#but canonically he's only in 1 game
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
Melotober - Day 8 - Ghost
Fascinating, the monsters that creep in to each area...
#Melotober#It's not midnight yet HA#Rune Factory#RF1#Rune Factory Lynette#RF Lynette#You don't think they played with which monsters would show up where WITHOUT her testing them did ya??#She probably had so much fun while setting up those Shifts. And my brain immediately went to the Toros Ghosts#Have I ever drawn Lyn with the banners before btw?? Never published- only in 1 unfinished/unpublished piece#I also draw her so non-canon that I had to look at how I've drawn her more canon look. WHOOPS.#Also. Listen. Today is a day filled with baseball. Baseball games and referencing slides into 2nd for the sketch itself#[ty Trea Turner for having beautiful slides to reference. Nationals Turner as I am petty][he's also lithe and it helps]#Spent a few hours helping my mother fill out a scorebook for the Phillies/Mets game. Not time lost- time ENJOYED#Have a good night!!#Margot's RF Art
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
Touchstarved fandom, your opinions, please??
(It's a sliding scale of competency.)
He's rich = he's never tried. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
#answer not pictured: “no but literally only bc (new headcanon just dropped) Ais is a master chef. michelin 3 stars. a pastry god.#And it's funnier that way.#leander touchstarved#touchstarved leander#touchstarved game#i stopped writing my fluff to ask bc i had an initial answer then i kept thinking...#small details: the progress killer#tumblr plz give a middle ground between 1 day / 1 week. maybe 3 days??#also not pictured: Kuras taught Leander how to cook & nothing is edible.#Vere is also canonically confirmed a bad cook but we don't clown on him for it as a fandom bc he will eat us (also canonically confirmed)#toxintouch writing: headcanons
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
It makes me so happy that Lan Sizhui has his own signature move in the donghua, like….. that little heaven-ascending air twirl thing?? excuse you??? SIR???????
#HE DOES IT SEVERAL TIMES BTW ITS CANON#mdzs#mdzs donghua#lan sizhui#a yuan#lan yuan#mdzs juniors#how you gonna be like 17 and already have THIS much rizz#especially after being taken in and taught by 1-word-mc-chomps-a-lot like?????#I don’t understand#LMFAO#the only thing I could think is that when WWX died all his rizz energy was absorbed into LSZ#he was like#if I do anything before I die I’m gonna make sure this kid grows up to have IMMACULATE game#KADHAJDKAKDKA#mo dao su zhi#apple babble 🍎#precious juniors
188 notes
·
View notes
Text
Would a Demiprince sired by Sheogorath during the Shivering Isles DLC be like...also Jyggalag's kid? Would they like...technically have 2 dads or maybe even 3?
#I think they'd Also call Jyggalag their dad as well just for funsies. And then it's not so funsies when Jyggalag forced them to do those#Workbooks during summer break. And makes them study. And grounds them and says only 1 hr of video games but only after hw#And also says no fast food we have food at home. But also he's a Monster at PTA meetings#jyggalag#Sheogorath#We only know that Sheo has like. One (1) Canon possible demiprince and she makes pastries and she's MIA rn hfjdkdkdjxkd#BUT CONSIDER!!! How fucking wack a Greymarch baby would be#Truly the most fucked up baby. Jyggalag forced to coparent in Daedric Family Court cause the other princes think it's funny
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
A 4th IEYTD game won't be enough I need starstuck to have a canon interaction
#god I don't even care if juniper is dead have it be a flashback to reggie's gay little voicemail PLEASEEEEEEEE#schell games i am on my hands and knees I've been a fan of the ship for almost 2 and a half years PLEASEEEEEEEEEE#god I can't evenmake the 3 hour makeout session joke because i am living in my own world of fanon content with them i need a hint of canon#a whiff and morsel a crumb PLEASE#they are truly my ship ever like the only ship for me whatever but it's TRUE#ieytd#sorry#im insane you guys i only get worse about them#especially because I've been having crazy juniper thoughts and how it'd relate to my interpretation of starstuck#like god he should be transfem in this rant I will-/j..#well#hj#cause like genuinely?????????? god it's been on the mind#MINIMUM? him in drag. like I've thought about juniper in drag sooo much#and waugh REGGIE god he's such an icon like I've also been having thoughts about him in general and UGHHHHHHHHH#schell games 1 canon interaction it can be 1 line please#it'll sustain me for years#I've gotten this far off delusions (/j) please
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
how does the raft not capsize.

#puppy rambles#yo-kai watch#yw3#i mean komasan's not there in canon 3 so it's slightly better but not by a lot#i feel like someone should at least be falling off how is the raft also big enough to hold them all-#whisper floats so he doesn't add weight or any space really but like#it still needs to both hold the weight of three teenagers and two yo-kai#AND have the room for them all to fit#the rafting challenge in bada-bing tower is probably worse cuz it has to fit two additional yo-kai#i think komasan not being that important in the mainline games is very lame. he's pretty important in the anime so it's kinda weird#he is at least somewhat important in 3 since he's there for the yopple tour and everything in bada-bing tower#whereas in 1 he has the auto-befriend yo-kai curse (only being important in their debut chapter)#and in 2 he literally only shows up during the jibakoma quest in psychic specters#(excluding being an npc during the beginning of the jibanyan's secret quest alongside a bunch of other yo-kai)#idk what's weirder the fact they made him so important in the anime despite that or the fact they never made him important in the games#i personally go with the nyanderful days continuity that he also moves in with katie cuz that makes sense to me#i've literally never written anything where nate's the one who gets the watch in 1 so idk what i'd do there-#(funny how i've never written anything that's in the same timeline as canon-)#i want to at least write something at somepoint where nate and katie both get watches cuz i like that idea#i mean i have a dumb au idea where nate and katie independently get watches at the start of 1 at around the same time#and take an extended period of time to realize#mostly just haven't actualized that cuz 1) i already have the rewrite and 2) i don't have enough ideas#basically just have the basic concept-#these tags got derailed quick. and also make me really wanna work on the rewrite more-#i have so many ideas but i'm just not motivated to write any of them#and also most of them are for 3 and i haven't finished rewriting 2 yet 😔#‚‚‚ anyways-
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
kinda wanna flesh out my pkmnverse more outside of pmd but i kindaaaa. don't.
