i'm counting both for this because it's been so long since i've written anything lmao
tagged at some point over the last few months by:
@geronimo-11, @redroci, @amistrio, @deputyash, @ravenschampion, @nightwingshero, @weekend-writer, and @teamhawkeye
The farmhouse was eerie. It was obvious that humans hadn’t been there in years - maybe decades, even, abandoned before the outbreak, and the infected… Well, they weren’t in the house, and the barn was locked up tight, so if there was anything in there? It wasn’t getting out, not without them.
summary: alice's perspective of the heist. the angst got away from me and i am so sorry
---
“Ahhh, what a beaut of a tradition!”
Alice perked up and set down the box she was carrying. Down at the other end of the bar, Claire was helping - huh. Jackie. Her friend was chit-chatting with him and -
“Thea!” She grinned, jogging over to them. “What’re you guys doin’ here? Thought you guys were having dinner with Mama tonight?”
The tall solo gave her a small wave. “Hey, Al - we uh, got a job.”
“Major leagues!” Jackie grinned.
“Fuck yeah!” She paused. “Who y’all workin’ with? Major-major or…?”
“Bigger than Regina and Wakako?” Thea shrugged. “We have a meeting with Dex in a few - we’re waiting here till he’s ready. ”
“Wait–”
Jackie’s grin was almost infectious - almost.
She’d heard of Dex. There was a reason he left, a reason Rogue was so reluctant to rent him the quiet room in the back. Even Johnny wouldn’t have fucked with him back in the day - the man was just… Bad news.
Thea gave her a reassuring smile from across the bar. “It’ll be fine. It's just at Konpeki, I used to go there all the time when I was with 'Saka. We’ll meet you back here after, okay? Get drinks ready for us!"
—
“Breaking news!”
Some wanna-be solo edged in from behind her, motioning at Claire. “Turn it up!”
“Saburo Arasaka was found dead tonight at Konpeki Plaza. He was 158 years old.” Gillean Jordan read off. “He is survived by his children Hanako Arasaka, Yorinobu Arasaka, and –”
Konpeki.
Thea, Jackie –
Her stomach dropped.
“Claire, I’m gonna pop in the back - I need - I’ll just be a sec.” Alice didn’t wait for Claire to respond before ducking under the bar and through the door to the storeroom.
[10:56pm]
Alice: i s2g if you don’t answer this text
Alice: just lemme know everything’s good with the job
Alice: konpeki’s all over the news. the fuck happened?
Alice: if you don’t answer soon i’m gonna call
“Hey.” Alice looked up to see Rogue standing next to her. “Everything okay?”
She shrugged. “I– Fuck, I don’t know. Thea’s on a job.”
“With Dex.”
“Yeah. At Konpeki. She wouldn’t tell me what for.”
Rogue raised her eyebrow. “You think she was –”
“God, no. I mean, her and Jack have done hits before, but they’re - I love ‘em, but they’re not good enough for that big of a hit. But.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “Fuck, I’m worried. Something’s wrong. I just - know.”
“Go lay down. I’m closing the bar early.”
“Babe—”
“Go.” Rogue shook her head, gently shoving Alice in the direction of her apartment. “Nobody’s going to get any business done tonight. I’ll help Claire close up.”
Alice looked at her partner, then down at her phone. “I – fine.”
–
[11:05pm]
Alice: hey jack
Alice: thea isn’t answering
Alice: how’s the job?
Alice: hotel made the nwes
Alice: fuck, *news
Alice: call me when you get a sec
Alice: please
–
“You don’t have to do this, y’know.” Alice looked at Rogue. “I mean, By would love it if you stayed, but I do know how to sleep alone.”
“Do you?” Rogue raised her eyebrow. “Well, that’s news to me.”
“Oh, shush.” Alice rolled her eyes. “I’m just -”
“Worried about your friends.”
“Just a lil.”
Rogue nodded, absent-mindedly petting Lord Byron. “Just go to bed. I’ll be here. If I hear anything, I’ll wake you up.”
Alice frowned. “If I miss anything on my phone –”
“I’ll let you know.”
–
Rogue was still there when Alice woke up hours later, asleep on the couch with Lord Byron purring on her lap.
“C’mere, you oaf.” Alice whispered to him, and smiled when the orange cat slowly stretched and rambled over to her. “Didja keep your mom warm last night? Huh?”
