#making sure it’s clear. the dad bod makes you more attractive impulse. yes I’m looking you directly in your eyes

[astronomodome]

You know what that comment from impulse on one of the imp n skizz podcasts about how fanartists draw his character vs. skizz’s character is actually pretty funny like if the fanartists drew my equally old mannish buddy as a tall ripped angel with bright shining blue eyes and luscious raven black hair and huge boobs and then drew me in basic bitch t-shirt and khakis with a dad bod (assuming i had not yet unlearnt the cultural assumption that being fat makes you less attractive) i would be pissed too. Like to a certain extent with his skin he does it to himself but cmon man

[neonnihilism]

kneel on my arrival. 

chapter one.

The Vagabond is shoving Gavin against the wall enough to wind him by the time Gavin can open his mouth. As he struggles to breathe, mouth wide open, eyebrows drawn together, the Vagabond is already starting to leave the bathroom. When his foot is out of the threshold of the room, he stops and looks at Gavin. He points at Gavin. His hands go straight in front of him, one palm facing up, one facing down. He turns them.

He’s signing at Gavin. He signed ‘you’re dead,’ to Gavin.

Gavin is still breathing hard, but he manages to fingerspell ‘ASL,’ raise his hand to his head, almost in a salute. Then he drops his hand to a ‘y.’ His eyebrows are raised. You know sign language?

The Vagabond looks stunned immediately. Gavin can’t revel in it for too long, because he’s already gone. Gavin sinks to the floor, chest heaving. The communication device in his ear crackles. “What happened?” Geoff’s voice isn’t the best quality, but Gavin understands. He presses a button on the device and clears his throat.

“The Vagabond knows sign language.”

“Does he know you know it?”

“I doubt he did before, but, now he definitely knows.” Gavin stopped talking after that, instead standing up and beginning to walk out of the bathroom. If the Vagabond didn’t know Gavin knew sign language, why use it? He shrugged it off, questions could come later, right now he should get ice on his back. Caleb might laugh at him for that, but anything for relief. Gavin looks around the club for his masked little friend, but of course, there’s no sign of him. Before he leaves to the penthouse, he orders the strongest drink they have. It never hurts to drink.

After he sleeps the hurt off, Gavin sits down to do research. All the notes he has of the Vagabond, the man they’ve been chasing for months, the man whose face has never been seen, are extremely vague. The man wears a mask 24/7, how can there be any notes of him. There’s newspaper clippings of his crimes, his height, build, abilities, allies (or lack thereof,) even what car he drives most of the time (armored kuruma.) But nothing of note, nothing of eye color, hair color, or frequent dive bars. What can Gavin do?

Gavin goes back to the club the next day. Though as much as he wants to, he doesn’t order the drink he got last time. Instead, he gets a girly drink that’s so pink he forgets there’s alcohol in it. When a drink comes his way, he smiles politely and refuses. Does the same when the guy who bought the drink for him comes his way as well.

There’s obviously no Vagabond here. It should be obvious since no masked men here are making people run screaming out of the building. By the time Gavin is 5 seconds from walking out of this building defeated, someone puts their hand on his shoulder and leans in close. “Can I get you a drink?” said the disembodied voice.

The voice is deep, but a pleasant deep. A light lilt at the end. Gavin is ready to turn him down.

Up until he turns.

The first thing he notices is his eyes. They’re remind him of Geoff’s eyes, with how blue they are. When Gavin finally pulls his eyes away from them, he’s already saying yes to the drink.

“Anything specific? I, uh, don’t actually drink. So, I don’t know what’s good.” The guy was smiling shyly. “I didn’t think you would say yes.”

Gavin is adopting a mask as quickly as he can. He’s smiling enough to make his cheeks hurt and leaning forward into the guy’s space, under the assumption of not being able to hear. “I’ll take whatever you want to give me.” When he pulled away, he winked at him. “What’s your name, anyway? I’m Gavin.”

He laughed and flagged down the bartender when she walked by. “Sex on the beach, please.”

“Take me out for dinner first.” Gavin had his chin in his hands, looking at the mystery man as he ordered. “I want the orange slice on it, too.” The bartender nodded and went off.

“My name is Ryan.”

“Hi Ryan.”

When the drink was set down in front of them, Ryan offered it to him. As long as Ryan doesn’t touch it, Gavin should have nothing to worry about. He grabbed it and took a sip of it. Gavin hummed. “You sure you don’t drink? This tastes delicious.”

Ryan smiles and orders a diet coke for himself.

He doesn’t seem the best at small talk, but Gavin likes to think that his eyes make up for it. And his hair. And his build. Gavin takes a few seconds to appreciate his build specifically. He obviously had the bulk of someone who lifted weights, and Gavin wanted desperately to lift his shirt to see if he was lean or not. Gavin actually hoped he wasn’t lean. Maybe Gavin had a type, or just maybe Gavin is accidentally attracted to all men with a certain body build. And maybe it was the alcohol in his blood that made him put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder to turn him and ask-

“Do you have a dad bod?”

Gavin doesn’t remember much, because after his question and Ryan’s subsequent laughing fit that attracted a lot of attention and lasted for far too long, he ordered even more sex on the beaches. Around his 4th one is when the night started getting blurry. All he could remember was talking to Ryan the whole time. About where they grew up, siblings, schooling, and jobs. Ryan is an animator at a large studio and if Gavin was just a little more sober, he would have asked about his current projects. Gavin racks his brain for an answer that isn’t quite a lie and comes up with ‘I run a company with a few friends,’ and a smile. Who knows what this guy knows about the Fake AH Crew. Hopefully nothing.

Then Gavin wakes up at home with no idea how he got there. His phone is dead and surprisingly sticky with a sweet syrup. He hooks it onto his charger and goes back to sleep, until his phone wakes him.