#thing is with the canon protags i always get caught up in like. do i wanna give them influence from my own teams?#do i wanna stick 100% to canon teams with the rivals?#what do you do with red when everyone recognizes that 1) hes canonically the gen 1 protag#2) hes a guy#3) he has a set team that he's seen with in most games#if you don't give him that pikachu then people WILL give you weird looks#also ngl i kinda wanna give him a canon squirtle starter to annoy both the bulbasaur and charmander camps lolll#kinda. only bc i struggle to see blue with venusaur#echoed voice
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think the fact that 100% of the "toxicity" from gale and mystra's relationship prior to what we see in the game is completely fabricated by fanon should say a lot about the misogyny gale stans so easily fall into. But y'all aren't ready for that convo obviously
#Makes me so mad#Gale stans deciding they have to hate mystra is like a rite of passage for them lmao#They completely just. Decided she groomed him. Based off of absolutely no canon evidence of that#And despite gale saying he didn't even meet her til he was an adult#They also assume her saying no was controlling. I'm sorry. What the fuck.#Like y'all will literally hate any woman who you perceive as a threat to your male fave it pisses me tf off#Gale even admits to ignoring her boundaries and doing what she said no to anyway#And THAT'S why he had the orb. Not bc of mystra. But bc HE did smthn wrong in his hubris#The only time mystra becomes toxic is in the game#when she 1. Refuses to cure his orb unless he gives her the crown and 2. Asks him to kill himself to destroy the Absolute#Like if you wanna critique mystra's character go for the actual canon reasons why she becomes flawed#Don't make shit up just to hate her so you feel better about liking a mid character who barely develops by the teeth of his skin.#Not tagging shit but. Fuck I hope someone sees this I'm so mad
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
this is the stupidest case so far I think
#i mean yeah im biased because i hate Rei and his little gang but also#that was very stupid#wdym he remembers him and THIS is how he gets the confirmation#also the retcon of how they've already met before... it was fun when it was Heiji at the ski resort but not this#like yeah i know it's based on that scene from the movie#but 1. they dont have to make the movies canon they're fun on their own and 2. the scene was made so that it wouldn't really retcon canon#so why did they have to 🙃#at least the ''weed'' thing was very funny it made me laugh more than it should've#i feel like the recent chapters are really hit or miss for me#at least the ones ive started reading as they come out which only the last 3 cases i think lmao#video game kidnapping? very annoying and stupid#puppeteer murders? awesome#this one? very stupid but at least a bit fun
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
considering val's journey w ghost hunting in re:animated au basically going from d.i.y girlie to gets recruited by a guy who has a grudge against his 14 yr old nephew now bc he realized he was a piece of shit and doesn't wanna be his mentee anymore so now you're basically his plan B
#it's p much following that idea of vlad not putting all his cards on the table like how he did in canon at the beginning#and trying to play the long game w danny#but then taking the L and taking 1 glance at the only other ghost hunting teen he can find#and going yeah you'll do#re:animated au#robi rambles
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
you know what i would love to be an option in bg3? making your own party member. like Icewind Dale style. choose their class, voice, appearance and travel with them. obvs i understand why they didnt, but it wouldve been so fun to have the option to make your own member, esp if they could be incorporated into your backstory. a sibling, parent, spouse, adventuring buddy, best friend.
#this being spurred on by my want of my pc sabine being joined by my drow pc schezelle#have been working on them more (made sabine a lathander paladin as that made more sense and schezelle a seluné worshipping sorcerer)#they both knew each other through mutual friends becore being kidnapped in baldurs gate. while sabine was an experienced adventurer#schezelle only recently escaped the underdark after betraying her family after being rescued by members of sabines adventuring party#so all this kind of danger is very new and scary for her. i have her at about 70#(young adult in elf years) and sabine a half elf at 45.#whereas sabine follows the canonical romance line with shadowheart#schezelle falls for astarion and supports him unequivocally but gets trapped into a relationship with him when she helps him ascend and#his alignment/the relationship as a whole changes. after the tadpole is removed the rest of the party help her get away from him and#in the meantime she looks for a way to use either true restoration/resurrection/some other cure for his vampirism#because she realizes she made a HUGE mistake just going along with everything he wanted to do#and only went along with it because 1. her own alignment is still slowly becoming unfucked cos. female drow raised in the underdark#2. shes just used to doing what people who like her say because its easier that way and doesnt make conflict#i dont think she gets back together with astarion after she finds a cure for him but they stay close. she returns to waterdeep with sabine#and shadowheart to live in the formers tavern with her adventuring party#maybe falls in love with gale while researching cures for astarion#idk yet still thinking things through and going through the game#anyway yeah. wish i couldve made a friend for sabine. think she gets lonely and misses home a lot during the adventure.
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking thoughts about anora being the “real power behind the throne” and why I don’t particularly vibe with that bit of canon
#thoughts inconclusive#something about it just feels off to me idk idk#I don’t like anora’s in game characterization but I think her character is wildly fascinating#just not for the reasons canon wants me to#I’ve mentioned before how weird I think the mac tir situation™️ is for ferelden#(it’s kinda becoming my thing🙃) but I /have/ to bring it up again cause it should characterize her the most!!!#but it doesn’t and that’s weird!!! she’s the daughter of a farmer and a cabinet maker and simultaneously her family is second only to the#royal family itself with only one (1) other family of similar prestige/rank#ik BioWare is actually allergic to acknowledging politics and political repercussions but like that has to mean something to her#and the people that she grew up with and around. at the very least she’s of age with the arl of denerim’s son and we all know what vaughn#is like there’s no way he didn’t call her a clueless farm brat and tell her to go back to whatever field she crawled out of#and all of this should be informing her politics but we don’t get to see that we’re just told anora ran the country while cailan played king#very frustrating#a talkative qunari.tag
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Chapter >> 17 [x] Characters >> Cato Wu (oc), Eddie Wolfe (oc), Lauren Dimas (oc), Mikhail Koshechkin (oc), Panam Palmer, Rogue Amendiares, Viktor Vektor, Vincent Mayer (oc), Vitali Dobrynin (oc) Total >> 9.2k Warnings >> Blood, chess mention :/, death, injuries, irresponsible driving, violence
‘Hey- Get up. Can’t have you dying on me now.’
The constant, gentle beeping of a nearby heart monitor slowly woke Cato from her slumber, the noise reminiscent of her alarm yet she did not even have to open her eyes to know that this was anything but an ordinary morning; if it was even morning to begin with.
She inhaled deeply, eyes moving behind eyelids and head heavy on the questionable-quality pillow of the unfamiliar bed she found herself in; a weight pressing down on her chest, keeping her locked in position, even the slightest of movement burning painfully through her muscles.
Where the fuck am I?
Cato only remembered flashes.
A car chase- no, she had been on a motorcycle- a stolen one, no less, racing through the streets of Northside in the middle of the night after yet another failed attempt to get help, trying to-
Trying to-
She groaned, memories from seemingly another lifetime flooding back into her mind and her chest painfully tightened, sudden fear overtaking her. Had they finally captured her, now? After everything she’d done- every precaution she had taken to get them off her trail, all the cut ties, all the words left unspoken-
Another deep inhale. It did not smell like a hospital, wherever she was; it did not smell like any of their medbays, or a Trauma Team ambulance, or any other corporate location for that matter. The vague smell of blood and sweat lingered around her, mixed with bleach, some sort of disinfectant-
It stung a bit.
Finally Cato opened her eyes, squinting against the bright light of some lamp pointed directly at her face. She slowly let her gaze trail the room- oh, yeah, a ripperdoc, alright- past cold concrete walls, a surgery chair, makeshift medical equipment and a cluttered desk in the corner on her far right, until she found two figures; one sitting on a stool, the other leaning against the wall.
She did not recognize either of the two men; that was, until the one standing took a few steps closer upon noticing she was awake. Her heartbeat instantly spiked and she jolted up- but her vision faded instantly and with that she sank back down onto the surgery bed she was-
Handcuffed to?
‘Standard procedure,’ the man said, gesturing at Cato’s wrist before running his hand through his short, bleached hair. ‘My apologies. It is always tricky to determine if a merc is going to resort to violence once awake or not.’
‘I’ll fuck you up,’ Cato spat before she could stop herself, her voice hoarse as it left her lips- words scraping past raw throat and it caused her to cough, the raspy noise echoing through the room.
‘I don’t doubt that for a second.’ A pause, as Vitali Dobrynin reached into his pocket and took out a key, then reached for Cato’s wrist and- respectfully keeping his hands to himself- freed her from her restraints.
‘Cato Wu,’ he said, grabbing a chair from the side of the room and setting it down next to the surgery bed while Cato slowly sat up a second time, carefully now, allowing the dizziness to settle before she moved any further.
‘How’d you know my name?’
‘I have my ways.’
‘Right- fixer.’
‘Do I sense contempt?’
Cato sucked in her cheeks and raised her hand, mockingly putting her thumb and the tip of her index finger a mere millimeter apart. ‘Thiiis much. Pinky promise.’
Perhaps not her wisest decision- mocking a fixer like that only inches away from his face. And not just any fixer, either; a new face on the big stage in town, sure, and not nearly as famous- or infamous- as Rogue Amendiares or Dexter DeShawn, but one making his way to the major leagues quicker than anyone ever before.
Of course Cato had heard of him. She had gone looking for him to ask for his help, for fuck’s sake.
She watched carefully as Vitali’s eyes trailed over her face, scanning every little detail- reading her, and she slightly straightened her back in response. No one said anything; and instead it was merely the sound of the heart monitor filling the space around them, Cato’s heartbeat once more steady now that she had calmed down.
‘You have quite some history, from what I could gather,’ the fixer finally spoke, slowly leaning back in his chair as the corner of his mouth slightly pulled up. ‘Active in security since age 17- and now on the run from Kang Tao, no less.’
‘Nothin’ I can’t handle.’
‘I’ve sent some of my people after the squads. They won’t find you here.’
‘Wasn’t concerned.’
‘Of course not.’
Unbothered by her attitude, playing along- yet playfully so, and Cato finally relaxed a little bit as the other man in the small ripperdoc clinic wheeled himself over as well, moving around her to carefully unplug the medical equipment from the port in her neck.
‘Take it easy the next couple days, alright?’ he said. ‘Hit your head pretty hard in the fall. Your helmet caught most of the impact and took most of the damage, but-’
His voice trailed off and Cato immediately glanced into the rest of the room again, her eyes finding- well, what remained of her motorcycle helmet, sitting on top of the desk in the corner.
‘You got lucky, kid.’
Wouldn’t be the first time.
A sharp exhale left her nostrils as she redirected her attention to Vitali, who had not taken his eyes off her for even a second; alert, still, perhaps waiting for her to do something now that she was no longer held down by the handcuffs and the cord in her neck. Their gazes met in the middle, and he leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his knees as he tilted his head in a questioning manner.
‘You were calling out for me, when my mercs found you,’ he said and Cato instantly lowered her gaze again, glad the monitor beside her no longer showed her heartbeat. ‘Said you needed to speak with me.’
‘I need protection,’ she cut him off, turning on the bed to let her feet dangle down and she placed her hands on either side of her body, shoved underneath her thighs.
‘I can work. Do gigs for you, provide security- hell, you’ve done your homework. Seen my resume. Whatever you need, can get started whenever, just- I don’t think I can stay ahead of ‘em for much longer.’
Oh, how she hated to admit it.
Had done fine for months- but she was tired, slipping up left and right, and Kang Tao had not given up on her just yet for whatever fucking reason and it was driving her up the walls. She had no idea if her old squad was still out there, if they were even still alive; and had no way to check it either, each and any attempt to reach out a risk for all parties involved.
‘Endurance hunting,’ Vitali said, a sudden sharp edge to his voice that had not been there before. ‘Running you to exhaustion- minimal effort for them over a longer period of time, while your whole life falls apart around you until there’s nothing left and you are right for the taking. They’re good at that.’
‘Sounds like you know what you’re talkin’ about.’
‘Better than you can probably imagine.’ He paused, jaw slightly clenching as he straightened his back. ‘It’s a good thing you decided to reach out. I think we can help each other.’
Not the first fixer Cato had spoken to- but the first to not tell her no. His words slowly settled in her brain and the look on her face must have told him enough, because he merely smiled in return and slowly stood up again.
‘Go home, for now,’ he said, the rings around his irises lighting up bright blue as a location in the north of Wellsprings popped up in Cato’s view. ‘Get some rest. Visit my office when you are feeling better, and we will get you relocated to a safehouse and discuss business, yes? Vik- You can put the costs on my tab.’
‘One step ahead of you, Vito.’
‘Full price, this time, I hope?’
‘Eh- returning customer discount.’
‘I’ll…allow it this time.’
Cato was no longer listening to them, a strange sense of relief washing over her to the point she suddenly noticed just how exhausted she was. All her muscles were sore- and even with the painkillers she had probably already gotten she could still feel the heavy thrumming in the back of her head, constantly threatening to move closer.
Months of uncertainty, of being alone; and it was all finally going to change, and hopefully for the better. Cato did not know much about how Vitali Dobrynin worked, but his surprisingly charming attitude and his treatment of both her and the old ripperdoc were already a lot more promising than what she had seen from many others before him.
Perhaps it would all be over now. Perhaps Kang Tao would finally give up, finally leave her alone, perhaps she would no longer have to be scared to get taken back in- to get tortured, and killed, if they would even show her that kind of mercy after everything that had happened.
Perhaps she could finally be safe, now.
Cato had not felt safe in months.
She could no longer tell where it had gone wrong. Too much time had passed, too many parties involved; and frankly, at that point it mattered very little who was to blame. She understood why Vitali also didn’t know what to do anymore- he was grasping at straws, but so was everyone else.
But now things were starting to get seriously out of hand.
Hurried pace through the hallway, combat gear on and gun holstered and at the ready. Another day, another tragedy; another citywide mercenary attack traced back to the Broker, yet the man himself once more stayed out of the spotlights like he always did.
Yet something was wrong about it all.
Prior incidents had all had a clear purpose; taking away their resources, exhausting them, rising tensions in town and in the Council and attempting to frame Vitali as the big bad behind it all. Weeks of planning, carefully thought out moves- like some fucked up, intricate game of chess.
Man, the fucking irony.
Yet this time it had come entirely out of nowhere.
And Matvey’s mercenaries merely seemed to be out for blood.
‘Hey-! Cato, wait.’
Cato had almost reached the elevators, but she stopped in her tracks and turned around, heart skipping a beat upon spotting the source of the voice behind her; Lauren, running after her and easily catching up only to drag her in for a hug, arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders and hand on the back of her head.
‘Forgot to say goodbye, was in a hurry,’ Cato sheepishly said, Lauren’s hand gently running through her hair and moving to her face to cup her cheek. ‘You on runner duty today?’
‘W-What? I- Yeah, I am, but-’
Lauren’s voice got caught in her throat and she looked up again, a worried frown decorating her brow as her eyes trailed over Cato’s face and her thumb softly ran over her lips.
Cato didn’t know what to say.
Her brain was stuck in work mode; it left very little space for any distractions, and as much as Cato loved her girlfriend she found herself completely at a loss for words, eyes briefly wandering off as she slightly leaned in to Lauren’s touch and took a hesitant step closer to her.
And in response, Lauren leaned down and kissed her, the scent of her cologne mixed with a hint of coconut from her shampoo wrapping around Cato like a warm blanket, as if the two of them were safely at home rather than in the hallway of Vitali’s office, preparing to make dinner together instead of preparing to put their lives on the line once more in an attempt to regain control of the situation out in the streets.
Cato stood on her tiptoes and kissed Lauren back, grabbing the edges of her jacket to tug her closer and she could feel the corners of Lauren’s mouth turn up into a small smile.
Oh, how she had missed the quiet moments with her; they’d had some time, between all the chaos, but with both of them focused on work and the constant threat hanging above their heads it had been difficult to fully find some time for themselves.
They had wanted to move in together at the start of the year.
Cato still lived alone, now.
‘Be careful out there, okay?’ Lauren quietly said, her lips brushing past the bridge of Cato’s nose before she kissed her forehead, lips lingering on her skin a lot longer than necessary.
‘I’m- so good at that,’ Cato replied and wrapped her arms around Lauren’s waist. ‘Powerhouse. Unkillable, even.’
‘Holding you to that.’
‘As you should! As you fuckin’ should.’
She smiled when a quiet giggle left Lauren’s chest and she hid her face in Cato’s neck, carefully wrapping her arms around her again and nearly lifting her from the ground.
‘You be careful in there, too,’ Cato hummed in her ear and gently ran her hand through her girlfriend’s curls. ‘Wanna come home to you, ‘kay? Alive.’
‘And you will, baby. Alive and well.’
And with that, they finally parted ways, Cato glancing over her shoulder one last time and smiling at Lauren before quickly stepping into the elevator and mashing the button of the garage until the doors closed- but she kept going just a little longer, even when the elevator was already on the move, as if the action would keep the tears welling up in her eyes from rolling down her cheeks.