The cat purred in response.
“God, I wish I was you.” She muttered. “Now where the fuck did she put my – ah.”
Her phone was sitting next to Rogue’s hand.
One notification.
[6:40am]
Misty: Alice, call me when you wake up.
Misty: Or meet me at Vik’s.
Well, fuck.
[10:32am]
Alice: omw. going to feed mr nib first.
Alice: have you heard from our favorite solos?
Misty: Just hurry. Have Rogue feed Mr Nibbles. Thea’s here.
Alice: okay. see you in a min
Shit.
Okay.
Alice grabbed the first piece of paper she could find and scribbled a note to Rogue on it - at Vik’s. Feed by and nib? Call when you wake up.
It felt like it took no time at all to walk from the megabuilding to Vik’s. Less people than usual were out and about, and it seemed like there was a cop on every corner.
Misty was sitting at the top of the stairs to Vik’s shop, waiting for her. Crying.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
“Mist, what happened?”
Misty looked up at her. “Vik’s still working on Thea. Jackie’s –”
Shit.
“He - he didn’t…”
Alice sat next to her friend, carefully wrapping an arm around her.
–
[11:04am]
Rogue: How’s it going?
Alice: uh. not good.?
Alice: thea’s hurt. bad. vik just finished working on her. said it might take a while for her to wake up. if she does.
Alice: jack’s gone.
Alice: i texted pepe. delamain showed up with his body last night
Alice: mama isn’t doing good. gonna head over there later.
Alice: can you give me a ride? don’t wanna deal with ncart
so turns out i left this off on a cliffhanger, way to go, past me
anyways here's 2281 words of the college au
----
When Elise woke up, she knew it was going to be a bad day.
Not oh-my-god-people-are-dying bad, just… bad. Like, all the little things that could go wrong, would go wrong.
So naturally, today was the day she was moving in to her new dorm at college. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but when you’re the princess of a country in the modern day, people are going to notice you, and Elise was tired of everyone bowing to her and curtseying and being super formal - she got enough of that at home, she didn’t want to deal with that at school in a different country. That’s part of the reason she had insisted on living in a dorm, instead of in a parent and security council approved apartment or, even worse, house. What college freshman has her own house? With a maid and a cook and probably a butler and ladies maid?
With a sigh, Elise slowly got out of bed. Everything that she was going to need while she was gone was packed already, so she just needed to take a shower, throw her blankets and stuffed animals onto her pile, and then head down for breakfast.
--
During breakfast, Elise’s bad luck started – she spilled maple syrup on her pants, and had to run and find a pair that hadn’t been packed into the truck that would take her to her school. Her mother promised to have the other pair washed and sent to her.
A few hours later, while they were on a stretch of road that was fairly empty, one of their tires blew.
Then one of her drivers/escorts/guards got food poisoning, and had to be set up in a motel and would be picked up on the way back to the palace.
And then, of course, by the time they got to the town her school was in, it was too late to check in and get her keys, so she had to spend more time with her remaining escort, one who was new to the job and in awe of being given such an important job as taking the elder princess to another country.
After that, she had to give her escort – Sera, her name was – a lecture on how she must treat her like an equal, she wasn’t a princess here, just a normal college student. Thankfully, Sera kept it together during their dinner at a local diner-type place the man at the front desk of their hotel had suggested, and only got a little nervous when they went to see a movie at the local theatre instead of sitting in their room and watching tv.
--
The next morning, thankfully, Elise’s bad feeling was gone. Sera had woken up before her, so they had a light breakfast – a bagel with cream cheese already on it, and Sera said she would have brought up a waffle too, but she didn’t think that after breakfast yesterday, Elise would want one.
An hour later, Elise had checked in with the housing office of her school, and was standing in the room she would be staying in for the next year. It was larger than she had expected, which was nice, because the roommate she was expecting hadn’t arrived yet so she had more space to manoeuvre in. Her and Sera began moving the furniture - Elise had talked to her roommate, and they’d agreed that they’d go with whatever layout gave them the most floor space, as long as the beds weren’t bunked. Sera insisted on staying to help unpack, so Elise gave her the task of hanging up her clothes.
Not long after Sera was talked into leaving, a girl showed up in her doorway.
“Hey, are you Elise?”
