#PLEASE BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THE CONTEXT WITH A STEEL BAT

[amiracleilluminated]

[nightingaelic]

Companions react to the Courier doing the Infinite Money Glitch in casinos.

I had to look this up, OP, and then I had to conceptualize how this would even work in a storytelling context and write it, anyway I hope you're pleased with yourself because my brain feels like a stack of used sandpaper sheets

The courier had been saving up caps for a while, stashing them in odd places around the Lucky 38. Everywhere you looked there were bottle caps: Dresser drawers in the Presidential Suite, empty ice buckets in the cocktail lounge, in jars on every shelf in the penthouse. Saving up caps for big purchases was pretty common behavior in the Mojave wasteland for anyone, so no one batted an eye when the courier assembled all of the stashes on the carpeted floor of the casino and started counting them out, checking six times before stringing them together in batches of 50 and writing down the final total: 32,768.

No, no one so much as blinked when they lugged all 656 strings of caps out the door of the Lucky 38. No one, that is, except the lucky soul who went with them, saw them exchange all the caps for chips at The Tops Casino, then drop the chips in the back of The Aces theater during Bruce Isaac's set and return to the cashier to collect triple the amount of money they walked in with.

Arcade Gannon: Arcade cringed as the courier struggled to drag the haul of caps out the door of The Tops. The jingle of the cap strings was attracting the attention of just about everyone on the Strip, and someone across the street yelled "High roller!"

"This can't be legal," Arcade said.

"Since when..." the courier huffed and puffed, throwing cap strings over their shoulder carelessly, "... do you give a mole rat's ass about legality?"

"What is this?!?" Arcade hissed incredulously, gesturing to the jingling pile. "Is that cashier paying you off? Are those chips the currency for some wasteland tribe I've never heard of, but somehow have a better exchange rate than the NCR does? Did I just witness a payout for a hit on someone?"

The courier sighed and paused to pat the scientist on the shoulder. "Just don't think about it too hard, okay? Now help me out with this, we're going to Doctor Usanagi's to get me tricked out with as many implants as she has on hand."

Craig Boone: While the courier jingled their way across the Strip asphalt, Boone couldn't help noticing the number of eyes turning their way to stare at the enormous payout they were openly carrying. New Vegas was already a town that kept on trucking if its very creator was killed, that was certain: It wouldn't even pause if its latest mastermind was gunned down over a fortune in steel and aluminum crowns. Boone clutched his rifle close and met as many of the curious and envious stares as he could, his own eyes burning protectively behind his sunglasses.

They managed to get all the way back to the Lucky 38 before the courier stopped and spoke to him. "Nothing? Not even a guess about what this is from?"

Boone shrugged. "None of my business. Just don't carry it all at once again. Ever."

Lily Bowen: "Did you win, dearie?" Lily asked, confused. As far as she had noticed, the courier hadn't approached any of the blackjack tables, roulette wheels or slot machines.

"Yeah, Lily." The courier grinned and started handing her strings of caps to carry. "What do you want to spend your winnings on?"

"My winnings?" Lily shook her head. "Now now, pumpkin. You won fair and square, so you get to choose what you buy."

"My treat," the courier insisted. "Anything at all. We could go to the Gourmand for dinner, we could donate to the Followers in Freeside, we could get singing and dancing lessons from the King... what do you want?"

Lily thought for a moment, wracking her brains. "Brahmin for Jacobstown."

The courier looked at her quizzically. "Brahmin? Not bighorners?"

"Brahmin," Lily confirmed, shouldering the strings upon strings of caps. "Bighorners at Jacobstown will make more bighorners, but they have no brahmin. Brahmin are sweet, easier to handle. But no one will sell brahmin to nightkin."

"Okay." The courier nodded. "Then we have to go to the Gourmand for dinner anyway. I know a guy at the Ultra-Luxe who might help."

Raul Alfonso Tejada: "Dios mío," Raul muttered under his breath. "Who did you kill for the Chairmen? They finally paying you back for getting rid of Benny?"

"Pfft." The courier waved him off, dropping a few strings of caps as they did. "Whoops. Help me out here, and I'll buy you a drink."

"A drink?" Raul laughed. "Not the whole bar? You could probably convince the Garret twins to retire if you gave them half of this haul."

