to count the squares before proudly placing it down.

‘Petrov’s Defense,’ Dupoint plainly stated, though for some reason it sounded more like a programmed response rather than an offhand comment. ‘If it was not for the fact you clearly seem to be copying my moves I would’ve believed you actually know what you’re doing.’

‘As I said, quick learner,’ Vincent replied, watching as Dupoint grabbed a second pawn and placed it right next to the one already in the middle of the board. An interesting move; Vincent had not seen that one before.

‘A fully opened center.’ Dupoint paused, raised an eyebrow, and glanced back at Vincent. ‘Do you know what that move is called, V?’

Vincent shrugged, and swallowed his laughter. ‘Dunno. The American Nutcracker?’

A loud snort on his left broke the silence in the room and Dupoint’s head instantly snapped to Vincent’s friends- though it was of no use, as several of them could no longer contain their laughter any longer. Even Vincent had trouble keeping a straight face, and Dupoint was forced to wait until everyone was quiet again before he could continue.

‘Steinitz Attack,’ he said, the tone of his voice slightly less cocky than it had been before. ‘An…aggressive move.’

‘A bold move, if you ask me,’ Vincent answered, a slight tremble in his voice from his once again suppressed laughter.

‘One that gives me an advantage, if you paid any attention at all.’

Dupoint continued to speak, though Vincent was no longer listening to him. His gaze was drawn toward his friends once more- initially to pull a face, or to make a jerk-off motion underneath the table in hopes to draw another quiet snort or some laughter from their lips-

But his eyes caught Vitali. A curious look was plastered on his face; one of his famous stares which always told Vincent he was lost in deep thought, cogs of his brain turning as he pondered whatever was on his mind at the time.

Though now, it was accompanied by a look of recognition.

‘V. Your turn.’

Right. Chess.

A slow setup. Vincent’s mind was elsewhere and he continuously glanced back at his boyfriend, heartbeat suddenly faster again now that he had taken notice of the shift in atmosphere. His distraction soon proved unfortunate- he had not paid enough attention and Dupoint captured one of his pawns without further consequences.

Vincent clenched his jaw as Dupoint slowly flipped the pawn and read the piece of paper taped to its downside.

‘My, my,’ he said, another smile shaping on his face. ‘Thibault. The first of many, I hope.’

‘Kiss my ass, you piece of shit,’ Thibault sneered at him from the sidelines, immediately switching to Canadian French and unleashing a string of swears Vincent only half understood.

The gravity of the situation instantly kicked in again and he was quickly reminded of why he had been so nervous at the start. If Dupoint would win- every captured piece, every captured person- they were going to have to stay.

With Ravager.

And after Mikhail- well, Vincent did not want to find out what he and his people were going to do with them.

He redirected his attention to the board in front of him again. He saw an opportunity; though part of his attack depended entirely on Dupoint’s defense, but given the circumstances it was a risk he was willing to take.

Without hesitation, Vincent captured one of Dupoint’s pawns, clearing half of the center of the board. Dupoint hummed again, and responded by merely moving his bishop- Vincent barely gave him the time to let go of the piece and captured a second pawn, leaving both their kings exposed.

‘Interesting.’

Vincent kept his composure, though his heart was racing in his chest as if he had just ran a marathon. He lowered his hand again, resting it on the edge of the desk as he watched Dupoint think for a few seconds- his hand moved down, and hesitated above his pieces.

He was nervous. Vincent could tell. It was exactly what he had hoped for- by making his own moves as quickly as possible, he was attempting to put more pressure on his opponent. And by the looks of it, he had succeeded at that.

Dupoint finally moved his hand down. He grabbed his king, and moved it one square, to slowly but surely move it back behind his other pieces.

And in response, Vincent castled- rook and king swapping positions, his rook now lined up directly with Dupoint’s king. His eyes slowly moved up, until they met those of his opponent-

‘Check.’

Silence fell over the room as suddenly everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Vincent leaned back in his chair, pushing his head closer against the gun- and as much as he wanted to crack a triumphant smile, he instead kept his composure, eyes piercing straight through Dupoint as he stared him down.

‘Is that allowed?’ Ravager suddenly asked. He had wandered a little closer now that the game had finally started, and for a split second he sounded like a whole different person to Vincent.

‘It is, yes,’ Dupoint mumbled, shifting uncomfortably on his seat. ‘Interesting move, V.’

His change in demeanor was exactly what Vincent had been aiming for.

