vito russo

You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyways.

[russovito]

@credinaa​

the hint of a shudder travelled across sasha’s body as the cold dangling pearls of her jewelry grazed the skin of her back as she moved. the lack of her uniform made her feel a little off and resulted in her playing with the partial gloves her dress formed on her hands - the slightest hint of insecurity, overshadowed by her height, good posture and the hands hidden behind her back. what gave her comfort were the earrings - miniature grenades (how cool is that) she managed to get a hold of through one of her engineer contacts on leora. her evening had started with her nervously looking out for mirin (nowhere to be seen), her sister and her mother (very much expectedly absent as well) and tiago (present, but actively ignored). the venpalan is not quite sure what has changed since yesterday (her father is officially dead), but all the rage she carried in her heart for the last few months has subsided. what is left, though, is a burning emptiness. from a passionate and kind woman to an emotional wreck, she has now reached the ice-cold acceptance stage of grieving. 

even as the woman is approached by her grad students, the smiles she gives are rare. her first honest laugh of the day is dedicated to the wonky ‘starfleet rocks’ badge they gift her, which she immediately pins to her dress (beneath the pearls, so not fully visible) and thanks them for. she will miss most of them, that she’s sure of, but they promise to visit her if they’re around. one of the girls sticks around a little longer, talks to her about the option of becoming an instructor, and sasha talks to her about the good and the bad sides.

vito catches her attention immediately after the last student leaves her alone to sit down with the other’s, and he’s the first thing of the day that raises at least a little bit of emotion inside of her chest. unfortunately for him, it’s intense frustration. 

hey stell. if ur going to the allies gala I’ll see you there. a few things will make more sense after that.

thinking of his message and with no trace of the frustration she just felt visible through her expressions or posture, she slowly makes her way through the crowd stops behind him, clears her throat and doesn’t even begin to talk as she registers what table she has just approached.

when he turns around it’s too late to flee.

“specialist russo.” her words are clear, but her voice is muffled as she speaks. “i did not want to interrupt your conversation.”

still standing behind silvana, vito turns his head towards the individual who’s approached them. it isn’t until he’s looking straight at her that he truly realizes its stell. shes beautiful, though she always is, and he offers her a small smile as he watches realization wash over her face. doing his due diligence, he gives her a once over, scanning for weapons. nothing jumps out at him at first, but a member of the security team alerts him over the earpiece that her earrings appear to be small explosive devices. the beastkin’s eyes linger on the pearl drops, but he still hasn’t said anything.

silvana, placing her wine cup down onto the table, is studying sasha with a calculating look that turns into a beaming smile once her eyes meet the sergeants. beside her, theran breaks the silence, using the smile he honed during his political career. while it looks friendly upon first glance, there is an undeniable shark-like quality to the expression. “sasha soverall, I presume? please, take a seat.” he gestures towards the seat across from himself and beside silvana, who still has her beaming smile pointed towards the sergeant.

“my son is working at the moment, so you’ll have to forgive him.” behind his stepmother vito is perfectly still, the shock in his eyes clear for the briefest of moments before the dull expression returns. head back on a swivel, the beastkin’s mind whirs. theran has never called him son before, not ever. something was definitely going on here, and given silvana’s complete lack of reaction, he’s the only one whose been kept in the dark. 

“you know, I’ve met your father. ian, that is. he’s a good man, a good starfleet officer. it’s easy to meet qualified and intelligent individuals in starfleet, they’re the best in the universe for a reason, but to find an officer whose crew is as loyal as his is? that’s when you know you’ve met a man worth remembering.”

idly, the councilor takes a sip from his wine cup. beside him, sIlvana starts up just as he lapsed. they do this frequently, and it can be off-putting at the best of times. “you look lovely tonight, dear. the shawl of pearls was an excellent touch. i hear you’ve been doing well as an instructor.” her eyes flick to the ‘starfleet rocks’ badge partially hidden by pearls, her smile widening just a fraction. “your students obviously love you.”

[olympain]

That’s how you laugh.

This is later than usual but, for you @sim0njess​

[russovito]

general-indso​:

local time: 11 november 2022. 0800. location: collective starfleet housing.

Over the past week @russovito has started moving. He has spent an absurd amount of money, purchased a home, and been personally responsible for multiple starship arrivals. Many of those starships had public manifests you could look over due to your position as General within Starfleet (they contained furniture, clothing, and miscellaneous gadgets), but two ships in particular had blacked-out manifests even your clearance wouldn’t allow you to view.

This morning, you receive a high priority video call from the Collective Shadow Service (CSS). Charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting Collective political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of lesser governmental bodies, CSS is a group outside of Starfleet directly overseen by the Collective Council. They inform you that in exactly one week Venpalan Collective Councilor Theran Romano and his wife Silvana will be landing on Sotiris and staying for an undetermined amount of time. 

While the man you are talking to is incredibly vague and refuses to answers most questions, he does tell you the Councilor will be updating your mission while he’s on-planet. Officially, though, the Romanos will be on vacation.

Laeponia tried to ignore her gut on this one; she honestly, genuinely did. She tried to ignore the fact that the purchase of land and a home pointed towards something much more permanent than shore leave. She tried to ignore the loads of cargo that comfortably outfitted such a large piece of property, money apparently little to no object.

It was the two ships with manifests so thoroughly redacted that neither she nor her Admiral — yes, she’d even bothered to send a casual request up the chain of command — seemed to know anything about; those, she could no longer ignore.

Whether the General would’ve been so up in arms about covert shipments if not for the ongoing drug crisis was unclear, and honestly irrelevant. It wasn’t even necessarily that she thought the shipments contained drugs. It was, as the tired saying went, the principle of the thing. She had enough cargo monitoring headaches without adding fully obscured manifests from her own officers to the list.

The call Laeponia received from the CSS did little to assuage her concerns. It served little to no purpose at all, honestly, for all the deftness with which the caller at the other end of the line dodged her demands for more specifics.

There was little more to be done, Laeponia decided, than try to get some answers from the man himself. She doubted it would help. She was almost certain it wouldn’t, really, but Laeponia was nothing if not adept at throwing herself into situations stacked against her. It was only unfortunate that combat wouldn’t help her here; lord knew her skills with a blade and Phaestron rifle were head and shoulders above her diplomacy, but needs must.

The evening was wearing late, but Laeponia could see a sliver of light around the door to Vito’s quarters as she approached. One long, slender finger pressed the comms button without hesitation, adding when he answered: “Vito. It’s Laeponia.” More personal than she’d normally announce herself, but Vito obviously wasn’t someone for whom pulling rank was all that effective. “Can we please talk?”

It had been a week since Theran had rerouted Vito’s life. A week of keeping odd hours to catch off-planet merchants at the right time, of bartering until the value of a chit was lost upon him, and of building. Gods, but he was fucking tired of building. The issue was, he didn’t know anyone on this planet that he trusted enough to help him with any of the Romano house construction, so he was doing the conversion from mana crystals to energy cores himself.

And it was a pain in the ass.

The project is finished now, though he’s sacrificed far more sleep than he’d have liked to stay on schedule. He’s halfway through a beer in his own quarters (mostly because staying at the Romano house felt wrong, even if he’d paid for the whole thing) when the comm goes off. Surprised to hear from anyone, let alone Laeponia, the beastkin hesitates for only a moment before he unlocks the various latches and opens the door, allowing it to swing wide as he pads barefooted into the living area, turning the lights up as he walks by.

“Come on in. You want a beer or somethin’?”

On his way past the couch he snatches up the gray tanktop there, pulling it over his head to cover the three bright green stripes that run down his back. He had a feeling he knew why Indy was here, though he’s not sure what kind of help he can actually provide. “I’ve also got some food from Palaven if you’re hungry. I mean it’s frozen but.” He shrugs, gesturing vaguely to the kitchen as he takes a seat in one of the chairs at the dining table.

[oxfordsonnets]

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”

— Alejandro Jodorowsky (via herzmasochismus)

[russovito]

stereotypic movements;

DEFENSIVENESS.    arms  crossed  on  chest  /   crossing  legs  /  fist-like  gestures   /  pointing  index  finger  /   karate  chops   /   stiffening  of  shoulders /   tense  posture  /  curling  of  lip    /  baring  of  teeth

REFLECTIVE.    hand  to  face  gestures   /   head  tilted   /   stroking chin   /  peering  over   glasses   /   taking  glasses  off —  cleaning   /   putting  earpiece  of  glasses  in  mouth   /   pipe smoker  gestures   /   putting  hand  to  the  bridge  of  nose   /   pursed  lips /   knitted  brows 

SUSPICION.     arms  crossed   /   sideways  glance   /   touching  or  rubbing  nose   /  rubbing  eyes   /   hands  resting  on  weapon   /  brows  rising  /   lips  pressing  into  a  thin  line   /   strict  unwavering  eye  contact   /   wrinkling  of  nose

OPENNESS  +  COOPERATION.    open  hands   /   upper  body  in  sprinters  position  /   sitting  on  the  edge  of  a  chair  /   hand-to-face gestures   /   unbuttoned  coat   /   tilted  head   /   slacked  shoulders  /   droopy  posture   /   feet  pointed  outward /   palms  flat  and  facing  outward

CONFIDENCE.    hands  behind  back   /   hands  on  lapels  of  coat   /   steepled  hands   /   barring  teeth  in  a  grin  /   rolling  shoulders   /   tipping  head  back  but  maintaining  eye   contact   /   chest  puffed  up   /   shoulders  back /   arms  folded   just  above  navel

INSECURITY  +  ANXIETY.    chewing  pen  or  pencil  /   rubbing  thumb  over  opposite  thumb   /   biting  fingernails   /   hands  in  pockets   /   elbow  bent   /   closed  gestures   /   clearing  throat   /   pacing    /    “ whew ”  sound   /  picking  or  pinching  flesh   /   fidgeting  in  chair  /   hand  covering  mouth  whilst  speaking   /   poor  eye  contact   /   tugging  at  pants  whilst  seated   /   jingling  money  in  pockets   /   tugging  at  ear  /   perspiring  hands /   playing  with  hair    /  swaying   /   playing  with  pointer   /   smacking  lips   /   sighing   /   rocking  on  balls  of  feet  /   flexing  fingers  sporadically

FRUSTRATION.    short  breaths   /   “ tsk ”  sounds /   tightly  clenched  hands  /   fist-like  gestures   /   pointing  index  finger   /   running  hand  through  hair   /   rubbing  back  of  neck   /   snarling   /   revealing  teeth   /   grimacing   /    sharp-eyed   glowers  with  notable  tension  in  brows   /   shoulders  back  ,   head  up   /   defensive  posturing   /   clenching  of  jaw   /   grinding  of  teeth  /   nostrils  flaring  /   heavy  exhales

[russovito]

Death » Name one thing your muse has lost that they wish they could get back.

Vito doesn't place a lot of stock in physical items; he regularly purges old belongings and leaves behind entire apartments full of items whenever he abandons an identity. He doesn't think about it often, but he does occasionally wonder about his birth parents. The memories he does have of them are extremely unclear, scratched out by time and the youthful desire to purge their faces from his memory.

He had been successful, but now that he's older, there are things he'd actually have preferred to remember.

[russovito]

local time: thursday, 24 november 2022. 20:45 location: city center, collective embassy. allies gala vito russo. theran romano. silvana romano. @credinaa​ blue text indicates they are speaking palavian with a cipritine accent.

it was a relief to have purpose again; the vacation theran had given vito was not something he’d enjoyed. the beastkin had lived a fully structured life after the venpalan family had taken him in, and the sudden slackening of that structure had been uncomfortable. rather than feeling free, vito had felt like he’d been blasted out an airlock into the open expanse. aimless and adrift, when the order to prepare a residence had come in, russo had buried himself in the task. then, when theran and silvana had arrived the friday before the gala, it had been all too easy to return to his position as the duteous guard.

yet, something was different. it was subtle, but the way theran spoke to him had changed. more willing to share his thoughts, his plans, he’d even asked vito for his opinion on several occasions without phrasing it like an academy professor probing to see if a student understood the curriculum. silvana, too, had a new glint to her eye. as the allies gala drew closer, she’d prepared his wardrobe as she did therans - something that had never happened before. rather than the plain black tux he’d anticipated donning, he was dressed in a custom blazer with patterns reminiscent of those found on afogoth, the planet where theran had found him. he didn’t know what these changes in the romanos meant, but he had a feeling they were just the beginning.

standing just behind the older couple, vito was the only one of their security team that stayed so close. tall even for venpalans, the beastkin is easily overlooked by the gala guests that approach his parents to talk. this suits him just fine as he repeatedly scans the dance hall, head on a constant swivel as reports from the rest of the team occasionally trickle in over the security earpiece. silvana gave a polite farewell to the conversation partner she’d snared and the trio set off for a nearby table, small enough that it only held four chairs and newly cleaned by one of the roving white robots the city had supplied for the evening. pulling out a chair for silvana, vito takes a step back and stands with hands clasped behind his back as theran joins his wife at the table.

“ I’m so glad we were able to come here. it’s so quaint, don’t you think, darling? and I must say, the air here is quite a bit cleaner than the last planet we visited. ”

“ you’re not wrong, but that planet was human, so it’s a difficult comparison. the food here is excellent, though. what we can eat of it, anyway. ”

[russovito]

@credinaa​​

i knew it, she thinks, but this time she doesn’t feel fortunate about being right. instead it’s that feeling of betrayal she hasn’t felt in months. stella is on her phone at the exact same moment the message arrives, but takes a good few hours until she clicks on the blue circle.

[ read 20:51 ]

two weeks later. local time: friday 18 november 2022. 22:45 location: sotiris; romano estate.

theran and silvana landed in the spaceport early in the morning. the conversation theran and vito have at the new romano estate, once silvana is done touring every millimeter of the main house, is lengthy. theran, usually tight-lipped about every fact that isn’t crucial to the mission, is uncharacteristically forthright about the decisions that have led them to this moment. while vito’s time spent with sasha was not approved by theran, he did not go out of his way to punish vito by involving ian soverall in his plans.

vitos involvement with sasha may have been what led him to investigate ian, but ians own accomplishments were what made him such an enticing candidate for the councilor’s plans. theran returns to his secretive ways when the future is brought up, but he does tell vito one thing. he’ll have a new mission by the time the allies gala wraps up, and he’ll have to leave to get it done.

the beastkin stares at his phone for a long time before he types out a message, unsure whether or not telling stell is a good idea. he’s leaving, again, though he’s not positive she’ll care this time around. not about him, anyway. he sighs, theran will decide at the gala.

[ sms sent 23:45 ] › hey stell. if ur going to the allies gala I’ll see you there. a few things will make more sense after that.

[russovito]

russo and the romanos; allies gala

Vito Russo is acting as a security guard during the Allies Gala. He is one of several, but he is the only one who isn’t dressed in a plain black tuxedo. He stands just behind Theran Romano at all times during the night and does not eat with the couple. 

⤷ Hair styled as pictured ⤷ Dark purple shirt with a patterned jacket ⤷ Black slacks and oxford dress shoes ⤷ Gold ring with a black stone on right index finger ⤷ Leoran translation pin on left lapel, earbud in left ear ⤷ Transparent security earpiece in right ear

Theran Romano and Silvana Romano tower over most guests at the allies gala, measuring at 6′8′’ and 6′4′’ respectively. They are relaxed and confident, but where Theran is quiet and direct, Silvana is the social butterfly that keeps conversations moving.

⤷ White hair, styled as pictured ⤷ Theran wears a black tuxedo with colorful bowtie and pocket square ⤷ Gold watch with black band and dragon and koi details ⤷ Silvana wears a black dress with a white wrap ⤷ Gold jewelry, including a pair of gold earrings with pearl drops

[russovito]

@msgallo​

to say that celia has very obviously underestimated him is an understatement as well. it’s not the strength that comes so unexpected, it’s the fighting technique that’s quite obviously new to her - she’s not prepared to meet the ground so soon, but she does take it well. the woman doesn’t have to calculate long to find out which leg she’s going to land on. his foot against her lower leg hurts, but as the rest of it hits the ground, her mana is already channelled, bundled in her lower body and enforced into the leg brace. the energy is pushed back beneath her skin as soon as she hits the ground, but it’s rather uncomfortable than painful. prepared to use a ground combat technique on him her elbow pushes back and reaches for nothing. “i see.”, she breathes out between two movements, “afraid to fight a disabled woman?” her tone is as teasing as it can get in such a situation, before she then does what she assumes he least expects - she strikes the foot of her left reg towards his more sensitive areas, but it’s only coverup for the way she pushes her body forward through her right foot, risking the moment she’s slightly underneath him.

the leoran’s next move is ramming her knee into his right abdomen, linking their knees and maneuvering him onto his stomach with her whole body weight. she knows he probably backed up due to another reason (many of the younger hunters are shy to do the final strike simply out of respect and even the older fighters are always careful to be respectful), but a little bickering is never bad.

it has been quite a while since she has had an actual fight against someone on her level. she has started to get back into training with kallie, one of the students that were in her group during the day she had the accident. she’s an excellent fighter and has performed well on multiple missions in the wilds recently, and since she has seen what celia has been through she’s more than willing to help her get back into fighting. when she first started working on her brace, the young girl had joined her often, too, handing her the things she needed. her big ‘thank you’ had been a gorgeous personalized sword, made out of the finest metal she could find, in kallie’s favorite colors and with her favorite handle material. the woman had been all over the moon, showing the weapon off whenever she could and enjoyed being envied by the other low-levels. it had made celia proud as well - it was her work that she was so fond off.

back to the fight; her elbow is pushing in a part of his back she knows is sensitive and reacts to pressure, before she can place her other arm on the back of his neck, pain strikes through her leg as the mana subsides for a moment, and she’s distracted for more than just one second.

