#WAIT zoe walking in on him dramatically performing casual and being like . what is going on here

[islanddads]

arthur would learn the dance to HOT TO GO! by chappell roan and i won’t be taking questions about it at this time.

[chwrpg]

STORM HARRIS. stripper; twenty-four. zoe kravitz. TAKEN.

and, as star once said:

“If you want your ear pierced, I'll do it.”

BEFORE THE PARTY;

Being a teenage runaway was cliche enough, but add it to her finding work at a strip club, and meeting a guy who was definitely bad for her but she couldn’t resist? Storm’s life was, well, a perfect storm in that sense.

She wasn’t just some bratty kid who threw a tantrum and ran away to live out a gritty fantasy on the road though. No, she’d quite literally run for her life. Her parents were nasty pieces of work who never would have kept her around if she hadn’t realised early on that she had to prove her worth or she’d be out on the streets. Neither option was one she wanted, but her childlike optimism that maybe one day they’d love her kept her persevering until she was old enough to realise she was waiting for something that was never coming.

Once she was free, far beyond state lines, getting a job at a club in Chicago was her first point of business. She needed work that would get her on her feet fast, and aside from the cash, the attention was a payment in itself, every moment on stage making her feel a kind of invincible she’d never felt. People wanted her— sure, it was a fickle kind of want and she certainly didn't want anything other than their money, but it wasn’t like she had anything exceptional to compare to.

The girls at the club were generally welcoming, though there was a clear hierarchy amongst them. Being the newest on the billing meant that Storm was at the bottom of the ladder. Was being the operative word. She hadn’t been through a life of hell to only be given shifts on the quiet nights when the tips were barely trickling in. It wasn’t that she wanted to be a queen bee, she just didn’t want to be messed with, and more than one girl found that out the hard way when they tried to intimidate her.

As time passed it became easier to recognise the regulars, ususally dressed up in business suits, thinking they were the ones who owned the place when the girls were all backstage laughing about emptying their wallets. These men all had their favourite girls, and all it took was for them to sit in the same place every time and their girl would appear for them as if delivered by magic. Over time Storm had collected a few, even stolen some from other girls with her enigmatic charms, but there was still one guy no one could pin down. Tall, handsome, unapproachable. Enter, Ace Claymore.

Storm wasn’t there to beg anyone to pay her, especially some cheapskate gangbanger who watched from the bar and never tipped, so she let the other girls waste their time. Occasionally she’d hold eye contact with him as she performed, a warning that she didn't find his brooding in the shadows thing cute at all, followed by a few creative flashes of her middle fingers in his direction. Until one night, she came out and there he was, sitting front and center in her Friday night high roller’s seat like he was the king of the castle, wanting to know her name.

Their relationship has been on and off ever since. Sometimes they love each other, sometimes they hate each other, but no matter what they’re ride or die. With Ace, so desperate to belong, Storm found herself an entire family. It’d be great if half of them hadn’t been forced to move into the tiny house she and Ace shared - she’s sick of walking in on Polo in the shower, and the paper thin walls meaning everyone can hear her calling Ace out on his shit - but she knows too well what it’s like to have nothing and can’t deny that it feels more like a home than anything she’s ever had.

DURING THE PARTY;

Storm didn’t want to be with the boys on their little revenge mission, it was cold and miserable out and she wanted to be studying for the GED test she'd discreetly decided to take - as much as she enjoyed her job she didn't want to be a stripper forever - but she obviously had some sort of saviour complex since she’d thrown her hand up as a volunteer when Ace had told her to go pick up Cam. She wasn’t blind, she had known from the start that Ace was downright cruel to the younger Claymore, who had become a pseudo-brother of her own, so any time she could spare him from Ace’s tirades, she would without question. He'd let her crash on his couch when she and Ace were in one of their off periods plenty of times.

The politics in the gang was a lot to digest but she was a smart girl, she had woven pieces of conversations together even though Ace wouldn’t talk to her directly about it. A few casual comments on her behalf about how certain people needed to be taught a lesson, and she found herself welcomed along, lingering in Scott’s doorway and trying to beg him with her eyes not to fall for Ace’s apparent change of heart.

Having grown up the way she had, and having been with Ace for so long and so intimately meant she was more observant than he thought she was, that she could read his tells better than anyone. So she knew, simply by the way he had his arm slung over her shoulders as they all walked, that he’d seen her attempts to warn Scott of what was waiting for him. Ace would never take it out on her, he was an asshole but not that kind of asshole, but if he even for a second got the idea in his head that the other greaser had been seeing her behind his back it would surely end with something worse than a fist fight.

So while the boys all stood around being dramatic, Storm cut to the chase and rammed her fist right into Scott’s jaw; setting them off so she could step to the side, light a cigarette, and wait for it to be over. She wasn’t generally squeamish, but damn if the sound the came out of Scott’s mouth when Ace broke his arm didn’t make her want to retch. He'd gone too far, but no one was brave enough to try and reel Ace in, so they left Scott in the snow and she tucked herself back under her boyfriend's arm, glad she’d at least saved Cam from being there. If she hadn’t she was sure he would have objected and there’d have been two bodies left on the ground.

alternate faceclaims and prompts.