He was not a professional at the game; but neither was Dupoint. Vincent could tell by the way his eyes shifted across the board, darting from piece to piece as he visibly went over every possible move in his head. An analyst at heart- calculating and cautious, with a decent memory as well, Vincent presumed. Though he knew very well that doing everything by the book was not going to get you very far-

Not in Night City, of all fucking places.

And oh, how Dupoint was desperately trying to hold on to his strategy. Whatever sequences he had planned on, Vincent easily managed to throw him off his rhythm with nearly every move he made. He lost more pieces- Shiro, and Panam- then Huxley, and Eddie- but it did not matter. The path was already clear to him.

Check, check, check-

Constantly locking Dupoint in tight positions, attempt after attempt to force his king into a corner. Pawns were advancing to Vincent’s half of the board, but he ignored them largely- nearly every important player of Dupoint’s little army was already down, leaving him without his defenses in the endgame.

Vincent just had to be quicker, that’s all-

‘Check.’

Oops.

Vincent blinked and snapped out of his trance, a little confused by what had just happened. His eyes trailed the board- and suddenly he noticed his own king, locked between several pieces, with one opening only-

And Dupoint’s bishop was solidly blocking his only way out.

Vincent exhaled sharply. Not over yet- there was still a way out for him, though he was unable to move his king into any direction. He clenched his fist under the table when his eyes finally landed on his queen, and he realized the only way to save himself was by-

Do it.

Vincent swallowed heavily and moved his queen, and captured Dupoint’s bishop. And without hesitation, Dupoint captured the queen with his own pawn.

‘Ah, yes- sacrifices, sacrifices,’ he sighed, twirling the piece around and shooting Vincent a small smile before reading the paper on the bottom. ‘Hmm… Mikhail. Round two, I suppose. Ed, go easy on him this time, yes? We don’t want any casualties. Not least, at least.’

Vincent felt his blood begin to boil once more and he exhaled sharply, jaw clenching tightly when he noticed Vitali bolt forward out of the corner of his eye- he was grabbed by two of Ravager’s people and dragged back in his place violently, and one of them pressed a gun against his head.

His eyes briefly moved to Mikhail, sitting between Panam and Cato, knees pulled to his chest and head resting heavily on Cato’s shoulder as he stared straight ahead- no longer scared, no longer angry-

Just tired. He looked so fucking tired.

Vincent turned back to the board, fighting the urge to leap over the desk and strangle Dupoint with his bare hands- unarm Ravager and kill him with his own gun- emptying the entire clip in his chest before landing the finishing blow, just to make him suffer as much as possible before his heart would give out-

The rook.

Vincent had moved his queen. His rook had been beside it- and now securely guarded the entire row, locking Dupoint’s king in the back. And Dupoint had captured Vincent’s queen- and with that, he had moved his pawn out of the way-

Vincent reached for his second rook, entirely left untouched thus far, and moved it all the way to the other end of the chessboard, locking Dupoint’s king in its place. He leaned back in his seat, a smile finally breaking through his facade, and tilted his head upward ever so slightly, spitting the word out with a venomous sting-

‘Checkmate.’

[pigeonteef]

I posted 324 times in 2021

99 posts created (31%)

225 posts reblogged (69%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.3 posts.

I added 451 tags in 2021

#my art - 86 posts

#artists on tumblr - 57 posts

#not art - 56 posts

#self rb - 47 posts

#warrior cats - 45 posts

#not my art - 42 posts

#art - 36 posts

#illustration - 31 posts

#warriors - 26 posts

#fanart - 25 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#like idk if i see someone saying sth annoying under my posts i just??? delete/hide the comments or block it really is not that difficult???

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

my god the runes of the delta…. i’m obsessed right now i have so many deltarune wips lol

also yes i am late to the party YES i made berdly my pfp what about it

206 notes • Posted 2021-10-05 19:50:14 GMT

#4

“And it’s all my fault that I’m still the one you want

So what are you after?

Some kind of disaster?”

Goldenflower + Some kind of disaster by All time low

geniuenly no song i have in my playlist fits the warrior cats vibe if you think it does i’m just cherrypicking lyrics. Also nice timing with goldenflower being warrior cat of the week

206 notes • Posted 2021-01-05 18:34:29 GMT

#3

See the full post

221 notes • Posted 2021-06-05 16:17:47 GMT

#2

a lil sketch thingy of nutmeg and jake cause i actually rlly liked designing them and and i like how they turned out

439 notes • Posted 2021-04-22 15:32:44 GMT

#1

one more princess drawing... for the soul

1201 notes • Posted 2021-05-08 15:28:50 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[fedtothenight]

this competition asked to write a short story in the dystopian genre and my entry's below - don't rb!

the sweetest fruit

The boy gasped, straining against the padded frame of the jeep just as the vehicle slowly came to a halt. ‘Look!’ he shouted, pointing at a spot about a hundred feet from the group. ‘Look, Mum! That’s so cool!’

