#Job Scraps
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wickedzeevyln · 2 years ago
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Beautiful City
Beautiful city, beautiful city dressed in stone and glass,where people sleep on cardboard boxes showered with spit from a dirty look of a man in suit, Beautiful city, beautiful city dressed in stone and glass,where people line up for scraps we know as jobs and promised a morsel of bread and the rest to for taxes, Beautiful city, beautiful city dressed in stone and glass,where potholes are like…
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radiance1 · 1 year ago
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Danny: Hey, I need you to be my boyfriend for a week.
Jason: What.
Danny: My parents are coming over and I've apparently accidentally talked about a partner more than once and only realized when they said they wanted to meet them.
Jason, currently still solidifying his power as a Crime Lord: Excuse me?
Danny: Let me get this out of the way, I do not consider you at all a person of romantical interest and a friend. But I need you to act as my partner for only a week until my parents go on their merry way over to my sister, okay?
Jason: Is there, quite literally, no one else to ask this?
Danny: You're my only friend who lives in Gotham, plus we share the same apartment.
Jason: That's almost sad.
Danny: You in?
Jason: Sure, why not.
===
Maddie: Danny, honey.
Danny: Yes mom?
Maddie: I don't mean to.... question, who you choose as your parent but. Well, me and your father was just wandering if he was a... [Maddie gestures with her hand] you know, one of those.
Danny, uncomprehendingly staring at his mother's hand: What.
Maddie: Oh dear, how do I bring this up. You know, one of those.
Danny: Mother I need more context.
Jack: If your boyfriend a crime lord!?
Maddie: Jack!
Jack: What? Beating around the bush wasn't helping!
Danny: Say WHAT?
===
Danny: Hey dude, thanks for helping with this even though you didn't need to!
Jason: No problem, I wasn't doing anything too [Crime Lord activities flash through his mind] important.
Danny: Can you believe my parents thought you were a crime lord though? Weird am I right?
Jason:
Danny: Jason. You are scaring me.
Jason: Haha, yea that's weird isn't it?
Danny: Jason.
Jason: Well, I have to leave now to attend to my totally real and totally not crime related job at the ice cream shop.
Danny: [Squints eyes]
Jason: [Internally sweating bullets]
Danny: Suuuuure, bring me back some ice cream though.
Jason: [Thumbs up and leaves]
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stickerclub2005 · 11 months ago
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Dinosaur Stickers from The Paper Magic Group - Unknown Year
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nhura · 10 months ago
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What's up guys I'm going to be a panelist at RATIOCON 2024 giving an improvised presentation on how silly and weird this guy is
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makanioverlord · 2 months ago
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me when the paper gfs
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lurking-loaf · 1 year ago
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Have you ever drawn and hidden little doodles of the DCA while at work?
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Just scribbled one or two during a moment of free time and tucked them someplace?
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There are now 19 of these silly things scattered around a 136 sq. ft (41.45 sq. m) space.
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The thing I'm unsure about is whether I gather them up or leave them for future employees to find when the time comes for me to move on from this job.
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iianian69 · 7 months ago
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those who know
(all characters [or things] are either characters i kin or am kinsidering)
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varreblogger · 5 months ago
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i’m going to be honest the real enemy is people who saw a grown adult man using feminine speech/mannerisms and were like oh well that means i have to draw him soooo thin and tiny and waifish. obviously
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mountaingutta · 3 days ago
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TFO Optimus Prime in TFP
Small excerpt from a fanfic I’ll probably never write.
For the first time in a very long while, Arcee met the sunrise on this Primus-forsaken planet in the middle of nowhere with the feeling that today was going to be a good day. How wrong she was. 
The day actually started off decently - the old wounds didn’t ache, they had enough energon to survive another couple of months without fearing starvation, and no one had been injured during recent patrols.