"And why the hell would I want to take over the Atomic Wrangler?" The courier shook their head as they loaded the old ghoul up with caps. "I already have one casino I'm incapable of running. The only customers I get are you and the other Mojave misfits."

Raul grinned. "Hey, you invited us in, amigo. We're just the only ones loco enough to ignore the robots and take you up on it."

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Oh, sweet squirrel stew." Cass' eyes were as big as the dinner plates in the casino's restaurant. "That's enough change to buy the Van Graffs out of business. That's enough change to tell Alice McLafferty to stick it where the sun don't shine, then back it up with enough muscle to scare her out of the Mojave."

The courier nodded and started handing her strings of caps. "It is also enough change to start funding her competitors and drive her out of New Vegas."

"Now you're talkin'." Cass smirked and accepted the extra weight. "So who're we gonna back? Far Go? The Water Merchants? Gun Runners?"

"Actually..." the courier smiled. "A little birdie told me that the Mojave Express is looking to expand its horizons. Start offering goods in addition to services. And you know me, I like to root for the home team when I can."

Cass laughed. "Well that's a surprise. You plannin' on playin' courier again? Get yourself shot in the head a second time?"

"Not if I can help it."

Veronica Santangelo: "Uhhhh, Six?" Veronica crossed her arms. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to stir up trouble for a bit after the adventure at the dam. This screams 'trouble' to me."

"Aw, lighten up Veronica." The courier winked at her and handed her a string of caps, like a consolation prize. "We're in a casino. The odds aren't in your favor, but at least you can have fun for a bit."

Veronica turned the offering down. "Math may not have been my strongest subject when I was in school, but I do know that 30,000 minus 30,000 does not equal 90,000, under any normal odds. What are you getting yourself- and more importantly, me- into?"

The courier sighed. "It's nothing. Just a little loophole I discovered when I was poking around after Benny's disappearance. I promise, we're not going to get knifed, unless we get waylaid in the street on the way home because I'm too weighed down to move."

Veronica narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I don't trust this," she said after a few beats, "But I'm also not keen to see you try to fight off a mugger while buried under all those caps. Give me some of that."

ED-E: The eyebot beeped, confused, when the courier stopped it from picking up the chips again. Its beeps increased in volume and frequency as they loaded the little bot up with caps at the cashier's counter, until it was hanging low in the air and having trouble turning around from the increased weight. The courier patted its metal dome reassuringly and loaded up the rest of the haul on themselves, until each step they took sounded like a cascade of sleigh bells.

"Back to the Lucky 38," the courier said, pointing toward the casino door. "I've got a bet I need to settle with Raul."

Rex: Rex whined as the courier hung strings of caps off his back. He sniffed each new addition but stood tall on his metal legs, taking the extra weight admirably until he was virtually buried by the wasteland currency.

"Can you still walk, boy?" the courier asked, when they had lightened their own load.

Rex barked. Satisfied, the courier led the way to the exit, opening the casino door with a jingle and ignoring the strange looks they were getting. The two waddled their way to the Strip's main gate and down the main street of Freeside until they staggered into the King's School of Impersonation.

The King, who had been lounging inside the stage room, jumped up when he saw the pair. "Well ain't that some money, honey," he said, clearly delighted. "You actually went and did it."

"Yep." The courier dropped some strings of caps on the nearest table and leaned over it to rest. "There it is. Now, where do we get started on fixing up Freeside?"

[lookatthisdork]

First Impressions: Harper Row

Pursuant of my long-term goal to write more about my AU-meta Where are the grandkids?, I decided to track down and read some of the New 52 canon of Harper + Cullen Row and Duke Thomas. Immediately after starting this quest, I realized that for my own sanity, I simply MUST write about why Harper Row bothers me. Because I actually LIKE the character, but I HATE the context she appears in.

I’ve read a max of ten issues with Harper, which is why this is titled First Impressions, not Final Judgement. If you don’t agree with me, cool. If you agree with me, also cool.

(Warning: this post is really really long.)

The first time Harper (named) appears is in the Court of Owls arc, saving Batman’s life. She is entirely unfamiliar to the viewers, but Batman knows her and tells her “I told you once already, leave me alone. I meant it.” Her name is dropped by Harper herself who, after Bruce storms off, says:

Ignoring my immediate cringe at “epic bat-fail”, this is a weird introduction. This had me going back to google, convinced that I had the comic order wrong. But no, this is Harper’s first named appearance. For some reason. (In media res is going to kill me one day.)

(She has a cameo in the first New 52 Batman issue, but lord knows she’s not recognizable without hindsight. This is her)

The next time she shows up in Batman #12, we actually confirm her hairstyle changed between her last two appearances via flashback. We also get a proper origin as well as an intro for her brother Cullen.

Two things here: 1) Harper focuses a lot on providing for Cullen, who would instead like his sister to chill out and live a little; and 2) Cullen would like to win the heart of Tim Drake. (+1 canon points for Cullen/Tim, if anyone ships that)

Harper goes to a Wayne gala, stuffs her bag with pastries, and chats with Alfred (who recommends she take some brownies, gosh I really love Alfred). She’s super skeptical about the Wayne development that’s going to replace her current apartment building because she doubts Bruce has even set foot in a neighborhood like hers, let alone knows enough to not screw them all over.

She comes home to find some people broke into her apartment, beat her brother and shaved “FAG” in the back of his hair. Which, wow, fuck his unnamed assailants. Cullen’s hair is pretty much unsalvageable, so Harper cuts her own hair to match in solidarity.

Harper has nerves and a spine of steel. 

We find out that Harper is emancipated from her abusive dad, her mom is dead, and she works as an electrical engineer (she’s not old enough to have the education for that, but comic logic, don’t think about it too hard).

Going home from school, Harper and Cullen run into the guys that messed with Cullen. Harper tasers the fuck out of one, but about a dozen more crawl out of the woodwork. The Row siblings are pretty screwed, but then Batman swoops in and knocks some heads. He leaves, and we get this:

If this were a manga, the artist would have drawn literal stars in Harper’s eyes on that last panel.

She then proceeds to stalk the shit out of Batman, watching what little video the internet has before staring at street cams long enough to notice that Batman is hacking them. Upon realizing this, she tracks down the physical grid mods for the hacks and improves them as a “thank you” to Batman. Of course, she runs into Batman chasing a dude down, almost gets hurt but still helps apprehend the villain. Bruce, bit of a dick that he is, tells her not to do it again and ditches.

Ignoring the weirdness with her in media res introduction during the Court of Owls, I honestly like this origin and I like the potential of Harper as well as Cullen. She reminds a bit of Jason with her more troubled childhood grounding her approach to vigilantism, and there’s a bit of tech-guru and stalker tendencies (lol) that echoes Tim. I get a bit of Stephanie too, though less so than Jason and Tim. She’s also unique in having a younger sibling that she has a solid, loving relationship with even before the Bat-stuff. I hope writers capitalize on the Harper-Cullen dynamic; it’s the strong point of this origin.

After the origin, things get...contentious. Harper next shows up in #18 which I think happens after Damian’s death? And maybe after Dick’s “death?” I’m not quite sure. She confronts Batman who is spiraling, beating on low-level people who don’t really deserve that level of force while also getting injured from stupid mistakes. 

This whole section echoes the time immediately after Jason died a lot, and her thoughts on the matter are pretty close to Tim’s (pre-Flashpoint). Which...isn’t a super good thing because Tim’s “Batman needs a Robin” shtick was a bit tone-deaf while Batman was grieving his youngest son back in 1988-9. In 2012, it was still a bit tone-deaf.

“I have no interest in knowing whoever’s under that mask. I don’t want you to be a person.” Harper, I know you don’t know Batman just lost a kid, but holy hell, you’re echoing the worst Batman tendencies Bruce has, please no.

(Also, while I’m making the Tim parallel, post-Jason’s death it was just Dick and Bruce against the world, with Dick firmly not at home (and Barbara still in recovery from the Joker iirc). Post-Damian (and post-Dick), Tim is still alive. Tim, the guy who’s origin involved pulling Bruce out of his funk the first time, is around for this second crisis of faith. Tim, what are you doing while Bruce is self-destructing here? Off with the Teen Titans and exploiting his New 52 origin as a reason not to be interested, I imagine.)

