Steven 'Sharpteeth' Durante (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fingersandteeth) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
silph_co2020-02-22 08:40 pm
fingersandteeth) wrote in silph_co2020-02-22 08:40 pm
open up now (don't you think it's time?)
Who: Steven Durante + the other Rockets
Where: Goldenrod Rocket Base in the starter + Tyler's thread, Handsome Jack's place otherwise
When: Late February, immediately after the fossil heist + 10
Summary: Someone is having a quiet crisis following their very first heist! Also, fall-out from some personal revelations + meeting a new Rocket.
Rating: PG-13, with some threads going up to R in terms of language and conversational subjects.Anything too wicked goes to an inbox.
Steven Durante's quieter than usual on their way back from Dirk's Fossil Heist. He keeps looking at his hands. And when it comes to turning in the bag of fossils and collecting their rewards, he doesn't even bother asking if he, Connie, and the other Steve will get promotions from this.
Sure, when the time has come for them to claim their weird abomination fossils, he immediately jumps to claiming one the Pokedex claims is called a 'Dracozolt'--but otherwise, he seems unusually subdued. Something is definitely on his mind and has been since... well, even before Steve P and Connie caught up with him and Dirk.
Dirk might be able to hazard a guess as to what's bothering him. Anyone else probably has to ask.
Where: Goldenrod Rocket Base in the starter + Tyler's thread, Handsome Jack's place otherwise
When: Late February, immediately after the fossil heist + 10
Summary: Someone is having a quiet crisis following their very first heist! Also, fall-out from some personal revelations + meeting a new Rocket.
Rating: PG-13, with some threads going up to R in terms of language and conversational subjects.
Steven Durante's quieter than usual on their way back from Dirk's Fossil Heist. He keeps looking at his hands. And when it comes to turning in the bag of fossils and collecting their rewards, he doesn't even bother asking if he, Connie, and the other Steve will get promotions from this.
Sure, when the time has come for them to claim their weird abomination fossils, he immediately jumps to claiming one the Pokedex claims is called a 'Dracozolt'--but otherwise, he seems unusually subdued. Something is definitely on his mind and has been since... well, even before Steve P and Connie caught up with him and Dirk.
Dirk might be able to hazard a guess as to what's bothering him. Anyone else probably has to ask.
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"So fairies. The True Fae. When they get it into their heads that they want some humans for whatever, they go across the Hedge, kidnap a person, and drag them back to Fairyland. Sometimes they'll make a construct, a fetch, and wrap them in illusion magic and have them live the human's life for them in their absence. Sometimes they just don't bother.
"I was at a wrestling match. The EWW--Extreme Wrestling Warfare? They're... well. They're more violent than the WWE or the WWF. I guess that's why I liked them best. And they travel around sometimes, you know, and they came to San Diego and, like, El Diablo Verde was wrestling? El Diablo is... god, he's amazing. I've never seen his face--he's a real old-school lucha, you know, he never takes his mask off--but I've been a fan of his for... god, decades. He's been wrestling since I was a kid and he never seems to get any older. I had such a stupid crush on him back in middle school.
"And I thought... hey, I have this press pass, right? Maybe I can use it to meet El Diablo for real. Tell him everything he's meant to me. And okay, sure, there's this whole rumor in the fan community that he sometimes takes fans aside and makes out with them. That's... not an entirely insignificant part of my thought-processes. So I go and I wash my face paint off and I use the press pass to get backstage, but on the way to El Diablo's dressing room, I get stopped by this other guy in a mask. Kinda looks like El Santo, only gold. He says his name is El Pecador and he's been looking for someone like me.
"At that point. I black out. When I come to, I'm in this underground facility. Pretty much pitch dark, too. El Pecador tells me that this is his wrestling stable. But he doesn't want to make me a wrestler like everyone else he's kidnapped. No, he wants me to take care of them instead. Make sure they're eating and exercising. Supervise their training matches against each other.
"And we're down there for the next five years. I think that's how long it was. I tried to keep track. And that's what I do for the next five years. Take care of his wrestlers. In the dark. Except when he pulls us out for a match and everything is floodlights and the roaring of the crowds. And sometimes... sometimes he'll use me to fix a match.
"Because here's the thing, Jack. Being in Arcadia... it changes people. Like literally, it changes their bodies. It changes their souls. Going through the Hedge literally does that. The thorns leave all these gouges on your soul. And whatever the True Fae have you doing in Arcadia... it shapes you. El Pecador's wrestlers, they started to resemble their lucha masks. Wild beasts and scary-ass monsters, mainly, but there were others... guys that became made of rock or metal or fire or water. We have all sorts of names for the things we become.
"The kind I am... we're called Darklings." Steven drums his fingers on the table. "Because we come about from being kept in dark places for so long? I wasn't a luchador, so I didn't have anything for the changes to base themselves on like the others, so I became sort of this... more generic kind of ghoulish guy?
