#WHATS THE MATTER NICOLAS AREN'T YOU GOING TO SAY HELLO

[knaivcs]

"He's my twin, it should be easy to recognize him. More golden than platinum blonde hair, deeper hue to his eye color as well. Missing his left arm. He doesn't simply pretend to be human, much like your kind he still needs hydration and food to survive," he counts off the details on his fingers, then starts to toy around with gun spinning. He'd managed to make a small plastic revolver when he was a child to try and imitate the lonesome strangers wandering from settlement to settlement, always quick on the draw and dead-eyed.

"He thinks humans will understand and accept him... And I have nothing but the highest hopes that your species will prove him wrong. Time after time, after time and again. In fact, I'm confident in this."

The artificial light pouring into the room from the doorway is blocked by the figure of what appears to be a young girl with an asymmetrical bob, the pallid tone of her hair eerily similar to Knives' own. The independent makes a pleased noise of acknowledgment, gesturing for her to enter.

"Ah, wonderful timing. There's someone that I've just been dying for you meet-" he continues, kneeling to scoop the child into his waiting arms.

"Elendira, this is Nicholas."

Elendira glances over Wolfwood like one might a piece of roadkill festering on the asphalt, her little upturned nose held high and haughty. Dainty fingers twirl at the loose waterfall of curls spilling down Knives' shoulders, her lips pursing tight with unvoiced distaste.

"Now now, dear, don't hide. He won't be able to see how pretty you are," he chides softly, using his index and middle fingers to push her bangs behind the shell of her ear.

Knives glances at Wolfwood from the corner of his right eye, another suspicious looking smile twisting his features into something visibly pleasant yet vaguely menacing.

The girl presses closer to Knives even as she finally faces the shabby looking priest head on, her eyes narrowing just slightly. One mirrors the frosted sapphire of her apparent guardian while the other is a more than familiar rich, deep brown.

The blonde continues to smile in silence, though he does briefly chastise his 'daughter' with a disapproving noise when she sticks her tongue out at Wolfwood and buries her face against his shoulder.

"They're so rebellious at this age, I fear..."

As compatible as he is with the serum, as trained and honed and hardened as he has been in the Citadel's Crucible and the blistering suns, and despite all of Conrad's extensive procedures, Wolfwood is still human, or close enough to it that it hardly matters. He still thirsts, still eats, still breathes, still bleeds.

Still feels pain. Even if, given focus, he can work around it. Work through it. Twist it.

The bones of his wrist creak under Knives's grasp, even with the desperate internal fight to prevent his tendons from locking and worsening the green-stick fractures that are altogether just as painful to heal as they are to receive.

Training kicks in over the cascading rush of adrenaline. He submits to the dip, more flexible than a man of his bulk ought to be, clunky and clumsy in comparison to preternatural grace.

"If I went to battle with someone's herd of cattle, you'd have steak when the job was done," he lilts, leaning into crisp pronunciation and a deeper twang than he naturally possesses. "But if shot the herder, they'd lock me up for murder, 'cause you can't shoot a male in the tail like a quail--" Lost Tech-augmented firearms, rifled bores, produce prodigious heat. It's even starker, hotter, compared to the chill of the room, but even with a rasp entering his voice between pressure and sizzle, he finishes the verse, free hand overturned with a flourish, "--Oh you can't get a man with a gun."

Dead. He's dead for his defiance, even if something waggish and irreverent bares its fanged teeth in a madling grin. Better to smile and bear it through the hate and rage and shame. He has so much to live for. Count the reasons for survival and they all have names, even if his own days are numbered.

Knives's gaze may as well be barbs wrapped around his heart, and this contact is considered the highest of blessings in these halls.

It is all he can do not to stumble when set back to his feet, and he refrains from rubbing his wrist - not that he has complete motor control regardless - instead flexing his fingers in a kinesthetic check.

Not dead yet.

An odd reward for failing to shed the erstwhile demiurge's blood. He looks past the finger to the radiant face, skin prickled cold-hot-cold as he tips a nod.