Cato knew like no one else their jobs came with risks.
She had always been a risk taker- largely calculated decisions but with an uncertainty or two that would make most mercs reconsider their options. Cato was too confident for that; or too stubborn perhaps, if you’d ask her friends, but either way she knew what she was doing and she knew how to clean up her messes like no one else.
She sucked in a deep breath and glanced at herself in the mirror of the elevator, quickly grabbing a hair tie from her wrist to pull her black and pink hair into a tight ponytail to get it out of her face. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened- but she lingered inside just a little longer, expression blank and eyes fixed on her own reflection.
Hope I can get some sleep tonight. Looks like I fuckin’ need it.
The garage was surprisingly crowded, several squads getting ready to try and get a grip on the situation outside. Cato left the elevator and quickly pushed her way through the crowd to the other side, until she reached Mikhail, Eddie and Vincent, waiting for her next to one of their armored vehicles.
‘Everyone ready?’ she asked, hopping on her tiptoes and sinking back to her heels as she nodded at the car.
‘Almost,’ Mikhail responded and clicked his tongue, not moving away from his position against one of the pillars of the garage. ‘Waiting for one more.’
‘One more- seriously? Bit crowded for one car, don’t you think?’
‘Would you prefer for me to sit on the roof, then?’
The sudden voice from behind her caused Cato to freeze and Vitali walked around her, fastening the clip of his chest armor as he gave her a playful nudge with his elbow. A soft scoff left her lips in return and she quickly averted her gaze to the ground.
‘Alright, listen to me!’ Vitali shouted, causing silence to instantly wash over the room and everyone’s heads to turn in his direction.
‘We don’t know exactly what is going on, just got eyes on important locations they’re attacking,’ he continued. ‘Lauren is pinging you the hotspots, report back to her once everything is dealt with. Panam- I want you and your squad to follow us.’
‘Where to?’ Panam asked.
‘Afterlife. Rogue called.’
Well, that can’t be good.
Cato slowly wandered over to the passenger seat while everyone got on the move, head completely elsewhere. She did not know Rogue like Vitali did, or Vincent- but she knew her well enough to know she was not one to ask for help, more than capable enough to deal with situations such as this one herself.
‘It’s chaos out there,’ Eddie said as they climbed onto the backseat on the left side of the car, next to Vincent who was sat in the middle. ‘Bet they already got eyes on us.’
‘I do not doubt it.’ Vitali buckled his seatbelt and started the car, slightly adjusting the rearview mirror before starting to make his way outside the garage. ‘V- Are you alright?’
‘Yep,’ Vincent quickly answered, though Cato could hear how strained his voice was. ‘Peachy.’
Deafening silence washed over the car and Cato glanced in the side mirror to look at Mikhail, who merely stared straight out of the window with no readable expression on his face.
Trouble in paradise?
Not the right time to ask.
The sun already hung low on the horizon, leaving the city in warm orange and pink light; yet smoke lingered in the air from a nearby fire, rapidly threatening to get entirely out of control due to the heat and drought. Not an uncommon occurrence during Night City’s summers- despite the vastly different current circumstances- and Cato quickly took a mask out of the dashboard locker to cover her nose and mouth.
The streets were still busy, as they always were; though Vitali appeared unbothered by it as he swiftly maneuvered between all the other vehicles on the road, hands white-knuckled around the steering wheel.
He was stressed.
Of course he was- Cato was too, heartbeat like a drum in her chest and breathing shallow behind her mask. She let her gaze carefully trail their surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary-
Bingo.
Through the side mirror she could easily spot the heavily armored Arasaka SUVs closing in. Entirely out of place in the otherwise still relatively calm Wellsprings; and when someone leaned out of one of the windows, dressed in makeshift armor and holding some sort of customized assault rifle, Cato knew exactly who they were dealing with.
‘Behind us!’ she yelled over her shoulder and quickly reached for the control panel between herself and Vitali- grabbed the cord of the car’s systems while Eddie and Mikhail both opened their windows to lean out and shoot at their pursuers, and plugged it in the slot in her neck after a deep inhale.
She was never going to get used to it.
Vision going dark instantly, despite being wide awake and having her eyes open; it never failed to trigger her fight or flight response, body instinctively taking the sudden loss of vision as a direct attack, and nausea washed over her as she tightly gripped the edges of her seat to not lose her balance.
It settled quickly when her vision returned to her; though not in her own body but in a drone deployed from the underside of the car instead, and it slowly emerged from underneath as Cato gained control over its movement.
Mostly intuitive, but disorienting- Cato had done it enough times to no longer randomly lose control of the drone because of concentration loss, but it had happened one too many times in the past. Too worried about her surroundings, worried about getting killed, or getting disconnected too early; or she would think too hard about how to steer the drone, actions that would otherwise come naturally to her in her own body.
She relaxed in her chair as the drone flew up into the air and circled above their car, to assess the situation down below; three cars in pursuit, one of them trailing behind a little as it appeared to be in combat with Panam’s squad.
But the other two were closing in quickly, switching lanes to try and flank the car on either side. Cato dove down with the drone, her hands intuitively moving up as she readied the two small SMGs installed in the bot- and without wasting any time she began firing, quickly maneuvering around the side of the car so she could get a clear shot on the tires.
One of the mercs took notice of her and fired at the drone, knocking it out of its course. Cato hissed a quiet fuck and readjusted its alignment, instinctively leaning to the side in her seat as well as if that would help. She took another sharp turn with the drone and positioned it in front of the car instead- and shattered the windscreen with ease, hitting the driver in the shoulder and chest several times and causing them to lose control of the wheel.
The car rammed into the guardrail, causing Vitali to be forced to hit the brakes and swerve around it. An involuntary yelp left Cato’s lips as she nearly lost her balance, despite being sat down- hands desperately reaching around to find any support until Vitali suddenly grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, pulling it closer to the wheel so he could keep driving.
The drone had lingered behind a bit in the brief moment of panic and Cato quickly turned it around to get it back within shooting range. The second car was still close; now positioned slightly ahead of them on the driver’s side, and Eddie was attempting to get one of the tires to pop.
Cato activated the boosters on the underside of the drone to speed it up and dove down once more, positioning it underneath the Arasaka SUV. She carefully deployed an explosive and stuck it right between the two front tires- then slowed down and steered the drone back to their own car.
‘Turn right!’ she yelled, and the second she felt the motion of the car switching direction- and saw it happen through the camera attached to the drone- she detonated the explosive, causing the SUV to get blasted from the road and catch fire mid-air before landing on its side.
‘Preem work, Cato,’ Lauren’s voice suddenly popped up in Cato’s earpiece. ‘Taking control of the drone now- you can disconnect.’
‘Thanks, baby,’ Cato replied and quickly let go of Vitali’s hand again to disconnect the cord; she had to blink a few times to regain control of her vision, Kiroshis briefly struggling to focus on what was in front of her.
‘More of ‘em closing in as we speak,’ Lauren continued, and Cato rolled down her window to be able to lean out of it as well. ‘Four vehicles approaching from the east. Cato, Mish- get ready.’
She had not even finished her sentence when the vehicles in question skidded around the corner on Cato’s side of the car, one of them cutting the curb and nearly ramming into a food stand as the driver struggled to stay in control of the wheel. Cato drew her gun and charged up a power shot- released the trigger and the bolt of energy hit the front car right above the grill, sparks flying off the point of impact as the hood of the car flew open and obscured the windshield.
She charged up another shot as she let Mikhail deal with the now vulnerable and exposed car, a small smirk taking shape on her face when dark smoke followed by flames-
Followed by an explosion that knocked her back into her seat, seatbelt cutting into her skin and flesh and head forcefully snapping back causing a cry of pain to leave her lips. She released the trigger of her gun and the projectile got freely launched into the air, managing to hit one of the other cars’ side mirrors on its path.