he ignores her words out of habit. while he does have a history of verbal sparring matches that nearly matches his list of physical spars, he doesn’t ever do both at once. the way the hunter maneuvers to her feet is unique, and vito notes it for later. he redirects the foot aimed towards his crotch, using the palm of his right hand to push the leg down and to the side until it just grazes the underside of his left thigh.

fighting with leorans was strange. unsouled felt like humans but hunters? once any leoran reached what they called ‘iron rank’ they became incredibly sturdy, and add a hunter’s experience to that? it was easy to walk away with broken limbs if he took any of their hits directly. this was part of the reason he’d turned back to his roots. while the first fighting style he’d learned wasn’t his preferred, its use of the opponent’s momentum and carefully timed redirections were useful against the leorans.

accepting the knee to his abdomen, vito moves with her as their locked knees bring them both back to the ground. her elbow digs into his back and he rounds into the pain, lifting both his bodyweight and her own until he’s on his elbows and knees instead of his stomach. there’s a moment of hesitation - or rather, a pause - and the beastkin uses the opportunity to reach back and pin her right arm between his right arm and torso. 

pushing off with his left leg, he keeps her right arm trapped and moves his upper body underneath hers until he can grab the clothing near her lower back. his right elbow locked around her forearm and right shoulder in her armpit forces her head down, and the grip he has on her lower back keeps her hips away from him. Instead of lifting her right arm and forcing the hunter into a prone position, he lashes out with a booted left foot, aiming his heel towards the side of her leg brace right at the knee joint.

[russovito]

sotiris; romano residence

Getting started had been more important to Vito than finding something that had everything Silvana and Theran wanted in a home. Given his father had mentioned Vito clearing out an island, the beastkin assumes this “home” will only last as long as it takes him to find an island and have a compound built there. The Romanos were a lot of things, but subtle didn’t make the cut. Why they were moving to Leora, no matter how temporarily, was going to be interesting to find out.

The home he ended up purchasing was originally built for a well-known and well-respected hunting party of four. In total, there are four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a 20-metre infinity pool and its daybed-speckled deck, plus a waterfall feature and various gardens. There are also three connected but distinct areas for hosting which he knew was Silvana’s only actual requirement. If the home he prepared for them didn’t have the ambiance or physical space for social gatherings, he would be in for an exhaustive lecture.

While the hunting party had left Sotiris shortly after the Collective arrived, the house had stayed vacant for months. Other parties didn’t want to take over the space just in case the old party came back, but Vito didn’t share their reservations. He’d offered a lowball price in chits for the home, and when it had been accepted, immediately started ordering. All of the windows in the home had bullet-proof replacements on the way, he’d added a gate and a fence around the property, installed security systems, flown in trained protection beasts, updated all of the appliances to the newest the Collective had to offer, bought a couple Sotiran cleaning robots, and then filled the home with stuff.

Two weeks had not been enough time, reworking the systems to run off energy cores rather than mana had taken a full week by itself, but at least it was done. The white-on-white palette accented by ‘soft turquoise’ was another one of Silvana’s inputs. He heard from his mother more often in the two weeks he was prepping their home than he had in the two months before that. Truth be told, it was rather annoying.

The minute details he overlooked in his own residences seemed to be the only things Silvana cared about. He’d suggested the blue couch out of irritation, and she hadn’t batted an eye, agreeing to it easily. But his randomly selected box of expensive stemless wine glasses? They, apparently, were entirely last season, and if he wanted to ‘shred her reputation into tiny little ribbons and rip her heart out’, he might as well ‘go all the way and purchase throw pillows made of velour’.

He didn’t know what that statement meant, but he had found out what being drunk felt like for the first time in months.

[russovito]

@credinaa​

the first wave of embarrassment hits as soon as her crying slows down. throughout her whole life she has drilled herself into not showing emotion at all - limited to the bits she wants the other person to see. ever since her life has been turned upside down, though, that hasn’t worked at all. the first to break up old structures had been tiago, with the way he’s constantly pestering her about something in his own way, proclaiming that she does have freedom left and can do anything she wants, which is simply false. recently she has rather felt like one of the robots functioning for visitors and residents of leora, sent here and there to do whatever the person paying for her services wanted. 

about vito - he was the first person that had ever truly disappointed her. while her parents technically counted as the first real disappointment, she never got to meet them. the foster families she ended up in couldn’t count as a disappointment either, given it was her fault for being as complicated as possible as well (or that’s what she tells herself). vito though, had been very much present. he had been the one to approach her (and to say that she had been weirded out was a slight understatement, since again, pick up lines??) and he had been the one who left. sasha has meant the words she has said - a small fragment of her heart does hate him for disappearing all out of sudden, overshadowed by the fragments that think there’s more to it, that do not want to accept that he just left. these fragments miss him from time to time time when she comes across the little frog figurines they sell at some shops close to marina (she had bought those she considered the coolest and placed them on one of her desks), sometimes when she sits alone in a restaurant and every time she goes for a run. most importantly, she’s convinced of her last words.

you have no right to do such things to my heart.

 the hug feels little like home and more like the goodbye she never got and should have had. she lets go of him as quickly as possible, scrambling herself together in the matter of a few seconds. she has a feeling that his apology is more than it seems like, that he’s apologizing for more than just their situation.

“my apologies. we should continue and finish our run, i have work to do.”

when the separate, vito notes how still his mind had become as they embraced. it wasn’t that he’d never felt anything like this before, but the fact that the clinical part of his mind, the only part that ever followed him to a new mask, had been so incredibly quiet... that proved to be food for thought. his sense of self is so lost in the sea of boxes and masks in his mind it’s almost jarring when all those moving pieces come to stillness. he doesn’t know what that means, what she means.

stell separates from him and he politely ignores how the tears have changed her face. even crying she’s just as beautiful as she was the day he’d first approached her, perhaps even more so given the years between. there’s a pang in his chest as he notices, and it has nothing to do with their run.

“don’t apologize for things that aren’t your fault, stell.” he looks away, eyes drifting towards the path ahead of them. “come on, I’ll race ya back.”

end.

[russovito]

@tiagoixora​

“Some awfully long shadows for you to be able to conceal–” Tiago waves a hand up and down, along Vito’s tall frame, “–all this. But no, you seem good at it. Natural, or was that a skill you had to learn?” There’s a more than solid chance that Vito isn’t going to be forthcoming about his training and/or nurture, but Tiago’s learned that throwing out questions has the dual effect of making people think he talks just to hear himself talk, and sometimes prompts people to answer. It’s amazing how many people have just never been asked. And when you do, they don’t even think about not telling you what you want to know, because it feels good to have somebody interested.

There’s a lot of lonely people in the world. And that went quadruple for out there in the big wide universe, Tiago is willing to bet.

There’s a moment of consideration where Vito’s probably weighing out how he wants to handle this, and honestly he has the lion’s share of power in this scenario. But Tiago’s patient and he’s greedy, and the potential for having this quick, solemn, brutal Beastkin on his side is an appealing prospect.

Finally Vito relents. Tiago draws in a fast, sharp breath and holds it, like he’s tasting what Vito’s just told him, and then says, “That’s a shame. I always think that an occupation should offer some stimulation, don’t you?” 

Pir is groaning now, which is a relief but does inject some hurry-up in the schedule. “Help me carry this back,” Tiago says, tapping the toe of his shoe against the mushroom crate, “and let’s see what we can do about easing the Starfleet boredom, shall we? My rates are competitive and you can’t beat the jobs I offer for variety. Versatility. Plus you get to eat at the best restaurant in Sotiris, with the company of the most charming owner.”

The genuine smile that graces his lips feels strange - so rarely has Vito felt unabashed joy in the presence of another. Part of it is the comment on how tall he is; a ludicrous thing to be amused by, but after spending years frequenting the Venpalan home world, the idea his height impressed anyone is nothing if not amusing. “A bit of both, really.” He’d trained for years, but a lot of his skill with the shadows had come from necessity based on his status as a beastkin. Theran had kept his home precisely and immaculately lit, so finding the smallest of shadows to rest his eyes had always been a feat.

Eventually, he’d also figured out how to manipulate those spaces to hide his presence.

The groaning from the downed man surprises Vito, drawing a raised eyebrow and a curious glance thrown towards the man. Damn, that big bastard really is something else. It had taken quite a bit of poison to down the man in the first place, and he was recovering faster than the beastkin would have assumed. 

“Sure, sounds like a plan to me.” With ease, Vito bends and hoists the crate onto his shoulder. While carrying the crate in both arms would’ve been an easier position to get into, the false soldier prefers to keep at least one hand free as the pair begin towalk. Plus, the crate weighs less than forty or fifty pounds, if he had to guess. Carrying something like that on his shoulder wouldn’t be a breeze. but it could hardly be described as a challenge. “Lead the way.”

end.

[russovito]

@credinaa​

the planet i ended up on. something about that wording is a little off, as if he had no choice but reside on whatever planet he was talking about. she couldn’t quite grasp why these words stood out to her, but she shushed the thoughts about them away as quickly as they came - she was a hundred percent overthinking. the venpalan wasn’t quite sure that had happened to her in the last few months. something about her and her behavior had changed - she always felt a little childish and was quick to snap at other people around her. pressure, she realized. because nobody had come to her family and had told them about her father’s death - he was presumed dead. no body, no funeral - it was her decision, her signature that would decide if he was dead or alive. considering he was the only person that had managed to pull her out of the horrendous childhood that she had, being the one to have to decide such a thing was more than just awful.

“you have nothing to apologize for, hops. it’s not your fault and i believe that you had no idea. aneida asked not to make it public and the other families agreed - and after they closed up interrogations, no one in the starfleet cared anymore, anyways. except for the families, of course. though aneida doesn’t seem to-” sasha stopped herself mid-sentence. it was obvious that the older venpalan cared for her father as much as she did. she had always loved him and her with her whole heart and the situation had been tough for her and tyra, but after two weeks of searching, sasha simply didn’t want to give up yet. now that she hadn’t found any trace of him after multiple months and soon almost a year, she was slowly giving up - and all the grief she had suppressed for said few months was coming back through mood swings, emotional outbursts, frustrated tears and so much hate.

ding ding, vito has just won the lotto. 

sasha’s pace quickens and for a while she’s quiet, before his words and her feelings hit her like a squadron of starfighters and she starts sobbing. slowing down but not stopping, she hiccups.

“this was a fucking horrible idea! i hate you so much, you know that?” now she does stop, just to be able to say the words to his face. “you leave with out a word, you come back into my life without the slightest hint of an explanation as if nothing happened and then dare to use to word unfortunate for such a situation.” her hands are on his shoulders and she shakes him a little, not hard enough for it to hurt, but it does soothe her soul a little.

“i..i hate you so much, vito. but at the same time..i..i just miss you every time you’re not around and that makes me hate you even more. you have no right- you have no right to..do such things to my heart.”

‘you have nothing to apologize for, hops.’

those words bit like a knife. while he desperately hoped they were true, the blackened feeling in his gut told him he was fool if he believed it. her next words are largely lost on him, buried underneath the crushing weight of guilt he feels, but based on her expression and halted speech, they were words the venpalan hadn’t meant anyway. clinically, the section of his mind he always keeps clear notes that she probably hadn’t meant them - they’d merely been sentiments fueled by grief and longing.

as they run, he knows something he’s said had been entirely wrong. stell begins moving faster, something he’s not sure she knows she’s conscious she’s doing. then, just as suddenly, she slows as she starts sobbing. the sight shatters him in a way his clinical mind has no way of quantifying. to see your own heart strangled, how do you put that into words? she comes to a stop and he’s milliseconds behind, moving to her side despite the hatred she proclaims to have for him. she should hate him, he knows this, and while the voiced statement burns like cheap booze, he can’t find the heart to deny her feelings.

she’s touching him, shaking him like she’s trying to rattle a reason loose. he looks at her with melancholy streaked across his expression, no thought of masks or falsehoods in sight. he’s just sorry, but nothing he can say will make her feel better about his betrayal. nor about her fathers disappearance. she doesn’t know yet that it’s likely his fault, but he knows, and it does nothing but burn.

“i..i hate you so much, vito. but at the same time..i..i just miss you every time you’re not around and that makes me hate you even more. you have no right- you have no right to..do such things to my heart.”

what does one do with a proclamation like that? the broken expression on vito’s face says he doesn’t know; so he allows his body to take over. enveloping the taller venpalan woman in a tight embrace, he makes sure that if she tries to break away from him, that she can. forlornly, he whispers into her shoulder as he gently cradles the back of her head. “I’m sorry, stell. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

[russovito]

@credinaa

local time: friday, 04 november 2022. 11:45 location: city center, leoran consulate

[ sms sent 11:45 ] › hey stell [ sms sent 11:45 ] › i cant run for the next couple weeks im gonna be busy [ sms sent 11:46 ] › its a work thing. my leave is officially over

vito stares at the last message for a long moment before he locks the phone and puts it back in his pocket. until theran lands and explains his present, the beastkin knows he’s probably better off avoiding stell. they were nowhere near as close as they had been, but disappearing without a trace for a second time (especially before he knows what theran will have him doing for his next mission) strikes him as unwise.