"But my eyes," he says, tapping a finger to the side of those wide hazel eyes, hidden as always behind his glasses. "They got slit pupils. Like a cat or a snake. Same color, still. And my ears, they got all long and pointed." And here he uses his thumb and forefinger to demonstrate the shape. "My teeth," he says, flashing Jack a dangerous grin. "Long and sharp and so many of them. Like a goddamn shark. And then, there were my fingers."
He holds his hands up. "I mean, they're still long, but that's nothing compared to how they used to be, Jack. I had an entire extra sent of finger joints. And it wasn't just how they looked. I could-- I could steal bits of people's energy, people's life force by touching them if I wanted. Or if El Pecador made me. Leechfingers, they call us. I'm not the only one that happened to."
He shakes his head. "Anyway. Eventually, some of the wrestlers staged a break-out and took me with them. And we lost about half of us on the way back, but somehow I was one of the ones that made it out. And the thing is... the way Arcadia changes you, it doesn't go away. Normal people can't see it, there's this illusion hiding it that we call the Mask, but other Changelings? Fae creatures in general? Yeah. They can see it. There's even ways to show it to other who wouldn't be able to see it otherwise. The Oath. Spending all your Glamour--uh, magic reserves--at once.
"So. Yeah. I'm a magic dude. Or I would be. I've got-- all these Contracts with various concepts that let me do magic things. Dreamwalking things mostly. That's how I would usually get Glamour, I'd go into people's dreams and gather it that way. And I've got some stuff that has to do with darkness too. Stuff that lets me protect the place I live and sneak around in the dark. Except it doesn't work here."
Steven shrugs. "But on the other hand, I can be myself here. Not just in the way we've been talking about, but. I can legally exist as Steven Durante again. Because there's no fake me taking my place."
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Way more than Jack had been expecting, but he really should have realized. This is a dude who likely doesn't get to talk about this shit, open up, bleed the wound. It's understandable. How many times had Jack unloaded on Tim, just pacing in the living room of the old house and bleeding his emotional wounds all over him. He gets it.
He wasn't prepared and could have done without plenty of that creative flavor, but at least it was a cool story.
"So...you basically look like a dangerous elf? Hot." Jack can dig that. Elves are hot, danger is hot, what's not to like? Plus magic. Magic is always awesome and he will absolutely demand to see some if he gets the chance.
"I mean sorry about the crazy luchador locking you in a dark basement like a mushroom or something, but...that shit happens." At least in Jack's world. Take out the magic and fairy aspects and he's pretty sure that's probably happened back home. And Steven got out, and is obviously basically fine now. He's not gonna spend too much time offering sympathy.
"And you know what they say...if it doesn't kill us, it just makes us stronger. You survived shit, be proud. See...this is what I mean! Look at you! You're a badass, powerful, tough dude who survived some shit plenty of people wouldn't. And that experience is a part of you, it's only made you stronger."
There is so much potential here!
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It's weird, but... Jack treating Steven's Durance as something perfectly normal if definitely awful is... well. Weirdly reassuring? Because it was awful, fucking awful, and it fucked Steven up-- but he'd have hated it if knowing had materially changed the way Jack saw him. Made him think he was more delicate than he really was. Someone to be coddled.
But of course it wouldn't. Jack understands this kind of shit. Jack always understands.
Steven smiles.
"But-- you're right. I did survive. I got through and I got out. And now I'm here. With you."
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"And now you are, and I'd say this is a damn good place for you to be. Look, I knock this world a lot, it's got a lot of things to knock and make fun of and be pissed off about. But...eh, I've met some people I'm glad I met and couldn't have otherwise, so it's got that."
And it gave him more time with Nisha, more time with Angel....oh. Yeah. He should probably mention his adult daughter at some point.
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He reaches over to run his fingers over Jack's knuckles.
"I guess that makes you our real Boss, huh?"
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Jack grins as he leans towards Steven.
"Back in the day, there were a lot of us. And god...we were good! Just a well oiled machine, hitting big targets like once a month..." He shakes his head. Those were long ago days by now.
"I'm the only one left, and for a friggin long time there weren't any other transplants. Just me. But we got some good kids in here now, there's a lotta potential, lotta potential! I think we can get back to that. I want to get back with that. Stick with me and we're gonna go far, Steven. And ya know I'll take way better care of you guys than the asshats running this show."
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Unless they do anything to indicate they are not, in fact, 'his' any longer. Then all bets are off. But Jack's pretty sure that's not something he has to worry about here. Sure, it'd dicier when a relationship is built on emotions, but...
Jack knows when someone's well on the way to being pretty devoted, and he's gonna just slide Steven on into that category. He flips his hand over to twine his fingers with the other man's, still grinning.
"And I'm especially gonna look after my boyfriend."
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He smiles. Lets his fingers trace over the line of Jack's collar. "Your boyfriend, huh. I think I like that better than 'night time fun buddy.'"
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Jack gives him a wink.
"A package deal." Which still surprises Jack, but he knows he probably shouldn't be at this point. He's Handsome Jack! Things work out for him. Sure, sometimes he has to put in the boring grind work, pay his dues, be patient....but it always pays off.
"Now how about we finish dinner and get ready for bed, huh?"
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