‘Blyat- They’re flanking us!’ Vitali yelled from beside her and suddenly Cato’s gun was no longer in her hand, taken by the fixer as he leaned out of his own window to assist Eddie in taking down their pursuers. Cato cursed and grabbed the wheel, only just able to get the car back in its own lane- then cursed again when the cars in front of them slowed down for a traffic light and she swerved around them onto the lane on their right, grabbing the back of Vitali’s chest armor to make sure he wouldn’t fall out of the window.
‘This is a horrible fucking idea, boss!’ Cato screamed, wincing as the car rammed into a line of traffic cones, each of them flying over the windshield and landing somewhere behind them scattered all over the road. She took a sharp turn right, only vaguely remembering the route to the Afterlife- but with that cut off one of the other vehicles and it rammed their backside, causing the car to skid around and come to a full stop in the middle of the intersection.
‘Putting ‘er in reverse, hold on!’ Cato yelled and yanked on the steering wheel, slapping Vitali’s knee to make him put all his weight on the gas. Her eyes rapidly scanned the control panel again and she mashed some buttons- until she found the one that added an additional layer of bulletproof glass over the windshield.
She turned around on her seat, holding out her free hand to Vincent to pull him in; he quickly climbed over her and joined her in the passenger seat, leaning out of the window to shoot at the cars now all positioned right in front of them while Cato kept an eye on the road through the back window.
‘What the fuck are you guys doing?’ Lauren asked, genuine confusion audible in her voice.
‘Don’t even worry about it,’ Vitali replied, sitting back down in his seat to reload and wincing when some gunfire hit the side mirror and with that nearly his shoulder. ‘Cato is a fantastic driver.’
‘Cato would love to be in the fucking driver’s seat for that next time round!’ Cato roared in response, reaching over to drag both Eddie and Mikhail back into the car one by one before reaching back to grab Vincent by the arm and give the steering wheel another spin with all the strength left in her body, to position the car back in a forward position on the road.
Vitali hit the gas again and Cato reached up to adjust the rearview mirror, a sharp exhale leaving her body when she noticed two cars still in pursuit. Panam’s squad was no longer on sight- probably took another turn somewhere, to deal with more mercs, or to make use of a shortcut.
‘We have to get across bridge,’ Vitali said, nodding to the road up ahead. ‘Get back on highway and turn left- we get rid of them there.’
‘Yessir,’ Cato said, slightly relaxing against Vincent’s body. ‘Heads up, they’re closin’ in.’
Not her first car chase, by far- but Cato hated all of them, and for good reasons. Her breathing was shallow behind the mask, hairs on her arms standing up straight as she took the turn onto the highway, toward the bridge; a wide open space, both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time.
Vitali accelerated and Cato repositioned herself on her seat, readying herself to maneuver between the vehicles up ahead. Eddie, Mikhail and Vincent leaned out of their windows again, opening fire on the Arasaka SUVs in pursuit; but Vitali seemed to be waiting for something, eyes carefully scanning the road before slowly but surely leaning out of his seat, aiming his gun at something ahead of them.
Cato instantly realized what he was going to do.
‘Is that a good idea?’ she asked, raising her voice a little to be audible over the gunfire as she steered around a few cars.
‘No,’ Vitali replied, ‘but when have I had any good ideas lately?’
And with that, he opened fire on the tires of an NCPD vehicle driving diagonally in front of them, effectively causing the driver to lose control of the wheel. Cato clenched her jaw and moved in, cutting the car off and causing them to swerve to the side- and both Arasaka SUVs rammed right into it, causing it to flip on its side and come to a stop in the middle of the road.
‘Easy,’ Vitali said, sitting back down and taking the wheel from Cato again. His voice was a few octaves higher than usual.
‘Well, that takes care of that,’ Lauren said. ‘Cut their communication, no backup en route currently. Dunno how long I can hold them off, though.’
‘Just do what you can,’ Vitali replied. ‘We will be arriving shortly anyway- NCPD would be stupid to try and enter Afterlife.’
‘They could send MaxTac.’
‘For the sake of this conversation, let’s pretend they don’t exist.’
Everyone remained quiet for the rest of the car ride. Vincent crawled back onto the backseat and Cato closed her window again, heartbeat settling down only a little bit as she took her gun back from Vitali and put the safety back on. She was waiting, still- waiting for more of them to show, or waiting for Lauren to warn for incoming backup-
But much to her relief, nothing else happened.
The silences after combat were always the worst to her.
Cato’s brain often needed a moment to catch up, body still alert and ready to jump back into the fight if necessary- but in those quiet moments it would often all come crashing down on her, realization kicking in to the point she would be more aware of the pain in her body and the taste of blood in her mouth than she would be of her own heartbeat.
She relaxed in her seat, eyes carefully trailing the roads surrounding them as Vitali continued their way to the club. It was getting darker and darker; street lights turning on around them and the neon lights and signs of Watson turned the streets into colorful hazes of distractions, marking the beginning of the city’s nightly life.
The entrance of the Afterlife was a mess.
Cato hopped out of the car before Vitali could even bring it to a full stop and she readied her weapon again while carefully scanning the parking lot. Cars stood scattered everywhere- two of them merely a chassis and still smoldering, dark smoke lingering in the stuffy evening air and obscuring her view.
She stayed low to the ground, biting the inside of her cheek as she stepped over a couple of bodies- no idea who they belonged to- until she reached the front entrance of the place that once used to be a morgue; and by the looks of it was now reduced to that very same earlier functionality.
Another car arrived at the scene and Cato instantly turned, raising her gun- but noticed Mikhail raising his hand at her from the corner of her eye and waited, realizing soon enough the car belonged to them and was simply Panam and her squad.
‘Mikhail, stay out here with Panam,’ Vitali said, the usual strictness to his voice Cato was used to; though she could hear his exhaustion, the slightly pleading undertone seeping through his words, as if he was no longer sure whether or not his authority was still in place.
‘V, on me!’ she immediately said, raising her voice a little as she pulled her mask off her face. ‘Eddie, stick with the boss, take the back entrance. We’ll meet in the middle.’
‘Copy that. Lauren, you got a visual?’
‘Nix plugged the whole network, you’re on your own from here. Bet Matvey’s runner is tryna poke some holes- I’m stayin’ out of that.’
Cato’s gaze met Vitali’s-
And for a brief moment she could barely recognize him.
The sudden defeated look in his eyes, a stark contrast with only minutes ago when they had been back on the road; demeanor similar to that of a kicked puppy and the gratitude and relief spilling from the expression on his face suddenly made her realize how vulnerable her friend was.
He had always been different from other fixers to her.
Had been the first one to open his doors to her, let her in- and he had offered her a safehouse, protection, things he did not have to do yet did anyway from the kindness of his heart.
‘We’ll figure this out,’ Cato said, loud enough for everyone on the parking lot to hear- yet she was talking to one person directly, eyes still fixed on his face as she spoke and he gave her a weak nod in response, rapidly blinking a couple times before looking away and following Eddie around the building.
Cato inhaled deeply, taking a moment to regain her composure as she pulled herself out of her head and turned to Vincent, who gave her an affirming nod in return. The two of them quickly entered the building through the main entrance, already able to hear gunfire coming from within while descending down the stairs. Security turrets snapped into their direction the moment they turned the corner- but did not fire upon seeing who was entering, and they both did a quick wave at one of the security cameras before quickly running inside.
The interior of the Afterlife was similar to its current exterior, bodies and debris scattered around- some sort of explosion, perhaps- and several tables had been overturned, used by mercs and clients as cover in what appeared to be the final moments of a gunfight.