We then get this response:

Now, I haven’t tracked down Stephanie’s first appearances, but to my untrained eye, this strongly resembles of Bruce’s early and complete disapproval of Spoiler. And since Stephanie is noticeably absent from the New 52 at this point, we have example 1 of what I think is Pre-Flashpoint’s fans’ biggest complaint: Harper Row occupies roles formerly established by Stephanie and/or Cassandra. Because someone at DC (writers or publishing execs, I don’t know) decided to reset the Batgirls rather than port them over with their experiences intact, New 52 introduces Harper first (also Barbara, but that’s a discussion for another day). 

It makes some sense in the narrative to give Harper the same difficulties as Stephanie since Spoiler didn’t exist to pave the path, but Spoiler not yet existing was an arbitrary executive decision unpopular with long-term fans. It’s not weird to think that people who like a female batfam character from pre-Flashpoint - Stephanie, Cassandra or Barbara - are the fans DC should be courting to accept Harper. Giving Harper a parallel to Stephanie without also giving them Stephanie does the opposite - it alienates them and causes them to project their saltiness onto Harper.

Even after Stephanie is introduced, she comes back as Spoiler, losing her hard-won (very hard-won) progress form her days as Robin and Batgirl. Meanwhile Harper and New52-Stephanie become friends, meaning that an older Stephanie fan cannot consume Stephanie or Harper content without seeing the other girl. Thus Steph fans are constantly filled with low-burning rage at DC and probably also Harper for not giving them their preferred version of Steph.

It gets even worse with Cassandra. DC reintroduces her two years after Steph and four years after Harper’s first cameo, so Cass fans have been living in a content desert with no promise of salvation. Like Steph, Cass’s hard-won progress as Batgirl and Black Bat is gone, supplanted by a new origin as Orphan. Cass becomes good friends with Harper and Steph, which on the surface is great for original Cass fans - her pre-Flashpoint friendship with Steph is very important to her character. But now you’ve retconned away Cass as Batgirl playing rooftop tag with Steph. You’ve erased the gravity of Cass giving Steph the Batgirl title. Now Harper is a vital part of a dynamic that can no longer emulate the original.

And Cassandra killed Harper’s mom in her origin. Not randomly either - Batman & Robin Eternal has Mother - the villain of Cass’s origin and the B&R title’s final boss-villain - ordering Cass to kill Harper’s mom to forge Harper into a better minion down the line. Disclaimer: I didn’t read all of this arc - but tying Harper and Cassandra irrevocably to each other’s origins is really bad. To an older Cass fan, it feels manipulative, as if the writers are trying to give Harper some of Cassandra’s clout by making them both important to the same villain. Having entwined origins makes it near impossible to separate out Cass and Harper going forward if you like one but dislike the other.

I therefore conclude as a newer comic reader that there is nothing wrong with Harper Row herself and A LOT wrong with how she was packaged. By herself, Harper is a capable engineer and hacker who utilizes her expertise well and with training could be a capable vigilante. But with New 52 Spoiler and Orphan, she is a constant reminder of how this is not the Pre-Flashpoint Earth. Retconning the Batgirl histories back into existence would be the same as retconning Harper’s character development back out of existence. DC basically shot itself in the foot by resetting Cass and Steph while tying them both to Harper, dividing their original Batgirl fanbase into polarized pro- and anti-reboot groups. 

Which is a pity, because I really think Cass and Steph fans could have found something to like in Harper without the resets.

[shadsmeister]

A Girl And Her Dog Chapter 3

Author’s Note: I’m gonna ride this weird wave I’m having right now and just pump these bitches out until I can’t anymore. Forgive any drop of quality this chapter may or may not have. We’ll be seeing some new characters pretty soon, I’m pretty excited about that?? Please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the taglist. Right now, it’s a pretty tentative list of some blogs I know. Also! I’ve thought about begging to add songs to go with each chapter. I’ll start with this one, let me know if it’s a yay or nay on the idea!

Synopsis: Negan learns just how valuable dogs are in the apocalypse, very quickly. 

Warnings: Language, depictions of violence.

