look at my face. @sergecnt-blog - Tumblr Blog

hiswar-deactivated20171219

god will grovel before me. god will crawl at my feet.

THE VALESKA BOY :

Jerome stayed silent and kept his arms by his sides, just like he had been told. ( “Don’t touch anyone - especially the cops - it shows TRUST.” ) And that was apparently the worst thing to show in their line of business. Jerome had grown up in ‘ the life ‘ for as long as he could remember, and the guys that had been there with him and worked for his father still didn’t touch him in any way when Jerome’s dad was around. He’s had to pretend he didn’t trust them for years.

But he realizes that his father isn’t with them at the moment. He’s off doing his Don Duties and doesn’t even know where Jerome is being kept - for safety reasons. And the fact that the man being paid to protect him doesn’t know he speaks english amuses him more. Jerome’s free to do anything, really.

So, he softens his face, giving a slight smile, before stepping up to Mr. Leo. He reaches up and cups both of his cheeks, giving a soft sigh.

❝ — Privyet, ya Iyeronim i vy tak nevezhestvenny, moy drug. ❞

Then he gives Leo’s cheeks a few pats - that may be just on the too hard side, before he steps away and starts taking it upon himself to learn the details of the room they’re in - acting like he’s the clueless one.

He narrows his eyes at the palms slapping over his cheeks but doesn’t otherwise react.

Leo gets the sense that he’s being talked down to, and suddenly has renewed sympathy for the immigrants working laundries and warehouses and diners across the city. ( The military set him up with language briefings prior to dumping him in regional armpit that is Kuwait, but it still took months of having his boots on the ground to avoid coming across stiff and overly formal to locals. Despite what the kid might think of him, Leo isn’t STUPID; it only took a few months for him to shoot the shit like a native ).

He stares at the Valeska kid for a long beat, searching his eyes for indications of meaning, and raises his wrist to his mouth.

❝ Test. Test. You got me? Count off. ❞

He doesn’t break the kid’s gaze until he’s side stepping away from him to survey windows and entrances. His fingers bend the flimsy plastic blinds with a noisy rattle, and he peers through the gap to ensure that an unmarked car is idling outside every exit point.

❝ Who’s covering the south wall ? —Well, call him in, what kind of operation are we running here? —His kid’ll have another birthday, Jesus. ❞

Leo’s gaze drifts back to the Valeska kid.

❝ Hey, any good news on that translator? I’m pretty sure he’s making fun of me.❞

#remcmbertosmile

BUG :

Bug continues to stare, rocking from heel to toe as his head swims with voices, endless babble & chatter swirling until it fades to TV static, nothing but screeching colours that make his ears ache, drawing a physical scowl when he rubs one of them ; ‘you can do it’, he hears Brittany whisper. ‘it’s okay.’

❝ Did you know if water isn’t available for them, CALIFORNIA CONDORS rub their faces on grass to clean off? ❞

He stands on tiptoes, craning his neck as if he could maybe get a look into what treasure the box holds, but no luck — too high up there, so he settles on resting his hands against the wood, picking a dandelion fuzz from the man’s shoe before. In the distance, thunder rumbles swollen bellies of dreary rainclouds.

❝ I’m Bug. There was a meth lab over there. ❞

With a shrug, he points in the direction of next door’s rundown home, screendoor clicking in the breeze.

All the rocking makes him nervous, and he wants to ask the kid to either SIT DOWN or LEAVE. Instead he squints down at him and takes a moment to process this totally irrelevant piece of information.

❝ No— I can’t say that I did. ❞

He considers icing the kid out until he loses interests and retreats to wherever he came from, but then the boy is standing on his toes and trying to see into the box and... Doing something to Leo’s shoe, and it all just screams LONELINESS, so he decides against it. ( Nick had been a lonely kid too, being an only child and all. )

He adjusts the back of a Lakers cap, which was previously cinched tight on the last notch, and plops it down over a head of sunny hair. ( Everyone always says it’s healthier getting rid of Nicky’s things, instead of keeping them stored away as though he’s returning home any day now. Leo knows Nick isn’t coming home, saw his face all waxy and cut up in the morgue, but he figures he’ll take whatever advice he can get ).

❝ Did YOU know it’s a federal offence to kill migratory song birds? ❞

He looks over at the rusting trailer, an overturned lawn chair decaying in the yard, and is more surprised by the kid’s name than the structure’s history.

❝ Nice to meet you, Bug. I’m Leo. You give all your new neighbors this kind of welcome wagon? ❞

#condorborn #im sorry he is like this he is trying to be Kind

ofpaleskin :

A sigh falls from her lips, hint of soft pink still smudged on the corner from this morning - it matches the swatch of colour left behind on the back of her wrist, a REMINDER she’s not ready just yet ( & this event proves so ). Humiliated? Check. Pissed off? Double check. Afraid? Off the charts.

Does she want to be disrespectful to this man? No, not at all, especially not when he WORKS WITH HER FATHER but her blood is still boiling, and she swears something else talks for her ; there is no way in hell she can stay calm right now. But the comfort of the door opening eases it up enough that she slides in quickly, watching out the window for a moment as if squinting into the dark just might search out the boy whose nose she bloodied – obviously, it doesn’t work. ( the more she thinks about it, Stiles realizes there isn’t any point. things will get too messy. )

❝ NO, I’m not, but thanks for asking. I appreciate the whole front row seat thing, my man. ❞

It’s dimming down, now, setting in. Trembling hands.

❝ Okay, okay, I’m sorry. For being a dick to you, though, not kicking his ass. I’d do it again. ❞

Leo takes one look at the kid and regrets going off on a tangent. It’s not the kid’s fault it’s the end of his shift, and it’s not like anyone gets into a FIGHT with the expectation of the police getting called. He slaps his hand over the roof of his squad car, and ducks his head to tense his mouth into a semblance of a smile.

❝ What’re you looking for out there, huh? If you’re planning on taking off after that guy, I WILL tase you. ❞

( It’s a JOKE. For the most part. )

He eases the door shut, walks around the front of the car with his own gaze scanning the surrounding trees, before climbing into the drivers seat. It’s a small town, the other kid wont be hard to snuff out.

❝ C’mon, cheer up. You’re getting a free ride home, and a McFlurry if you play your cards right. What’re you doing picking fights for anyway? ❞

#ofpaleskin #he is just..................a dad #a stupid dad #and i cant make him misgender her IM SORRY #I CANT DO IT EITHER #WE ARENT STRONG MEN #maybe One Day #but Not Today

@remcmbertosmile

Apparently the kid doesn’t speak a lick of English, or so he’s TOLD ( “don’t try to get a word out of him, he’ll just swear at you in Russian” ), and Leo isn’t sure what qualifies him for this job. He TRIED brushing up on Russian prior to his shift at the safe house, but as he stands in the threshold and takes inventory of his Russian vocabulary, the only words that come to mind are privyet and sparzha ( hello, asparagus ).

There are four officers in unmarked cars detailing the perimeter, but otherwise all Leo has to look forward to is an eight hour shift of stilted communication with Don Valeska’s son, and shitty take out from the Vietnamese restaurant up the street.

❝ UH— privyet. ❞ Leo clears his throat, scratches his fingers through his hair, and points to his chest. ❝Leo.❞

There are pervasive feelings of IGNORANCE and AWKWARDNESS and he really wishes he could DRINK on the job.

#remcmbertosmile #i Tried My Best #this is version two which is much shorter and there is less babbling so at least we have that

LITTLE BITCH :

( leo. )

❝ Right, arrest ME, not the douchebag - who, by the way, deserved to get the shit beat out of him - instead. COOL BEANS, what is it… Barnes? AWESOME. Yeah, so, if you could just drop me off somewhere instead, like a park or maybe anywhere that isn’t jail, that’d be great. Or at least let me ride shotgun. ❞

Leo gives the kid a long, unamused look before prying open the passenger door and holding it open. ( Honestly, why do cop kids have to be so MOUTHY ? )

❝ Are you DONE? No? Go head, ‘cause I can wait. I’ve got all night. I personally LOVE babysitting my boss’ kid cause the little asshole doesn’t know how to act in public. I LOVE it. So let’s drag it out as long as possible, I have NO PERSONAL LIFE WHATSOEVER.❞

#ofpaleskin #I AM SORRY ABOUT HIM

sweetwatered-a-deactivated20171

( leo )

‘it’s going to rain today’, Penelope mumbles the way she always has as Bug turns a corner. ‘you should have dressed warmer’. and she’s right. It’s early morning but deep grey clouds have already rolled their way in, taking up the sun & spreading the smell of earth across the grimy old trailer park, silent save for the soft music playing from somewhere he can never place. The same route every morning, or every two days if he doesn’t feel like leaving the house - today was one of those days, but his father doesn’t feel good and he’d much rather walk until his legs ache than deal with that. He doesn’t hate it here, GOD’S COUNTRY is his home, but sometimes he wishes they could move. Maybe it would be better for him.

‘stop thinking about that. it’s not your fault.’ why is she so loud today?

Before she can answer, Bug blocks her out and keeps going, eyes on one of the trailers in the back. Most of them are empty, with people coming and going every once in a while, but he lingers in front of one with blooming curiosity. This throws a rut in his routine, sense of change making him nervous, & maybe it’s because he’s so interested in who may be moving in that he suddenly decides to claim the porch is at least his, but as Bug steps up to pull himself onto the ledge, a new face catches baby blues instead and the rickety wood is temporarily forgotten.

Penelope tells him to be polite, say hello, but he doesn’t want to speak. ( his body won’t let him right now. )

‘why not?’

‘cause it’s scary.

sergecnt-blog

The divorce was AMICABLE, according to all ( both directly and indirectly ) involved, and Leo supposes he’s grateful for that— even if he does wish she’d at least yelled at him, accused him of things, dragged his name through the shit to all their friends. He feels like somehow that would’ve been easier than being the man who neglected his grieving wife in favor of bar stools and closed curtain bedrooms. ( He doesn’t blame her for cheating, doesn’t even phrase it that way in the privacy of his own internal monologue: he wasn’t the man she’d made her vows to, not anymore, and she owed no allegiance to this body snatcher of a husband. )

Moving into some back-wood Louisianan trailer park was somehow the next logical step after dividing all their things and condensing their lives to boxes and packing peanuts, smiles previously reserved for strangers and idle phone conversations ( “How are you doing? Are you still going to your meetings?” ). The city was suddenly too big, hanging loose around him like all his clothes, as though loss shrank his life along with his body ( it’s easy to forget to eat when you lose a kid, your schedule having been tied to theirs for so long. And besides— food absorbs alcohol, and Leo doesn’t drink because he likes the taste ), and he grew up in a double wide anyway. Arranging his possessions inside the mobile home felt like stepping into an old pair of jeans.

He almost smacks right into the kid lingering at his steps, but manages to look up and reel his body back onto the porch just in time. He pauses, hoping an expectant stare will be enough to drag an explanation out of the boy, but when it becomes apparent he has to speak he offers an uneasy:

“ —Hey, buddy.”

A staring contest ensues, and the kid doesn’t appear to have any plans on going verbal anytime soon, so Leo rolls his shoulders and takes a pull from his beer.

“If you’re looking for the guy who used to live here, I heard he’s in the pen.”

He drags the back of his wrist across his mouth and thunks the bottle down on the railing, occupying himself with a box of miscellaneous items, like spatulas and Spiderman figurines.

“Sex charges— so it’s not like you should be hanging out with him anyway.”

#condorborn #here take this shitty old man pain