"La vita va avanti."

[sharktrash]

Who: Squalo and: Xanxus, Genos, Koumei, YOU!
What: Catch-all for January Shenanigans.
When: Jan 1st-15th ish
Where: MANTICORE penthouse, Pride HQ, possibly elsewhere
Warnings: language, violence, dicks out, the usual. will detail for each toplevel

(( Prompts in toplevels below! Feel free to tag into the ones marked as OPEN. I am still waiting on details for some of them, hence "placeholders" since I wanted to put the threads up in chronological order. They'll be there soon enough! Also, feel free to PM this account or hit me up on Plurk if you want a thread, too! ))

Comments

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Geez Squalo, save breaking your bow for when you're performing.]

[Luci happens to be walking by from a session when she sees the bow-breakage occur. She frowns and knocks on the observation/soundproof glass.]

[sharktrash]

[ He'd love to, really. That shit's expensive (though considering he supposedly got a raise he could probably afford that now. Still. It took a while to really break those things in). But it's a bit hard to coordinate the pressure when you can't fucking feel it. ]

[ He actually scowls at her for a moment, as if she's noticed something she wasn't supposed to, but then gets up. Not leaving just yet, though, he just stops in front of her and mouths a "What?" with a half-amused expression that may or may not be a little fake. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[That's it? 'What'?]

[Luci rolls her eyes at him. She scowls exaggeratedly, gnashes her teeth, puts a pencil between them and breaks it in half. Then spits the half left in her mouth down the hall, turns back and smiles charmingly with a bat of her eyelashes.]

[She breaks character and arches an eyebrow at him. 'Seriously, bruv?']

[sharktrash]

[ There's a twitch under his eye, something that pretty clearly translates to 'shit, she saw that', though rather than faltering, his smirk turns into something more like a baring of teeth. ]

[ Then he shakes his head and brings his hands up to mimic something that looks like wringing a chicken's neck. Then he lets that imaginary body drop to the floor and pointedly stomps on it a couple of times. I'm just angry, how is that news, his following look and shrug seems to imply. ]

[ And, oh, she probably got a pretty good look at the fact he's apparently playing with a glove just now. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Yeah, 'just angry' doesn't fly with Luci. Or at least, she's now about to let Squalo be left in a recording booth to be pissed by himself.]

[She puts up her hands and shrugs-- 'It's not, but what's the deal?' -- then points at her right hand before moonwalking along the length of the window. Are you doing a Jackson impersonation now, Squalo?]

[sharktrash]

[ FACEPALM ]

[ He'll point a thumb over his shoulder and swipe a hand across his throat. Not in here, that's probably supposed to mean. Also fuck off, nobody gave that guy monopoly on gloves. Also his are black. Totally original. ]

[ He does finally go for the door, though. As fun as pantomime is, there's only so much it can sort. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Luci sighs and waits for Squalo to emerge from the studio.]

Did the bow offend you?

[sharktrash]

No.

[ He sort of... gives her a long look. ]

No, I didn't intend to do that. [ grumbling; ] This is a fucking disaster.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

What is? [Luci arches her eyebrow and glances at the recording booth.] Having a bad music day?

[They all had them-- days when the art just didn't want to cooperate.]

[sharktrash]

Ah... a bad hand day would be more accurate.

[ He's not entirely sure if he can tell her the truth. They're not that close or anything. But it's fucking hard to come up with something on the spot like that. Maybe if he tells her it's an injury -- ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Shit. You don't have carpal tunnel or whatever, do you? [She'd believe it with how hard he rocks his cello sometimes. She can barely see his hands during some sets.]

[sharktrash]

[ ...he'd actually believe that explanation himself if he hadn't SEEN what the hell happened to him. Is it even possible to make a lie that wouldn't leave her worrying, though? He doesn't want to be a cause of that. She's got enough shit to worry about in her own band of assholes. ]

No, no I don't think so. 'Sides, it's the other hand.

[ He waves his bowing hand at her. With the kind of motions it does, he'd probably be more likely to dislocate a shoulder than injure his wrist, but... it could still happen. ]

Ah, it's... really nothing dangerous. I just. Need a -- a bit of an adjustment, that's all.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Luci frowns, suspicious. Squalo is being very vague here, and Luci can't help but think that he's omitting something very important.]

Are you not telling me something?

[Best to just come right out and ask, no preamble or anything, right?]

[sharktrash]

[ DAMN IT LUCI ]

[ It's true, though. He's always been shit at hiding things. ]

How's your deal with Santiago doing?

[ At least he tries to keep his voice down for that one. Look, he's just trying to be careful. If she ends up asking you to rat him out, he'd rather have his ass covered. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[However she's not putting that together just yet. Luci looks like Squalo just slapped her across the face unprompted-- startled, then pissed.]

What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

[sharktrash]

[ Ah, right. Must've been a bit insensitive. Sorry about that. ]

I'd rather not scatter ammo against myself around, yeah? Who the fuck knows what she might ask for, if she still hasn't. You do realize it won't necessarily have to do with you.