[russovito]

finding truth; solo

local time: friday 04 november 2022. 11:00 palavian time: saturday 05 november 2022. 8:00 location: sotiris, leora. vito russo’s apartment. secondary location: cipritine, palaven. romano family compound. vito russo + theran romano

It had been three weeks since Stell had told Vito that her father had gone missing. In those three weeks, the beastkin had used every avenue available to him, save one, to search for Ian and rest of Regina Caelorum’s crew. What he had found, or rather the lack thereof, had been telling. Someone ranked highly within the Collective almost certainly had a hand in this mission, possibly multiple people. Things were too clean, information too lacking. The investigation files were an absolute joke, large sections that clearly had never contained notes were redacted, even with the high-level clearance Theran had given Vito. Though he was biased, Russo felt strongly that the Romanos had been behind Ian’s mission. Whether or not they were at fault for his disappearance, however...

He would find out soon. Knowing it would tip off Theran, Vito had asked the hacker his father had introduced to him decades ago if he could find anything out. It was a passive way of getting the Councilor’s attention, but it had worked. Less than four hours after he’d put in the request, he’d received a text from Theran on the phone he used exclusively for conversing with the Venpalan.

VC. FN041100

Video call. Friday November 4th, 11:00 your time. Everything between their two phones was encrypted and untraceable, but Theran hadn’t lied, bribed, and killed his way to an ultimate seat of power by being careless. Vito had passed the time between text receipt and fated video call by spending more time in the Hunter’s Warren. Bruises from some of those fights were still being healed, his nanites working on him around the clock to accelerate how quickly they faded. Nanites did nothing for the ache, though. They could, but the beastkin found the bruised sensation grounding as his life seemed to spiral out of his grip.

Sitting in the middle of the couch in his living room, the beastkin used voice commands to link his phone up to the television. When the call came through, he accepted immediately, a high resolution image of Theran popping up on his display, just as he knew his own image was being cast to the councilor. Reverting to Atseesh, his native language, Vito begins the conversation. “Hello, Sir.”

“Boy. I’d ask you how you’re enjoying your vacation, but I think we both know you aren’t.” Theran replies in Atseesh as well. A local dialect only spoken by one tribe on one planet, the beastkin has long assumed Theran learned the language so their conversations would be more private. Vito nods at the man’s words, his expression a perfect mask of neutrality. Lying about enjoying his time here would be quite stupid. He wasn’t, and Theran knew that very well.

“You found the present I left for you, finally. I have to admit, it took you far longer to locate than I’d have thought possible, but I either under, or over, estimated how much you care for the girl.” On his couch, the beastkin is very still, the blinking of his eyelids the only sign the video call hasn’t disconnected. Theran, looking rather pleased at Vito’s lack of reaction, continues. “He’s in the Nubian Expanse in the Attican Traverse cluster located on the eastern edge of the Milky Way. No single dominant race has laid any claim to the meager resources there; so it’s mostly a haven for outlaws. You should remember that, after all, you were there about a decade ago.”

Vito remembered that job. He remembered all of the jobs he’d done for Theran, but that one had been particularly nasty. It had involved Cerberus, the human-survivalist paramilitary group led by the enigmatic Hades. Their core belief is that humans deserve a greater role in the galactic community, and that the Human Councilors are too hamstrung by law and public opinion to stand up effectively to the other Collective races. Cerberus supports the principle that any methods of advancing humanity's ascension are entirely justified, including illegal or dangerous experimentation, terrorist activities, sabotage, and assassination. Cerberus operatives accept that these methods are brutal, but believe history will vindicate them. Nevertheless, the Collective Council have declared Cerberus to be a terrorist organization and prosecute identified Cerberus agents accordingly.

If Ian’s mission had involved Cerberus, it was more than likely the man was dead or the subject of torture and experimentation. This had not been the answer Vito had been hoping to receive.

“I remember, father. I do not understand how this is a present, though.” Voice even and controlled, Vito raises a questioning eyebrow as he stares at the tv.

Theran laughs, completely ignoring the implied question. “I need you to look into buying property on that little planet. Silvana has convinced me it’s time for a vacation. I’d prefer you clear out an island close to Sotiris and build a compound for us, but we’ll be arriving in about two weeks, so I don’t think you’ll have the time. Just find a suitable plot on the capital island, something far removed, and buy that. You know how Silvana likes things, so set it up properly. We’ll talk about your mission after the Allies Gala, which you’ll be attending as our guard.”

Then, with a nod of dismissal, Theran ends the video call and Vito is left staring at his reflection in the black television screen. Bringing his uninjured hand up to his face, he lets out a frustrated sigh as he rubs his fingers into closed eyes. The ache and the red flashes of color don’t help the migraine building there.

[wells-hannah]

CLUELESS ( 1995 ) ↳ dir. Amy Heckerling