Even Optimus wasn’t exuding his usual level of melancholy, and Ratchet was—surprisingly—in a good mood. By Ratchet’s standards, at least. It looked like someone had taken advantage of the empty base last night and put that time to good use. Ew. Don’t think about how old bots spend their lonely evenings. Especially when it’s Ratchet and Optimus. That’s almost the same as imagining your creators in that situation.
In her lifetime, Arcee had never been 100% sure of anything. Well, maybe a few things. Airachnid was absolute evil. Starscream would sell his own carrier for a single shanix. The weird Old One who gave gifts to human sparklings in winter definitely ran a global spy network. And the universe loved to mess with their Prime.
That last statement always held true. Especially lately. The cursed planet they lived on was proof enough of that. Don’t think about the fact that you’re driving across Unicron the Destroyer, Devourer of Worlds, and the Primes’ most hated enemy.
It had rained overnight, so she gladly splashed the redheaded punk with a puddle while picking Jack up from school. Yep. The day was officially a success.
Right up until the moment a massive energy vortex appeared in the middle of the desert, scorched a rather noticeable mark into Nevada’s landscape, and then vanished leaving behind an unexpected guest.
As it turned out, it wasn’t just their universe that loved messing with their Optimus. All universes loved messing with every Optimus. 
How else do you explain yet another, much younger but equally miserable version of their glorious leader, now pacing around the base like a giant striped feline in one of those places where humans lock up animals and stare at them for entertainment. Barbaric. 
Although this Prime was much chattier.
“Brilliant! So, it all started out well. I was hoping we could talk to the fake Prime about the miners’ situation, but instead that slagging Darkwing…”
She looked at Bulkhead. Interesting start. And who’s Darkwing?
“Well, that part wasn’t too bad either — we ran into Bee down there, made it out, and went off looking for the Matrix. But of course, just when everything was going smoothly, Elita-1 decided to detain us, I got punched a couple times, then the train left without us and we ended up on Unicron’s horns, Primus knows how far from civilization, running from Quintessons and stumbling into a cave where the Primes had died.”
Whoa. Quintessons? In their world, those disgusting parasites were kicked out to the galactic backside long before it was even formed. Okay. So how do you punch someone who’s in a different universe? Judging by Bulkhead’s fists, he’s thinking the same thing. Good.
“But we managed to bring Alpha Trion out of stasis. Oh, it was starting to look like things were finally going our way. BUT — of course there’s a but. Turns out our current Prime is nothing more than a filthy impostor and traitor who sold us all to the Quintessons, murdered the Primes, and for fifty cursed vorns has been lying to the entire people and driving us all underground.”
Wow. Things were escalating fast. Optimus, their Optimus, had flinched strangely when the newcomer mentioned Alpha Trion. So, important information. Don’t forget. Hah, seems like the previous Optimus from another universe was even more of a jerk than theirs. Scrap, “Optimus from another universe” is way too long. Gotta come up with something shorter.
“And that’s not even all. We got tracked down, Alpha Trion was captured. Then we wandered through the jungle, and D started to seriously lose it. Then we got taken by the High Guard, led by Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave. And D’s processor just kept melting and melting—so naturally, he decided, ‘Hey, why not pick a fight with the leader of this elite army of hand-picked murderers personally trained by Megatronus.’”
OP 2.0? No. Mini-Optimus? Hah, he was taller than Buckethead from their universe. Definitely not ‘mini.’ Junior Prime? Prime Jr.? 
"And he took down. Oh, and on the bright side, we got the T-codes. So at least there’s that."
Wait, who beat what? And what’s this about T-codes? Bee seems to be okay… so why did Ratchet grab the scanner? 
"But then Sentinel’s guard found us again. That crazy spider-lady was with them. D and Be were taken along with part of the guard. I managed to talk the others into helping."
So Sentinel was the previous Prime? Hah, looks like that bot’s absolute slag no matter the universe. And Optimus is always stuck cleaning up after him and his damn administration. 