Chapter Song: Deranged - Coheed and Cambria

Taglist: @sungieeeeee @greasernegan @whothehellisjay @opheliadawnwalker3 @rebelsoul-gypsymind @fuck-yeah-lets-do-negan-ff @negans-network @babystarwitch @loliftingg

It wasn’t much longer until they came upon a large compound; Negan had called it The Sanctuary. Kailyn thought he was joking. but as she made her way out of the RV, puppies stuffed into her pack, she quickly realized he wasn’t. All around her, his ‘soldiers’ murmured the name over and over, and the brunette rolled her eyes. How cliché.

“Welcome to The Sanctuary.” Negan announced as he flung his arms open, almost on cue. The bat in hand acted like an extension of his arm, and the woman noted how comfortable he was with the weight of the wood. She wondered how long he had been using her as a weapon.

Kailyn lifted her gaze, nose scrunching up as she realized the gates before them were lined with walkers. At her side, Sentry growled deeply, hackles raising as he stalked closer. The dog stopped only when his owner gave a curt, “No.” She noted that every walker was tied up or pinned down, and wondered what their function was outside of intimidation.

“He can smell walkers?” He’d come up behind her again, always too close for comfort and without a regard for personal space. She shivered despite best efforts, tensing as his hot breath washed over her shoulder. She took a step forward, and could hear the mirth in his voice as he spoke again, “That’s fucking useful.”

“He does a lot more than that.” The brunette answered, hair whipping around her as she turned her head to look up at him, something akin to contempt in her eyes. The look only earned her a cheekier grin, and she couldn’t help but notice the dimples framing that insane smile. It was almost unfair; someone so much older and clearly insane shouldn’t have been gifted with those dimples. She only held his gave for a few moments before looking away, chancing another step away from him. The movement did not go unnoticed, but Negan chose to ignore it. He was enjoying the reactions she gave him, and he wanted to know how far he could push her before she snapped again.

Instead, the older man swaggered around her and began barking orders at his men, and the smaller woman watched as they all scrambled to comply like roaches as a light was turned on. The power he exuded was palpable, and when they walked through the gates to the Sanctuary, Kailyn watched as everyone in his vicinity dropped to one knee as he walked. After a beat and a wave of his hand, Negan’s followers stood and returned to their duties. It was incredible.

“Seriously?” She scoffed, unable to hide the grin that tugged at her lips as people began to rush to the leader. From the sound of it, something happened while he was gone. A blond man rushed up to him then, and Kailyn noticed burn mark that covered the left side of his face. Her arms tightened around the pack in front of her and she steeled herself, a cold feeling spreading through the pit of her stomach. 

Negan did that. There could be no other answer. The scar tissue looked new enough, like it had only just finished healing. The way Negan looked at him only confirmed it.

“Dwight, what the fuck happened? I leave you in charge for one fucking day and everything goes to fucking shit?! God damn, I’m not gonna have any time to fuck any of my wives!” A hand clapped down on the shorter man’s shoulder, and Dwight gave a small wince, eyes cast towards his leader’s boots.

Any? How many wives did he have? Then again, the brunette wasn’t exactly surprised. The man before her was tall and handsome, the salt-and-pepper beard he sported only added to his conventional attractiveness. Hell, if she ran a compound like this, she’d probably have a harem, too.

“Someone just- Someone just fucking died,” Dwight answered quietly, unwilling to meet Negan’s eyes as he spoke. “We took care of that. But in the commotion, something happened at the wall, and no one’s talking. We don’t know if anyone’s been bit because it could be more than one person, and it happened at a shift change.”

As Dwight spoke, something about Negan changed. He was no longer the man that handed Kailyn puppies in the woods. No, he was the ruler of all that laid before him, and if her prediction was right, he ruled with an iron fist. 

“Is that fucking so?” His voice was low and measured, but fury radiated off his stiffened form. Long, glove-clad fingers tightened on Lucille’s handle. This was a threat to not only his life, but the lives of everyone around him. He didn’t particularly care about everyone at the Sanctuary, but within these walls, they were all under his care and protection. “Tell everyone- and I mean fucking everyone- to get their asses out here. The only faces I don’t want to see are my wives. They can stay inside. Anyone else who doesn’t show up within the next ten shittin’ minutes will have a very private meeting with Lucille.”

Dwight nodded once before taking off, his form visibly relaxing the further he got from the pair. As he went, he called out orders to the men around him, and Kailyn’s ears were soon filled with the sound of radio chatter. She tried not to let it show on her face, but inside, excitement replaced the once-cold feeling. That chatter meant they had electricity, enough to spare for something as small as the radio transceivers. 