Half-instinctively, his mother had already grabbed a fistful of his tank-top, ready to yank him back. She had spent the entirety of the trip sitting as still as possible, facing forward, eyes stubbornly fixed on the self-cooling top of the car in a pointless effort to fight her motion sickness: her patience was already wearing very thin without her eight-year-old personal safety hazard trying to get himself killed.

‘Ethan, for the love of God,’ she snapped. ‘I already told you to stop leaning over the frame! Do you realise how dangerous that is?’

‘No, Mum, you’ve got to look!’

‘Emma, darling,’ her husband whispered, a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘You should really look at this. It’s magnificent.’

Whatever it was, even her fifteen-year-old daughter - who had spent the last thirty minutes texting her friends back home without so much as a glance at the scenery - was jaw-slacked, so she slowly got up on her wobbly knees and peered over her shoulders.

In the shadow of a tree, protected from the sweltering heat, two lions were feasting on a zebra. Perhaps belatedly, as it’d taken her a second to drink the sight in, she realised that the poor thing was still alive: writhing as blood, red and hot and pulsing, gushed out from where the bigger lion - the male - had bitten into its back.

The smaller one, the female, soundlessly sank its teeth into the dying animal’s neck, and the latter gave one last weak kick, finally falling limp. When the lioness stood again, it was almost impossible, from this distance, to see her eyes amidst the bloodied mess on her face.

‘Oh, my God, Matt,’ Emma said. ‘This is beautiful. Nature truly is beautiful.’

‘You don’t really get to see this kind of show anywhere else today,’ their guide said from the driver’s seat. He sounded proud, as if he’d hunted and fed the zebra to the lions himself.

Alberto wasn’t wrong, Emma reasoned. Given that they were parked in the middle of the privately-owned biggest North American savanna, he - or rather, his employer - was the one effectively feeding the lions. Like feeding mice to cats. She glanced at her children, glad they could have a window on a reality that was long gone. To think it would have taken a trip around the world to watch this spectacle - imagine the motion sickness then! If only, she considered wistfully, there could be a way of replicating glaciers just as accurately.

‘Honestly, it seems a bit unfair that they get to eat real meat,’ Ethan said at the dinner table a few hours later. He was picking at his plate, moving the fried grasshoppers they’d been served for dinner around, but not really eating any. ‘While we are stuck with insects and microprotein or whatever.’

Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. She was tired and sunburnt, her sensitive pale skin suffering under the blistering sun of the region, so different from the temperate weather back home North. She had a splitting headache, too. She was, yet again, at the so-called end of her tether. ‘Ethan…’

‘You should be glad you get to eat at all,’ her daughter said at the same time. ‘There’s a reason it’s illegal to eat meat. These animals are here for show, anyway. They were originally from Africa.’

‘Shut up, Becca,’ Ethan mumbled. ‘Everybody knows there are no animals in Africa. There’s nothing there.’

Becca’s cheeks were tinted pink, eyebrows furrowed. ‘Of course there were animals. There were animals everywhere before the Climate Crunch.’

‘Both of you, stop it,’ Matt interjected. ‘Ethan, your sister is right. You should be grateful that we are here in the first place. That said…’ He leant forward, voice down to a whisper: ‘I have a surprise for you. Or, well, Richard has a surprise for us. When he arrives tomorrow, he’ll bring us real meat. Bovine meat.’

‘But it’s illegal,’ said Becca.

‘It’s technically illegal,’ Matt acknowledged. ‘It’s not if you know how to get some and no one from Animal Conservation finds out. Do you think our president only eats insects? Please, Becca. Use that big brain of yours.’

‘Yes,’ Ethan snickered. ‘Use your brain, Becca.’

‘That is too generous,’ Emma said. ‘Inviting us here in the first place was, when even he hasn’t gotten here yet. Now this. I wouldn’t know how to repay him.’

Truly, all she felt was jealousy. Her guts twisted with the sheer force of it. Yes, she had known that Richard was comfortable. The gated, heavily guarded estate spanned for thousands of acres, comprised the 5000sqt villa they were staying at (five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a cinema, marble floors and solar panels on the rooftop), an indoor swimming pool inspired by vintage photos of Amalfi, two indoor tennis courts, and the savanna they’d explored earlier in the day. ‘The biggest conservation area in North America since they repurposed the Midwest,’ he’d bragged in a video call, two weeks before. ‘You will love it. The holiday you deserve. Make yourselves at home.’

