through darkened shadows.

damien valentine. forty-two. exemplar. codename: M O R T I C I A N. " oh, if there is to be a wish for my form to exist / it would have been to be poured over my enemies like a radiant darkness / a glowing warmth to the people i hold to my heart like a knife. "

[valentiincs]

captaiinkick​:

“yeah, full-time,” will added, letting out a chuckle. “i almost can’t believe it either. big jump from the initiative, isn’t it?” a can of pop loosely held by his hand, he took a small sip. he liked vermont, especially at this time of the year and even when all he’d gotten to see was damien’s parents’ house the few times he’d visited.

    “– and i’d be honored to be her teacher. sadly, as much as i like new york, i think a fresh start was very much overdue. but if she ever needs help with functions and algebra, you can always give me a call. what’s this video call thing that launched last year – skype?”

“Huge leap—but I gotta say, teaching suits you. Like you’ve come into your own for some reason; no whip needed.” Damien thinks for a second and grins wickedly, “Maybe a whip needed, if you don’t. If I could just rent it for a weekend—I think I can do something fun with it. You can babysit.”

“And sure, Cassie’s going to love the video calls; I’m not good at, uh, math, myself. So at least I got you to help with homework. Personal tutoring works too, you know—got the guest set up with a mattress for you two, so both of you can see the apartment.”

[valentiincs]

callededie​:

        ‘  every moment ,  ’      he observes. and they did. each moment with the team, no matter how fleeting, counted. edie was reminded how fleeting they were when he looked and saw the faces that had changed so much while he had been there, while he had remained mostly the same. damien had been twenty when edie had first met him, and while he didn’t look like the old man he claimed to be, edie could not forget that he looked older. they all did.  ‘  i’m much older than you, damien,  ’  he says, teasing slightly though perhaps the tone isn’t quite right.  ‘  i don’t know what i would say.  ’

There’s a joke there, to be made when Edie didn’t look a day over thirty, but the tone in his voice told him that it wasn’t the time. He could read at least that much. “Neither did I, at first.” He was a private man, back then, not used to letting people in because of heartbreak after heartbreak after heartbreak. But the team helped, the way they understood helped, and it was just a matter of practice. Edie needed to see that. “You love them. Good place to start as any. If you can’t, show them that you do—that’s what I did.”

[valentiincs]

retiredmonarch​:

Beth laughs, a deep and hearty sound, like someone who never had a care in the world. It was easy to feel that way now. Even though her best friend, her trivia partner, and both of her former bosses were dead, Beth was moving on. She was living and enjoying herself. Because she knew Addy wouldn’t want her to be weighed down by grief. She could practically hear the other woman in her head, telling her to smile. 

Beth shrugs, “I can’t take much credit. I just told the architects to make it look nice and simple.” Her face falls a little, and she looks off, her eyes getting distant, “I know but … let’s not talk about that now. Let’s just avoid my steak and try to get Tango to stop eating the rosebushes.” 

Damien’s eyes flicker to his mother scolding Tango for trying to munch on the rosebushes and he grins widely—she had more steel in her spine than he’d ever know, and him trying to take a bite out of his mother’s roses was going to be a stern talking to in the corner. “Let’s.” There was so much that happened in a few months, personal injuries notwithstanding, and it still feels like lead in his heart. Maybe it gets easier, but Damien doesn’t know.

“Will you visit us?” Damien asks, fondness in his eyes as he looks at Beth—and there’s all that restraint he has not to tear up. “If you’re not busy with director duties, could you? The apartment, well, we finally got the guest room. Can’t imagine my life without the team.”

[valentiincs]

callededie​:

        he hummed slightly ,      thinking.  he understood what damien and carlos were, but he did not know what they were like. maybe he and and eve were like them, or maybe they were something different. he’s unsure, so he focused on the second part of what damien says.  ‘  time is different here, damien. you all move through life very quickly.  ’

Damien almost forgot that Edie wasn’t from—well, Earth. The critical eye he’d held so long ago faded into what he could almost say was a bad dream he was trying to make up for. “It makes life count, I guess. How fast it is,” he continued, looking wistfully at the team. “Take it from an old man, say something. You’ll go through life meeting people you love and lose, and you need to say it. For them. For yourself.”

[valentiincs]

retiredeve​:

Eve thought that if someone at the bureau had done an evaluation of Eve and Damien twenty years ago, they would have been deemed least likely to integrate successfully into domestic life. And yet, here they were with homes and lives outside of Exemplar. He even had a child. They were supposed to be the isolated ones, and yet they proved everyone wrong. 

“There’s not much to do out there,” she admitted, “but I like the quiet. And sometimes there’s a baseball game at the local highschool. Or sometimes I got to the bowling alley. I like the greasy food and screaming at inanimate objects. And I have friends. My neighbors aren’t very close by since I have a big piece of property but they’re nice too.”

“What about you?” 

“Quiet, huh.” Damien was too entrenched in the cacophonous noise of the city that the suburbs almost felt like something waited in the wings for him—it might have done him good to visit, maybe a road trip. He’ll call Eve about it in the summer; maybe Cassie could ride a horse. Or something.

