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@christopherrose-pa
I’m doing @verobird’s Advent Writing Challenge!
Urban Magic 1/5
When a man comes into the shop wearing the most expensive suit Kevin has ever seen and asks to speak with Leonard, Kevin knows there's trouble. The man tucks his hands into his pockets and looks around, a general air of disapproval radiating off of him. The apprentice feels suddenly self conscious, aware of the ink stains on his shirt from where he had knocked an uncorked bottle off of Chris’s desk earlier and the unruly way his hair was sticking up on one side. That was also Chris's fault.
“Ricardo Vega.” Leonard greats the other man, smiling and shaking his hand. “I haven't seen you in two centuries.” Kevin does his best not to eavesdrop from his position behind the register, but he can't help but do a double take. So this was the Ricardo Vega that Chris had told him about. The Ricardo Vega who was considered one of the most powerful wizards alive. The Ricardo Vega that Christopher had run away from, for some still unspecified reason. “What brought you in? I was under the impression you imported most of your supplies directly.”
Victoria Scott: Apocalypse Au. Okay so the premise is an early 'Fallout Wasteland' setting, where most everything has been destroyed by a nuclear war, but it's early enough that no major political powers have come forward. Slavery is the backbone of the economic system.
Victoria Scott: Ricardo is making his fortune/cementing himself as a political power house. He deals primarily in booze production and distribution b/c it's hella lucrative.
Victoria Scott: Ricardo bought Chris when Chris was a little kid, and went through the whole brainwashing thing with him as Chris grew up. Chris now oversees a good portion of his business.
Victoria Scott: Ricardo is funding Diego's research. Diego has already invented a way to purify and pipe water, and he's now working on a way to make a town wide generator/electric grid.
Victoria Scott: Ricardo and Chris have a kid - Ellie. Just b/c Ellie is in all the au's but we didn't want her to be Diego's kid for timeline reasons.
Victoria Scott: Kevin runs a news program (Piper style) in the town Diego is from. He spurns Diego as a lover, and speaks out against the engineer's sociopathic behavior. This results in Kevin getting run out of town.
Victoria Scott: On the bright side, he was having a fling with Chris whenever Chris came to get updates on Diego's progress, so Kevin ends up moving into Ricardo's complex/plantation
Victoria Scott: Ricardo is not pleased that Chris brought a lover to live with them, primarily because he's a jealous and rather possessive bastard.
Dadcardo: CACKLES
this is very true
he is
Victoria Scott: So all of this continues for awhile until some way (I can't remember off the top of my head) Kevin gets kidnapped by Diego.
Victoria Scott: Diego is in the middle of waging a war on Ricardo
Victoria Scott: This results in Ricardo having to send men to destroy the town/save Kevin/etc. But Diego escapes
Victoria Scott: Over time Kevin and Ricardo actually become p good friends.
Dadcardo: good for them
Dadcardo: ;w;
Victoria Scott: Kevin struggles to understand that Ricardo really does care for Chris in his own way, but he comes to terms with the fact Ricardo loves in a sociopathic way, and Chris is conditioned to respond positively to that
Dadcardo: this is also very true
yep
Victoria Scott: So after Kevin has been living there four roughly four years, a bottle of poison wine makes its way past security. Ricardo dies, and Chris is positively heart broken.
Dadcardo: NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Victoria Scott: Basically Walter (the head of security) and Diego were in cohoots.
Dadcardo: RICKYYYY
Victoria Scott: This is the only au he dies in I swear
Victoria Scott: But Chris has to put on his big girl panties because he's the acting head of the household. Basically (because Ellie isn't of age to inherit and Chris is a slave) Chris has to arrange the sell of all the land, capital, and assets (including the slaves (including himself)).
Dadcardo: -HYSTERICAL CRYING BECAUSE OF RICARDO-
GOOD FUCKING LORT
you go chris
Victoria Scott: All the money is invested into a trading firm, where it will earn interest for another ten years (until Ellie is 18), at which point the firm will pay her back the investment.