But meat? He could get meat?

Matt’s family had designed DeNuketify, which was basically the only effective way of purifying ocean water from whatever nuclear waste Japan kept spewing so that it could be used and, most importantly, drunk. They had managed to flee the continent with the last handful of greencards about the time her family did, too, taking their precious Queen’s accent with them to found Nova London. She was the governor of Nova London now, for God’s sake. The bloody queen herself was long dead but she was alive, and yet, yet - they had never had meat.

‘We don’t have to, Emma,’ Matt said. ‘We just need to remember how lucky we are to enjoy this meal, this house, this holiday. Look at that,’ and he nodded towards the TV screen again. ‘Actually, Alexa!, volume up!, I think the Italians have finally surrendered.’

The war correspondent’s voice grew louder. She - they, Emma reminded herself: Becca always told her not to assume anyone’s gender - was wearing a dust mask and reading from a bundle of documents. ‘The last military hospital in the island of Palermo was destroyed four days ago by a Canadian airstrike,’ they were saying. ‘The rebels surrendered soon after, followed by the group of extremists in the Nebrodi island. Etna had already surrendered last year.’

‘It’s important to remember that these actions were necessary to finally put a rest on the instability of the region,’ they added. ‘Canada will fund a complete restoration of the Southern archipelago. The remaining civilians will be provided with a shelter and then, when the time comes, a suitable job. Nova Italia will be the sixteenth Canadian state, the fourth offshore. There are also hopes to extract petroleum from the seabed of the sunken city of Gela.’

‘Watch them make it into a holiday hotspot,’ Matt commented. ‘The weather is still nice there.’

‘Ooh, I heard about this.’ Becca picked her phone back up and started furiously typing away. ‘There’s this journal entry soldiers found over there, under the rubble, that’s gone viral. It was translated into English. Wait, I’ll pull it up. Alexa, volume down.’

‘I’m not sure I want to hear it,’ Emma said, uneasy. ‘We’re on holiday. Should we not watch a movie? Something funny?’

Becca waved her away, as if she was an annoying fly. ‘It’ll be good practice for my drama class.’

Matt didn’t help—he simply shrugged, half-apologetic, as if to say: Let her do her thing.

Becca made a show of clearing her throat, too, before she started reading from her phone—her high voice now grave, studied, as if she were speaking to a larger audience: ‘I wonder what peas taste like.’

Right then, the scene on screen changed to footage of what looked like a destroyed village, something out of an apocalyptic movie. Emma found herself unable to look away.

‘Nonna used to say that her own great-grandmother grew them in her garden. Figs, too,’ Becca read. ‘They say they were the sweetest fruit.’

Emma wondered if this journal was actually written by a child or a teenager. It didn’t sound like an adult at all. She couldn’t help but picture a girl, a brunette, not much older than Becca, perhaps a rebel, or a trainee nurse on the sweet cusp of adulthood, holding this journal of hers, or perhaps a gun. It violently reminded her that her own daughter, too, would have to serve her time in the Forces in three years.

On screen, the Canadian soldiers walked among the ruins, zigzagging between torn up clothes and discarded weapons, surely looking for surviving rebels under the rubbles.

‘Isn’t it silly that we can hear the fighters overhead and that all I can do is think about food?’ said Becca. ‘I wish we could also eat figs and be happy.’

On screen, the camera zoomed in on a long-forgotten man's shoe, some crumpled photographs, on a pile of bodies in black bin bags.

‘Grandma - I miss her - left me a poetry book, too, from T.S. Eliot. I hope the book is with me when I die, so I can give it back to her when we meet again, afterwards. So I can tell her that T.S. Eliot was wrong.’

On screen, one of the soldiers approached and showed a little trinket to the camera: a bloody, heart-shaped locket that must’ve once been golden, hiding the miniature pictures of two brunette children that would never have a name.

‘That’s enough,’ Emma said. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. ‘Stop reading.’

‘The world may have not ended with a bang, but it didn’t end with a whimper, either: the world didn’t end at all. Sometimes,’ Becca finished reading, ‘I wish it had.’

‘What a load of rubbish,’ Matt scoffed. ‘Everyone should feel lucky to be alive. I bet this journal is a fake. Alexa, turn the TV off.’

As the screen faded to black, Ethan finally popped a grasshopper in his mouth. ‘I can’t wait to have meat tomorrow.’

