#also buckle up fam bc i did the math and i think this thing has 18 parts

[workingforitallthetime]

drawn arrows unseen

part 3 / previous installments/tags

After they’re finally freed from quarantine, after they skate and have a team meeting all in their masks, the coaches leave them in their meeting room with pizza. The tables get shoved together, the chips and the cards come out, and for a couple of hours everything feels almost like normal.

As the clock on the wall inches closer to curfew, Wright starts shuffling the pizza boxes around, consolidating the spare slices into one box and stacking up the empties.

Guenther flicks his last hand of cards toward the center of the table. “Knock off the omega bullshit, Shane.”

“Fuck off.” Wright tries to close the lid of the overfilled box, jamming it down over the rest of the pizza. “I’m an alpha.”

The room’s too quiet, like all the sound’s been absorbed into the padded partitions that section off their quadrant of the hotel’s conference center. Guenther’s mean laugh breaks the silence. “Son, your balls haven’t even dropped yet.”

“I got tested,” Shane insists, indignant as everyone else around the table laughs. “They said my levels are super high.”

“That doesn’t mean shit.”

Privately, Mason agrees with Guenther. The genetic test is maybe 70 percent accurate before you present. Not worth paying for, his dad said. Said Mason could prove himself just fine without some bullshit lab report.

“Scouts care,” Shane mutters, and no one tries to tell him he’s wrong. They’ve all heard that a doctor signing off on an alpha prediction can be enough to bump you up a team’s draft board.

“Nobody knows, though.” Zelly flicks the edges of his cards through his fingers. He probably worries about it more than most of them do. He’s the kind of small skills guy with a pretty mouth who’s probably spending his draft year trying to prove he won’t turn out to be an omega. “It’s not like any of us are going to be MacKinnon.”

It was big news when MacKinnon presented early. Showed up at the combine reeking of alpha and everybody knew what Colorado was getting at first overall. Knocked Seth Jones right out of the top slot, although eventually Jones turned out to be an alpha anyway. Most first rounders do. But the ones who don’t usually come from the U.S. program like Jones did.

Zelly looks around the table in search of agreement, but everyone’s looking at Mason. Mason keeps his hand still, fighting the instinct to rub his knuckles over his beard. It's not a bad thing for people to assume. He just hates people thinking they know something he doesn't know.

“You have got to be an alpha,” Guenther pronounces.

“Seriously,” Stanks agrees with him. Guys are nodding.

Two seats down from Mason, Connor isn’t. His face is impassive as always, but Mason can tell that underneath his mask his teeth are set and his lip’s curled back. Mason’s starting to figure out how to read him. Or at least he can tell Connor fucking hates any topic that might remind somebody he’s fifteen years old.

“What do you care?” Mason leans back in his chair. “You lining up to suck my alpha dick?”

Guenther’s voice is loud over the laughter. “Wright might be.”

“Fuck off,” Shane snaps. It must be hard for the little robot to deal with something he can’t control. No matter how hard Shane tries to work hard and do the right thing and ace the genetic test, he can’t predict how he’s going to present. Mason’s never seen him get even the least bit rattled before. Usually Shane’s the guy you want talking to the refs. He’s a good captain. Nice to everyone, no special treatment for the guys he likes. You can’t even tell who he likes. Maybe he actually hates all of them.

“Okay, stack ‘em up.” Mason shoves his chair back from the table and slots his poker chips into the cardboard box without bothering to sort them. “I’m going to bed.”

Chips click together and someone gathers up the stray cards and shuffles the deck to put away. Guenther and Stanks start arguing about the pot for tomorrow night’s game. Mason picks up his water bottle and falls into step with Connor on the way to the elevator.

The awkward conversation lingers around them like a bad smell. Mason can’t think how to change the subject. Connor’s quiet next to him. He hits the elevator button with the base of his water bottle. The doors open and the up arrow chimes almost immediately.

They’re the only ones in the car. Connor leans back in one corner and lifts his feet off the floor, boosting himself up with his hands on the railing that runs around the edge of the elevator. “Can I ask…” One of his slides threatens to fall off his foot and he points his toes upward to catch it. He lowers his feet back to the floor. “Never mind.”

“No, what.” Mason’s pretty sure he knows what’s coming. He looks up at the floors ticking off on the panel. 

“You don’t have to tell me.” The elevator starts to slow.

“It’s okay.” The numbers stop at their floor. Mason slips his keycard out of his pocket and balances it on opposite corners between his thumb and forefinger 

“You didn’t say…” Just before the doors open, Connor finally spits it out. “Are you an alpha or what?”

“Shit, I don’t know.” The vestibule on their floor is empty except for a glass-topped table with a vase and a fanned-out set of magazines about things to do in Texas. The flowers in the vase might be fake. Mason can’t tell.

The ice machine rattles in its alcove as they pass. “You haven’t presented?”

“Don’t look so surprised.” Most people don’t present at eighteen. Every year there’s some group advocating to move draft eligibility back to age 20 or 21. It’s always based on some bullshit about growth curves and developmental years but everybody understands the real advantage for teams would be knowing more about what they’re getting, dynamic-wise.

“I don’t know.” Connor rolls his eyes. “You just look…” He waves his hand like Mason’s self-explanatory.

“It’s the beard, isn’t it?” Mason rubs his knuckles over it. He does like the beard.

Connor snorts. “Yeah, probably.”

“You love it.” Mason shoulders Connor into the wall next to the door of their room. “Maybe it’ll rub off on you.” He scrapes his jaw against the side of Connor’s face, feeling reckless. Connor yelps, startled, and hip-checks him out of the way. Mason stumbles sideways across the hall. He keeps getting surprised by the power stored in Connor’s short frame. He lunges back at him, jamming his chin against Connor’s cheek. “C’mon, get some beard.”

