T // 1.6k // Challengers (2024) - Patrick character study
He has, briefly, something that could approximately be called a boyfriend. It’s not exactly right - the whole time they’re seeing each other, it isn’t that serious, not exclusive, nothing that’s going anywhere (reminds Patrick of someone, har dee har). When it’s all going on, Patrick finds himself weirdly averse to the word. Something about boyfriend just feels both too immature, like he’s a middle schooler and not a man in his twenties, and also substantial and permanent enough to make him claustrophobic. But it’s silly - he’s had girlfriends who were a lot less to him.
tagged for WIP Wednesday by @try-set-me-on-fire! thank youuuu for the tag
His knuckles brush against the bandage on her neck. The place where Amber had cut her open. Even knowing that she’d killed before, knowing that she’d been willing to literally kidnap her, Maddie had been surprised that she’d actually gone through with it. “I can’t believe you survived this,” Chim says quietly, sweet reverence in his voice. “And they think I’m a cockroach.”
Cockroach. She can’t help it- she laughs. She laughs hard, just waves of it. It hurts. That almost makes it funnier. She’s wondering in the back of her head if the stitches are in the right place for her to bust them. She doesn’t have any experience with this sort of thing to know for sure, but as far as she knows, anyone who got their throat slit in Boston in the mid-2010s died before they could end up in her ward.
Chimney is smiling at her. “I can tell you’re exhausted and high because that one wasn’t even that good.”
tagging @leonstamatis @shadowofmoths @queen-eevee @rozecrest and uhh anyone who sees this who has something to share and whose birthday is in the next month consider yourself tagged
Castille, in her unending wisdom, does not panic when she wakes up and the book is gone.
She would have every reason to. The Six are not the only clandestine organization in the knowledge brokering business, after all, and while the security at their base is good she wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as perfect. It’s a good sign that that is the only thing missing from the spot under the floorboards, but, well, she could imagine Sige or Aubrey stealing just one book from a vault in an attempt at subtlety.
So she could panic. She could. But instead, she keeps her head and goes for the door.
~
Most days, it’s not a simple thing to find Maelgwyn. It makes it much easier when he wants to be found.
Castille finds an old building, recently reconfigured, one that he had taken note of the last time the two of them had been out together. She climbs the stairs and there he is, somehow shining in the dim attic.
He smiles when he looks up. “Castille! What a surprise.”
She can’t help but smile back. “Is it?”
“Of course it is.” He sweeps up from the place he’d perched, a shelf in the corner of the room. He walks over grinning. “You look lovely today, by the way.”
“Thank you. You look… well, fine.”
He laughs, bright and airy. It makes him look very handsome, which he of course did already, though Castille doesn’t need to be repeating that to him. “Oh Castille,” he says, dramatically wiping a tear from his elegant cheek, “you wound me.” He gives her a devious look. “Any interest in joining me for tea?”
“Sure.”
“Oh lovely-“
“But!” Castille says, “First, Maelgwyn, I would like back the book you stole.”
His face contorts into exaggerated shock. “Why would I ever-!”
“Save it.” She puts a hand out.
A beat, then he sighs. “Well, you caught me. Leave it to an expert agent of the Six!” He reaches behind him, up the back of his jacket, and places the book into her hand.
“Thank you. You know, Maelgwyn, I did have plans today. And you can always just come to the base by daylight and invite me to tea whenever you’d like.”
“But if I hadn’t done this,” he says, grinning again, “then you wouldn’t have changed your plans.”
“Then maybe I should just go home to teach you a lesson.”
“Castille-“
She laughs. She tucks the book into her bag, then offers him her arm. “Where to?”