Cato made a run for the bar and jumped over it with ease, taking cover behind it as she carefully assessed the situation; she recognized some of the mercs as Rogue’s and could easily tell the remainder of the Broker’s mercs apart from everyone else- makeshift armor, cobbled together from what they had been able to find at the abandoned Arasaka facility as well as their own supplies.
She steadied herself on the countertop and fired a few shots in their direction, most of them bouncing off the wood and metal of the tables and chairs- but it did what she was hoping for, getting the mercs agitated enough to attempt to fire back and with that exposing themselves to the lines of fire of everyone else in the club, soon enough leaving the ringing in Cato’s ears as the only noise filling the space around her.
‘Everyone still in one piece?’ Rogue’s voice echoed from the other side of the club. Cato slowly stood up and quickly glanced around until she found Vincent- not too far away from her, giving her a thumbs up the second she looked in his direction.
More gunshots sounded from the hallways further into the building. Cato turned and finally noticed Rogue- emerging from behind a pillar, hair tied back to keep it out of her face and some blood splattered across her cheek and jaw- and watched her march into the direction of one of the doors, only for it to bust open before she could reach it.
Vitali tumbled inside, two mercs attacking him at once and one of them attempting to slit his throat; Cato instantly lunged forward over the bar to close the distance between herself and the scuffle on the floor, but before she could do anything Rogue pulled out a gun and fired- two rapid, loud gunshots, two dead bodies, and Vitali yelped as he pushed them both off himself and scrambled back to his feet as fast as he could.
‘We clear?’ Rogue asked, glancing up when Eddie too entered through the door, and Vitali quickly nodded in response as he straightened his back and pushed back his shoulders while rapidly scanning the room- found Vincent and Cato, and he visibly relaxed again.
Thought Matvey didn’t want Vitali dead?
‘Nix says there’s more on the way,’ Rogue continued, speaking loud enough for everyone inside to hear as she took a few steps back to look around. ‘Including MaxTac. Which I can only describe as an unpleasant fucking surprise.’
‘Probably best if we delta,’ Vincent immediately said, hints of a grimace on his face as he shared a nervous look with Cato. ‘Let them- you know. Fight it out.’
‘Where to?’
‘Whe- Uh. Boss?’
‘Safehouse.’ Vitali paused to lick his lips. ‘Rancho Coronado, should be abandoned. Enough space for all of us, for now. Regroup there?’
‘Preem, lead the way. And, hey- you owe me an explanation, Dobrynin.’
‘Let’s get out of here alive first, yes?’
There was not much to explain, from Cato’s point of view. They hadn’t figured out what was going on still- did not know what Matvey was trying to achieve with any of this, and frankly, it had gotten to the point where trying to find an ulterior motive was more pointless than attempting to make sense out of his weird revenge fantasy in the first place.
She lingered behind a little with Vitali while everyone began making their way back outside, eyes once more trailing the interior of what remained of the Afterlife. It wouldn’t be the first time a gunfight had taken place inside- though she doubted it had ever gotten that bad before, and already feared for the consequences the Council would decide on were they to catch wind of all this.
Problem for later. Got more pressing matters at hand.
Reinforcements had shown up outside in the meantime and Cato instantly snapped back to reality, following Eddie and Vincent around the burnt out car chassis to put more distance between themselves and their enemies. She crouched down, moving around the both of them to get to Panam- kneeled next to one of their other mercs, bleeding from their shoulder.
‘Wound’s superficial!’ Panam yelled over the noises around them. ‘But we gotta get ‘em out of this heat!’
Cato glanced over the concrete road barrier they were sat behind; several vehicles blocked the only road out of the parking lot, and there was no way of safely getting past them without having to abandon their own cars in the process.
She turned back- eyes frantically scanning both Panam and the other merc until they landed on two grenades attached to their belt. She snatched them off and hopped over the barrier, trailing along the side of the parking lot to stay out of sight as she slowly moved closer to get a better angle.
And once she was close enough, she pulled the pins out of both grenades without hesitating and hurled them at the cars of the Broker’s mercs, covering her ears and withdrawing herself back behind the corner of the wall as the double explosion rattled her bones and caused the ground below her feet to shake.
She stayed in her position, waiting until her heartbeat had settled down; waiting for the pained screams and cries to die down, waiting for the gunfire to end, waiting for her nose to become used to the smell of burnt flesh- or for her brain to successfully convince her someone was simply throwing a barbecue just around the block, and there was nothing else to worry about.
‘Everyone, move out!’ Rogue yelled when Cato finally lowered her hands- and a humming noise somewhere above them instantly caught her attention, a sudden breeze picking up, and she turned her head to sky to-
Another explosion blasted her straight off her feet and she fell backwards, back hitting the wall and everything momentarily went black before she was suddenly face down on the ground. She tried to push herself back up on her elbows, grunting as the muscles on the left side of her body painfully protested-
And with that she was yanked back on her feet though not in the friendly manner she had been hoping for and a heavily armored figure appeared in her view, holding a heavy handgun firmly pressed against her forehead.
MaxTac.
But Cato was fast.
Smacked the weapon aside before they could pull the trigger on her and forcefully grabbed the helmet to yank it off their head, spinning 360 degrees before slamming it into the MaxTac agent’s face at full speed. Her arms were grabbed from behind and she was pulled back, one hand reaching up to grab a handful of her hair and drag her along, away from her friends-
But then she was on the ground again, a large boot kicking her in the face and her vision faded away once more for a couple of seconds. She blinked, coughing and wincing in pain as she noticed a tall figure hovering over her and they grabbed her hand to pull her back up on her feet.
‘Hey- Get up. Can’t have you dying on me now.’
Mikhail’s voice was soft, yet somehow the only thing Cato could hear as she suddenly struggled to realize where exactly she was; as if the two of them had been sent years back in time, back to when they used to work together- before Cato ran off with Kang Tao and Mikhail went to work for Arasaka instead-
Still difficult to believe, sometimes, that he had been part of the reason Kang Tao had started to hunt her and her squad down.
‘Wasn’t planning to,’ Cato quietly replied and gave him a small smile in return, allowing her friend to ruffle her hair before they both crossed the parking lot to get around the now empty MaxTac aircraft back to the car.
Let’s get the fuck out of here.
‘Get a medkit!’
‘Alright, sit down, careful-’
‘Misha? Catch.’
‘Someone bring me some towels!’
Vitali slowly followed the others inside the abandoned house in southern Rancho Coronado, lingering behind just a little longer as his gaze moved over the empty streets one final time. In the clear, for now- yet he remained alert, gun still in his slightly shaking hand as he dragged himself through the entrance hall and the living room to the other side of the house to sit down on a stool in the kitchen next to the large glass door leading to the backyard.
His leg and forearm were burning.
He’d forgotten to take any painkillers before departure.
The merc’s injuries were superficial and nothing Mikhail could not fix; just another day at work and one of the risks of their line of work. But the panicked sounds surrounding him, of his friends running around looking for more supplies, Panam nearly running right into him on her way to grab more towels, people getting weapons ready and sharing ammo with each other while preparing for yet another thorough perimeter check-
Vitali’s eyes fluttered shut.
And for a brief moment, it was entirely quiet around him.
The black void swallowing him whole was comforting, in a way; a cool patch of shade on a scorching hot summer day, a gentle breeze on a balcony overlooking the ocean, a wild river dragging him down by his feet until his entire body was submerged.
He often found himself standing there, in the dark- wondering. Wondering when it would end, when he would regain control again; wondering what else was left there for him; wondering what else he could say, if a half-assed apology would be enough to save him this time.
And all he would get in response was silence.
Strange, how that worked- to crave something he feared so deeply at the same time, to want something he knew he could not have without losing himself in the process.
And with that, the noise returned to him, panicked screams and cries and sobs and the feeling of hands grabbing his wrists and tearing at his clothes and clawing at his face, nails and teeth drawing blood, like hungry wolves feeding on a deer’s carcass-
He knew what dying felt like.