Elise turned around, setting down the pillow she’d been attempting to put a pillowcase on. “Yup. Are you –“
“Madeline. Looks like we’re going to be living together this year!” She set down the box she was carrying, and looked at Elise’s bed. “Need help?”
“Ugh, yes. I can’t get this stupid thing to go on.” Elise sighed and handed her new roommate her pillow, and groaned when she was able to get it on with no problem. “It’s been a long few days. Uhm, do you need help carrying things in or anything? I’m pretty much unpacked all the important things.”
Madeline nodded, “If you don’t mind.”
“I’ve been stuck in a car for two days, I’m tired as fuck, but I don’t want to sit down any more.” Madeline snorted at this response, and the two headed outside.
Later, after Madeline’s things were moved in and they had gone to dinner, Madeline and a reluctant Elise went to an icebreaker event that their RA was holding in one of the lounges.
This was the moment that Elise realised she should have come up with some fake background details about herself – she’s horrible at coming up with things on the spot, and, well, that’s what icebreaker games usually are.
When they got there, not many other girls had shown up – Madeline mumbled something about everyone probably still unpacking or adventuring in the town instead. Once the RA, Karen, decided that nobody else was going to show up, she explained the game – she was going to pass around a roll of toilet paper, and everyone was to tear off a few squares. The number wasn’t important, she’d explain what they were for after everyone had some. When the roll got to Madeline, she shrugged, and tore off five pieces, and Elise, having a feeling she knew what the next part of the game was going to be, only tore off two.
“Okay, so now that everyone has their toilet paper, here’s what we’re going to do. Everyone needs to say their name and come up with one fact for each square. I’ll start,” Karen said, and then held up her three squares. “Okay so I’m a senior psychology major, this is my third year as an RA, and I’m in one of the sororities on campus.”
A few people later, it was Madeline’s turn. “Uh, I’m Madeline Fortuna, my mom makes clothes for festivals and stuff, so if you ever need help sewing or anything, I could probably help, I have a pet rabbit, I love musicals but I can’t sing to save my life, and I really wish I had gotten coffee at lunch.”
Elise looked around. “I’m Elise Lorea,” Talbot, actually, but Lorea was her mother’s maiden name, and she’d signed up for school with it, “Unlike my roomie here, I’m horrible at sewing, and,” She paused for a moment, “I’m not from this country, I’m from Adrary.”
Madeline shot her roommate a confused look as the next person started talking – since they had both gotten each other’s addresses when they were placed together, she knew Elise was from a different country, but why did she seem nervous? She decided she’d ignore the hesitation for now, but she’d try and bring it up at a different time.
--
The rest of the first week, and the start of classes went smoothly. One night, after Madeline had insisted on watching the news – she wasn’t going to lose track of the rest of the world just because she was on a college campus – Madeline turned to Elise.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?”
Elise looked up from the assignment she was working on, “Hmm?”
“Why are you always nervous when someone mentions Adrary?”
“Dunno. I guess I just don’t want people hounding me about it. It’s not a small country but a lot of people outside it tend to ask me if I know any royals or something.” Elise lied.
Madeline hmm’d, “I guess that makes sense. Wait, why do people ask you that?”
Elise shrugged. “Fuck if I know. The royal family pretty much keeps to themselves, especially the kids, but our royals aren’t any more special than ones from other countries.”
The two lapsed back into silence, Elise working on her homework, and Madeline watching the tv.
--
Elise thought she’d been doing pretty good at hiding who she actually was.
However, her new friend Hattie had picked up things from both her and Madeline, and was confronting her.
“Hattie, I swear, I don’t –
“Elise. Seriously. You think I give a fuck where you came from?”
“No, but –”
“I just want to know why you’re lying!” Hattie sighed and leaned against the wall.
Elise fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “You think I want the whole freaking campus, actually no the whole town to know that a princess goes here? You’ve seen how private my family is, I can probably count on one hand how many recent pictures of me have been in the media. I just want to be a normal kid for a few years, I don’t want to have guards following me, I don’t want a maid, I just want to be normal.”
Hattie was quiet for a moment. “You should try going to rush week in the spring. Totally not my thing, but you seem like the kinda person that’d like a sorority.”
“I’ve thought about it.” Elise smiled.
“And there’s a theme night at one of the clubs in town this weekend. Gatsby, I think. Madeline mentioned wanting to go and I don’t really know anything more normal college student than going to a club, so…”
“Maybe…. Not much of a crowd person, but I can try?”