Geoff’s name is on the screen. When he raises the phone to his ear, Geoff’s voice is crackling.

“You dumbass. Oh, you’re dumb and you suck.” He’s laughing and Gavin just pulls the phone away from his ear. It was too loud and Gavin is too hungover for everything to exist near him.

“How did I get home?”

“You called an uber. You kept ringing the penthouse to let me in.”

Gavin hummed into the phone. “At least I didn’t die.”

“Oh yeah. That’s the important part.” And then he hung up, leaving Gavin in the silence of his bedroom. He starts going through his phone, trying to find any evidence of the night before. Then, he realizes he has a text from yesterday.

Unknown:

Hey, It’s Ryan. Hope you’re safe.

Somehow, Ryan got his number. He can only assume he gave it to Ryan when he was drunk.

Gavin:

yeah i just woke up. hungover as all hell though haha

He gets a text from Jack telling him to come upstairs for breakfast after that. Leaving his phone in his room, he goes up to eat it before Geoff comes back from wherever he is and eats Gavin’s share. Jack is already sitting at the table, eating, by the time he’s in the kitchen.

“So, what happened last night?” Jack asked.

“I would tell you if I knew. But I don’t. Actually, I met this guy! He’s really fit, and he has a dad bod. The last thing is yet to be proven, though.”

Jack is laughing at him when Geoff comes in. His first stop is Gavin’s plate, from which he takes a huge bite out of Gavin’s pancakes.

“Gavin was telling me about his dream conquest.”

“You should have heard him last night. Wouldn’t shut up about Ryan, Ryan, oh Ryan is so lovely.” Geoff’s mock accent hurt Gavin’s hungover ears just as much as his sober ears.

“Oh, come off it, you have no proof that happened.”

“Buddy, believe me, if I had proof you would never hear the end of it.” Geoff cackled.

They ate breakfast together, as always. But Gavin only thought about the man at the bar. Ryan’s eyes were so beautiful, enough that they still captivated Gavin hours later. By the time Gavin could get away from Geoff and Jack, he was running to check his phone.

But there was nothing. No notifications, no messages from Ryan, nothing. Gavin isn’t going to hide his disappointment. So, he throws himself onto his bed and spends most of the day coding stupid scripts.

When night comes, he finally stops. He’s made enough viruses and plug-ins to last a lifetime.

Gavin lies in his bed and begins chasing a pipe dream, that if he goes back to the club, he’ll see Ryan there.

He’s halfway through with dressing when he realizes how stupid that it. Halfway to the club by the time he realizes he shouldn’t go. He’s already there when he realizes how stupid he is. Now he’s already inside the club, walking around. First, he sits at the bar. Ryan isn’t there, he quickly realizes, but he can still order a drink or two to pass the time and watch the door. Nothing. An hour of nothing. So, he hops down from the barstool. He wanders to the dance floor, only half heartedly swaying to the music. A few people come and try to dance with him, but he’s not a very responsible dancer right then, so they leave.

About half an hour of rotating people goes by, when Gavin’s thinks he sees something- or rather- someone- in the distance. He’s not rational enough to stop himself from chasing after it. The person must have realized that Gavin was after them, because they started walking away- and fast. Gavin’s impulse only heightened. Whoever it was did not want Gavin after them, so Gavin went after them harder.

They were tall and broad, stomping their way through the venue. But, Gavin was light and fast. He wasn’t quite as tall, a few inches shorter, but he still had enough height to see over the crowd. They took a sharp left into a hallway and Gavin was right behind. It was dark, but not dark enough that he lost sight. Couldn’t see the face. Just the rough outline of them.

Gavin bit his tongue not to scream when they grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into a room off of the hallway.

It was painfully bright in there. Mirrors everywhere. Bathroom.

Whoever it was threw Gavin to the opposite side of the room, so he’s far from the door. But they don’t seem to want to get any closer. When Gavin has recentered himself and isn’t falling over his own feet anymore, he’s in a defensive stance.

Vagabond. Tall imposing silhouette. Leather jacket. Mask. He can’t see anything under the mask from far away, and he doesn’t even know what to imagine under it anyway. His shoulders are broad, head down to look at Gavin.

During their last encounter, he had signed at Gavin. That must be why he pushed Gavin in here, to see his hands. He’s in here to talk. Hopefully.

Gavin raises his eyebrows and signs to the Vagabond. “You pulled me in here to talk?”

The Vagabond nods his head.

“Why do you sign if you wear the mask? It covers the expressions. How do I know If you’re asking a question?” Gavin points at his own raised eyebrows. It’s probably stupid to ask someone anything when they could kill you with their own two hands, easily.

“Stop.” He signs. Gavin doesn’t.

“What about the mask? How do you see through it enough to see my hands?”

“Stop.” Again. Gavin does this time. “Why are you here again?”

“Is that a question? I can’t tell.”

The Vagabond reaches inside his jacket. Gavin wants to pretend he’s not scared of what he’s going to bring out, but he is. Geoff and Jack don’t know where he is, they could still think he’s in his room.

It only gets worse when what he pulls out is a gun. Completely black and it looks heavy. The safety clicks off, but he’s still pointing it at the ground. Of course, Gavin has had guns pointed to his head before, so one pointed at the ground isn’t bad. But the Vagabond is taking a few steps closer to Gavin. Vagabond is raising the gun. The muzzle is pointed a few inches away from his hip. But he’s still keeping his distance. Like he doesn’t want to be to close to Gavin.

With a gun, he doesn’t even have to be close to kill him, though. Sadly. If he had used knives, Gavin might have had a chance.

The next few seconds feel like slow motion.

The Vagabond points the gun at his head. He takes a step closer. He pulls the trigger.