[yibuo]

UMMM I would love to know what exactly happened with xnine too if you know??

i didn’t know how to answer this without hating on long danni but... that’s not possible when you’re talking about xnine

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG IN ANY WAY @ DIMPLES AND CFANS

tldr ceo addicted to producing survival shows realizes boy group is incapable of feeding her fat rabbit because of her OWN mismanagement and throws them away (literally? probably not, maybe, idk)

HOLY SHIT THIS BECAME RLY LONG IM BEGGING KEEP READING TO WORK LO LOL LOL

long danni= wjjw company ceo

wjjw=company that xnine, xz, r1se, etc are under

huo mala: fat company rabbit that WILL give u nightmares goodness gracious thinking about him sends chills down my spine

alright so long danni (ldn i will refer to her) & ee media along w/ tencent and sm made the survival show x-fire... the premise of xfire was that 16 contestants split into two different teams (white and red) and then at the end it would boil down to each team having 4 members and the winning team would debut as a group called xfire...but wait...the group’s name is xnine? so out of red team (peng chuyue, baishu, xiao zhan, xia zhiguang) and white team(wu jiacheng, gu jiacheng, zhao lei, and guo zifan) white team won...and they unofficially debuted as xfire..went abroad to train yadda yadda yadda and then a few months later, TELL ME WHY LONG DANNI DECIDES TO RELEASE POLLS TO LET FANS VOTE IN 5 MEMBERS INTO XFIRE TO CREATE XNINE! ldn PLEASE if u wanted to rig the show you should’ve decided in the beginning what was the point of making the teams and the fans fight against each other...

so yeah xz and crew weren’t actually supposed to debut according to show rules...i mean i’m glad they debuted obviously bc x9 is x9 but ee media and frickin ldn couldve handled this better...like every member except chen molerat is amazing and great but....WHY DIDNT MaNAGEMENT NOT BLATANTLY RIG THEM INTO THE GROUP

but also thank u ldn for also letting us get to know the 4 guys who were added n not chen molerat <3 but like DO UR JOB PROPERLY

anyway the polls were RIGGED obviously thanks ldn what did u expect out of making POLLS, and xiao zhan, peng chuyue, xia zhiguang, yan xujia, and chen z*** were added to the group to create xnine...talk about rigged when chen z*** the molerat lookin turdface misogynist was added... anyway at the time he wasnt known to be problematic but ya the whole rigging thing caused a whole rift esp when x9 debuted bc there were fanwars and death threats initially but xfire did well because it was one of the (if not only) survival shows at that time and x9 debuted w/ a good response etc

then they got moved to wjjw (still owned by ldn thanks ldn) and wjjw is known for hoarding artists and not promoting them (THEY HAVE LIKE 45 ARTISTS BUT WERE FORMED 3 YEARS AGO MAKE IT MAKE SENSE) and not being promoted properly was EXACTLY what happened to xnine. as idols what they needed was music promotions, variety shows, etc stuff to get them as people out there but this genius ldn decided to promote them through stupid zodiac dramas like super star academy (to promote xfire finalists) and oh my emperor (which was an xnine drama). now i haven’t watched OME, but SSA gave me enough brain rot and gunk for me to not watch OME. (the only person who could act was baishu), and the story was SO BAD. nevermind the acting, because the boys weren’t initially slated to be actors, but the story was horrible, girl without superpowers suddenly becomes white cult goddess at the end??? WHAT???????? why didn’t ldn just promote them normally !!!!!! are they an actor group or an idol group???? I LOVE XNINE, THEY ARE TALENTED ARTISTS !!!! and eventually some went into acting (xz, guo zifan, gu jiacheng) BUT WAS THAT THE TIME DLFNJNF and then they just kept getting sent into random dramas and movies as random side characters instead of being able to make music and promote????? i’m sorry i’ve been stuck on using dramas to promote x9 for a while because that’s such a SILLY IDEA *vigorously shakes head* 

ldn knows how to do survival shows but she doesn’t know how to promote her artists thanks ldn. xnine has so much talented, we know xiao zhan is a great singer, but other main vocalists like wu jiacheng, zhao lei, and peng chuyue are amazing as welll, here’s me plugging this video of zl and pcy performing their self-written song on produce camp because it’s the most beautiful thing ever

