tar & bone

[sawdrenched]

Turn a Blind Eye - Dell & Emilia

[sawdrenched]

blind-discord‌:

Dell made a motion to one of the goons, who handed Emilia a towel. “I can smell the sweat from that mask over here.” He said, barely catching the tenders they chucked at him. Yes. Best plan. Throw food at the blind kid. Great idea. Even with the warning that definitely didn’t come fast enough.

“Yeah, I’m not surprised. BS was talking about something or other about that, I dunno. I’m just here to do what I do and otherwise stay out of the way till I’m like….not a kid?” He crunched down on a tender and leaned back in his seat.

He pushed his sunglasses up into his hair so he could direct a dirty look almost Emilia’s way when they mentioned theme parks. The checker patterned eyes pointed a few inches to the villains left.

“No theme parks. Not for a little while still.” He shuddered. “Maybe not ever again. Something fun sounds good, though. Anything else in mind?” He carefully felt around for the coffee, batting away the hands of a goon who tried to help him. He could find his own damn coffee by himself thank you very much.

        “Dunno, trampoline park? We go and throw glass bottles off the bridge at passing toddlers?” A beat and Emilia tapped their head, “There’s a zero gravity place that opened, like one with real powers. You can float around and shit but I guess that could get dicey. Um, we could-”

What could they do? Emilia was busy and needed to work now more than ever and Dell- well, he was sixteen. “I mean I could always ask Tanit to torrent a few shitty movies for us, the ones that never shut up.”

That could work, if they were full of sound. Or video games. Maybe some audio drama where they both got angry at the ditsy protagonist- but if they wanted to do that they might as well read one of Emilia’s books. They grunted, kicking their feet up. Yeah, this left them at a loss. 

“I finally have time off and I don’t know what to do with it.”

[sawdrenched]

spoiled rotten - cj & emilia

[sawdrenched]

cjcandy‌:

Cj took her time looking her conversation partner up and down before slowly opening the chocolate bar that was so graciously given to her. Now that she had only a mask to stare into and try to read it was her own turn to put on a mask. Her cherry sucker lips pursed slightly, the sprinkles upon her cheeks settling into a face some might call intrigue. 

With her well manicured nails she broke off a piece of the chocolate and popped it in her mouth. You would think she would be tired of sweets, but as the rich chocolate melted over her tongue she found herself energized. Almost as if the core of her being had turned into a vat of sickening sugar. 

She listened as Emilia explained Black Dragonfish’s secret disposition. “Oh really?” An eyebrow quirked upward in a curious way. As the resounding sounds of the argument settled into the air she couldn’t help but chuckle at the juxtaposition. 

“I’ve been calling myself Cavity, because what else do you get when you have too much sugar, and canker sore just doesn’t have the same ring to it.” She paused for a moment, not really one to give her entire life story as soon as it’s asked. And thankfully they were just kidding. “Let’s just say I’m looking for my Just Desserts. And what did little ol’ me do to attract the eye of the Third in Command?”

Cj pops another piece of chocolate.

        “Well,” Emilia popped their own piece of candy, crunching firmly into the jolly rancher with razor sharp teeth, “You’re new. New is interesting.” New was dangerous, new made Cavity a liability. The stretched and let their bones produce a soft pop! Besides, Reagan would be beside himself if the new kid on the block was going to cause him problems. Man already had to deal with a zombie boyfriend, it couldn’t get much worse for him.

“Besides, I like your aesthetics.” Not a lie, Emilia had a fondness for sweets, some would argue it went above fondness and was an addiction. Fond sounded much better. Sugar was distracting and cut right to the bone and won out over the burning of their throat and lungs. “I just wanted to make sure you’re settling in with everyone all right.”

It wasn’t fun being the enforcer; but they were going to do this job right. Make connections, form bonds. Bam, instant loyalty. It was an exhausting pattern, an equation far more complex than ‘draw, write, sell book’ or ‘kill a man, make money’. The job meant being everything Rusted Mask was not:

Decent.

“Sooooo, soooo soooo Cah-vi-teee!” They stretched the syllables of the Villain’s name like taffy, excitedly slapping both hands on their knees as they leaned forward, “Mind showing me your candy stash?”

It was a euphemism, not a dirty one, but one that played at a far greater question; what is your power set?

[destroymylife]

[silverfeesh]

@sawdrenched

Ever since Emelia became Black Dragonfish’s high-end commander, Tanit just hadn’t seen them very often. Which was….okay, everything was okay, after all, since they had to deal with that new guy too. That new guy. The one with the stupid grin and the lip scar and the stereotypical ‘I’m a detective!’ get up. It was like someone skimped out on his character design, or that he went out his way to be the most boring, uninspired caricature of a person he could be. He wasn’t even nice! Maybe for the admittedly fair reason that he had basically been passed through to being a servant of the Olive City crime system. 

