Should I continue this fic? (some clarifying notes at the end)
1,2k words, eventual otayuri, established victuuri (not mentioned in this bit but it’s in the story), modern mythology AU setting, this beginning bit is rated T (cursing; mentioned character death in one sentence).
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Otabek hears the whistling immediately as it starts, but he takes his sweet time to appear.
When he emerges from the undergrowth below the mountain he stops just behind the trees that are closest to the car. From his hiding spot he studies the silver-haired man who is leaning onto the Volvo and typing something into his phone. The shiny, brand-new Volvo and the man’s gray suit look like they belong in a high-end city environment, not on a dirt road deep in the forest.
“I can smell you,” comes the sing-song call from beside the car, and Otabek huffs, stepping forward so he’s not hidden by the trees anymore.
“I am not a dog, Victor,” Otabek informs him. “You want to call me, you can use my name.”
“But then again, you can call a dog by its name, too, and it comes.” Victor’s smile is amused as he lowers the phone and looks up.
Otabek lets out a sound that’s almost a growl.
Victor’s smile spreads wider. “Calm down,” he says condescendingly, and if the scent of the groundroot wasn’t so thick around him, Otabek would rip his head off. Victor was annoying before, but he has become downright unbearable ever since he got the groundroot.
Victor smiles soothingly. “Otabek. It’s good to see you.”
“What do you want?” Otabek asks, standing close to the tree trunk, ready to bolt if needed.
“Straight to business, as usual,” Victor sighs and pockets his phone. “Well, then. Do you know anything about the recent events in the city?”
Otabek once lived in the city, but he hasn’t been there in years. He shakes his head cautiously.
“It’s getting pretty bad. Someone is targeting you guys.” Victor’s voice is serious.
Oh. This he knows. It’s one of the reasons he chose to disappear into the mountains. He knew it wasn’t safe for him to stay.
Victor clears his throat. “It’s been a problem before, as I’m sure you know. But it’s getting worse. Three were found dead in the last month alone.”
Otabek blinks, and suddenly there is a strangling feeling in his throat. Why would Victor be telling him this, if it wasn’t for—
“JJ?” Otabek asks in a faint voice.
“No, your friend is fine,” Victor says. “We got to him before they did. He’s in a safe place.”
Otabek exhales and looks down as relief washes over him. Then he fixes his gaze on Victor. “Well, you can give the Agency my thanks for saving JJ, but if you’re here to ask me to fight the bad guys alongside you, you can forget about it.”
Victor snorts. “Yes, you made it quite clear that one time I did ask you.”
Otabek has nothing against the idea of fighting for those who aren’t in a position to fight for themselves. What he is opposed to are the Agency’s methods of protection, and hence fighting on their payroll is not an option. If he agrees to fight with them, he checks the agree box on their terms and conditions, and Otabek is too aware of what it says in their terms and conditions to even go near that check box.
“But,” Victor says with some hesitation, “the Agency would like your help. Unofficially.”
Otabek gives him a steady stare and says nothing.
“Please, Otabek. We are swamped with these recent incidents,” Victor tries, sensing the resistance. “Plus, you wouldn’t be working within the Agency. You don’t have to follow our rules.”
“I don’t want anything to do with the Agency,” Otabek says in a low tone. He knows Victor can hear his words, quiet as they are.
“But you do want to help your people, right?” Victor strikes right into the spot where he knows Otabek is vulnerable. Because of course he wants to help.
“What kind of a fucking question is that?” Otabek grumbles instead of giving a direct answer.
Victor smiles. He clearly knows he’s got Otabek. “Thank you,” he says empathetically. He picks up a nondescript brown paper folder from the hood of the car and takes a step closer to Otabek.
Otabek stands alert as Victor walks over, his designer shoes sinking into the soft mossy ground on each step. Otabek is ready to bolt at any second, but he stands absolutely still as Victor hands the folder in his direction.
“I didn’t say I’d help you,” Otabek says, but he takes the offered item nonetheless.
“You’re not helping me,” Victor replies evenly. “You’re helping him. Even though he doesn’t know he needs your help.”
Otabek flips the folder open. Inside, there is a typical case file for someone, with a picture attached at the top of the sheet with a paper clip. Otabek sneers. “Another one from your archive?”
Victor looks like he wants to launch into one of his speeches about the archive, but instead he just nods at the folder, urging Otabek to read the file.
Otabek skims over the text, but it’s the photo at the top that really catches his attention. It looks like it’s taken from a distance, so the features are a bit blurry, but he can make out the oval face framed by blond hair, and what is clearly a pair of very light-colored eyes.
Otabek looks up. “Why did you come to find me? With that hair and those eyes, there’s no way he belongs to the mountain.”
Victor sighs. “He doesn’t. He belongs to the forest.”
“Then why—?” It suddenly clicks and Otabek cuts himself off. Victor said there were three dead in the last month alone. “They got Celestino.”
It’s not a question, but Victor nods nonetheless.
For a moment it’s silent, only the soothing hum of the pine forest surrounding them. Otabek swallows and his eyes slide down to the folder he’s holding in his hands. There isn’t a lot of information in it.
“You said he doesn’t know he needs my help,” Otabek remarks.
“He doesn’t know what he is,” Victor replies. “Found in the forest as a toddler, been in a series of foster homes ever since. Something always… happens, and he gets returned to the system.”
Otabek looks up from the folder to glare at Victor. “So you guys archive him and keep an eye on him but no one ever cared enough to actually help him?”
This is why the Agency can go suck a bag of dicks in Otabek’s opinion. They want to keep tabs on all non-humans, but they don’t want to interfere. Not even when someone’s life sucks balls because they don’t know why they keep causing weird things to happen in their environment.
As if hearing the unspoken accusations, Victor frowns. “He was flying under the radar for quite a long time, we didn’t know. We would have sent for Celestino, but…” he trails off. “And now he’s vanished from foster care and no one knows where he is or if he’s even alive anymore.”
“So that’s where I step in.” Otabek swallows and looks down at the picture of the skogsrå* who doesn’t know he’s a skogsrå.
He reads the name again from the first line of the file.
Yuri Plisetsky.
Somehow, Otabek needs to find Yuri Plisetsky before they do, and then teach him how to control his powers before it’s too late.
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So, should I continue this or scrap it? Like/comment/reblog if you’d want more. I only post beginnings of fics that have complete storylines and characters and everything all planned out, so with this I’m just trying to determine if I should bother writing it out... I’m doing this because I have so many completed ideas and I don’t have the time and energy to write them all, so I’m seeing which stories resonate with people.
*skogsrå (Swedish) = a warden of the forest, a kind of a forest spirit or demigod in Scandinavian mythology. The rå in folklore are often wardens of a particular landform or location (mountain, lake, forest etc).
This fic idea is inspired by a Swedish series called Jordskott, and I’ve borrowed some of the mythology elements from the series (and added some that are not in the series), but this fic’s plot has nothing to do with the plot of the series.