-oh yeah somewhere in here insert chen molerat getting outed as a pedo misogynist cheater by his gf who still has the audacity to have xnine in his weibo name because xnine starting to get popular gtfo rat lookin ass i WILL barf, when we say ot8 xnine we mean xnine w/o chen toadratass but sometimes ppl think it’s xnine minus xz which is untrue-

they also have talented rappers (gu jiacheng yan xujia) and dancers (xia zhiguang guo zifan) like xia zhiguang can end me with his spinning flying kick thing and i WILL let him 

so YEAH !! TALENT that went to waste because wjjw gave them weird random hiatuses and kept pushing them as actors??? seriously what is with this actor stuff...so that’s why they debuted in 2016 and have very little discography to their name because wjjw just gave up...trying to promote them GOD thank u so much ldn for ur incomptency <3333 xnine had members in diff stages of life (ranging from xz who was born in 91, to yan xujia born in 2001, they were all close tho soo cute) and wjjw really was like nope we’re not gonna try to promote yall’s dreams of becoming singers on the stage because they couldn’t add 34783473 pounds to fat huo mala’s weight

so ya a lot of people are like omg wjjw hates xiao zhan!!! ya no they hate all of xnine but now xz is bringing enough money to make huo mala even fatter so good for huo mala i guess /s

also rumors and any bad media? lol wjjw doesn’t care they do a shit job at handling bad things too WHAT A WELLROUNDED COMPANY

OH ALSO TALK ABOUT HOW THYE HAD 3 DAYS TO PREPARE FOR A CONCERT???????????? WHAT????????? wjjw u mfs

anyway to summarize my rants above wjjw did  a SHIT job of promoting xnine as idols when the boys worked so hard and wjjw kept tryna push them to acting bye (some of them can’t act and literally don’t WANT TO ACT HHHSFLNF), wjjw is also horrible at letting all of the xnine members shine when as i mentioned before, they’re ALL TALENTED!!!! and then they just gave up on xnine somewhere in 2017-2018... ok anyway so is xnine disbanded? no although some may say their last concert in dec 2018 was their last concert ever they’re not disbanded

xiao zhan , gu jiacheng, and guo zifan went into acting

wu jiachang is focusing on his music etc (he was actually the first member of xnine i came across when i watched the collaboration/cyzj in 2018...yes carats this is That wu jiacheng!!!) MAN CAN SING

peng chuyue, zhao lei, xia zhiguang, yan xujia all went on produce camp 2019 (aNOTHER SURVIVAL SHOW BC THEY WANTED TO BE ON THE MF STAGE BC THATS WHY THEYRE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE WJJW) along w/ fellow labelmates zhou zhennan and zhai xiao wen ... and everyone but peng chuyue made it to the final 11 spots and got to debut in the group r1se...UNFORTUNATELY ALSO UNDER WJJW HELP SEND HELP

if they’re in r1se does that mean they quit xnine? no! they’re in both that’s just how survival shows work it’s kind of weird

peng chuyue recently released a song and it’s really good and you can’t not tell me that it’s gay here it is

anyway xnine hasn’t disbanded!! the X玖少年团 (xnine) in the non-r1se members’ weibo names say that loud n clear!!! and when the r1se members from xnine won produce camp 2019, they all made xnine signs SO XNINE IS ALIVE and they do keep in contact!!

why haven’t we seen blatant public interactions btwen xiao zhan and the xnine members? because some frickin annoying xz solo stans/xfx claim that the other members use xz for popularity (HELLO??????? IN WHAT WORLD DOES THAT MAKE SENSE HALF OF THEM R LITERALLY HIS KIDS BUT OK) 

anyway in conclusion wjjw doesn’t know how to promote any of their artists, thus screwing over xnine members and making them go on a group hiatus where they focus on acting/singing/r1se for r1se members but they are very much xnine as of now !!!

here’s some REALLY GOOD RESOURCES to follow xnine bc as an ifan it’s mf hard

-xnine slideshow

-xnine faq

-xnine eng sub channel by yuer

-all of that content i listed above was made/subbed by one person and she is the queen of uhh...xnine international fandom outreach (????) how do i word it but she’s been subbing and spreading xnine long before xiao zhan’s popularity skyrocketed so go follow her for updates and memes here

-xnine intl fanbase twt and tumblr

-and here’s this twt account with dumb pics of xnine because why not

also i’m pretty sure there’s a wip video explaining x9′s history being created (by yuer because queen) so when that’s posted i’ll rb this and post it here

also here’s this video dragging wjjw

[alexiaugustin]

Just wanted to say that even tho I became more of a skam blog by now one of the reasons why I created this blog in the first place was because I wanted to talk about mental health/ self love and all that stuff so this is something I will definitely go back to and blog more about from now on. If anyone ever needs help, needs someone to talk to even if you don't even have a particular problem but just wanna talk to someone or if u need advice (especially when it comes to toxic relationships/friendships it's probably the topic I know the most about and have some actual helpful advice for) but basically anything else is also okay, you can always dm me or send an anon message!!💞🌷 It will never not in a million years bother or annoy me and even if we've never talked before that's absolutely no problem either.