[ You know, nothing's exactly stopping her from grabbing him and seeing for herself, but. Yeah. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[...actually no, she hasn't realized that. The fact that she stares at him for a long moment says as much-- this, in her mind, had always been about her and Santiago, no one else. But really, what would stop her from asking after literally everyone Luci knew?]

Well. [She's having a rough time absorbing this without punching something.] Guess I'm glad I didn't tell the whole fucking world about this. Then I'd have everyone looking at me like I'm unclean instead of just you.

[sharktrash]

[ Ah, shit. Backtrack, backtrack. On another hand... it's probably good if she's aware of all possibilities? Maybe? ]

That's not -- I'm not fucking calling you "unclean". This is just some real shitty shit and I've only told one person, okay?

[ I don't trust you enough. ]

-- I'm sure you've done that, too. What was it, murder and mayhem?

[ She didn't tell him that. Not on purpose, anyway. A tidbit just slipped out when she thought Xanxus told him about it. So how is she being any more trusting than he is? Then again, maybe he does owe her something for that "accidental" revelation. But then, he doesn't have their CEO holding a sword over his head. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Having that thrown back in her face stings too. Luci feels woefully unarmed for this particular battle, and she can't help but feel frustrated by it. How did he end up with all of the ammo in this fight?]

[You know what? Fuck it.]

Yeah, that's right, I blew the heads off of two men armed with automatic rifles by snapping my fingers. [And look at that, her fingers are coming together in his direction.] Now you know, and I just bet it makes you feel even safer around me. What a warm and fuzzy feeling of friendship we have now.

[You should have pushed them all away. This is what happens, this is what will always happen. What did you expect-- that someone would actually trust you?]

[sharktrash]

[ Comes with his line of work, or something. Not that he's even aware of it. It's true that he's That Guy who sleeps with people without any kind of lingering attachment. However, it's also true that he does genuinely like her as a person. So he doesn't quite want to flip her off -- ]

[ But his reaction to that threat -- which he's seen enough to know is most likely true -- and her fingers aiming at him is something that surprises even himself. ]

[ That is, he laughs. Not some kind of a mocking or disbelieving laugh, either. A fucking deranged one. (Imagine if the Joker and a hyena had a baby or something.) And then he just looks at her, a manic grin still on his face. ]

Sounds like a pretty brilliant way to go. Come on.

[ He's fucking dead anyway, is he? Or at least fired, which is just as well because excuse him, his career is a little more important than his life here. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[He's fucking insane. He's laughing in her face after she just threatened to take his head clean off his shoulders. No sarcasm or doubt, he legitimately wants it. Shit. Shit!]

[Luci tries one more time to get him to run, or flinch, or beg, or something, just leaning in with her hand extended. Come on, motherfucker, just one twitch. Just blink.]

[sharktrash]

[ Well. She'll get him to something. ]

[ He leans in as well, teeth still bared, bites on his glove and pulls in off in a split second. What's revealed underneath is glossy metal and some kind of black material, crafted into joints, tendon-like cables and the delicate shape of a hand. ]

[ And he'll be grabbing her wrist -- of the hand that she's holding out at him -- with it, and sort of squeezing. It's cold, just like you'd expect metal to be. It might bruise, even if it doesn't look like he's intending to hurt just now; he can't feel the pressure in it after all. ]

You're not the only one.

[ It's too loud to be a hiss, and for a moment, he's not even sure what he means. Not the only one who's killed someone? And then it returns. The sight of the corpse before him as he clutches the bloodied sword, laughing triumphantly into the night, his left arm ending in a bleeding stump. Tyr. He did it. He beat the Sword Emperor. The Varia was theirs. ]

[ He doesn't quite space out this time, though. In fact, he actually looks more within reason, though he's still frowning at her with his teeth bared, and his grip loosens somewhat. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Holy shit--]

[That is the last thing she expected to see, given the last time she'd seen him naked he'd had two hands. Nevermind that he's actually hurting her, she'll think about that later when she's not staring dumbstruck at his hand.]

[This? This is what he wasn't telling her? What the fuck is Santiago going to do about him suddenly having a prosthetic hand? As long as he could still play, what was the issue?]

[Aside from this appearing seemingly overnight.]

...Let go of me, asshole. I don't care if you have a prosthetic hand, you've pissed me off and I'll knock you down if I have to.

[sharktrash]

[ As long as he could still play... which he was having some serious doubts about right now. He couldn't just keep breaking things every few bars. ]

[ He lets go of her, though he doesn't look exactly pleased either. ]

Now we're even.

[ He knows stuff, she also knows stuff. All good, right? ]

[ Doesn't seem so. ]

The fuck did I do? Beside telling the truth?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Luci brings her arm into her chest once Squalo lets it go, surreptitiously rubbing her wrist to soothe it. Fuck, that actually hurt a little.]

If you ever suggest that I would rat you out to Santiago again, that will be the last time you see me. Got it? Same goes for if you ever bring up the fact that I made an insane deal to save someone's life to make a shitty point in an equally shitty argument.