thingpuncher | @glavesworn.

So Midnighter spends the next week thinking about what an idiot he was. He bitches to Jason about it, about how that guy he was talking about was stringing him along, and he expects it to make him feel better, but it fucking doesn't. It just makes Midnighter feel more bitter, more betrayed, and more stupid for even feeling that way. Didn't Nyx say from the start, dates are all he could offer? Midnighter's the one who got his stupid fucking hopes up.

But the way Nyx had looked at him, on the couch or in his bed, the conversations they'd shared late at night, the way he'd held Midnighter's face in his hands... He'd thought, maybe, there was something more.

He'd been fucking wrong.

So he puts his energy into his job-- not that he'd been slacking-- and tries to ignore that fucking empty feeling. Any texts he receives from Nyx will get a brush-off; he's busy, can't talk right now, he's in the middle of something. In truth, Midnighter's just not ready to end it. He needs to. He just hasn't yet.

He waits until late at night, when he's lonely and sleepless and stewed in self pity, for the moment to finally feel right.

hey

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The giant snake- Gloria, she's got a name and he should use it- slithers right up to him, forked tongue flicking in his direction. Up close and personal like this, Nyx finds his shoulders relaxing, and he manages a quirked brow and a crooked smile as he looks up at her. There's curiosity in those golden eyes, intelligence in the tilt of her head and the flick of her tail, nothing at all like the bright-burning malevolence and hunger of the daemons he'd encountered before.

Coiling around him is-- unexpected, but Nyx laughs, looking up at Gloria and setting a gentle hand against her scaled flank.

"Hey, appreciate the thought but you don't need to worry about me. I'm a big boy, could kick his ass if I wanted to."

But it's more than that, isn't it? Whatever Midnighter had done in the past, where he came from, who he might have been, Nyx doesn't know. Doesn't care. All he knows is what they've got in the present, warm skin against skin, lazy mornings and kisses, a beer shared between the two of them. And more than that...

"I'm safe with Midnighter. He's a good man. One of the best I know."

If a snake can roll its eyes, Gloria just did. Still, she doesn't do a thing to hurt him, just moves her head forward to grab one of Nyx's knives out of its sheath. With a level of dexterity befitting a snake, she twirls it around in her mouth until the blade is over her tongue, and the hilt sticks out. She uses that to write in the dirt, an elegant hand in scrawling cursive.

That's all very well and good, but I have other concerns, and find you a far more trustworthy creature han the man who brought you here-- likely without giving you the full scope of the situation you were walking into! My freedom is to me paramount, after I wrenched it from the men I was sold to as an amusement. I do not believe for a second it will continue, should I go back to my creator with my-- excuse the metaphor-- tail between my legs.

Midnighter steps around the bulk of Gloria's scales, trying to get a look at the message for himself. "You really think I'm gonna let somebody put you in a cage?"

Gloria's eyes narrow. That is exactly what she thinks.

Nyx glances up, startled, as Gloria deftly plucks the kukri out of its sheath. The writing is even more impressive-- definitely better than anything he could've managed with his own blades, even if he has to peer over the bulk of her coils to read it. As for the message itself... it's true that Midnighter hadn't told him much about the mission, such that it was, before they'd headed out. But Nyx hadn't really cared-- after all, he trusts Midnighter, and he's used to getting thrown out on deployments with little in the way of details and a fuckton of MT's to mow down, so...

"Hey, don't worry. I'm used to getting info on an as-needed basis." He pats at Gloria's mottled black scales, smoothing a gentle hand along her body. "Besides, whatever the hell he says, I'm not gonna let anyone put you in a cage either. Not a gorgeous lady like yourself."

Said with a saucy wink, and all things considered that's a new one for him, flirting with a snake. But it's true. For all that Nyx barely knows anything about Gloria, he at least knows this much-- he sure as fuck isn't going to let anyone slap shackles on something- no, someone as magnificent and graceful as the serpent before them.

Gloria hunkers down around Nyx protectively, her hood extending over him a moment. I can see why he finds you charming. You're surprisingly kind, someone who willingly spends their time around a sociopath.

"Can you quit shittalking me when I'm right here?" Midnighter speaks up, standing in front of the words Gloria just wrote. "I'm not locking you away. The Gardener wants to see if she can put you in a human body, okay?"

Gloria rears back, dropping the kukri (which Midnighter catches handily) and begins to hiss.

Midnighter sighs. "Taking that as a no, then."

Charming and kind. Nyx snorts, amused by Gloria's assessment of him. Makes sense though, that a snake might know not all that much about people. As for Midnighter's proposal... it's crazy sounding, but it makes sense. Gloria's reaction, however, doesn't. Confused, Nyx glances up, his hand still on her flank.

"What's wrong with being human?"

Gloria just glares at Midnighter until he mutters, "oh," dumbly and hands the knife back. Same as before, Gloria scrawls out her answer, strokes angry and rushed, but still in an elegant hand.

Why must I change? Would you want to become a snake, if it were more convenient for others? I want no part in your grotesque bodily functions and sickening urges. I am fine enough as I am, and those who take issue with it are at odds with my nature, not I with theirs.

"Sooo, you wanna be the thing everybody thinks is a fucking monster, is what you're saying?"

Nyx gives Midnighter a look for his response, like come on. He's no diplomat, but even Nyx knows how to be more persuasive than that. His own response comes slow, a little uncertain, but now that he has an idea of what Midnighter wants to do... he's trying.

"I mean... guess if you put it that way, it's true. You're not wrong the way you are. But there're nice parts about being human too. Not just convenience, but... getting to talk to other people, that's a big part of it. Can go wherever you want-- get your fill of the city, live in the woods, by the beach, fly or drive, whatever. The food-- better than whatever you're eating, I bet. Crown City has dumplings like you wouldn't believe." Running out of ideas, he flounders a bit, casting a look over Gloria's smooth serpentine body. "Uh, roasting fish on a fire. Braiding another person's hair. Taking the prince's car out for a joyride. Having hands. Lots of good shit."

Another, longer pause, and he glances upward with a crooked smile.

"You don't get lonely out here?"

Gloria snorts. What would I know of loneliness, having never seen its alternative?

"Yeah, yeah, poor, pitiful you," Midnighter grumbles. "Like you've never eaten a person. Don't gimme that look, I know you have. And I know it was self defense, she had a gun, whatever. What I'm saying is, eventually, somebody's gonna come by who ain't as understanding about this shit as me. What then, Gloria?"

She deflates, slightly. I do not wish to be cut into again.

Nyx looks from Gloria to Midnighter and back, feeling increasingly out of place here. If he weren't still well wrapped in heavy black coils, he might have considered excusing himself and beating a quick retreat.

It's not awkwardness, not really; Midnighter had invited him here as backup, and he's not miffed at having nothing to add to the conversation, to diffuse the current of tension between the two of them. It's just... so personal, shared history and old pain, and Nyx realizes now that maybe he'd been a bit too hasty in offering Midnighter his help. After all, he's no good with emotional shit like this. Fuck, just look at the mess he'd made of their whole... everything.

But with all that being said, he's beginning to feel increasingly like maybe he should side with Gloria. Just what the hell was done to her anyway?

"Midnighter... who, no, what the hell is the Gardener?"

@glavesworn.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject