I know art instructors can be pretentious but so can music teachers and so far I haven't met one who was but damn this Art teacher for my basic drawing class was full condescending, implying I couldn't possibly buy the correct supplies unless i went to one specific store 90mins from my house, and I'd have to go before class nothing he could do
Then he asked for 3 examples of traditional art. Now he's totally casual, telling me I can prepay and he'll pick it up for me...
It's funny I never really had people mansplaining at me until after I could cite my sources, it's almost like if you sound too smart they can't stand it
I will stand 10 toes down to defend trans-women from bullshit but I need trans-women to stop approaching me in enby spaces pissed off because they seem to expect my experience to mirror theirs just because I present femme
Most recently in a post about addressing non-binary folks where i commented that 'sir is gender neutral in the military even though its typically gendered outside' (bc hey i lean femme and I like sir) but added other options also. Two angry comments from a woman before she tells me she doesn't want to be sirred as a trans-woman.
That's super understandable, but this post is about non-binary people, and I dunno it feels icky? As a femme presenting enby to have trans-women policing my experiences and preferences because they don't align, like dismissive or binary gender enforcement.
Like hey "it" as a pronoun doesn't make me feel good, but I have friends who use "it", we're different people and i understand that. Alternately I have trans friends with military family who use sir to turn it on it's head when people do it maliciously. We're all different people with different but valid experiences.
I'm so sick of no one listening to me, like why am I the vice chair?
We need to fundraise, I brought them a no cost to us fundraiser, raffle tickets that practically sell themselves, small school bands make 20k without trying, I funded most of my cuba exchange with them last year. Handed them over in October, she sat on them until February, Cuba trip prize isn't really a seller right now
they keep talking about a paint night and now its planned. We'll make like 200$ maybe. They don't work in our area, it will only be a couple of our club families. we tried it in karate we made 50$ Its not a good fundraiser but all the twee skate moms want to paint.
I suggested trivia and karate, because the venues we could use are super cheap, those events sell out locally every time, and I have all the equipment needed, I can do a low cost karaoke/trivia set up personally and manage sound myself at no cost to the club. "no everyone else is doing it so no one will come" EVERYONE IS DOING IT BECAUSE PEOPLE ALWAYS COME.
I did not suffer through marketing classes for this, like I hope the painting makes money but like why did we not take the low cost lost risk options
I'd love to sleep more than 4 hours a night but unfortunately I have the chronic illness where my neverous system thinks I'm being hunter for sport when I lay down
I love seeing these cuts to arts as I'm having a little stressy depressy about how I'm going to be in school for 2 years straight no summer holiday and Im already burnt out and now the opportunities for my (already unpaid) internship are going to tank
Like even if these cuts weren't removing existing jobs from the market What the Fuck happened to the 'we're going to start fixing healthcare'
'Ifhghgu the economy' Tim Houston cries as he shots his pants about being booed at the black history gala
meanwhile I'm pretty sure cutting jobs isnt going to help that. You want to harvest resources when no one here supports that. That doesn't replace the jobs you cut, do you think arts, tourism, and hospitality employees are qualified to start fucking mining.
fuck off Accounts shouldn't be fucking politicians
Student explaining to me (after getting 55) that when reading a novel (’Ulysses’ in this case) he likes to skip ‘passages and pages’ so as ‘to get his own idea, you know, about the book and not be influenced by the author’.”
After the explosion your ability to resonate seems to disappear, with the added pressure of your health you are dismissed by the Hunter’s association. You turn your sights to other dreams and begin teaching music. Which is how you meet Sylus. After studio hours, apartment living does not lend itself to practising, you find yourself practising in his newly acquired Karaoke bar. Which is how he finds himself in your studio asking you to teach him to sing.
Rated R MDNI
Ships: Reader/Sylus
Tags: Canon Adjacent, Fake Dating, Love Triangles Resolved, Smut, Angst, Grief, Descriptions of Violence, Oral Sex, Body worship, Hurt/comfort, Catharsis[Chapter One] [AO3] [>>]
Chapter 15
The leader of Onychinus being married is still a rumor and you are still in mild to moderate danger but Sylus lets you take the lead. He doesn’t tell you that he knows the man you’re talking about. Doesn’t tell you that he’d already been planning to introduce you, though he’d pictured it happening in Phillip’s workshop not The Snake.
The Snake has existed since before the catastrophe plunged the N109 into darkness. In what was once known as the Garden district. The Snake in the Garden was just cheeky enough to entice without being cheesy. It had always been a little below board as far as Sylus knew.
He arrives for the card game, alone. The twins will make sure you’re wired, armed, and protected when you arrive a little over an hour after him. He focuses on the cards and lets you do what you do best.
What you do best, you’re discovering, is unnerve people who’ve wronged you.
You park Caleb’s old bike next to Sylus’ new one and make your way into the bar with your helmet still on. You spot him when you wave to Philip. Sitting on a stool just behind your old family friend, fiddling with an amp and a bass guitar is, Jaimie.
The man who sold you out.
You didn’t blame him at the time. The logical part of your mind understands why he would do it. You were a stranger and Onychinus has a lot of power, especially here, but he did put a dollar amount on your life and you’re starting to think that it might have been insultingly low.
Maybe Sylus is rubbing off on you.
He glances at the movement and you seize the opportunity to take off your Helmet.
“Uncle Phillip,” you call out. “I can’t believe it’s been so long.”
“I can’t believe you’re still calling me Uncle,” The older man chuckles. “You’re a whole adult now, kiddo.”
“Only on paper,” you shrug.
The bass player coughs.
“Thought the songs you mentioned might sound better with a rhythm section. Drummer’s in the back room watchin’ the card game, that’s Jaimie on bass,” he snaps his fingers to get the other man’s attention, like it hadn’t been on you since the helmet came off. “Y/N,” he wraps and arm around your shoulder and huffs a laugh. “My niece, came all the way from Linkon to sing a few songs with me. Sweet kid huh?”
“Yeah,” Jaimie mumbles.
You smile and reach out your hand. “You ever play in Linkon? You look really familiar.”
He shrugs. “No, don’t think so.”
“We’ll do a quick line check in ten,” Phillip tells you. “Pub’ll start to fill up in 15 or 20 and we’ll get this show on the road, audience usually only lasts long enough to eat but sometimes lady lucks forgotten soldiers will stick around.”
You nod as he fills you in on all the things he’d skimmed in his email and you keep the bassist in your peripheral the whole time. Phillip points you to the bathroom so you can fix your hair and makeup, and when you step out Sylus is waiting. His hand skims your waist as he slips past you in the tight hallway to get to the washroom. Like any stranger might.
You order a round of bourbon shots before you go back to Phillip’s makeshift stage. When you offer them to the three men you make a point of picking one up and holding it out to Jaimie.
“No thank you,” the big man says, shaking his head.
“Really?” Phillip snorts, obviously surprised.
The bassist shakes his head.
You shrug and take the shot yourself.
“More for me,” the drummer snorts when two shots are left on the little tray.
It’s a simple gig. You sing some Folk, Blues, and older Rock songs to a small crowd mostly there for food and drink and you let the nostalgia build a middle ground between you and Phillip. You banter a little with him, talk about being a little girl in Gran’s kitchen begging him to play one more song while Josephine and Caleb tried to get you to go to bed.
It’s a sweet little bonus that he hired the man who handed you over to Onychinus.
When the crowd at the bar starts to thin out and the poker game winds down, a bored Sylus slips out to watch you. You don’t miss him standing by the bar and neither does Jaimie, his fingers clumsy for a bar or two before he recovers.
For fun you let your eyes widen and your shoulders tense while looking at Sylus, and glance nervously over your shoulder so the bass player notices.
Sylus barely lifts an eyebrow in response. You call a rough song from your list, something that flits between defiance and fear and you sing it directly at Sylus.
He plays into the bit.
He doesn’t have to know the scheme to know he wants to see the scene play out. He migrates slowly so that by the climax of the song he is standing in front of you, an arms length away. He watches you with a challenge in his posture and you take it. You twist your fist in the front of his shirt as you belt the climax of the song directly at him, faking something like fearful defiance.
You’re trying to give; how did you find me?
He lets you manhandle him, staggering forward and backwards with your push and pull, all the while smirking at you.
You give him a wink as the song ends shoving him with a flat palm so that he stumbles backwards brushing the wrinkles out of his shirt.
While you thank the diminished crowd and announce that this is your last song, Phillip is looking between you and Sylus, his face drawn in concentration as he tries to put the pieces together. Sylus stays where he is.
“Do you know who that is?” Jaimie hisses. “You could get us all killed.”
You smirk as you chug some water while Jaimie tunes his bass for the fifth time. “Now that it’s a you problem you don’t seem as remorseful.” You say lowly. “Or did you run and hide before Onychinus showed up to claim me?”
Oblivious Phillip signals the drummer and the last song starts up. A few card game losers stop for a moment to watch before they begin their walk of shame home but by the time the last chord rings out the pub is practically empty aside from the deep pockets in the back room.
Hearing your jibe to the bassist in his earpiece Sylus puts the pieces of your game together. Before you can start to tear down the stage he hugs you around the waist like he’d watched Xavier do, and swings you in a wide circle before planting a chaste kiss to your lips and setting you back on your feet. “Amazing, fantastic, a life changing experience,” he coos smoothing out your hair.
“Mm,” you hum. “Your review reeks of bias, I’m not sure I can accept it.”
Sylus tucks his knuckle under your chin and tilts your face towards him. “You need to learn to take a compliment, Sweetie,” he says before kissing you on the forehead. “Don’t worry I’ll offer you plenty of opportunities.”
The bassist is frozen.
“Good to see you again, Sylus,” Phillip nods as he wraps cables. “Just gonna sit there Jaime?”
“Rather die with my bass in my hands then wrapping fucking cables,” he mutters.
“You sure,” you say loud enough for anyone to hear this time. “That you sold me to the old crow?” You glance at Sylus. “Sy, it’s one thing to waste money on gifts but if you wanted to see me you could have just said.”
“Onychinus wanted the girl with the aether core,” he sputters. “Man who paid me said she was a gift for the Crow.”
“Everyday I get to see you is a gift,” Sylus shrugs
“Fuck off,” you say stifling a laugh.
“She’s a gem,” Sylus nods his head smiling fondly before business takes over. “She’s right though. Why would anyone purchase my wife as a gift for me?”
“The man said–”
He interrupts. “She has my black card, why would I offer a reward for a woman who holds my heart and my wallet.”
“She had an Aether core!” The bassist argues. “Wore it around her neck like she wanted to get got!”
“This?” You pull the red pendant out from under your shirt. “It’s just a fucking garnet.”
“A gift from me,” Sylus says tucking his finger under the chain. “Even if it was an Aether core, she’s still my wife, did you not consider why they would want a spoiled rich girl unconscious before they hauled her off.”
You snort at the lore he makes up as he goes along.
“They put a call out for a name, that you lied about,” Jaimie hisses.
“Cameron,” Phillip assumes.
“I don’t know his name,” Jaimie shouts. “He told me–”
“He lied,” you snap. “And he ripped you off.”
“He gave me 10 grand,” the bassist defends.
“Only ten?” Sylus tsks, disappointed. “He always was cheap, I told him time after time if he’d just pay a fair price he’d keep his knuckles clean.”
You intertwine your fingers with Sylus and without warning you feel the familiar energy humming just below the surface.
A memory floods your vision, of you and Caleb as children. A storm raging outside your open window as Caleb held you while you cried and shook. The way your evol had simmered then as you dug your fingers into his bare arms you felt the weight of his evol and used it to slam the window shut.
Red Mist forms in the empty space in front of you and you can feel Sylus tense beside you. It twists around the bassist and pulls him to his knees in front of you.
“My love?” Sylus questions as your grip on his hand relaxes.
You let control of Sylus’ evol slip back into his hands. You watch as he cocks his head and blinks at you before he gives the big man on his knees in front of you a little shake. “What shall we do with him.”
“Let him go,” you sigh. “I’m not a monster, not like Cameron was. I’m sure he needed the money. Just maybe vet the next gangster you sell a person to, or maybe consider not selling people at all.”