Negan turned to her then, a loud, dramatic sigh pushing past his lips as he threw up his long arms in a show of grief. “Can’t fucking leave these idiots on their own for anything. Anyway, this-” He gestured before them then, hand sweeping out towards the buildings. “-Is home now. For you, Sentry, and those fuckin’ puppies. I’ll brief you on how things go later. As you can see, I’ve got a shit show to clean up. D’you wanna wait for this to be done, or d’you wanna jump right into getting new quarters?” 

Kailyn was surprised she had a choice, but her decision was always made. She would stay, if only to watch how he handled the situation at hand. When she voiced her answer she was given a grin, Negan’s eyebrows shooting upwards in amusement. He knew what her answer would be, but gave her the choice anyway. He needed her to know she had choices.

“Great! This is gonna be fun.”

-

True to his words, seemingly everyone was gathered by the entrance to the compound within the ten minute limit Negan had set. The brunette hadn’t seen this many people at once since the world went to shit- over a year ago now. She stood at Negan’s side, hundreds of people in front of her each on one knee. When he noticed the look of awe on her face, the taller man leaned down, and this time she didn’t shy away from his proximity.

“Awesome, isn’t it? They all listen to me.” His voice was a rough whisper, and out of the corner of her eye, Kailyn noticed as his gaze traveled downward, attempting a peek at her cleavage. Despite best efforts, she giggled softly, shaking her head at his lewd actions.

Negan straightened up with a grin, features falling into a serious glare as he regarded the people before him. He brought Lucille up over his shoulder as his eyes scanned across the faces of his people. Finally, he growled out a sharp, “Stand.” and everyone quickly raised to their feet, eyes in his direction but never actually looking at him. 

It was a gesture of submission and fear; years of training animals had given Kailyn quite the upper hand in body language. Even from her distance, she knew each and every one of these people was terrified of the man at her side. He was nothing short of a tyrant.

It was kind of sexy. Not that she’d admit it, of course. She knew better than to give such a power-hungry man that kind of leverage.

“So. I leave for a day, and now some of you may or may not be trying to fucking hide bites from my Saviors.” Negan began pacing the invisible line in the ground, movements cold and sharp. Between the people, murmurs began, a low hum that he simply should not tolerate. “YOU WILL SHUT UP WHEN I’M TALKING!” 

Several people closest to Negan jumped, and Kailyn bit back a laugh. They were all sheep, and she found it incredible. With their numbers, they could easily overpower their leader, but he was thorough in his inception of fear; the seed was planted deep. Instantly, the chatter died, and the older man regarded his people with a dark grin.

“Thank you, that’s better. Now-” Lucille swung from his shoulder and out to the side as his arms spread. “Does anyone have something they want to tell me? Because you’re endangering my wellbeing, and Lucille here is getting thirsty.”

It didn’t take much context to know what that meant, and a sick thrill shot through Kailyn’s core at the prospect of what she might see. However, no one answered, and Negan began to grow angrier. She took a step forward then, a hand reaching out to him. It stopped short but he caught the motion, and the older man looked down at her then. In turn, her gaze shifted towards Sentry, and she uttered a soft “Cherche.” To the dog. She motioned for Negan to stand aside and when he did, the dog trotted forward, nose to the ground as he began to walk from person to person.

Sentry made his way through the crowd quickly, and suddenly he began to bark viciously, shoving at people. Cries of fear quickly followed, and the brunette carefully set her pack down before darting into the crowd. They parted as she came through and Negan followed, brow furrowing in confusion.

“Get off of him!” One of the men yelled, the sound of air rushing out of his lungs soon following. When Negan reached the commotion, he was greeted with the sight of Sentry standing on one man’s chest, lips pulled back into a snarl as he continued to bark in his face- and Kailyn wrapped around another’s back, legs wrapped around his waist as her arm came around his neck, the other holding a knife to his throat.

“They’ve been bitten.” She ground out, tightening her hold on the man as he attempted to shift away. The knife at his neck dug in just so, the rivulet of blood stopping his attempts. She couldn’t tell where, but Sentry was never wrong about bites. These men were a danger to everyone around.

