orangeycookiekay replied to your post “I really like how easy it is to get people to adopt my RWBY ocs”
Listen: either I accept your offer of Jett, OR I make up an oc on team name headcanon from James academy days OR I use Braea, and Braea is not really age appropriate to be a peer of James that can and would speak with him on a relatively equal level considering she’s like mid 20’s and was one of his students soooooo
Yeah Jett is absolutely going to be candid as fuck when talking to James. Like in public and in front of subordinates he’ll curtail enough to be seen as respectful but there’s no issue of rank between them
:O *slides into the askbox* so soulmate/soulmark au where the letters of your soulmate's name start appearing on your skin as you grow older (like, let's say 10/11/12 is when the first letter appears and by 25 you *might* have a full name if theirs is short, or at least most of a first and last), with hhhhh either Grimmons or WashCT
Title: Finding DavidPairing: WashCTRating: Canon TypicalWarnings: AngstSummary: It’s hard to find the right David when the universe is full of them. Sometimes you pick the wrong one. Note: Sorry it took so long! Unbetaed cause I have to run but I really wanted to post it.
-
“Hey, I’m David.”
She hated that name.
As a kid she played all the same games as other kids with soulmarks. Carefully she would trace the unfinished lines, explore what the name hidden beneath the skin could be. There were lots of names that worked and she always tried to make it the most outlandish one possible.
Because that would mean it would be easy to find them.
When she was sixteen at karate camp she remembers vividly sitting on the floor with another girl and playing the silly kid’s game to pass the time. Harriet(?) scribbled on her calf, “Maybe it’s Dana… but no that’s too short.”
One of the boys she didn’t like marched over smugly and grabbed the sharpy, “You girls really don’t see it? David. Like ME.”
And he smiled at her, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
Yeah, they weren’t soulmates.
But David fit perfectly.
David Banks (the karate camp kid) wasn’t her one and only and it didn’t take a soulmark to figure that out.
But there were a few confusing Davids in her life. David Shane, David Lee, David Winston. The problem was the last name was all dots, it could form anything.
When she joined up she gave up on Davids.
Soulmarks didn’t have to mean romance. Maybe David was going to be something else to her.
So she dated a couple of Daniels, a Decon, Destiny, even a Dana. They weren’t long. You get moved around a lot and you don’t have time for anything other than passing the time in the army.
Meeting her David didn’t feel like how it always was in the movies. A sudden realisation. A click. Everything falling into place.
She knew him as Pikeplace first. He came from Seattle or lived in Seattle at some point? They were stationed together. Watched each other’s backs. Had long conversions on the things she had always wanted to have long conversations about.
It wasn’t a sudden click, but it was a click.
He was court martialed. Which was bullshit.
So they wrote and she told him about Project Freelancer, how she was on a shortlist. He told her he might be able to avoid jail time.
“I’m Ezra, and this is Mike and Vera!”
“Hi, I’m David--”
“I would like to first start out by emphasising not to use your real names while in this project,” The counselor spoke loudly over the training hall.
“I’m Connie,” She winked. David slowly smiled. “Short for Constance?”
“Short for Connecticut.”
David groaned.
“It’s okay David, we’re all in this together!” Mike said cheerfully.
“Stop using my name you guys!”
Connie liked David.
It wasn’t her David. Her David had made a deal with Charon industries.
-
Wash was a frustrating person. It wasn’t that she wanted him to change it was that… she wanted him to be real.
“That’s against the rules, Connie.”
All the time. And it wasn’t that he knew she was … talking to David more and more about things that were happening here and things that were happening out there and not liking the conclusions, but it hurt her when Wash sided with them.
Especially when there were these glimpses, that it was an act. That there would be hesitation before warning some of the rank and file beneath them about stepping out of line.
“The ball was dropped!” He said. He was trying to lighten her mood, but he couldn’t.
He didn’t say to her: you broke the rules, this is the consequence. And the rules of Project Freelancer are that you’re the best. You’re a high number or you mean absolutely nothing.
That was when it started not mattering about Charon or Freelancer anymore. Freelancer was bad. She didn’t realize how bad until later, but the things David was telling her weren’t reassuring either. She had to get out.
She wanted Wash to come with them, but he refused to see. He refused to follow the threads she was offering him.
“Lots of junk out there…” Wash said quietly to himself.
“Lots of junk in here too,” She muttered bitterly.
“I don’t get it,” He turned, and it wasn’t goofy hurt puppy Wash, it was serious Agent Washington, she saw him a lot when he was about to talk about rules and regulations.
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“If you have problems with the program you can leave you know?”
That hurt. That hurt so much that if Wash had gone up to her, taken her knife and stabbed her in the gut the pain might have been preferable.
“Then what’s stopping you?” She asked furiously. “Why are you here?”
“Why am I…”
“You KNOW--” But he couldn’t know, not what she knows, not how dangerous, not how EVIL that man-- “the Director is--”
“He HELPED me.”
“What?”
“I was being court marshalled.”
She stared at him dumbly. He had turned back to his locker staring hard at his helmet.
“You?”
“They busted me down to corporal.I fought my superior officer because he was going to send me and my men on a suicide mission that would have accomplished nothing. We all would have died, but he was completely fine sitting in the back and throwing our lives away. I saved them.”