Hattie grinned. “Awesome. I’ll bring you one of my friend’s dresses, I think you’re the same size.” She started to walk away, and then called back, “Friday! I’ll be in your room at 9!”
Elise nodded and sighed. Being roped into going to a club was not something she expected out of her day.
--
The club was, as she expected, pretty boring. She ended up sitting with Hattie’s friend, Elizabeth, who also hated clubs, and for nearly the exact same reason – they both hated being in crowds like this. Elise because she’d never been around them, Elizabeth because she tends to have panic attacks around large groups (and showed up slightly drunk to hopefully prevent that). Despite attempts from Hattie and Elizabeth’s girlfriend, Connie, to get them to dance, the two declined and spent most of the night guarding their group’s things and (attempting to) talk to each other.
The highlight of their night was a drunk girl deciding that they were her new best friends and that she was going to use them as a pillow.
--
Elise felt like it was a pretty normal day. Pretty much the complete opposite of the day she left for school, actually. It was the last day of midterms, which she thinks she did pretty good on, and she had just finished the “test” for her dance class, which was her easy class of the semester – the bonus of being a princess is you already know how to do most types of ballroom dancing, which is what the class covered.
As soon as she finished changing into more comfortable clothes, she heard a knock on the door. Before she could get to it to answer, Madeline and Hattie rushed into the room, both looking worried.
“What’s up, guys?”
“You need to watch the news.” Hattie said as she turned on the tv.
“…Guys, what’s going on?”
Madeline sighed deeply as she sat down on her bed. “You haven’t been online today, have you?”
“No, I was practicing with Dean all morning… Wh—” Elise froze as Hattie found a news station. The banner at the bottom said ‘Live From Rivercrest, Adrary’, and the palace was in the background. As she processed the newscaster’s words, she slowly sat down. “What’s happening?”
Madeline moved to be next to her friend. “You’re safe here. Nobody outside this room knows who you are.”
“I don’t care if I’m safe! My mom and my baby sister are missing and a fucking war has started!”
Her two friends glanced at each other, Madeline looking helpless. There had always been wars while her generation was growing up, but none so close to home, and Madeline at least never knew someone who was affected by them so directly.
“Honey, it’s only been a few hours. They might find them soon. This whole thing can’t—”
“That’s what they say about every war! ‘Oh it’ll be over by the next holiday! It’ll be over in a week!’” Elise buried her face in her hands. “I was supposed to call them this morning. Mom wanted to know how my tests went.”
Hattie rubbed her back. “This is going to sound horrible but… It’s probably a good thing you didn’t call.” Madeline shot her a look, and Hattie shook her head before continuing. “If you had called, the people who took them might know where you are.”
Elise didn’t respond.
A half hour later, one spent in silence except for the television, someone knocked on the door. When Hattie opened it, she saw someone she didn’t recognise.
“Who are—“
Elise had looked up at the noise, and jumped off the bed when she realised who it was. “Sera!!!” She pulled the guard into the room, and closed the door. “Have they found them?”
Sera shook her head. “I’m sorry. They sent me here to make sure you were safe.”
“Were you followed?” Elise looked back at Madeline, who had darted to the window and was looking outside.
Sera paused, and shook her head again. “No. I wasn’t in the capital when the attack happened. They could have tracked me to where I started, but by the time someone could have gotten there, I was gone. I’m sure of that.”
i'm condensing the various tag games that @redroci and @florbelles have tagged me in to this post because i haven't actually written anything new in months lol
i was tagged by the wonderful @preachercuster who admittedly has already seen this snippet but nobody else has SO:
Rogue was still there when Alice woke up hours later, asleep on the couch with Lord Byron purring on her lap.
“C’mere, you oaf.” Alice whispered to him, and smiled when the orange cat slowly stretched and rambled over to her. “Didja keep your mom warm last night? Huh?”
Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it. And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.
i uh
haven't really written anything in months
but technically all of these are wips sooOOOO
just a mechanic fc5
c2077 alice is awake?
how alice met rogue
rosie's fics
moving home
soulmate au (which i may have finished????? idk, it's in my wip folder)
elizabeth doesn't like storms (someone give me motivation to finish this)
hazel's gone
edit; also a non writing wip that has the oh so creative name "alice_tattoo_1" lmao