You’ve never seen someone pack up a bass so fast.
“Friend of yours, Kiddo?” Phillip asks when the door swings shut behind Jaimie.
You step forward to help tear down only to find yourself tugged back, as Sylus huffs out a soft; “That’s enough, Kitten.”
“Shit,” you curse reigning yourself in.
Phillip whistles through his teeth. “Haven’t seen you do that in a while.”
“You knew it was me?” You ask, head snapping towards him so fast Sylus’ neck hurts.
Phillip nods. “Saw you play with Caleb’s evol, once or twice.”
“It was a first for me,” Sylus says. “She did shackle us once when she was unconscious however.
“It went away on it’s own after a few hours,” you added with a blush.
Phillip nods. “I’ll finish packing up and meet the two of you at the shop.”
“The shop?” You look at Sylus.
“Alright, come on, Kitten,” he says, hand finding yours. He grabs your bag from where it sits and slings it over his shoulder before hooking your helmet on his fingers and leading you out of the bar.
“You knew him already?” You snap.
“I’d been planning to take you to meet him,” he shrugs leading you towards the bikes. “Your plan was convenient.”
“You could have said you knew him,” you stop and dig your heels in.
“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Sylus shrugs. “I didn’t warn him I was coming.”
“Sylus,” you say his name like a warning and watch him straighten up. “You’ve been, honest with me up to now, why lie about this it seems so small?”
He stands in front of you, jaw clenched for a moment as he frowns down at you. The hand with the helmet moves, like he wants to reach for you. He makes a small frustrated noise. “I needed to see,” he starts and when you open your mouth to interrupt he tugs your hand to keep you quiet. “Your interactions had to be genuine,” he clarifies.
“Sylus-”
“If I had told you I knew him,” he snaps. “Would you have behaved exactly as you did tonight or would you have adjusted your behavior based on the information I would have disclosed.”
“I had a plan,” you say through your own gritted teeth. “Whatever intel you gave me would have only-”
“Exactly,” Sylus sighs running a hand through his hair. “I trust that you are capable, your plan was effective and you even found the surprise at the bottom of the bag,” he says, relaxing. “But we both know you are trained to consider all the information you have. I know you will always default to your Hunter conditioning, frankly it’s been an asset, this was not the time.”
“I don’t understand,” you complain trying to throw your hands up in frustration and then growling when he holds tight.
“Sweetie, I needed you to behave naturally,” Sylus says stepping closer. He speaks to you like a cornered animal. “Phillip is smart, you don’t dodge Ever for this long without being smart.”
“Dodge Ev-”
“If you’d known,” he continues dropping the helmet to cup your cheek in his palm. “You’d have acted different and he’d have known. You’d never have gotten anything out of him. Now he knows who you are, and he knows we’re working together. We both need the level of trust that will allow us.”
He watches all the fight bleed out of you as you rest your cheek in his palm. He tugs you closer by the hip as he presses his lips against yours. Sighing as you kiss him back and press yourself closer to him.
“Sylus?” You ask, barely pulling away, lips still brushing his as the curl into a smile. “Are you hard right now?”
He laughs under his breath.
“From arguing?” Now you do pull away, eyeing him with incredulous amusement.
“No, Sweetie,” he huffs. “It didn’t help, but it’s not from arguing.”
You stare for a moment, the picture forming in your mind before you gasp. “Because I used your Evol?”
He kisses you again, growling and breaking away when some passing hooligans whistle and holler. “Is there a fool who wouldn’t be affected after being used by a beautiful woman?”
You laugh but your cheeks are pink. “Sylus.”
“Hmm,” he hums leaning back in.
“Your dumb lie was pointless, I barely asked Phillip anything,” you snort.
He pulls away. “What?”
“I mean he did trust me,” you shrug and cross your arms. “It did work, but I as going to talk while I helped him pack up, then double back when he left,” you slip past him and snag your helmet from the ground. “You said the card game went all night.”
“It was boring,” Sylus shrugs.
You swing your leg over your bike. “Uh huh.”
“I was waiting for you, Kitten,” he says helping you with your helmet. ”Ensuring your safety, listening to the same boring stories, the same boring threats.”