“New York’s—well, it’s New York. Mostly a lot of people, a lot of tourists, the private investigation agency’s taking off. I still get to go to Cassie’s science fairs, and she’s learning the drums. Sadly. Carlos and I go on dates, grab a bite, make out in one of those picture booths.” There’s a blush in his cheeks; Eve and him had some sort of mutual understanding back then. No words, no actions, just a quiet, detached respect. Now, when they talked about the mundane things, feels like a triumph overall. “Mostly, I’m just figuring out what was with you and Eeds back then, like a soap. Sort of nosy, but I’m fresh out of cases.”

[valentiincs]

callededie​:

         ‘  i have feelings for all of you, damien ,  ’       he answers, before he hears the second half of damien’s words.   oh.   he had seen a romcom recently.   that kind of feelings.   '  i’m …  i’m not sure, damien. they become involved so quickly in those movies, and i have not known her for that long.  ’  given the time she was missing, and edie’s projected lifespan, he had only known eve for less than his equivalent of a human year.  ‘  but i care about her slightly differently than i care about you.  ’  he wished he could give that feeling to damien, let him identify it. language was such a fickle thing.  ‘  not less or more, just differently.  ’

There’s a softness to Damien’s chest as Edie replied to him, his eyes flickering briefly to Carlos, currently laughing with Beth about some godawful story they’re probably sharing right about now. “Is it anything like me and Carlos?” They were soldiers, people who were defined by directives and order, of course, both of them—maybe they just understood each other than Damien would ever know. He didn’t know. He just wanted them to be happy. “He had to take me to the hospital first time he saw me Finally.asked him out a few months after. Trust me, time’s not an issue, Eeds. Just... feelings.”

[valentiincs]

thecreatvre​:

“THANK,” Tango rumbling, vibrating in delight as he carefully takes the bottle between his paws, holding it reverently. He wonders if he should inform Damien that he does not drink the sauce, he eats it with the bottle. But he will do as he’s told, and save this one for the meat. “TANGO EAT… ANY. ALL. TANGO EAT… PORTAL KNIFE. BARBE–CUE SAUCE… EASY. FOR EAT.”

Pfft. As if sauce, in any amount, would be a concerning amount.

“PUT ON… NOT-CHICKEN.” Carlos has explained to him that the chicken he provided Tango was, in fact, not chicken. Tango doesn’t understand. Carlos is nice but has done a confusing thing, but Tango will go with it and called it not chicken.

Damien could feel Carlos grimace at the thought of putting barbecue sauce onto vegan chicken and nothing makes him smile more. Though, the amount of things Tango puts in his body really is concerning—maybe he should go to Keller? Or the Tango equivalent of a doctor? A NASA space doctor? He should probably ask Beth to get him a doctor’s appointment or something.

“Not-chicken tastes like chicken, but sadder,” Damien sighs at this, shaking his head. This health kick makes his head hurt, but the things he does. “Don’t tell Carlos I said that—I’m still convinced this’ll blow over. Maybe you could just eat the not-meat? For me?”

[valentiincs]

thecreatvre​:

A creature with no eyes and no real mouth expression other than open or shut shouldn’t seem to have a way to look guilty, but somehow, Tango manages, freezing in the act of inching a paw toward the bottles. 

He makes a wretched, mournful moan. “ONE MORE. FOR TANGO. PLEASE,” he begs, but dutifully moves his paw away from the bottles. How much barbecue sauce could a group of humans feasibly want? Could they even finish one bottle between them? Damien has been very kind, providing extra sauce for him, but clearly he has not anticipated the depths of Tango’s need. “TANGO… HUNGER.”

“Since you said please, I’ll let it slide.” Truth be told, Damien would have given him the damn barbecue sauce if he so much as whimpered—he was a weak, weak man. At least his mother didn’t catch Tango, better Damien than the withering gaze of an old history professor.

Damien slides the bottle of A1 towards him, rolling his eyes all the while; this has got to be, Tango’s third? Fifth bottle? He couldn’t keep count. “You use this bottle for the—the meat, right? Don’t tell me you just drink the sauce, bud. That’s gotta be at least a concerning amount for you to drink.”

[valentiincs]

@captaiinkick​

“I still can’t believe you’re a teacher now—you think I can persuade you to move to New York and teach there? I’m sure Cassie would love Mr. Rivkin as her math teacher.”

[valentiincs]

callededie​:

        ‘  best friend .  ’      he nods, a curt almost militant thing, giving affirmation. it sounded right. partner, partner.  ‘  we work as partners, at the bureau sometimes.  ’  he puts on a smile, hoping he had answered the man’s questions.  ‘  did she tell you about the earthquake, damien ?  ’  maybe that’s why he had brought this up.  ‘  we helped with that, and then i visited her after with slushees. have you had the blue kind  ?  ’  he frowns again at his last comment.  ‘  i don’t see the comparison, damien.  ’

Damien needed his scotch—this could have been a new form of mental exercise, and he really didn’t more of those. The slushees, though, were a nice touch. He was already doing stuff that lovers did, and maybe this was a cruel trick, or that Eve was basically doing the unrequited love plot line from Degrassi. “I’m trying to ask if you have feelings for Eve,” he replied, wishing he had some secret telepathy power so he could beam this directly into Edie’s brain. “You know—some not-friend, romcom, over the pants, explicit feelings?”