Victoria Scott: Chris, Caesar (the doctor), and Santi (the head cook) all get sold to an Earl that is based off of Sally's portrayal of Earl on earl-Harlan
Victoria Scott: Chris is actually sold for a somewhat obscene amount of money, because everyone wants Ricardo's right hand
Dadcardo: you go chris!
YOURE WORTH A LOT
Victoria Scott: Daniel is the head of Earl's household (so Chris's old job) and he DOES NOT LIKE Chris at all
Dadcardo: o h
Victoria Scott: He basically relegates Chris to mopping floors until Chris can get it right, except he doesn't teach Chris how to properly mop and Chris has never mopped a day in his life
Victoria Scott: Dan thinks he's just being stubborn. After all., what type of slave can't mop a floor?
Dadcardo: chris apparently
Dadcardo: LMFAO
Victoria Scott: Fast forward about a month and Earl inadvertently saves Chris from a life of floor mopping
Victoria Scott: Fast Forward about six months and Kevin shows up with Ellie and Maria (Chris and Kevin's daughter) in tow
Victoria Scott: He convinces Chris that they need to run away together.
Dadcardo: ;3;
Victoria Scott: This, of course, leads to everyone getting caught. And now Kevin, Ellie, and Maria are enslaved b/c that's the punishment for freeing slaves/helping runnaways
Dadcardo: MY BBIES
NOOOO
Victoria Scott: Eventually things sort of even out. Chris makes a deal with Earl that if Earl will let Chris have control of the household for a month, he can double productivity.
Victoria Scott: Because Ricardo treated his slaves in a very egalitarian manner, where Earl treats his in a very traditional manner.
Dadcardo: totally see it
Victoria Scott: IF Chris can successfully double productivity, Earl will give Chris the same privileged status that Chris had under Ricardo (with the caveat that Chris has to give Earl /everything/ he gave Ricardo if you catch my drift).
Dadcardo: (chrisssssssssssss)
Victoria Scott: Daniel hates this. Chris institutes rules like 'one day a week Earl has to listen to complaints from the slaves and free people in the household' and 'whipping is not a unilateral punishment, instead punishments should be learning opportunities that fit the crime (ex - if a slave spills hot soup while ladling, they have to ladle a hundred bowls of hot water without spilling)
Victoria Scott: Chris triples productivity in a month
Victoria Scott: He puts in some other great things too - all kids have to go to school/can't work until they're 12, etc
Dadcardo: CHRIS IM SO PROUD OF YOU
;A;
LOOKIT YOU GO
Victoria Scott: Daniel, however, is very traditionally minded. He does not approve of any of this.
Victoria Scott: There are certain things that Chris can't save the slaves from - slaves can't say no when a free person 'propositions' them, etc
Victoria Scott: Chris doesn't like Dan because Dan views both slaves and women as sub human
Dadcardo: Daniel don't do this
d a n i e l
Victoria Scott: Walter shows up around year 3 to act as head of security
Victoria Scott: Chris is not pleased. He's still convinced that Walter is responsible for Ricardo's death. Also Walter has a weird obsession with Kevin and will hurt/assault/rape him
Victoria Scott: This behavior carries over to Maria, who's about 15 when it starts. Long story short she gets pregnant and two years later Chris and Kevin get their revenge by cutting off his dick while he's in a drunken stupor and shoving it down his throat
Victoria Scott: Walter leaves the house shortly after this. Dan also leaves because Earl refuses to kill Chris and Kevin for assaulting a free man. Earl insists that he can't know of it was really them.
Victoria Scott: Everyone knows it was them
Dadcardo: fucking asshats
>:uuu
Victoria Scott: So while all of this is going on both Earl and Diego are steadily gaining power, until they're the two major political/economic powers
Victoria Scott: Marcus is a close second, but he also refuses to use slave labor. His assistant Jake comes to observe Chris once, trying to learn from Chris.
Victoria Scott: Chris acts really vapid and 'slave like' for about two weeks before he finally snaps and gouges a guy's eyeball out who tries to get too handsy with him/cop an attitude.