That being said I also need to take care of my own mental health some more and that means that Im definitely gonna be way less active after summer break. I've gotten so used to having so much time because of the whole corona virus lockdown situation and it honestly terrifies me that as soon as summer's over my life will go back to more or less normal and one of the most exhausting and difficult times of my life will begin and I won't have the time to be on my phone all day long anymore and I actually don't want to do that anyway. I'm not trying to sound dramatic or act like I'm so important that anyone would really miss me god no!! I just wanted to explain it now so nobody is gonna be worried or anything and it's not like I'm never gonna be on here anymore it doesn't take that much time to make and rb some posts and ofc I'm still gonna try to stay in touch with all the people I've met and consider my friends by now, just not as much as before and probably at more set times so I don't slip back into the endless cycle of endless time you can spend on tumblr jsjsjs. okay I'm really bad at writing this post but anyway summer break isn't even over yet so for now nothing even changes (except that I'm gonna be completely gone for the next two weeks now but that has nothing to do with the rest of this post jsjsj) okay bye and take care

Lots of love, Viv🌷💌

[voidselfshipp]

Jealous

Tw mentions of guns,slightly suggestive,mentions image issues.

Ok to rb

--i hate her--jerico said feeding her black cat,who was standing on her shoulder;The cat hissed,and Ate the sunflower seed cookie--and shes going to spend a whole day here?near sniper?MY sniper?

The car mewoed,and she rolled her eyes-- its not that I have something to envy her, vica,its just that, well, just compare the two damn things, like, she can fend off for herself.

Her familiar jumped to the floor,and rubbed their head on her legs,purring.

--I guess youre right--she grabbed her backpack and went outside the van, vica jumps on her shoulder then jumps again, transforming Into their crow form--I still dont wanna see her...

Jer jumps as soon as she steps foot in the shooting range. The loud bang scaring the living daylights out of her.

--La concha de tu madre!--she screams out of the sudden as the gun bangs again.

--Thats enough amelie--an aussie accent said,Jeri then felt a pair of arms hugging her--You alroight Sheila?

--Yeah im okay, it did scare me though, I thought you had put silencer on that rifle

--Yeah I did,Amelie did not ,anyway what are you doing here?

--just wanted to check up on you thats all

The french woman sunk a bit as jericos glares daggers at her, to then sit nearby them with her crow friend cawing.

Both snipers kept on practicing,Jers leg bounced rapidly, seeing how concentrated both were.

Her familiar pecked her cheek with their beak when they caught her picking at her skin,and as a way of saying 'dont be silly'.

Then they flew on her lap and transformed back into a black cat,gaining some scratching under their chin from her.

--Splendid shot sniper--the peace jeri had for a moment vanished as she saw Widow hand squeeze the aussies shoulder.

Vica hissed,widowmaker had a damn deatwish.

Though the old demons heart ached for their niece,insecurities got the best of her, and they did get it.

Someone as widow,skillfully trained,great sharpshooter,and a nice voice and accent, and a nice physique.

They did understand where it came from.

They sighed and stood up in two legs almost hugging jerico,who caressed their back.

She was also wonderful in her own way.

--Alroight--sniper said-lets take a breather--we're going to Grab somethin ta eat,you comin jerico?

--im alright dont worry

Jer saw him leave with widow behind him, and looked at the old weapons crate some centemeters away from where she was.

When was the last time she used that damn thing?.

Vica hissed, and shook their head--Ya dont need to go through all that trouble to show off--their british accent was a breeze of cold air, they've barely spoken these days-- if ya wanna use that rifle use it,but you dont have to show off, he still loves ya

Jer put her familiar aside and kicked Open the crate,taking her own custom rifle out, engie had built for her as a way of self denfese..

She held her breath and sighed,calming down the palpitations of her heart.

--Just like dad taught me....

One by one ,and fairly quickly the targets were shot down by her.

Feeling satisfied she put her rifle out, turning around at the sensation of being watched, and slightly jumping when she sees both sniper and WIDOWMAKER on the door.

--Oh you guys are back--she put the safety on the gun and put it back in the crate.

--yeah--sniper said-- anyway, enough slacking off

Both sharpshooters resumed their training.