"I even rallied the miners to riot, stole a train, and Elita drove it straight into Sentinel’s tower. Then D totally lost it and went to kill Sentinel. Don’t get me wrong, I also wanted that scrap-eater to pay but I had a public trial planned. Where we could lay out every crime, every failure, spell it out for all of Cybertron to see what a pathetic blowhard he really was. And then deliver a public punishment no one would dare argue with."
Wow. That’s a lot to happen in one day. But they’d seen worse. Still… she couldn’t help but wonder if their Optimus had once planned something similar with the Senate before Megatron melted them all down for his throne. Optimus, as always, was a rock. 
But when she looked into his optics, and he didn’t look away. Scrap. He would’ve done something like that. Maybe… he had planned it. Wasn’t there a report, way back at the start of this whole mess, about the senators being placed under special guard?
How they weren’t allowed to leave the Senate building without the Prime’s permission and an escort? They said it was for the senators’ safety, but maybe they’d all underestimated the freshly appointed Prime.
“But no! We needed swift vengeance. And now I have to deal with Sentinel’s supporters trying to paint him as the first victim of a bloody Decepticon regime.”
Politics is a glitching piece of scrap.
“But wait, there's more - my best friend shot off part of my frame. And instead of pulling me up from the pit I was dangling over… he let go.”
For a moment, the silence was crushing. What the frag?! Arcee looked at every single person in the room at bots, at humans. No one spoke. Even Miko, who had been vibrating with excitement over the whole thing, froze and stared at the younger Prime in stunned disbelief. Ratchet’s servo visibly trembled. That didn’t happen often. Not unless Prime nearly died of Cybercystic Plague. Not unless Bee lost his T-gear. Not unless Bulkhead nearly flatlined forever. Not unless Cliff...No. Not now.
“And I was just soaring off to meet Primus. But no, you haven’t suffered enough yet, Orion Pax. Here’s the Matrix of Leadership now go fix all the scrap we and our treacherous successor left behind.”
Now, he truly resembled their Optimus. That familiar aura of melancholy and unspoken pain cloaked him. Broad shoulders hunched as if they bore the weight of the entire world. It was painfully familiar. Their Optimus had always been a rock amidst the chaos that was their life. But even rocks crumble with time. She wondered...Would this other Prime become such a rock for his own bots? Or would he break long before?
“So now I’ve got several planetary-level crises and a few global ones, and I’m stuck in another universe while my own world is circling the pit.”
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burirammin · 9 months ago
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WIP ⚠️ 🚧
this is 1/3 crop of the og drawing. gonna go fuck around with color and composition for the next week (or maybe more who knows) so please have this :)
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Bonus : Logos time laspe!!
The most enjoyable part of it all if you ask me. Weirdly therapeutic. (also the only part that could work as a video because the others are pure CHAOS)
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beautifulscreaminglady · 27 days ago
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Okay but we need to talk about Sophie staying in a penthouse in Manhattan with what's his face. Sophie Devereaux girl I love you but why are you paying for this entire trip yourself?! I know he's not contributing anything. That man has no money, I don't care how many jobs he has.
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candkneecorn · 1 month ago
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can you plushify scap. scrap. or carl
i’ve already run out of steam holy shit that was fast
anyways: Your Crap, M’ Lord.
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tategaminu · 2 months ago
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I have two best friends in real life and the three of used to be very close. However as home and studies moved we grew apart. It doesn't seem the two talk to each other much and I barely talk to them. We live 15 minutes apart yet I will be lucky if we see each other once a month. They don't really tell me about their stuff anymore (the grandpa of one of them died months ago and I found out the other day)‚ we don't hang out on birthdays or special ocasions‚ I feel like I'm bothering them if I talk first.
They want me in my life if after years we are still friends but it doesn't feel like I have someone close to share my interests with anymore. They both have their boyfriends and I'm happy they got a close partner but it's sad to see you aren't as important to someone as you used to be. I don't think calling them my best friends feels right anymore. Closest friends maybe.