Whatever, didn’t matter! He was cooking for Emelia’s men and bringing things to their work and Emelia just hadn’t seen Tanit in, like, a week! They used to talk pretty much daily. Now it was only one or two texts every other day and it…

…Really wasn’t doing it for him. It made him sad. Lonely. He felt like he was losing a person that was not only a friend but – he really liked, a whole lot. WHich was kind of typical, honestly, considering that the last person he had feelings for also ended up being entirely out of his league and also with somebody else so seeing it happen all over again was fine and dandy and - 

No it wasn’t. It wasn’t okay. Laying his head in his hands, Tanit wallowed for a few minutes before coming to his final decision; he was going outside. To Emelia’s apartment. Across town. 

…To spare the details, it was a Herculean effort for him, a young man who was afraid of seeing the outside of his apartment through his physical body most of the time. Electronics were cool and good and great, because he wouldn’t get totally killed that way (even if he did feel the pain). But it wouldn’t be valid to show up in a robot body! It had to be his real self! Then Emelia would see that they were worth the effort! He even was bringing a shopping bag of off-brand drug store candy! And ingredients for his mom’s cooking! Tanit was on top of this…!

By the time he reached Emelia’s apartment, however, Tanit was holding back tears and shaking like a leaf. The bus was miserable and people stared at him way too much, there was a fender bender that blocked the normal route so the detour took an extra 7 minutes, and then a stranger tried to talk to him on the streets! He settled for ringing the bell once, but when there was no answer, he ended up ringing it over and over again. What if they weren’t home? He was here to surprise them, but in not checking he didn;t know if they were busy! His repeated ringing became slightly more frantic. What if he just did all of this for nothing? He couldn’t see the electronics to let himself in, so to get out of the open he would have to find something on the street - not hard, but it would give himself away and he just–

Wanted to be inside right now. 

[sawdrenched]

        They didn’t have time to even breathe anymore. Not without Reagan jumping down their throat. The man was harsh and demanded excellence in every area of their work. They couldn’t afford to slip up-

which meant they had been reduced to a simple routine of sleep and work; sometimes food wasn’t part of the equation. Rusted Mask left a gaping wound in the city and Emilia had to be the one to fill it. The power vacuum was felt all throughout Olive. Upstart gangs that wanted a piece of the power were sprouting like weeds and it was the Corrosionist’s  job to be the poison that took them out.

When the doorbell went off the first time they hardly stirred from bed, head nestled into their warm pillow, mouth agape. Ding-! A groan, their eyes flickered open to fix on the clock beside their bed- Ah, it was 4pm. In a mere four more hours they would have to shrug on their work clothes and a smile.

Their eyes began to slide closed, drawn to sleep deeper, to continue sleeping and never stop.

Ding, ding, ding-!!

Emilia shot up, a gasp drawn from their chest. Their feet struck hardwood slower than their ass did, which was record time. But despite falling literally out of bed they surged out of their tiny room to run into the living room, to the front door where they began to chant ‘coming, coming’ in a bid to make the ringing stop. 

A cursory check through the peephole showed them nothing, just the empty street beyond the door. Click, they unlocked the door and opened it slowly, the chain lock on their door offering a weak groan of resistance as they peered out at-?

“Tanit?” They flicked the chain free and opened the door fully to see the frazzled man standing before them, “H-hey, you okay?”

They took a step aside to allow him entry, one too pale hand placed on the small of his back to urge him inside. This was unusual, but they couldn’t fight the joy that burst inside their chest from the mere sight of him. It had felt like years had long since passed during Emilia’s absence. A sense of panic was quick to find root in the momentary joy, however.

They froze, and dashed ahead to the living room, sweeping the empty bottles from line of sight before turning and opening their arms to the other, “Hey! Welcome! It’s been a long time!”

[gamblehaul]

@sawdrenched

“‘Aight. One, two, th-” the door shot open, and Henry turned in the same motion as releasing his dart to the board (and wall, which was already riddled with the occasional hole from Indigo’s attempts at learning to play darts). It flew from his fingertips, swooshing across the room without hindrance, and (luckily?) not hitting the person who was entering at this moment. Instead, with a wooden, heavy thuMP it hit the wall and fell to the ground without a single piece of damage done. That he could see. From across the room.

Of course…he already knew who was coming in. Only one of two people actually came to his small house (bought with his new boss’ money, so, well, props to that big fella), and one of those people was asleep upstairs for an afternoon nap after way way way too much Animal Crossing or whatever it was that Indigo was playing right now. So! It had to be Emelia. Err. The Corrosionist. Whatever they wanted to be called right now, depending on if they were in costume or not. 

Which they weren’t! So maybe they were here to see Indigo, since they were carrying a large shopping bag of (probably) candy. “We-eeeeeeellllll. Hey there boss, what in the world is bringing you here at…. 3pm? Did we have something come up, or are you off today? Maybe you want to stop in for lunch? I do have more of that taco salad I made for your office today left over. We could have a sit down moment.”  

As he spoke, nhe sauntered his way over to the nearest chair and sat right down, leaning one elbow on top and his chin on top of a closed hand. 

[sawdrenched]

       Having sharp objects thrown at them wasn’t new. It was tiring, but it had long since stopped being annoying and had started becoming routine. Emilia Bordeaux stopped in their tracks, eyes dulling as they fell on Henrie Skies and his arsenal of tiny darts. Ah, he was damaging the property already. Reagan would have a field day with that one.

They dropped their bag on the coffee table, the contents spilling out to reveal a fair amount of sweets for Indigo. They rifled through the bag and pulled out a small package, a simple brown box with no discernible markings upon it.

“This is from the boss. Didn’t tell me what it was.” They began, voice serious, “But I’m not here for that. I was here to just check up on you, considering that uh- well, I’ve been told by the boys that you aren’t too happy with house arrest.”

Neither was Emilia for that matter. It was all sorts of tiring to have to handle Henrie Skies; he was loud, boisterous and often went out of his way to play hostile. It was easy to say that he was causing problems on purpose, but he did take his job somewhat seriously.

“I’d like if you- well, came with me to take the edge off I guess.” Okay, shit, that made this sound bad didn’t it? “And um, I wanted to pay you back. For feeding the guys, they do a lot of work and if it weren’t for them-”

Well, they’d be struggling to pay off their parents’ medical bills.

“Don’t worry about it. My treat, just name the place.”

[sawdrenched]

spoiled rotten - cj & emilia

[sawdrenched]

cjcandy‌:

Cj had found herself exactly where she wanted to be. At the table with other like minded individuals. For once in her life she was at the cool kids table, and they actually wanted her there. Of course, she couldn’t let her excitement show. Not quite yet. That would be just very uncool of her. Cj sat with her back straight up against the chair and paid close attention to the meeting. And even closer to the people around her. 

Who knew where new connections could lie?

She was ready to play the game. And this time she wouldn’t fail. All her life she wanted to be part of something like this. Sure, yeah, it was evil. But in all honesty what wasn’t evil these days. Even the heroes had a darkside to them. She was sure of it. Cj went back to taking stock of the people around her. She noted the person across the table, they seemed to be snacking on candy despite the imposing mask they wore. 

That could be an interesting ally, if they liked sweets so much.

Break was called and as Cj turned in her chair intending to speak to the masked individual a chocolate bar smacked her in her face. It didn’t hurt of course but it did take her by surprise. She almost lost her temper. Almost. She reigned herself in with what Cj considered expert control. 

“Well thank you” Her sugary voice came out, “I wasn’t expecting a break time snack so quickly.” She pushed the glob of taffy she called hair back over her shoulder and turned to completely face the stranger. “And to what do I owe this sweet surprise?” Her sharp fingernails finding the edge of the wrapper beginning to slowly, almost languidly, open it. 

         Emilia rested their chin on the backs of their gloved hands, offering the barest glimpse of their sharp smile from the slit in their mask before zip, zip zipping it right back up so the only expression that remained was that of the masks empty gaze. Not a scare tactic by any means, but this was business.

“You’re new, huh?” Really, they liked the stranger’s motif. She was pretty, she smelled sweet and had sly eyes that gleamed with mischief. Emilia liked this one on principle. “Don’t mind Black Dragonfish, he’s scary but he’s-” a poorly timed argument erupted somewhere in the background, complete with the slamming and splintering of a chair,- “really a softy once you get to know him.”

They quickly stood and made their way over to Cj’s side pulling out the chair that was occupied previously by some villain that they couldn’t be bothered to remember; some real sleazeball. 

“So, whaddya call yourself? Got a dark, interesting past? Oh-! Don’t tell me, you’re here looking for your father’s killer?” A beat and they laughed at their own antics, “I’m kidding. I’m the Corrosionist, I’m the big man’s third in command. So what brings you into our fold?”

[sawdrenched]

Turn a Blind Eye - Dell & Emilia

[sawdrenched]

blind-discord‌:

   It was a relatively calm night in the club. Dell wasn’t even playing his subliminal tracks tonight, just some of his regular shit people seemed to enjoy. Some drugs were going around, as they usually were, but  nothing new and nothing too extreme. That shit went out a couple of days ago.