That could have done it. He couldn’t be more straightforward than that.

[valentiincs]

callededie​:

      he frowns in thought ,      for damien’s sake, to show he does not understand. he had tried more than friends before, when they were in their first retirement. he did not like it. the woman pointed out how different he was at any available moment, as if it was exciting to her. if that’s what it was like, then eve was certainly not that. she was a friend, a friend he was likely closer to than the rest  –  is that more than friends or is that the most friends ?  he felt that he was lacking specifics, but he tries his hypothesis.   ‘  she is the most my friend.  ’

His head wraps around the statement once, twice, thrice—nothing makes sense. Damien furrowed his brows trying to make it make sense and just clicked.  “The most my—best friend?” Looking at him, trying to read his face for some confirmation, he took a breath and sighed. Yeah, that still felt weird. “Just best friends, Edie, or you know, anything more than best friends? Like, uh, a partner? You know, a partner?” He looked at the man and gave him a small smile. ”This is worse than high school.”

[valentiincs]

retiredeve​:

Designed to be a quick learner, Eve could assimilate easily if she tried. However, sometimes she was consumed by her new identity. Now she was trying to find a balance between the real her and the version of herself she constructed based on what others wanted. Damien helped to bring out the side in her that felt real. “Oh yeah, I love soaps. I saw this one called Days of our Lives where this woman faked her own death to protect her family but then came back like two episodes later. Very relatable stuff.” 

She tilted her head to the side, “It’s just been Odette and recently, why? Looking for a countryside getaway?” 

Relatable? I mean, sure—she did fake her death, but that maybe was a niche audience that the program wasn’t counting on pandering to. But still, it was good that Eve was finding her feet through the scary process that was being human. Soaps and a ranch for Pendulum; he wouldn’t have dreamed of it back then, and even now, it seemed surreal. But back to the gossip, he supposed.

“Oh no, I’m a city slicker. Cassie might like a change of pace, though,” he replied, a smile on his face, a little too eager. “It must get—you know. Lonely. Any of your neighbors catch your eyes? Any friends?”

[valentiincs]

retiredmonarch​:

He’s right, and she knows she can’t choke down the rest without completely embarrassing herself and spitting it back up into her hands at least once. So she admits defeat without saying it, “I’ll give it to Tango,” she says quickly. She’s recently started to come to terms with the fact that she doesn’t have to do all the cooking, she can play it safe by sticking to the boxed brownies. “The only begging that’ll happen today will be done by Ranger and Mango.”

“Hey, that’s Madam Director to you,” she quips in return, folding her arms over her chest and looking out over the pristine backyard as their gaggle of odd friends milled and chatted like a family on fourth of july. She laughs, throwing back her head, “I mean I’m the one who helped designed the place. I wasn’t about the sign of on the architect’s blue prints unless I had enough space for a couch and floor to ceiling windows.”

"Sure, Madam Director.” He gives her a bow, too forced and formal to ever be serious, smiling all the while. Responsibility looked good on Beth somehow, the aches of the past giving way to the future that he’d hoped would greet them all. Maybe the future would come where Beth had a dinner for them all, no raw steak in sight. A man could dream after all.

“I still can’t believe the new HQ. Pictures don’t do it justice, really,” he tells her, a smile on his face. He imagined this, back then—but he hoped that it would have come priceless. “The memorials too; they’re great. They’d have loved it, you know?”

[valentiincs]

@thecreatvre​

“Tango, please don’t hog the barbecue sauce—I got you several bottle already.”

[valentiincs]

retiredeve​:

“that’s a figure of speech,” she declares triumphantly in response to the nickname. she was catching on to these things quicker now. “nothing much, i just started watching the news a few weeks ago as my source of intel. i don’t understand why there is so many channels. shouldn’t there be just one?”

Okay. She knows a lot more than she did back then Double edged sword, but she was an assassin too, so Damien has his work cut out for him. “If there was just one, I’m not sure I could stand to watch the news every day. I deserve my soaps. That said, are Ricky and Jen in the Morning the only people keeping you company these days? Aside from your cat, of course.”

[valentiincs]

retirednpc​:

Keller frowned, almost pouting. “I’m always in trouble.” But his dejected expression doesn’t last long, his eyes light up at the mention of the gloves, “Oh yeah! Those would be great for climbing up the buildings in New York! They don’t work in the rain yet, so just like, take that as a warning now in case I forget to mention it again later.” 

“I’m not scaling buildings, Keller—I’m too damn old.” And besides, he’d need a couple hundred thousand permits to scale anything. “How’s the new order treating you? The fireproof lab, the new tech—the new, uh, science? Science. Are you about to give NASA a run for their money?”

[valentiincs]

@retiredeve​

“So, what’s new with you, cowgirl?” There’s a mischievous glint in his eye as he asks—he catches Beth’s eye. He wants to go in for the kill.