‘Hey.’
V’s voice had always been strangely soothing to him. Like a gentle kiss on a bruise- a voice that could cause his heartbeat to settle down even in the most stressful of moments.
But Vitali could not open his eyes.
Could not bear to look at him- what would he even say? After everything that had happened and everything that was happening around them now; he would only end up digging himself deeper into that hole, as stubborn as he was, unable to accept his defeat.
A quiet sigh left his lips when V gently cupped his cheeks, thumbs running over his skin as he gently tilted his head a little to the side.
‘You’re bleeding,’ he quietly said, and Vitali finally allowed himself to open his eyes, watching worry spilling from the expression on the merc’s face as he carefully moved his fingers to just behind Vitali’s ear.
‘It’s nothing serious,’ Vitali merely responded, holstering his gun and reaching up to push V’s hand away, but V dodged him and instead tried to tilt his head further.
‘I said-’
‘I heard you. Let me take a look.’
‘V-’
‘Vincent.’
A short pause, and Vitali sucked in a shallow breath.
‘Please.’
Vincent.
Vitali held his breath, heart skipping a beat as a weirdly comforting fog in his head blocked everything else out and caused him to only see what was right in front of him. He slowly scanned V’s face as his head was once more tilted to the side- no sign of sarcasm, no sign of discomfort, or hesitance.
Their gazes met; and V shot him a small, encouraging smile, lower lip trembling slightly as he did.
And with that, Vitali finally allowed Vincent to assess the damage, a wave of relief washing over him as he closed his eyes again and briefly pressed his lips against the bloodied palm of his boyfriend’s hand.
The carnage at the Afterlife had taken its toll on him, a lot more than he had initially expected. Something had caused the harsh reality of it all to fully kick in there- and they had learned nothing, other than the fact that apparently Matvey’s mercs were now taking a completely different approach.
Vitali involuntarily clenched his jaw and sucked in a deep breath, the memory of the two heavy bodies on top of him creeping back into his mind- the knife that had only been inches away from his throat- Ravager’s hands wrapped tightly around his neck-
‘Is anyone here gonna tell me what the fuck’s going on?’
Rogue had walked over to the two of them and stopped right next to Vitali the moment he looked up again, hands on her hips and a mostly unreadable expression on her face- though he did not need to ask to know she was fucking furious.
‘Genuinely wish I could,’ he answered, flinching lightly when Vincent dabbed the wound behind his ear with a wet towel. ‘Attack came out of nowhere, I don’t think any of it was planned. No pattern, no motive- they tried to kill me, as you saw. That’s new.’
‘So your- the Broker is changing their strategy?’
Vitali clenched his jaw again, but did not answer.
He didn’t know what his father was attempting to achieve with any of this. It made no sense- had their last encounter finally caused him to stop fucking around, to stop wasting time? Had this been part of his plan all along?
Vitali swallowed heavily and pushed the thought out of his head. Anything was possible at that point, but he decided to choose to believe his father had better backup plans at hand. Whatever had happened, whatever it was that had changed- there had to be a logical explanation to it all.
‘Just gotta figure out where they’re stayin’, then we can get this over with,’ Vincent quietly said, glancing in Rogue’s direction before looking back at Vitali. ‘Whatever happens, happens.’
He was right.
Vitali closed his eyes again and inhaled deeply, a strange knot settling deep within his stomach as he realized what that meant. Whatever happens, happens- no way around it anymore this time, nothing else left to do or say. No more grasping at straws; nothing left within his reach.
All he had wanted for himself, was a happy ending.
Selfish, in hindsight, to wish that for himself after getting so many other people caught up in the crossfire. Stupid of him to think that his father would stop, naive of him to think that he could get his family back after everything that had happened between them, after all their years apart.
Vincent cupped his cheeks with both hands and left a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth- I know, baby, I know- and it only then dawned on Vitali a tear had escaped his eye and was steadily rolling down his cheek, Vincent’s thumb softly running over his skin to wipe it away.
Oh, how Vitali had hoped it wouldn’t have had to get to this.
He opened his eyes again and slowly let his gaze trail through the room. Most people had sat themselves down in the living room, everyone a bit calmer now that the mercenary’s injury was being looked after by Mikhail and weapons had been reloaded. Rogue slowly wandered away again too, redoing her ponytail while quietly mumbling to herself- just too quiet for him to hear what she said.
‘Boss-? Someone’s approaching the house!’
Vitali’s head snapped up toward the front door, a rush of adrenaline instantly waking him up again. He grabbed the gun in his holster, dragging himself from the stool and pushing past Vincent to get to Cato, who had called out for him. She briefly glanced over her shoulder, then readied her own weapon and kicked open the door, both of them stepping outside and aiming at-
‘Wait, wait, wait- Don’t shoot!’
Dusty?
Vitali froze.
It was unmistakably his ex mercenary, hands up in the air while he stumbled back a few steps, wide eyes focused on the guns pointed at his head. Vitali instantly lowered his own- and so did Cato, though she also walked closer without hesitation and used the butt of her weapon to smack Dusty in the head- hard.
‘You fucking cunt of a traitor!’ she yelled, stuffing her gun in her holster while grabbing one of his arms and forcefully twisting it behind his back.
‘Cato-’ Vitali said and raised his hand, but other than that did nothing to stop her and just stood motionless to the ground while Dusty sputtered and cried out in pain as Cato dragged him off the street, closer to the house.
‘You got some serious balls showin’ your ugly face here after everything!’ she snarled, pushing Dusty into the outer wall of the house and aiming her gun at him again. ‘I should shoot you where you stand!’
Vitali’s brain struggled to catch up.
He walked a little further into the street, eyes carefully scanning each and every corner; it was too dark for him to be able to see very far but everything seemed clear from where he stood, the only movement he could see coming from the corner of his eye, some of the others emerging from the house to see what was going on.
‘Check the perimeter,’ he heard Rogue say, and turned around again just in time to see a few mercs scatter and vanish into the dark, weapons at the ready- and then he realized everyone who was still there was staring directly at him, even Cato, a questioning look on her face and her gun pointed directly at a still whimpering Dusty, her hand slightly swaying from side to side.
‘Why are you here?’ he asked, slightly raising his voice as he walked back and straightened his back, regaining his composure within mere milliseconds. ‘No fucking around- give me something to work with or I’ll let Cato do whatever she wants.’
‘Sanders is dead,’ Dusty promptly replied, and he dropped his arms past his body, carefully lifting his head from the wall. ‘Your old man killed him. His mercs are out of fuckin’ control- out for your blood, they don’t care about no contract anymore.’
Oh.
Vitali stopped in his tracks, mouth half open as the words got caught in his throat and he exchanged a look with Cato as a sudden location in Charter Hill popped up in the corner of his vision.
‘They locked him up,’ Dusty continued, his voice low. ‘Usin’ every little bit of the supplies he keeps in that building to burn this entire city to a fuckin’ crisp- and they’re not gonna stop any time soon by the looks of it.’
Dead silence fell over the dark street.
Well, as silent as it could be.
If you listened closely you could hear it in the distance- vaguely audible over the light breeze and some distant music- the noises of what was going on downtown, sirens howling through the night sky and heavy gunfire rattling through the streets, not uncommon at all but far heavier than it usually was.
Vitali felt light-headed.
Unsure what to think of it all- unsure if he could even trust Dusty’s word- but the sheer panic and fear in the merc’s eyes said enough and he bit the inside of his cheek, heart beating heavily inside his chest.
They locked him up.
This is not his doing.
He promptly walked back inside, past all his mercs, past Rogue- avoiding eye contact with each and every single one of them as he ran up the stairs as fast as he could to reach the safehouse’s weapon storage. His heart was once again racing in his chest, ramming itself into his ribcage as the pain in both his leg and forearm flared up again.