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dandelionjack · 4 months ago
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andor s1e10 one way out / disco elysium / doctor who s10e12 the doctor falls
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mc-tums-fog · 2 months ago
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Under The Desert Sky
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Pairing: Elliott Marston x GN! Reader
Chapter II: When Clusters of Stars Tell Stories
Chapter Summary: Every action has a reaction, that’s what you were taught at a young age. You just never figured your actions would cause Elliott Marston to have this kind of reaction.
Content Warnings For This Chapter: Period-Typical Racism (Mentions against the Aboriginal people and Native Americans)
Notes:
Wrote this chapter immediately after the first, and was proud with it initially. But now I'm not too sure. Did some minor rewrites but still, not too sure. I think that's just me second guessing myself, plus figuring out the exact order of events for the next chapters. I'm trying to trust the process gang.
Read on Ao3 or below the cut:
It took you about a week since the conversation between you and Elliott to notice a pattern and figure out what the catch was.
No, he didn’t lower your pay. Come payment day you found that it was the same as in the last two weeks. No, the workload hadn’t suddenly increased. It was like the other times, and you had already gotten used to it at this point. No, the men didn’t try their luck with getting back at you somehow. Comments and looks here and there, but it didn’t seem like they were going to carry out anything big. The only notable difference was how Coogan did his best to not talk to you, when he could help it. Not like you were complaining.
But maybe some of those things would have been more preferable. Because when you realize what the catch was, how minor and inconvenient it would be to others, it quickly spiraled your mind with questions that had no answers to them.
Elliott Marston would take any opportunity that he saw fit to interact with you in some way.
The first two days, you paid no mind and thought it was even reasonable. You had gotten into a fight with one of his men after all. You figured this was just his way of making sure it didn’t happen again, or to show you “who was boss”. On these first two days, he was observing you more often than he had previously. Even coming up to you to talk about the work you were doing and going to be doing. This was something he did during the first few days of working for him, where he was directing you, but then he made his men give you orders after some time. If it was just this, you probably would have brushed it off.
But the third and fourth day was when you started to question his behavior. Sure, he’d watch you from afar, come up to speak about the work, same as before. But then there would be a few times throughout the day that he’d just… started talking to you.
At first, you thought he was just mulling to himself aloud. You never really caught into it on the third day, with being focused on your work. It was the fourth when you noted he said something when you walked by him to do another one of your tasks. You paid it no mind. It wasn’t until you had walked past him again a second time that you completely registered that he was talking to you. Not to himself . To you . And only then did you register how irregular that was. In the past, if you happened to walk by him, he wouldn’t say anything. Just a quick look and go back to whatever he was doing. Unless the heat was really getting to you, you never recalled him doing this before.
“I’m sorry, did you need me to do something?” You weren’t exactly kind in your tone like you were previously whenever you asked that question, in case you didn’t hear one of the workers on the ranch talk to you the first time. So, you figured he wanted you to do something, and you didn’t realize since you were so focused.
From his front porch leaning on one of his pillars, he studied you for a moment. Once again wearing that unreadable expression, which was even harder to see under his hat.
“You don’t seem to pay much attention to your surroundings when working.”
You didn’t know what to make of that… statement? It didn’t sound like a question, but you weren’t sure what kind of observation that was, besides an obvious one.
“I pay attention when something or someone needs my attention.” Was all you could offer, wanting to end the conversation soon.
“From what I was told, it seemed like the men didn’t need your attention when talking among themselves earlier this week.”
You didn’t even try to hide your annoyance when he said that.
“I was giving the two Aboriginal women you have on your grounds attention. He only got my full attention after his comments about my family,” You wiped off some of the dirt that had been forming on your clothes. Not like it mattered; they would get dirty again. “Was that all, or may I get back to work?”
Was it a bit stupid and dangerous to give him mouth even after he was gracious with allowing you to stay? Sure. But you couldn’t really give a damn. You wanted to earn your paycheck, and the sooner you could get through the days, the sooner you’d get it.
You expected him to continue on whatever else he had on his mind just to irritate you and regain control of the situation. Instead, he gave a quick, dismissive nod. And so, you left, wanting to put that interaction aside and focus on what you had left to do.
But it didn’t stop with that. From the fourth and fifth day he continued to do this every time you walked by him. He was still doing his previous routine of watching you from afar and coming up to you directly to tell you what to do. But now he would add these small comments if you happened to be nearby while doing your work. It wasn’t even about the fight at that point. He would make comments about anything. The particular gun he carried in his holster that day. Deserters that were still on the loose. The Australian land in general.
You gave curt replies because you just wanted to stay focused on your work. But even with the small amount of replies you did give he would somehow make do and continue on with whatever he was going on about. And not totally wanting to push your luck into waving him off without the risk of your job security, you decided to listen. You figured, if he was the one to initiate the conversation in the first place, then he shouldn’t be mad if hardly any work managed to get done that day. Plus, he was always on his porch when talking, and if the sun was angled right and you were standing in the correct position, the shade would cover you up. So more for your benefit, you listened.
…Admittedly, you found some of his topics interesting to listen to. In some ways that statement on being a student was correct. He sounded intelligent with what he had to say. Whenever he talked about America, he was correct on a number of things. But some areas you knew he wasn’t.
And maybe it was a mistake on your part for the following events that would occur, but you decided to contest the stuff he was wrong about on the fifth day.
“The tribes did uphold those treaty deals.” You said in response to how America would often negotiate treaties among the different tribal groups. “The only reason some of them were broken was because the army kept infesting their lands.”
He must’ve not expected you to say anything at all that weren’t just replies to end the conversation, as he looked at you with just a hint of being surprised.
“Where did you hear that nonsense?”
“That nonsense ,” You gave him a look. “I witnessed. When working on one of the farms in America the owner became close with one of the tribes nearby. They would make trades, giving them crops for some herbal medicine for his animals that got sick.”
You leaned one of those pillars facing more away from Elliott, who had been sitting nearby on a chair.
“The head of that tribe would come and talk about a treaty that had been going on that the military kept breaking. He wanted the farms’ owner to be a witness to one of these meetings, and I came along as I would often be the one making the deliveries to the camp.”
You shook your head as you looked down. You hadn’t noticed that Elliott stopped what he’d been doing, cleaning his gun, and gave his full attention to you.
“Didn’t matter though. The military didn’t listen to our testimonies of our firsthand accounts, where we knew they didn’t break it. They were disrespectful the whole time. The tribe was forced to move once the military took over it. Then the farm went to shit because they couldn’t get the medicine for the animals.”
You thought about the farmer and the tribe’s leader. You hoped they, and their families were doing good while you were down here. It was never easy for you to make connections with other people, with how they treated your parents. But they were one of the few that showed kindness to your troubles.
“The owner of the farm never got help from the military?”
You looked over at Elliott. For once, you could hear just the slightest indication of an emotion that wasn’t stern. He sounded like he cared about whatever happened to him.
You snapped out of that observation and shrugged. “Sometimes they tried to provide some medicine, with the exchange of us giving them some crops. But it didn’t work as well as the herbal medicine, so he stopped dealing with them all together. Didn’t make the army men happy but I don’t think he really cared all that much.”
He looked down, his brows furrowing a bit to the point where you could see a line forming between them. It was an indication he was in thought of the story you told. You noticed how he would often do this, trying to dissect and think about what it was people had said to him, and particularly with you. In a strange way, you found this… respectable, was the best your compliment for him was going to get. Most people don’t take the time to fully process what they or others say to them. Unless it was in the heat of the moment when he was having a quick and rushed discussion, he still took the time to consider what he was going to say, or what others said.