Dadcardo: FUCKING
THATS MY BOY!!
Victoria Scott: And that's about as far as we have it developed
Victoria Scott: I mean, I'm missing a lot of th little details
drew my million dollar asshole. i miss him dearly. did a few touch ups on his human form.
Five Times Christopher Was Right, and One Time He Was Wrong. Ch 1: Childhood
“You’re going to get a stomach ache.” Christopher informs Diego with all the moral superiority a six year old can muster. Christopher is sitting on the old rope swing in the Vega’s back yard, scuffing his toes in the dirt. Little dust clouds spiral up around his feet as cherry syrup drips down his arm.
“No I’m not.” Diego drops another popsicle wrapper. It drifts down, sullenly, to join the pile at his feet.
“You can’t eat a dozen popsicles Diego, you’re going to die.”
Keep reading
Five Times Christopher Was Right, and One Time He Was Wrong. Ch 1: Childhood
“You’re going to get a stomach ache.” Christopher informs Diego with all the moral superiority a six year old can muster. Christopher is sitting on the old rope swing in the Vega’s back yard, scuffing his toes in the dirt. Little dust clouds spiral up around his feet as cherry syrup drips down his arm.
“No I’m not.” Diego drops another popsicle wrapper. It drifts down, sullenly, to join the pile at his feet.
“You can’t eat a dozen popsicles Diego, you’re going to die.”
//Sneak peak of a longer thing I'm working on.
When Christopher first begins working for the university, the Dean makes it abundantly clear that he's only here to satisfy liberal donors. It's the late seventies. Both or his children have flown the nest, and Christopher has been alone with his writing for a few years. Diego had been surprised when the university reached out to a "Dr. Vega" to come and teach. But completing the letter had made abundantly clear that the opening was in the humanities department, to teach freshman level philosophy and sociology classes.
Christopher begged Diego to let him go. There were no more children to look after, and the increased wages meant they could hire a house keeper. Christopher begged Diego, told the engineer he was dying of boredom when stuck at home. Diego, of course, wanted to know why Christopher couldn't take up a /normal/ hobby. Why he couldn't sew or embroidered or volunteer at the library. Diego also knew that the battle was lost as soon as Christopher said "please". What could it hurt, after all?
The professor hid certain facts from his husband in the beginning. Half the grading that Christopher did was foisted upon him by others, taking advantage of the newest member of the faculty. He never told Diego thay his office wasn't a proper room, but a corner of a supply closet that they sectioned off. He was spoken over and disregarded by his fellow teachers, even the ones who were younger (the ones who didn't care that the degree on his wall was from an ivy university).
But Diego came in one day to surprise his better half. The engineer got to hear the way he was spoken to (it was Phil that Diego overheard, Phil from antropolgy who had decided to explain, at length, why it was inappropriate for a homemaker to be out of the home). Diego threatened to make Christopher quit. He threatened to go to the news with the tale of how the university was treating an ivy educated, well respected, member of the academic community. Diego threatened to sue.
Christopher's office was moved to an actual office (with a view of the promenade). He was no longer spoken over at meetings. Other professors stopped dropping off their work for him to complete. The university press started publishing his writings again. The head of his department had made them stop, claiming that a new professor didn't have the necessary academic background to be published.
Through all of the drama, Christopher's students loved him. At first the head of his department thought that Christopher was going too easy on them. The pass rate of his classes was higher than most. But when it came time for faculty review, they found that Christopher was pushing his students into more and harder work.
There were hiccups, of course. Students who would disregard and disrepect Christopher in the classroom. There was the Colt boy who took to stalking the professor (and Dwyer, the campus police officer who told Christopher he was over reacting to a bit of boyish fun).
Dwyer regretted that statement when Diego went to the actual police. When Diego had to carry a bloody Christopher home the way he had when they were children. That was when Diego started picking Christopher up from the university. The professor didn't protest, just adjusted his office hours to fit around Diego's work schedule.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
//I just uploaded 21 ficlits
They say that Lord Strex is heartless. That's a half truth. Lord Strex has a clockwork heart, the result of an injury sustained during one of his experiments. It's experimental and volatile, and the reason you'll see his consort ushering him from the room when his knuckles turn white from clenching the armrest of this throne too hard when some idiot is angering him.