“You broke the rules.”
“And I was facing twenty years in prison because he knew people. Or death. I hear he was pushing for going old school, and that was after my demotion.”
“But you found another choice,” She said slowly thinking of her David.
He turned, “Connie--Sorry, CT. The Director, the project saved me. I’ve made so many mistakes in my life because at the worst possible moment I let my emotions get the best of me.”
“You saved yourself and your men. How is that a mistake?” It was like clouds were parting and the Washington that she had seen glimpses of was finally finally in front of her. Like the mask he hid behind had cracked and finally this was really him.
“I didn’t have control. He was another bully on the tram. He was another shove from my sister. He was my dad terrifying my cat. He was another link in a chain. I didn’t want to save anyone, I just wanted to hurt him and get back at him, and other people too,” He laughed. “I wanted to get back at old memories that don’t matter anymore.”
“I miss you.”
She didn’t realize they had been standing in silence until he broke it.
“What?”
“I miss being your friend,” He said. “I miss hanging out with you, and laughing with you. I miss the Triplets. I miss the old days. I have to believe what we’re doing is right here, because I can’t leave. Freelancer saved me, so I have to protect it and not screw up again... I know I’m not explaining it right, but--”
Their armor clacked when she hugged him.
“I hate the stupid list too,” He admitted, “But we have to be doing something good. We have to be.”
She mentally wanted to scream. Because no, no they weren’t, they never have been, they were doing all this for a shadow of a memory. Wash was making the same mistakes again and he didn’t even know it.
She took a deep breath. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell--”
They jumped apart at a wolf whistle.
“Don’t mind us, just getting ready for the mission,” York grinned.
“It’s not--we weren’t--” Wash was beet red. He quickly grabbed his helmet shoving it on his head.
“Fraternizing in the locker room,” North tutted.
“We’ll talk after the mission, okay?” He took her hand and squeezed it and ran before York and North made a routine on the entire incident.
“Some girl name Jessica is gonna be real pleased one day,” York rolled his eyes and Wash’s retreating back.
It was weird hearing her old name. The name she never told anyone here. The name that was nice and generic and plenty of Davids had attached to their body. Like David Banks. Who wasn’t her soulmate, but scared her for a second, because what if he was.
“Jessica?” She asked.
“Yeah, soulmark,” North said, “So I hope she’s not the jealous type.” He joked. Then he frowned, “Hey, I--sorry. You know I’m just joking, I didn’t actually think you guys were--”
She looked up at him. Realized there were tears running down her face. She hadn’t cried since David Banks said that the name on her leg was David, and showed her the Jessica on his bicep.
-
The choice had always been to settle on the right David.
And now there were two. Her lover David and her best friend Wash.
And there was still the Director, and there was still Charon and there was no time at all.
She almost put the dogtags in his locker, but thought about what he had told him. How had always lashed out, how he didn’t want to make the same mistakes again.
How maybe they would kill him if he came at them.
Maybe someone else could end this and bring Project Freelancer to justice. So she put them in Tex’s locker like she had initially planned. She deserved more than anyone to know the truth anyway.
-
Meta had finished. Washington was still shooting one of the alien corpses in the face.
“Ohhh nooo,” Doc whimpered. “I thought he was supposed to be the rational one.”
Meta snorted. That was really funny. “Are we going to bury her?” He gestured. CT’s body was already half buried by the sand.
Washington ignored the question.
-
“Can we play a game? You have lots,” Caboose said.
Wash sat on the hill overlooking the Dinosaur valley.
“Lots of what?”
“Soul names! Here and here, and here--”
“Those are just freckles, Caboose.”
“No, this is Freckles,” Caboose hefted freckles and scritched under his muzzle.
Wash knew arguing was useless. He tugged up the leg of his pants.
“Oh! One of them is complete,” Caboose traced the name slowly. “Jess-i-ca Mar-tin-ez. Is she nice?”
“I don’t know,” Wash answered.
Caboose went about carefully connecting freckles with his blue felt pen. Michael J. Caboose was a long name, but he found room. Stupid Tucker he had to get a bit creative with the spacing. Carolina was misspelled, but it was obvious who was meant. Epsilon was a careful E, and L.L.C was for Alpha, not the other man who held that name. The Reds he had run out of room so just put ‘The Reds.’
“Can you add one more for me?” He asked suddenly.
“There isn’t many dots left.”
“Add CT, there should be room for that, right?”
Caboose grinned. He carefully added a T under the C in Jessica. He looked proudly up at Wash, he rubbed his nose, and sniffed once, before clapping Caboose on the shoulder.
“Time for dinner I think.”
-
Finding David in a universe full of Davids was hard. Especially when you were looking for one in particular.
Luckily, he had a unique name. She watched the message one more time.
Agent Washington was on Chorus. So that’s where she was going.
And maybe they could finally finish that conversation.
you are a super cool bean so happy birthday and have a birthday donut!!!
[submission by @orangeycookiekay]
!!!! COOKIE!!! HES SO CUTE I LOVE HIM THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U even did my facecanon w/the lightish red hair bun!!! i love himmm omg ;”)