Connor shoves him away with both hands on Mason’s chest. “Dumbass,” he says, but the tense set to his jaw is gone. He might even be smiling.

Mason swipes them into their room. He kicks off his slides and sprawls back on his bed. “Gimme a country.”

Connor switches on the lamp between their beds and flops on his belly next to him. “Spain.”

“Madrid. Too easy.”

“Chile.”

“Santiago. Try harder.”

“Fine,” Connor huffs, reaching for the almanac. He sifts through the pages, taking his time. Mason watches his profile in the lamplight. Finally, Connor’s eyes light up. “Nauru,” he says, triumphantly.

“Only country in the world without a capital, bitch.”

Connor groans and whacks him in the chest with the almanac. “I fucking hate you.”

“You love me.” Mason tries to wrestle the book out of Connor’s hands. “I’m the best roommate ever and you fucking love me.”

Connor holds onto the almanac with an iron grip, making Mason work for it, but he doesn’t tell Mason he’s wrong.

(next)

[honeybadgr]

i’m bibi and welcome 2 my awful introduction

can i start off by sayin this girls name is josefina mariá ruiz-vázquez because most latinx parents are extra & we gotta pay for it lmfao but literally just call her joey pls ( or my fave, honey badger, cuz those little shits are fighty af even when they against someone bigger & that is... her )

now that’s out of the way, here’s my gal’s backstory ,, buckle up bc it’s a ride

although her birth certificate says she was born to adriana ruiz & matías vázquez, josefina never knew her mother. adriana was only 19 when she had josefina. a baby, in her mind, ruined all her years of planning... but it helped her sleep better knowing said baby would go to family, instead of foster care ( even if after realizing the father lived in a trailer on the southside of town, the uneasiness she was raised with didn’t fall short. )

nevertheless, adriana knocked loudly on the door and prayed that he would take in their daughter --- more so, he actually bothered to read the note she neatly tucked into the pristine baby blanket

ofc matías, who was like nine years older than adriana to begin with, was like ??? tf is this and how do i turn it off ??? make it stop crying ??? wh a t??? i somehow managed this once before, do i really gotta do it agAIN i am Tired ,,,

THUS THE STORY OF HOW HE GOT ANOTHER ONE OF HIS CHILDREN

oh yes, there’s more. an eight year old son who already lived with him, and unbeknownst to him, two more baby boys* born vaguely around the same time josefina was. let’s just say matías was a v busy man who only had to deal with two of the four. *owen wilson voice* wow

* also those two baby boys,,, also half brothers,,, and the ones mentioned in her secret / what’s been used to blackmail her so i’m gonna b hella vague ab them cuz i’m gonna likely b putting them as wc SO lmfao

matías wasn’t a bad dad... he just... had a lot of issues. but, those issues caused luís --- the eldest of the vázquez kiddos --- to often look after josefina when their dad couldn’t. being eight years older made it easier as they grew up, but when joey was a smol baby it was v difficult

it wasn’t a secret that their dad was/still is a serpent, but when luís was deemed old enough for his own initiation, he followed in the footsteps. “it’s in our blood,” they both told joey, on multiple occasions. and she really started to believe it.

despite being vivacious & kind of a breath of fresh air, a young josefina usually found herself in company that would have made her mom, if she were around, disapprove. if adriana kept her, there would be no doubt she would’ve done anything to keep her daughter away from anyone/anything associate with the southside ( a mistake she knew she made herself, after becoming briefly involved with matías )

it was only a matter of time before joey was inaugurated herself.

being fifteen at the time & as bold as ever, she didn’t quite understand why luís practically dragged her away from the wyrm in a fit of rage --- she knew what she was doing, she was “old enough” to do the serpent dance

she obviously wasn’t, but you know fifteen year olds thinking they own the fuckin world etc

even got her serpent tattoo on her hip wow she literally said fuck it to her brother & did it all anyway i can’t bELIEVE it def lead to somewhat of a fallout between them, bc like “you’re a child....pls sit down and do normal teenager things” BUT IT’S ALL A BIT HYPOCRITICAL BECAUSE HE WASN’T MUCH OLDER WHEN HE JOINED AS WELL damn

so at age 26 now luís is STILL no.1 concerned father figure to his baby sis especially w/ everything that’s happened & still happening & he’s just,, he’s getting early grey hair bc of her i swear lmao 

BUT MORE AB HER OK SHE’S AN ANGRY CHILD :/ SMOL AS HECK THO

she prob fought BOTH her other half brothers & didn’t even know!!! They related!!! Cuz fuck ghoulies they TRASH ( and she will ,,, be the first to shout it as loudly as possible oops sorry fam ) & i feel like the northsider brother would b stuck-up so ksdjfnhjdkm Y E A h

when i say smol i mean SMOL she only 5 foot :(( pocket sized 

LOVES DOGS!!! she got so attached to hot dog she cried

speaking of crying, ya girl is an angry crier oops again

“i swing both ways” / “are you bi?” / “well yes but also i mean i can swing both ways violently with a baseball bat, so---”

she,,, ain’t a bad person tho ,, she just has a lot of misplaced aggression at times & with the family situation coming to light/being blackmailed it’s like wow fuck thIS

and she hates math w/ a passion but like same so i relate u know ,, she an art & history hoe aka two things that ain’t gonna help her w/ shit out of school 

ALSO DON’T THINK I FORGOT AB OUR GIRL’S MOM ADRIANA HAHA OH MAN turns out adriana ruiz is now adriana ortiz & is a police officer :)))))) that’s fun !!! just imagine that initial reunion gosh ...

adriana vc: oh my small daughter i’m so sorry joey vc: fuck ur apology i don’t wANT IT LIKE U DIDN’T WANT ME