Negan whispered low and long, eyes glinting in amusement as he took a moment to watch what was happening. Around them, the people regarded this new woman a mixture of fear and awe. She would fit in quite well here. 

“Everyone, meet your new Savior.” He smirked then, eyes falling to hold her gaze over the man’s shoulder. “Or, Saviors, rather. This is Kailyn, and that’s Sentry, and they just saved everyone’s ass here today. You should all thank her. Now, get back to work while Daddy deals with this... nuisance.”

The brunette rolled her eyes, face scrunching up as she heard how he referred to himself. In all it wasn’t surprising, but definitely not something she needed to hear. 

As the crowd scattered, Negan came upon the men, eyes shifting into unbridled rage. His hand tightened on Lucille and he stopped in front of the man held down by Sentry, business end of the bat in his face. The looked up at his leader and winced, knowing his days on the earth were ending, today. 

“This could’ve gone a lot smoother if you two would’ve been honest, you know.” The older man tsked softly, a grin splitting his face despite the anger found there. Kailyn watched his motions intently, starkly aware of how close the bat was to Sentry’s face. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, adrenaline surging through her. Finally, there would be blood again; the sight of crimson had always calmed her nerves. The world before this one was unfit for people like her; but here? She was right at home. “But now, you have to die. And I promise I’ll make it painful.” He shot the brunette a lot and gestured to the dog. “Mind moving this precious cargo? Don’t need you wrapped around me like that, though it is pretty fucking sexy.”

Kailyn ignored his last comment and released Sentry from the job at hand, taking the time to praise him for his efforts. He had never failed her, not once in their time together. Without him, she would’ve died long ago.

“Thanks, spitfire. Now, watch my form!” 

The grounded man opened his mouth in protest, only to be silenced as Negan raised Lucille above his head to bring her down with a sickening crack. He only needed one hit and the leader stepped back, admiring his work with a low chuckle. Blood roared in his ears as he watched the blood drip off Lucille and took in the pieces of flesh hanging off her barbed wire.

“Aller.”

He moved to look at Kailyn then, finally going to ask about whatever language she was speaking to Sentry- he assumed it was French- when Sentry shot forward once more, standing over the now-dead man. He gave a small huff before leaning up on his back legs, jumping into the air before his front paws came down on the man’s brain matter, destroying it further.

Negan raised his eyebrows as he watched, a finger coming up to gesture from Sentry and back at her. She answered with a shrug and a grin, offering only, “Just in case.”

After Sentry was done, Kailyn returned her attention to the man she held in place. She noted the hike in his body temperature, and knew it had nothing to do with fear. He was going to die soon, and she was going to make sure it would be now, swiftly.

“Goodnight.” She purred into his ear as she brought the knife to his atlas, sinking the blade into his skull before he could say anything else. As his body toppled, he jumped away, trying to hide the grin pulling at her lips as blood spurted from the wound. Her own body visibly relaxed as the crimson pooled on the ground and she rocked back on her feet, a hand coming up to push stray curls from her face.

Negan caught her arm on the way back down, a sneer painting across his face as he regarded her. This little woman looked wild in front of him, a flush coloring her cheeks and her breath coming out in small pants. She most likely didn’t notice, but he did. He knew the answer.

“You liked that, didn’t you, spitfire.” The sneer turned into a knowing smirk as he held her gaze, his hazel eyes searching her face. She couldn’t answer just yet and instead gave a slight nod, looking up him. As she thought about how much taller he was than her, she trembled under his touch, heat beginning to pool deep within her stomach. Negan knew that look and he chuckled lowly, his touch lingering as he slowly pulled away from her. Once he did, he noted her breathy exhale as he turned away to grab her pack, and when he returned to her side he pushed it into her chest, still smirking down at her.

“Let me show you where you’ll be staying, Kailyn.” He ground out, voice growing husky. Kailyn’s arms came around to grab the pack and she bit her lip as his voice reached her ears, looking away instantly. The way he said her name made the pool of heat grow larger, and she silently cursed herself for the reaction. He noticed everything, and she knew he’d notice that, too. Negan threw an arm around her shoulders and drew her in closer, eyes trailing over his form once more as he walked her towards the buildings. “Welcome to the Saviors.”