Painkillers can wait.
The small closet wasn’t nearly as impressive as back at home or at his office, but Vitali didn’t care. It was enough to stock up on ammo- and all he was looking for anyway was the box of explosives, tucked away in the far right corner and hidden behind some shotguns.
Nothing too powerful, of course- there was no need to level the whole thing to the ground, no need to potentially harm innocent people in the somewhat impulsive act of destruction he was carefully planning out in his head. Merely enough to get rid of what was inside; wipe out the threat and get rid of every and any tool used by the mercs to keep their citywide onslaught going.
He closed the door of the storage closet with his hip and nearly walked right into Vincent and Rogue, the both of them having followed him upstairs and giving him a puzzled look before glancing down at the box in his arms, realization kicking in for the both of them at once upon seeing the explosives and the dangerous shimmer in his eyes.
‘Get everyone together,’ Vitali said, and the corner of his mouth pulled up into a small smile.
‘Let’s go blow up a building.’
#nuclearwriting#rbs much appreciated :) <3#it's all coming to a fucking end baybeeey#hope dusty doesn't feel like too much of a deus ex machina here. technically he's been relevant since chapter 1 so like. you know#was only a matter of time before his scrawny traitor ass would come running right back#ANYWAY. HEHE. much to think about much to yell about#lots of cato pov because i love my girl and also the way she observes situations is interesting to me#the car chase was so facking difficult to write. the rest of the action scenes too tbh but i was being very brave about it#the fact that the last sentence kind of implies that this will end similar to like. the canon in-game events#and also kinda similar to the end of the arasaka arc. and all of them being about arasaka in a way#idk it's interesting!!! it's like an endless cycle that the characters are stuck in. can you ever really get away from arasaka and all that#anyway let me know what you guys think of this one!! as always super excited to see everyone's thoughts >:^)#ch:the broker
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Xenoblade 1 is the best game like ever fucking made and it has two of the most dogshit sequels ever fucking made
#meows#remembering just how insulted I felt in 2017 when I preordered the sequel and really really tried to like it#I hadn’t experienced Game I Don’t Like before 2 and it took me like 40 hours to realize I hated it#and that shit at the end is such an INSULT. such an insult#you’re telling me that [redacted] was actually only half of himself the whole time and that 1 and 2 are taking place at the same time???#and that oh actually [expunged] is one of three computers when the first game made no mention of any of that#y’all really went back to say your complete first game actually is only HaLf of the story? that someone like [expunged] is only a third of#the force that ended our planet#y’all went back and hollowed out your existing characters to make room for worse versions of the same characters#AND you play as a dork nerd child who ends the game with three gfs bc this is story#and the gfs do nothing but sacrifice themselves for you like three times and look pretty#but they don’t look pretty to like. normal well adjusted people#they look pretty to the I like questionable art of 17 year olds crowd#and the GALL. the GALL. of changing [expunged]s design in the switch port to try to stitch his afterthought purpose into the old game#while also making him just whiter and whiter until by 3 he’s like fucking light grey#and having him have a canon genderbend that’s just anime waif#who is also fucking white#and giving Klaus’ counterpart a name that has nothing to do with Gnosticism#even though so much other stuff in the first game comes from Gnosticism.#who the FUCK is Galea!!!! her name is fucking Sophia#killing biting maiming#and the gacha system? with bad odds for no reason in a game you’ve already paid for#it’s so fucking messy#it lacks a unified art direction#it’s soulless and even a game like 3 where only HALF of it is 2 flavored can’t beat the original because of the portion of 2 in it#and like what. is it like the two universes reunited after [redacted] died🙃#why did any of this need to exist! why did any of this have to be retconned#x is fine I don’t hate x and I don’t count it as a sequel to Xenoblade 1 bc there’s no#half assed tie back to 1 in x#2 and 3 would have been better as like. tales of games
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
I wanna flesh out a yakuza oc but every time I think about it I end up thinking about an oc of mine who already Exists who’s not a yakuza oc. but is, in fact, an oc who is a yakuza. and that fact is genuinely completely unrelated
#he existed WAY before I started playing yakuza or knew really anything about it#actually he contributes to why I got into yakuza to begin with. cause when my friend first showed me y0 I was like ough… my character#grew up in this exact environment and culture and structure and etc (son of a patriarch)#so it was legitimately a good reference for his background and stuff#I kinda wanna talk about him/his background more on here but. like i said he’s. not technically a yakuza oc#and he can’t be because he. canonically. has PLAYED yakuza. like the games EXIST cause it’s just a normal real world type universe and#I won’t get into all this much but he ends up in the states on the dl for Reasons. accidentally ends up with a son when he’s 22 (son’s#mother being significantly younger but again we’re not gonna get into THAT mess). ends up seeing the first game being sold somewhere in nyc#and is unable to restrain his curiosity about it (as an Actual Yakuza) so he ends up getting his son a ps2 for his birthday partly just#as an excuse to buy and play yakuza 1 because he NEEDS to know what’s in it#something something it ends up being a weird bonding thing with his son who’s definitely too young to be watching this game being played#(he was born the same year as haruka so he’d be like. 8-9. also already a concerningly violent child with many issues but. anyway)#something something he ends up disappearing out of the blue from the states when his son is 12 but the pastime still sticks for said son#from then on. so uh. yeah weirdly significant that these games Exist in this story/universe bdsjhfdfjnd#idk why I’m avoiding saying his name. his name’s asura. he’s a year or two older than daigo (born 1974) and his family’s supposed to be a#pretty powerful one in the tokyo area and he was supposed to be a nepo baby sorta like daigo except he’s not Technically an only child- he#has a much younger sister. but obviously she wasn’t gonna be considered for taking over their father’s seat nor would she want to#she wants absolutely nothing to do with any of it and changes her last name pretty soon after moving to the US to get away from them#no beef with her brother or anything she was just treated absolutely horribly and disgustingly by older members of their family growing up#ANYWAY I should stop talking bdshshcbsnnf I didn’t mean to infodump all this the lore is just. deep with these guys#Asura wasn’t even made to be a particularly prominent character or anything it’s his SON who’s a Bonafide Main Character and asura’s ties in#the story are mostly related to Him. (though his sister is also a pretty prominent character so there’s connection there too)#rambling#also one more note. yes. the timing and location of where asura would’ve first bought yakuza 1 means that it would most likely be the#infamous original english dub version. which is hilarious to think about#especially because his son’s mom (I keep calling her that because they weren’t really in a Relationship they just co-parented and lived#together a little less than half the time. it’s complicated) Did Not Approve of a game that Adult around their kid. so she would not be fond#of walking in the room and hearing TEN YEARS IN THE JOINT MADE YOU A FUCKING PUSSY#luckily she was so young and considered her son a lost cause and a burden as it is so. she complained but didn’t really do anything about#it. I mean shit she was like. only around 24-25 I think. but yeah
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
while I'm not really the biggest fan of Stobotnik or Staregg/Eggline compared to most other pairings I have with Eggman, one good thing about the popularity of both in recent years is that people actually finally think to pair Eggman with men. because gay stuff with him used to be so goddamn rare, especially non satirical stuff as I used to have to settle for that sometimes back in the day XD
#wish more was with classic/modern design than jimbotnik/Boom for personal preference#but hey it's just nice that him as any version at all has more gay stuff now#I feel there were 3 reasons why it wasn't common before#1. cus of other non game canon media pairings (but none were good lol)#2. cus Eggman wasn't as popular in general hardly anyone found him hot so they didn't think him shippable at all#and 3. cus he's masculine and people in fandom forget masculine men can be gay for some reason#and only hc if they can make it fit stereotypes :P#I'm glad those days are over mostly- it's a lot rarer for these to apply now#dr eggman#eggman#dr robotnik#dr. eggman#pride#relationships#my post
14 notes
·
View notes