His consort will lie on his chest at night, listening to the soft ticking that resonates into his bones - that's become the undercurrent to his life. His consort will run hands through his hair and smile up at him, and try to elicit some reaction that isn't a half hearted grumble. But hands will stay above the waist line, the clockwork heart can't stand the stress that illicit activities will bring.
They have a child, just one. A little girl with eyes as black as the space between the stars. It's rumored that the couple got her in a deal with a demon. When she smiles, you're not sure if they lost the bet or won. She's brilliant and her vocabulary proves it. Plants spring to life beneath her fingers, and the wall around her window is covered in blooming ivy.
They say that Lord Strex is heartless. His consort will sometimes have bruises, purple plastered across pale skin. His advisors will die, often in private and seldom in front of crowds (blood thirsty, calling for death after a mishap). His wars are brief and brutal, prisoners sent home with missing fingers, hands, feet, demoralized.
They say that Lord Strex is heartless, but his consort will smile at him like he's the world. His child will run into his arms when he comes home from a long trip. His people live prosperous lives, toast his name at feast days (and when drunk in the tavern). They say Lord Strex is heartless, but whatever ticks in his chest seems to work for him.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
//I just uploaded 21 ficlits
"No, no, no." Christopher said quickly, lips pursed. "You've made it perfectly clear that she's not my daughter and you want her to have nothing to do with me."
"That was before Dan decided to skip town." Earl's drawl grated against Christopher's skin, making the slave shudder. "Now I need her to form a strong emotional bond with someone, and who better than the guy that told her Dan was a piece of shit?"
"She doesn't even like me." The protest was a desperate, last ditch effort to appeal to a God who wasn't listening.
"Change that." The way Earl folded his arms indicated that he was growing quickly annoyed. Christopher knew he ought to quit now, before his owner decided that he was becoming too mouthy for the delicate dance they performed around the thin line between disrespect and Christopher's ability to run the household.
"She hates my family. She'd be miserable." The slave's fingers tapped over the desk. Earl smiled, knowing he had won.
"Figure it out, Chrissy."
Victoria Scott: Suburbia au
Victoria Scott: It's basically a spin off of main verse, but where they live in a normal city. We're avoiding the fact it's impossible for Chris to get preggers
Victoria Scott: So for whatever reason Chris gets pregnant, and Diego decides they have to get married
Victoria Scott: Diego also decides that it's unacceptable for his child to be raised by a nanny, so Chris has to quit his job.
Victoria Scott: And when baby #2 comes along Diego decides they have to move to the suburbs
Victoria Scott: Queue 16 years of systematic abuse before CPS finally gets involved due to some worrying things that Ellie and Maria have to say about the relationship between their dads
Victoria Scott: Diego has to leave the house, sober up, and promise to change before he's allowed back in the house
Hans: boys boys boys
Victoria Scott: Oh, and Chris has an affair with the boy-next-door (Kevin) before all of this happens
Victoria Scott: So Jake is their CPS officer, Caesar is Chris's therapist, and Kevin is the boy-next-door
Hans: thank the lord Chris has a therapist tbh
Victoria Scott: Diego returns, everything proceeds for a few years, he falls off the bandwagon, and accidentally hits Maria one night (this is right after Ellie has left for college)
Victoria Scott: Diego is also really good friends with the chief of police, Walter, which is why earlier in their relationship Chris would call the police and nothing would happen
Victoria Scott: So Jake gets called and Diego has to go to jail for domestic/child abuse
Victoria Scott: Chris then has to overcome 18 years of being conditioned to be dependent on his abuser
Victoria Scott: His only friends are his CPS officer and his therapist TBH
Victoria Scott: It's kind of pathetic
Victoria Scott: Chris is also, like, aggressively involved in Ellie and Maria's school lives
Victoria Scott: He's on every committee
Victoria Scott: President of the PTA
Victoria Scott: He's trying so hard to feel useful
Hans: Chris is the parent that the principal fears
Hans: I kind of love this AU
Victoria Scott: He really is
Victoria Scott: Chris is involved in /everything/
Victoria Scott: And then right in time for the girls to grow up, he gets to return to working for Ricardo and be useful that way!