And you realized it wasn’t just in his words that he did this. You realized how he would do this for his actions. The way he moved had a certain precision about it. Even in a frazzled state that you would sometimes see him in there was still somehow an air of thought that surrounded his movements. You could see how he became a ranch owner and a skilled gunslinger; with the few times you saw him using his gun before. It made sense. In his line of work, he couldn’t afford to be careless.
You hadn’t realized how you were staring intently at him mulling this over until one of his men called you over for help getting control over a wild horse they found and wanted to tame. You blinked as you looked over, and quickly rushed from down the porch, wincing a bit as your ribs were still in pain. You must’ve spent too long in the shade because you instantly felt your face heat up as you jogged away from the porch and into the sunlight.
The sixth day followed this similar format, where he would talk to you by his porch when you were nearby. Whenever you did, something about it made you feel like you could challenge him a bit more. And for whatever reason, he allowed it, and would challenge you back. In this back and forth you would learn a few things more about his country and him with yours. He would learn about the city life you had, and he would talk about the ranch life. You didn’t know what to make of these conversations after the first few times.
And you found yourself doing something you hadn’t expected yourself to do at the start of the seventh day.
You made conversation with him first.
It was early enough in the morning, and you were already getting ahead in some areas, thanks to working a bit longer in the evening prior. You put some water on your face and noted Elliott leaving his home to check on his horse. He did this every morning, he never wanted anyone else to take care of his steed, Maverick as he called him.
But as he was walking down the steps and to the stables, you felt like his appearance was off. You couldn’t pinpoint how though. From where you were standing you were a great distance away from him, but even so, you could still tell something wasn’t right. As the sun got a bit higher, casting more light onto the ranch, and onto him, it suddenly hit you.
He wasn’t wearing all black attire. His vest was a deeper shade of a maroon.
You tried to think if he always had a vest like that. With how busy you were with your tasks, you could never really look at him all that much, other than when he was talking to you. Or when you could catch some conversations between him and his men. But at those times you could only recall him wearing something black. Sometimes it was a full black coat with a vest and white button up to contrast it. Other times it was just his black vest and white button up. Rarely did you ever see him without a vest. If he did always have this one, you never noticed until now.
So, you felt like you had to make a comment on it. It was rational to you. Besides, you already had to go and feed the animals that were close by anyway.
When you walked by carrying the scraps for the livestock while he was still tending to his horse, you said something.
“I thought you only dressed like the grim reaper.”
He stopped brushing his horse’s hair and looked over at you. His look of confusion was clear as day. You clarified as you kept feeding the animals.
“I didn’t think you even liked any other color other than black is what I mean.”
He took note of his vest now and seemed to ponder further with what you said.
“I’ve worn this vest before.” He replied.
“Well, I’ve only seen you wear black. I never noticed this vest.”
“Really.”
You didn’t catch how he didn’t frame it as a question, or how thoughtful he sounded. You were more focused on the idea that he could like other things, how implausible that seemed.
“I’m not sure how you could mostly wear black, when the sun is so damn hot.” You said it more to yourself than to him, trying to rationalize a common thought you had about his choice of clothing aloud.
“It’s proper attire that suits my character well.”
“For a funeral maybe.”
You didn’t realize how much you had gone back and forth on this singular topic on something so small. You didn’t even realize that as you were working, he would follow you to finish this conversation. Which delved into a conversation on what you liked to wear, which was whatever was practical, you were never too picky growing up. That led to him rationalizing that his clothing was practical in getting to his weaponry quickly. That led you to asking about what shooting a gun was like, and him explaining how even being an expert he still found himself closing his eyes as a reaction whenever it went off. Which made you think about the times that you did see him use his gun, and he was right.
Throughout the morning it went like this, him following you around with you never phasing in doing your work. At times he would need to leave and would excuse himself. But then he’d get back right to wherever the two of you left off. By midday you didn’t realize how exhausted you were. A bit odd, since you’ve never gotten tired this quickly before. By the afternoon, when it was time to send out letters by one of the workers who were already going into town for a supply run, he let you know the payment you were sending to your family and gave you the leftover percentage to you personally. Noting it was the same, you were going to help the rest of the workers in loading up some crates for their journey. But before you could, Elliott stopped you and told you to get into some shade because the last thing he wanted was to drag another worker out of the sun.
You didn’t realize this was the first time he allowed you to have a break. Because if you did, it would’ve been a bigger deal. But you were exhausted. So, you went to the lodge and crashed out for some time.
Upon waking up, you could see that the sun had started to go down. You tried to get your bearings on why you went to bed earlier than usual when you could hear two men talking outside to each other, as one of the windows was partially open. They seemed like they were in the middle of a conversation when they came near the lodge.
“-y arm must’ve pulled something when carrying the crates,” The voice, you could recognize to be Dobkin, groaned. “Should’ve gotten the rookie to do it.”
You immediately knew he was talking about you. He’d called you that before, with how you were one of the newer workers for the ranch, despite now being here for a couple of months. You were about to ignore it when the other voice, you placed to be O’Flynn, spoke next.
“If you did, you’d be cuttin’ into Mr. Martson’s ‘buddy’ time.” He snickered.
You perked up at that. What did he mean by “buddy time”?
“If the rookie has time to be talking with Mr. Marston, then the rookie can take the time to actually do some work.”
You had been doing work. That’s all you have been doing for these past few months. In your still tired state, you wondered why he would even phrase it like that.
“You think it’s odd too, right? How they talk to each other?” O’Flynn asked. “I mean, that weasel beats the shit out of Coogan, and Mr. Marston doesn’t do anything about it.”
“It’s none of my business what Mr. Marston decides to do.” Dobkin responded back. He groaned again. “Christ this arm. Let’s go find a bottle.”
“All I’m saying is,” O’Flynn said as Dobkin’s footsteps were walking away. “Either Mr. Marston is planning a proper funeral or a wedding.”
Their voices grew distant, and you thought about what they said. You knew O’Flynn was just being a little shit saying that last part. But your conversations with Elliott did give you a pause. You really thought about it for a moment as you laid on the cot, looking up at the ceiling.
The past few days he had been observing you more and interacting with you. He sought you out to talk to you, as if he wanted to. And you realized that didn’t make any sense. Here you are working at his ranch even after beating up a man and not holding back when speaking either. How was it that you were still standing and breathing even? As best as you could with your ribs.
And more importantly, you had engaged with him back. You talked with him. Today you even talked to him first. Why?
You rubbed your eyes, your face not hurting as much when you touched it. It didn’t make sense to you. His behavior toward you and yours to him. You tried to rest further. But as the others would come in and rest as well, as much as you closed your eyes, it was hard to sleep with the lingering questions still in your mind. It had gotten well into the night, but you decided that you couldn’t sleep and put on your work outfit just so you had something warm to be in when outside.
You went back to the spot you were at the last time you gazed at the stars, only you stood up this time, as if it would get you closer to them.
They were still as beautiful as ever. And while they brought you a sense of comfort, they couldn’t answer any of the questions you had. But even if they could, it’s not like they would know what to do in your shoes anyway. They could just be there to listen, and you figured that satisfied you enough. That, and you could simply appreciate their beauty.
It amazed you on what you’d missed out on. It was the one thing you could give Australia credit for. You’ve never seen anything like this. You didn’t even think you would ever see something like this.
You stood there, for how long you weren’t sure, just basking in the starlight. You thought about making this a thing to do every night, just looking at the stars. Though you worried it would end up losing its beauty, if you had too much of one good thing. Suddenly, your ears picked up the precise footsteps coming from behind. You could easily recognize them, and it brought you back to your dilemma and questions.
Like last time, he took the place by your left, only not as towering as he was when you were sitting down like before. Upon leaning his arms on the fence’s wooden planks, he nodded to himself in satisfaction. Then he looked out to where you had been looking, right at the stars.
He didn’t rush to say anything like he had when this first happened. He took the time to let the quiet set back in before he could break it. Which of course, he did eventually.
“You know, I’m not paying you to stargaze.” He spoke.
Of course he had to act like this was above him too.
“I’m not telling you to.” You replied back, not even looking at him.
“You couldn’t tell me what you could get paid for any-” He started to go on before you cut him off. You decided that the only way you were going to get answers to your questions was from him.
“Why have you been trying to talk to me?”
He seemed to act like this was the first time you were blunt with him, as if you hadn’t been talking to him bluntly ever since last week. It annoyed you even more. So you made that clear. 
“Don’t act like you don’t get why this confuses me. You’re smarter than that. I beat up one of your men, I talked back to you when you tried to talk to me about it. And even if this was to just uphold a deal with my cousin, you still go out of your way to try to talk to me when neither of us have any reason to.” 
You finally looked over to him. “Why?”
He didn’t say anything at first. Despite being in the dark, without his hat on, and being about three feet from him, you could make out his face. Once again, he kept studying you and seemed to be contemplating what he was going to say next. He turned his head back to the stars and seemed to be contemplating them as well. Like the answer was up there.
You didn’t sense any heaviness in the silence like the last time you both talked under the stars. You’d almost call it peaceful. At least, there were no warning signs yet of anything dangerous to come. So, you waited. And eventually he spoke.
“My mother used to talk about how the stars told stories.”
You gave him a quizzical look.
He must’ve seen your reaction, because he let out a very light chuckle. You realized then that this was the first time you heard any kind of laughter coming out of him. Or even a broader smile than his cocky smirk he would have on from time to time.
“Sounds completely ridiculous right? But she wasn’t wrong. Certain stars have formations that if you really looked closely enough with the right materials, you could see them. They’re called constellations. Each one relates back to a character in a story rooted in Greek mythology.”
You looked back up to the sky. Personally, you couldn’t see anything distinct about them, besides that they were all beautiful. You saw some clusters that were brighter than others, sure. Nothing that told you a story though.
“I always found that interesting,” He continued. “That if you observed and interacted with the stars long enough, they would tell you a story.”
He looked over at you, causing you to look over to him as well.
“I would like to know yours. And I hope you’d like to know mine.”
It was the first time he said anything like it was an offer, rather than a demand. Like he was giving you a say in the matter. And it was said in the same tone that you briefly caught when claiming that you didn’t have the right to make that judgement about how he wasn’t better than anyone. 
It sounded like sincerity, if you had to give it a name.
You had already thought he knew enough, what he needed to know before hiring you. That your family was in financial trouble, and you were the only one who could work and could do the work well. That was it, the gist of what your cousin said, though including more of the circumstances on why you were the only one working. You didn’t even think he wanted to know more. But you also found yourself more focused on the latter half of what he said. How he hoped you would get to know him.
And you really hadn’t thought you would want to get to know him more. Why would you? You felt like he made his character and who he was pretty clear.
But then again…
You realized just how much you were engaging back with him. The details you remembered about these past conversations between the two of you. You talked to him more within the past week than you had within the past months since you’ve been here.
Did you want to get to know him more?
Something about that question made your heart miss a beat. But you couldn’t explain why.
You looked back up to the stars. Like they would have an answer for you. Something. Anything. You tried to clear your head and with whatever thought popped up, whatever your gut instincts were telling you, you would go with it. You couldn’t see how your choice would screw you over if he was giving you the option.
And so, after taking a moment, that’s what you did. You went with whatever came to your mind first. With the stars being witnesses to it.
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rossdibuja · 3 months ago
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Hmmm... 🤔
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