  Now he was sitting back, his feet up on the middle of the turn tables where he wouldn’t bump anything, and the set winding down. He had just sat up to put another song on, second to last of the night, when one of the guards with him stepped forward and told him Emilia had shown up.

   If he were anyone else, he would have immediately began searching the crowd for his friend. But as it was, he wasn’t anyone else, and he wouldn’t be able to see them regardless. So he just nodded and moved on, setting up the song and then the finale once it ended.

  Before the crowd could reach it’s noise peak, Dell slipped into his own separate room, leaving his set up where some goons would pack it up for him and slipping the noise cancelling headphones off as soon as the door shut. He had just flopped onto the couch when a knock sounded. He waved a hand to have the door opened and sat up when Emilia entered.

“Chicken…” He groaned out, making grabby hands for the food. “Yeah. I’m done. Fucking finally. Tonight’s been a long one. Hot as balls out there, more than usual but….It is what it is. You have a productive night?”

        Boy, it had been a productive night. Emilia took a moment of pause before stripping off the thick leather mask that had very quickly began to steam them over the course of the night. The shook their hair free and flopped down upon one of the sofas, feet fast to find the table in the middle of all of the mess.

“Yeah, you could say that. Black Dragonfish has me hopping, what with me being effectively third in command now.” They carelessly flicked the bag of goodies into Dell’s waiting hands and more carefully put his black coffee down beside him, giving ample warning that it was there with a tiny, ‘it’s hot’.

 “Boss has been- uh,” they shot a look toward the goons hovering in the room, “Well, things are changing. I’m tired.” Worked to the bone maybe? That was a good way to put how Reagan had been making them work. There was a power vacuum with Rusted Mask gone.

It was making things difficult.

“So-” They slipped a chicken tender from Dell’s newly acquired stash and tossed it into their mouth, “What’s on the agenda tonight? If you’re free we can see if the theme park is open-” Ew, wait no, backtrack. 

“Never mind, last time we went to a park it was-” Well, there was a fae king trying to kidnap the group and force them all into his undead child army. “How about we do something fun.”

[sawdrenched]

Turn a Blind Eye - Dell & Emilia

@blind-discord

        Emilia had a soft spot for kids. Dell was incredibly like them when they had been that age: full of rebellion and bravado. Although they could easily admit they were more well behaved in their youth, as they only started peddling drugs well into their adulthood. Maybe it was the loitering in malls that did that, an easy stepping stone into delinquency. 

It was still very nice to see Dell engaging in a craft he liked even if it meant working for Blank Space. Of course, Emilia had personal bias against the man but he was treating Dell right. That was all that mattered.

Still, it was jarring for them to slip into the nightclub and be greeted with the blurred figures of patrons dancing against the neon lights. The sounds of Dell’s music was deep and vibrated through their bones. It wasn’t easy to fight through the crowd, but eventually Emilia found a suitable place to lean against a wall and wait for the kid to finish his shift. 

When the music ended and the show came to its typically grandiose end Emilia was quick to find their way to Dell’s little room away from the chaos. It was standard to knock, maybe more a formality now. “Hey, you really nailed that beat. I got you some chicken fingers, you done for the night?”

[sawdrenched]

spoiled rotten - cj & emilia

@cjcandy

        Maybe they had fallen into the wrong line of work. It was the most reoccurring thought they had, often the last they would have as sleep wrenched them from the waking world. It was one that persisted even two years into gang work. Maybe it was the paycheck, maybe they really did enjoy it. They idly bit down on the lollipop they fed through the mouth of their mask, the crunch echoing in their ears. It was loud enough to drown out the meeting, to eclipse Reagan’s rough voice at least.  

In this spark of moment they could pretend to be alone.

Their tablet was set askew to them, forcefully shoved from the path of Dell’s shoes the moment they hit the table. They had already haphazardly scrawled the image of a puppy barking up at a pink haired figure, with several footnotes denoting; ‘Olive’s big day out’ or ‘you fucked up big time bordeaux the deadline is in a week’. Hell, they couldn’t even catch the eye of their men who had faithfully followed them to the meeting (the entirety of their crew being their publishing company, which was some commitment to be sure).

Maybe that was how Emilia’s eyes landed on the new face at the table; Cavity. Or at least that’s what they assumed she called herself. They took pause when the meeting came to an abrupt halt- oh, break time. Okay, cool. Time to guzzle down a sugary drink and draw something. But first!

With a deft, gloved hand Emilia withdrew a chocolate bar from their pocket, aimed and scooted it at the blonde woman, trying to be precise enough not to send it flying over the edge. It did reach its target; but instead bounced right into her unsuspecting face. That was about right.

[destroymylife]