“The same boring bullshit.” You roll your eyes and flip your visor closed as you flip the starter on Caleb’s old bike.
“Stay on this street, Sweetie,” he points. “4 blocks that way then take the left, don’t worry about going the wrong way, look for Mephisto, he’ll show you the rest of the way.”
You rev the engine once and pull away trusting him to move.
The streets here are eerily empty, with fewer working streetlights the farther from the bar you get. It’s late, you tell yourself even though it’s not that late, this is strange even for the N109. There are pedestrians sometimes. Nothing notable to link them together you wonder if perhaps this part of the N109 is, more walkable, perhaps safer?
You give up worrying about it. If it wasn’t safe Sylus wouldn’t have let you leave on your own.
“Don’t forget left turn, you’ll think it’s the wrong way,” his voice says over the line in your ear.
You do what he says. Looking for the crow as you turn towards the big red wrong way sign.
It looks like an abandoned barn. Mephisto looks extremely at home perched in the spiderweb coated eves. You can hear the groan of Sylus’ bike getting closer as you kill your own engine so you drop the kickstand and wait.
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” Sylus chuckles, flipping his visor up.
You snap it back down and pull him closer, fixing your lipstick in the reflection. “Wasn’t waiting,” you wink turning towards the barn.
Phillip is waiting when you turn, yellow light spilling out around him, an amused look on his face. “Sorry Boss, I wanna see the girl alone first.”
Sylus frowns at Phillip while you mouth the word Boss at him. “The girl is just as much your Boss as I am,” he shrugs.
“If Josephine was still around I’d argue more,” Phillip says stepping outside to make room for you to pass.
You set your helmet on a work bench as you follow him through the shop. He points to chair that looks like it belongs in a dentists office.
“Sit,” he tells you. “How long have you known him?”
“A few months,” you shrug, hesitating for a moment before you do what he says.
“So after,” he nods. “You took longer than I expected to find me.”
“I don’t exactly spend much time in the N109,” you say cooly.
“I suppose a Hunter might not,” he nods. “You have been lately though.”
“Hunter,” you huff. “You didn’t come to the hospital.”
“Wasn’t safe,” Phillip shrugs, back still to you as he digs through notebooks.
“You didn’t come to the funerals.”
“With you in the Hunters, and anyone else who might be watching, would’ve been risky to come to Linkon.”
“What about after?” You press.
“Risky,” he repeats. “You had the association at your back.”
“Did I?” You say with a little more bite than you meant. “No Gran, no Caleb, my Evol on the fritz, I was barely on my feet before the association cut me loose. All I had was Zayne and Xavier and you were here. Hiding.”
“I sent my con-” he starts before spinning. “Your evol worked fine at The Snake.”
“If working fine means activating without warning after more than a year of nothing, then–”
“When did it stop?”
“When can Sylus come in?” You retort.
Phillip sighs. “He-”
“Like I said we met a few months ago, by chance. He’s not manipulating me, he–”
“Didn’t tell you he knew me,” Phillip points out.
“Yeah he thinks he’s smart, it’s kinda my job to prove him wrong,” you snort. “Since we’ve met he’s been there every time I needed him, he’s the only person in my life who doesn’t treat me like glass because of my heart or my evol.”
“Your grandmother’s notes,” Phillip says.
“I read them, with Sylus watching,” you snap. “Can he come in?”
Phillip inhales deeply and then walks slowly towards the door to beckon him in.
“I trust she’s convinced you I’m not mistreating her?” Sylus says, setting his helmet next to yours.
“She says,” Phillip shrugs. “Might be lying.”
Sylus chuckles.
When Phillip comes back to you it starts to feel like a visit to Zayne’s office, only clumsier. “When did your Evol stop working?” He asks again as he shines a light in your eye.
“A few months before the explosion is when I noticed it, it could have been longer but that’s the first time it happened and I couldn’t explain it,” you tell him as he checks your pulse.
Sylus stands with a hand on your shoulder watching.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, I was on a mission with Xavier, we were cornered but there was no reason, nothing to cut the connection, it was us verses a mid-tier wanderer,” you shrug.
“You weren’t angry at your partner?”
“No?”
“Scared? Anything that might make you question your opinion of thim?”
“Nothing, it cornered us because we let it, adrenaline was pumping but even with just my pistols it went down pretty easy,” you huff.
Phillips eyes flick to Sylus for a fraction of a second. “After that?”
“I don’t know, it got steadily worse, they were putting me on stress leave calling it a vacation, and then after the explosion it was gone. I threw myself at trial after trial, I followed Xav to the no hunt, never more than a spark until that Wanderer at the Karaoke club.”
Phillip is scanning his open notebook. “What happened?”
“Zayne gave me some journals of Gran’s,” you tell him as he starts to hook you up to electrodes. “This wanderer appears, and Sylus grabbed my hand so we could lead it out of the club and I just,” you sigh trying to not move too much. “I wasn’t trying to but I just felt it happen.”
“The shackle?” He asks turning to a monitor.
“She was unconscious,” Sylus repeats.
“Protocore syndrome flair, I fainted” you explain. “Sylus saw, I don’t know what happened.”
“And when it ended?” Phillip presses.
“Oh my god,” you complain when you remember.
Sylus chuckles. “I was cooking for her.”
Phillip glances between you dubiously and then back to the monitor. “Any other evol moments?”
“Just tonight,” Sylus says.
“Uh huh,” Phillip nods flipping through another notebook. “Usually, for your evol to stop working something has to be blocking it, or disconnecting you from them. Your hunter partner were you upset at him?”
“No,” you shake your head.
He frowns. “Anything different between you?”
“No,” you repeat.
“After the explosion makes sense, I imagine you were disgusted with the state of things, maybe,” he trails off flipping through more pages. “Caleb was always the better conduit,” he mumbles.
“What does that mean?” You snap again but Sylus tightens his hand on your shoulder.
“But you’re an untested variable,” he points at Sylus.
You glance behind you in time to see Sylus nod. Phillip tugs the electrodes off of you and pulls a lever.
“Let’s get this over with,” Sylus says, sounding almost bored. Phillip tosses you a dull looking long sword as an iron curtain crashes down to separate you. “Watch your back, Kitten,” Sylus calls as you feel metaflux gathering to your left.
With more trust in your ability to access your evol the G-2BW goes down without much fuss. You and Sylus work together with ease, anticipating each others moves like a well oiled machine. You retrieve it’s protocore and drop it on the workbench next to Phillip.
“It’s a shame,” Phillip says, sentence drifting off.
“I don’t think it is,” Sylus says coldly. “I don’t think you’d like the reality of that thought.”
Phillip looks at Sylus as though he’s deep in thought. “I suppose you’re probably right. We were already in over out heads.”
“What does that mean?” You demand.
“Josephine was better than the rest of us. We should have listened to her, we–” he shakes his head. “But it is what it is.”
Sylus snorts.
“You read her journals, you’re here for a reason I suppose,” Phillip sighs.
“I thought you might be able to explain them,” you tell him.
He sighs, slumping against the workbench while Sylus wraps a protective arm around your waist. “Then you know your weren’t adopted?” He clarifies.
“Yeah,” you snort. “I figured.”
“There’s not much I can tell you,” he starts.
“You were there,” you point out.
“I’ll rephrase that,” he sighs. “I could tell you everything I know but it would sound like a lie without context.” He points to Sylus. “He probably knows more about you than I do.”
You turn.
Sylus looks unbothered. “I might, but much the same I think there needs to be more context.”
“You were an experiment,” Phillip says. “You and Caleb. The Gaia Research group had a facility, Josephine didn’t adopt you, she didn’t smuggle you out but she was the only one of us to develop a conscience before it was too late.”
“Too late?” You try to clarify.
“If you want answers find the Gaia research facility,” Phillip says. “Anything else I could say would sound like fiction, if you find the facility you wont need my answers.”
“That’s it?” You huff. “That’s all?”
“Come on, Sweetie,” Sylus says.
“Don’t get me started,” you turn on him.
“You can slap me around all you want at home,” he says leading you towards the door. “We’ve been here too long, it’s starting to get risky.”
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