Victoria Scott: Ricardo and Caesar are married
Victoria Scott: Chris might have relations with his therapist and his boss on occasion
Hans: That’s surprisingly sweet
Victoria Scott: When the divorce papers go through they have a party. Janet from across the street comes too.
Victoria Scott: She's been through, like, three husbands
Victoria Scott: Janet knows what's up
Hans: all hail Janet, true hero of this au
The falling out was inevitable, and a large part of the reason why Ricardo discouraged relationships among his personal staff. Christopher, after all, flitted through lovers like a teenage girl through a catalogue, stopping at whatever struck his fancy before moving on. Adrian wasn't prepared to walk into the assistant's apartment to find him kneeling between another man's legs.
The gunman didn't take it well.
It didn't help that, when Adrian went to confront a drunk Christopher in the speakeasy a few nights later, the younger man laughed at him. Mocked his affections, his performance in bed, his obviously unfounded idea that Christopher had ever loved him back. Even the men around Christopher couldn't help but snicker into their drinks, trying to avoid calling too much attention to themselves. No one wanted to be on the wrong side of Adrian, but some things in life were too good to pass up.
"Can you still fly?" A girl at Ellie's preschool asked once, seeing the harness that bound his wings to his back. This was before her parents bundled her away with a look of distrust, leaving Ellie clutching his hands with the same question bubbling from her lips. He just laughed it off, some non answer appeasing childish curiosity for the time being. She would ask again when she was older, incessantly until she learned what it meant for someone to be tied like Christopher was. Then she stopped asking, avoided the subject like the plague; like the dirty secret that it was.
Christopher couldn't even say that he dreamt of flying. Not anymore. Instead he dreamt of falling, plummeting endlessly as he fought the too tight leather that wouldn't let him save himself. When he would wake up screaming, Kevin inevitably pulled him close and murmured sweet nothings. They never spoke about the night terrors, just let them pass into the empty space in the sheets between the pair. It was preferable to dream of falling when the alternative was to dream of what he would never have again.
Once a week Kevin would unclip the harness, help Christopher stretch out wings that were growing weaker and weaker. They would wash and preen together, the water cool on skin that was always hidden away. At first Christopher loved this chance to spread his wings (quite literally). But the years wore on and he was forced to face the atrophy of disuse. As the years wore on they shriveled with along with his hope of ever flying again.
And still he dreamt of falling.
@cecilofdesertbluffs: //your writing slays me and I looove it, oh my goodness, I’m so glad to see you back! ♡
//Thanks so much! I’m glad to be back, even in this limited capacity.
When Kevin offers him freedom, Christopher grabs it in both hands and runs.
It isn't the most noble thing to do, to leave a soulmate and infant in mourning behind him. But Kevin is giving him the one thing he's longed for since the police first booked him - a chance to find Ricardo again. To wake up where he belongs with the family he chose, not that which was foisted upon him.
But Ricardo isn't in any of the safe houses.
He isn't in New York, he isn't in Baltimore. He isn't even in that little Mexican town with the name Christopher can't pronounce. He doesn't answer the emergency phone, doesn't respond to letters left in all the right places.
After two months the assistant has just enough money left to rent a car and drive back to Desert Bluffs. His dignity is in tatters around him as he knocks, too softly, on the worn door to Kevin's apartment. Kevin hears, he always hears. He throws open the door and his arms around Chris. "I thought I had lost you forever."
Christopher's heart breaks.
Nothing had changed in his absence. The worn couch still faced the television, a weary sentinel. The books were kept meticulously clean, the floor less so. That wouldn't do. Not once Ellie started crawling. The assistant caught his thoughts with a start, realizing that he was acclimating far too quickly.