#but i hope with all earnestness that he enjoys his entry into his 30s

[figureskatingpenguin]

Yuzuru Hanyu: Through the Years 2.0

Once again wishing the happiest of birthdays to the figure skating GOAT! I sincerely hope that you enter this new decade of your life with the same joy and determination that you've always had to pursue your dreams.

featuring: Haru Yo Koi, Hope & Legacy, Chopin's Ballade No. 1, Parisienne Walkways, Ten to Chi to, Notte Stellata, and Seimei.

[nickxnovak]

Mark: Victoria Costa

tw: murder, blood, knives

this is the description of nick killin someone so its generally unpleasant, apologies

There are other killers in Diamond City more subtle than Nick Novak. There are people who specialize in arranging accidents, covering tracks, and forging suicide notes. It wasn’t that Nick couldn’t do those things, its that his clients weren’t interested in them. What sets Nick apart is not his skill as a killer. It is his skill as a messenger.

Of course he could kill Victoria Costa in her apartment. He could kill her as she walked to her haircut appointment on Tuesday at 3:00 PM. He could kill her when she went to a singles night mixer at the bar on her block twice a week. Those would all be much easier scenarios than the one he had in mind. But he didn’t get paid big for quantity. He was a high quality hitman, and if you’re going to kill a ballerina and leave an impression, you have to do it at the ballet.

Ridley had shown him his way in- the rooftop access would minimize the amount of people who saw his face and let him bring in whatever weaponry he wanted without worrying about security. It was locked and obviously on a rooftop, but he knew where the fire escape was and he’d gotten pretty good at picking locks in the past few years. 

He’d pondered just shooting off the lock with his silenced pistol, but if the cops found out later that this had been his point of entry they would seal it off. It would be better to keep this route open to preserve Ridley’s favorite escape spot- and in case he ever needed a stealthy point of entry again.

So Nick found himself crouching in an impeccable black tux full of weaponry as he finessed the lock on the rooftop of the Diamond City Ballet with about fifteen minutes until intermission, a bouquet of flowers by his side. The lockpicks were a gift from Raúl from when he had first started training. The bouquet was from some guy on the street he had paid a hundred dollars to pick up. He hoped that man enjoyed his hundred bucks, he was probably about to be a murder suspect soon. After about a minute, he felt the lock give a satisfying click. Good, Nick was on schedule, and he had to be. The clock was ticking- or, in this case, the metronome.

The stairs from the rooftop lead to the backstage area, but he had some ground to cover before he got to his destination: the dressing room of Victoria Costa and Angelica Howe. The key here would be avoiding backstage foot traffic. He’d timed it so there would be no scene changes during his movement here, but there would still be crew moving about. That was unavoidable. He rolled his shoulders back and puffed up his chest slightly, flowers gripped in his right hand. His cover was confidence, not shadows and corners. He’d learned a long time ago that if you dress nicely and act like you belong, you can do pretty much anything without drawing attention.

No one seemed to notice him as he made his way towards the dressing room. Everyone was too absorbed by their duties to bat an eye at the man walking with the bouquet. The flowers were a three-purpose prop. They were currently serving their first purpose: They helped project the aura that he was supposed to be here. If anyone wondered who he was, the flowers told them he was a thoughtful friend or family member of someone in the production.

He reached the dressing room without any questions. Good, but he had factored in some extra time and now he was slightly early. Ah well, he could talk to Victoria for a moment before he killed her. Hopefully he was correct and Victoria would be in her dressing room alone. She wasn’t in any of the dances left before intermission, whereas Angelica, her dressing room buddy, should still be in the wings. He knocked on the door.

Victoria opened up the door and gave him a slow once-over. Angelica didn’t appear to be in the room with her.

“Can I help you?” She asked, placing her hand on her hip.

“Hi, yes, you must be Victoria.” He gave her his most earnest smile, “I’m Angelica’s friend, Mike. I was wondering if it would be alright if I waited in your dressing room to surprise her when she comes back from intermission.” The flowers now served their second purpose: backing up this story.

Victoria paused for a bit too long, and Nick worried that maybe he had done something to give himself away. Maybe she had recognized him from the bar with Ridley. 

“Friend?” She raised an eyebrow curiously. Ah. That explained it. 

“Yeah. We’re very much just friends.” He shifted his smile towards being more flirtatious, assuming that was what she had meant by the question.

Victoria changed her posture and batted her eyelashes at him. Subtle. “Come on in, you can sit down on the couch over there.”

Nick did as instructed and looked at his watch. He had fifty-six seconds to kill. Literally. In about a minute, a very loud music cue would sound, one that should overpower any sort of noise that happened in the violence. He needed to be able to make a quick and unnoticed departure from the dressing room before intermission and he couldn’t be caught causing any sort of disturbance that would impede his hasty exit. This had to be choreographed just as much as what was happening onstage. 

45 seconds

“So how do you know Angie?” Victoria questioned conversationally as she sat by her vanity.

“She was in a dance class with my sister a few years ago.” He answered, vague and rehearsed.

Victoria nodded and began to pull her blonde hair up into a bun. 

30 seconds

“Are you two close?” Nick asked, filling time. 

She flashed him a smile from the mirror, “We’ve been in the company together for about a year now. Did you know that we actually...” Victoria continued speaking. Nick nodded along politely but processed none of it.

15 seconds

Nick slipped the knife he kept tucked in his left sleeve into his palm. Victoria finished putting up her bun.

10 seconds

Nick rose slowly from the couch. Victoria watched his movement in the mirror.

5 seconds

Nick walked towards the vanity. Victoria’s noticed the knife in his hand.

3 seconds

Nick walked closer. Victoria spun around in her chair. Her eyes turned gold and she clenched her hands into fists. Nick didn’t have time to worry about the fact that his employer hadn’t warned him she was a mutant and none of her records had indicated it.

1 second

For the slightest of moments, neither of them moved. 

Then, a burst of sound from the trombone section reverberated through the backstage area, the acoustics just wrong, and Nick struck. Whatever power Victoria had been readying, she never got the chance to use it. He found his target swiftly, slicing her right across the throat. She tried to cover the bleeding with one of her hands, but the cut was deep and true. Nick reached out with his senses and switched off her pain. She fell to the ground with a thud. 

The music returned to a lull.

Now it was time for the flowers’ third purpose. Nick dragged Victoria’s body to the center of the room and placed the bouquet on her chest. He picked up her arms and crossed them over the flowers. He felt for her pulse and found none, but stabbed her once more in the side for good measure. The blood splattered a bit onto the flowers, painting the lilies red. His client had requested an eerie scene. As he stepped back and stared at the corpse, Nick felt certain he had delivered on that request.

He exited the same way he entered; confidently, up towards the rooftop, unnoticed. He had a whole minute to go until intermission. Altogether it was a job well done, though he would have to press his client on not disclosing her mutant status. That could have gotten complicated quickly. 

He took a moment to stare out onto the city from up high. Ridley had been right.

He did hate it all just a little less from up here.