It isn't even the illusion of choice.

"In nomine Domini."

Training. Rote. Understood. He cannot afford to be too flippant with the layers of the Eye here, lest he be flensed apart. Curiosity glints in dark eyes behind the skew of dark glasses.

"Anything more specific will help to pick up the scent. Better to get it from the one who knows him best."

Priest William or Chapel generally have the specifics, but this seems... different. Echo of an echo.

[differenteagletragedy]

Hello, if you're still taking requests (please ignore this if you aren't lol), could I request headcanons for the boys with an MC who tends to link arms/hold hands when walking together and often does this without thinking. My OL1 MC is a shortie who does this so she doesn't overcompensate or get left behind.

Step 1 Cove has got you. At first he's just like "What are you doing?" but when you tell him/he realizes why you're doing it, then it's just a thing that happens and he's totally fine with it. You choose him and he chooses you, remember?

But puberty did a number on this boy, so if he has a crush on you, then Step 2 Cove is going to struuuuuggle. He'll still do it, especially if you're anxious about getting lost or separated, but there's lots of blushing and he'll stop whenever you get to where you're going.

You: You don't have to hold my hand anymore if you don't want to, it's ok.

Cove: No, I want to, it's just *short circuits*

As he gets older though, probably by like 15/16, it's just second nature. If you're in a crowd, he'll grab your hand, no need to ask! It doesn't matter if you're just friends, crushes or dating, you're holding hands through the halls at school, going down the shopping street, trips to the mall. But if you do end up together, as you get older, he'll have gotten conditioned to have your hand in his and he's going to need it all the time because that's the routine and that's what feels right.

You, sitting on the couch holding hands with Cove then letting go: I have to go to the bathroom, be right back.

Cove's inner monologue: I will try to be strong and weather this unbearable storm.

If you hold Derek's hand then he is PROUD. Shoulders back, chest out, biggest smile. If his dad sees it, then he is 100% going to say something embarrassing about it.

Personally I hate the Boardwalk scene just because I don't understand why all four adults leave the kids with Nicolas the entire day, he is too little for that and I think that was really thoughtless tbh, so I like to tweak it just a bit so Derek and MC have more time to actually have fun and be kids.

So perfect opportunity for a hand grab! There's a lot of people there, and there's a lot going on, so you'd slip your hand into Derek's, and he'd do his big smile and be like "It's ok, I got you!"

I also imagine Derek and MC hang out a lot in between Steps 2 and 4, and a lot of it would be MC going into the city to visit him because he's so busy. Maybe you go to a soccer game at his school and he sees you watching, then after he comes up to you and wants to take you to see his parents so he'd offer you his hand because he remembers everything about you and definitely remembers something chivalrous he can do to help you feel better.

But if you don't grab his first, then he's always gonna offer before just taking your hand, because he is a gentleman and doesn't want to be presumptuous.

If you end up together though, he'll take the initiative. He'll always keep an eye on you too to make sure you're ok :)

Baxter gets cocky.

Since you go sightseeing pretty early into Step 3, that's probably the first time it happens. You're going through one of the little stores on the shopping street and a group of tourists comes in there, it's getting crowded so you just reach out and grab him.

Baxter: *looks down at your hands then up at you and smirks* Well then.

Also Baxter: *squealing on the inside*

After that, when you're walking someplace together he'll offer you his arm. It doesn't need to be a conversation, you don't need to explain it, but obviously that makes you comfortable so he's more than happy to escort you in this way.

It'll also just make him feel like a fancy man, having someone on his arm like that, so he'll do it a lot.

Uuuuugh Step 4 Baxter, he takes you to Xavier's bakery and after you park you're walking down the sidewalk together and he just instinctively offers you his arm.

You: What?

Baxter: ... I'm sorry, my mistake.

BUT it's ok because then you end up together and he gets to have you on his arm every day for the rest of your lives, hooray!