Vica nibbled at jeris hem of her pants, she then grabbed her and her backpack,muttering a poor excuse of a goodbye wich wasnt heard by neither of her companions.

--i dont fucking get it!--Jerico said while punching the punching bag at the gym--what does she have that I dont?!--her Fist Landed two more punches and a couple of kicks by her legs--i get the fact that hes teaching her but fuck!

Vicas fur stands up as jer hits the bag with such sudden surge of magic that it sends it flying.

--Okay champ calm down--vica stretched,and in a cloud of dark they transformed into their human form,taking off their plague doctor mask.

--Im not calming down shes just!--jer is about to hit thin air when vica stops her.

--Just what?

--Shes just better than me!okay?! She has a nicer body!better skills than me!shes just...way better than me!

Tears started to form in the corner of her eyes, frustration,sadness? Maybe both.

Vica hugged her,caressing her hair--Jerico,dont say that!ya have way more skills than 'er,and by gods sake, jerico youre so pretty, you dont need to have her body to be pretty,do ya really think Mick would be into that?no! Hes into you ya idiot

They could still feel her rage seething,so she grabbed her hands and pressed them togheter--Youre Burning up

--Its not funny

--no,look at the floor,youre leaving burnt marks on the floor, I need ya to calm down

Jer sighed, exhaling a handfull of smoke,toning down her temperature.

--See? Good!

The rest of the day jerico stayed away,knowing that maybe she should take some distance, she didnt want to burn down the whole base because her feelings were running wild.

Sparring worked wonders for her.

--Can you Belive that shit?--sniper asked to widow--jerico pinned down a Man twice her size, how in gods name!

The french woman looked at poor soldier, who was headlocked into place.

--quite impressive, oui.

Jer sighed stretching her arms as she let soldier free--thanks for the practice soldier

--Dont mention It cupcake! You fight like a true american

Though sniper knew soldier wasnt interested in jerico at all it made his blood boil,suddenly he got up on the ring,vest off along with his hat.

--mick? What are you...?

--oi bet I can kick soldiers ass

Jer snorted,walking to him-- okay calm down, you Jelly snipes?

She felt like a hipocrite acting as if she wasnt jealous herself.

--'M not--

Jer smashed her lips against his, pinning Him against one of the rings corners, where his vest and hat were resting.

She then grabbed his hat and shoved it on his face.

He thanked the lord for that,his cheeks were Burning red.

--you little rascal!--He muttered under his breath as he saw jer get out of the ring with a proud smile, that was more directed to amelie than him.

When the day was almost ending,sniper invited jer to the shooting range,and dared her to make more points than amelie.

Both aussie and french woman knew it was rigged.

Widow was going to loose so jerico could get a peace of mind over the whole situation and leave her alone.

But boy.

Both, Specially sniper who has seen jerico shooting a gun less than five times, did not expect for her aim to be that good.

And he did not expect the growl she let out when she hit the moving target twenty meters from her,neither his cheeks turning even more red, as she drew her weapon,smiled showing those sharp canines, and growling.

--Mas suerte para la próxima,amelie...--she handed him his weapon and pat his back--so I win

--y yeah you do

Eventually widow left,and jerico is now sitting on the bases roof, playing her guitar with both of her familiars resting nearby.

Her digits pressed the notes on the neck of the guitar, her other hand strumming the strings.

Mick peeked through the trapdoor,softly walking towards her,enamored as her sweet voice sang a cheesy love song.

--H hey--he awkwardly says sitting besides her as jeri leaves her guitar aside, her hands now resting on her lap.

--Hey Mick..Whats up?

Sniper looked away--w were ya jealous of amelie earlier today?

She sighed,recoiling in herself--Yeah...sorry if it annoyed you..

Sniper snorted--didnt'cha see how red ya got me?, id ask ye to get jealous more often

Jer looked at him surprised before breaking into a fit of giggles, launching at him.

One of his hands grabbed his hat tight as he fell back first on the roof, his other hand holding her waist.

Her lips smashed against his, and her hands went under his shirt just to mess with him.

His cheeks turn bright red, and he starts to stutter.

--Payback!--jerico smiled smugly.

He hid his face with his hat and tried to make a coherent sentence.

He then heard her chuckle, and kiss his chin--te amo,Mick

--wot?

--i love you

--I love ye too jerico

She smiled helping him sit up,both staring at the other longinly, his arms hug her waist while her hands grip to his shirt, and he kisses her.

He May need to make her jealous more often if it meant theyd end up like that every time.