I'm Not Sorry
Sep. 19th, 2012 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
n3m3sis43"I still think we should keep all the weapons," Brendan grumbles as we trudge across the dusty plain.
"And I still think you shouldn't even fucking be here," Devin says, glaring at my brother. "According to the Splinternet, security on this weapons stockpile is twice as tight ever since your stupid failed raid attempt two months ago."
"Yeah, and dude," Wes chimes in, "Now we're gonna have to repaint the ceiling in Kalen's room."
"Right?" Devin looks annoyed. "Who fires a fucking nanoblaster inside? It's barbaric. We should kick you out."
"I should kick your ass," Brendan growls.
"Come at me, baby." Devin smirks and bats his eyelashes at Brendan.
Brendan lunges at Devin and grabs him by the front of his InvisiSuit.
"Soooo manly, picking on a guy half your size. Makes me hot." Devin fans himself in an exaggerated fashion.
Wes makes a choked noise - I think he's trying not to laugh. I grit my teeth in irritation. Spring is in full bloom, as much as anything ever blooms around here. It's more than warm enough to make trekking across the sand in our InvisiSuits sweaty, tiring work. Too bad it can't at least be quiet work.
Brendan grabs Devin's arm and twists it behind his back. Devin lets out a noise of surprise or pain. Wes shoots me a worried look. It occurs to me to wonder how far Brendan will go with this. These guys don't understand his temper. After a point, he just can't stop himself.
"Mmmmm, Brendan..." Devin twists the parts of his body he can still move in a way that looks painful, bringing his face as close to Brendan's as he can. His voice is low and breathy. "I had no idea you were into such kinky shit."
I have just enough time to think that Brendan's not the only one around here with impulse control problems, and then Brendan has his hands around Devin's neck. A guttural noise is coming from deep in Brendan's throat, as if he's a wild animal going in for the kill. Wes grabs at his arm; Brendan tosses him aside like a rag doll.
By this time, I'm at Brendan's side, hollering in his ear and trying to pull him off Devin. Brendan doesn't even acknowledge my presence - it's like he's in some kind of rage trance. Nothing I do has any effect. Then a green laser hits Brendan from out of nowhere. He lets Devin loose and they both crumple to the ground.
"Fucking idiots, all of you." Calla holsters her nanoblaster, her voice filled with contempt.
Huh. Why didn't I think of stunning him? I've never been good under pressure.
"Can we just go home already?" Wes whines. "My arm hurts and it's hot and I really want a shower."
"I already told you," Calla snaps. "We're not going anywhere until these two numbskulls apologize to each other."
"Not gonna fucking happen," Devin says with what's left of his voice, crossing his arms over his chest. He's a mess, with bloodshot eyes and bruises blossoming all over his neck. I don't think he's even bothered to fix his hair.
Brendan crosses his own arms and shakes his head, looking more confused than angry.
I think I might hate them both.
We all sit there on the ground for another few minutes, tired and dejected. It's obvious we can't raid the weapons stockpile now. All I want is to go home - to my real home. All I want is a normal life, like the one I threw away.
"Come on, Calla," I say. "You might as well try to get blood from a quangum fruit. Let's go home."
"As soon as they both apologize." Calla's glowing eyes are impassive.
I think I might hate her a little, too.
"Dude, when we do go home," Wes looks almost apologetic, "Your brother's not welcome. Not anymore."
Brendan looks at his enormous hands and lets out a whimper.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Devin tries to yell, but it comes out more like a squeak. He dissolves in a coughing fit, recovers, and glowers at Brendan. "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you after you tried to fucking kill me?"
"Really, Princess?" Calla looks like she's going to laser Devin with her eyes. "You don't think you provoked Brendan just a little bit?"
"First of all, don't call me 'Princess'." Devin's getting squeakier by the minute. "Secondly, I provoke everyone. It's what I do. Thirdly, he tried to fucking kill me. Does no one see a problem with that?"
"Devin," I say, and yes, I do hate both him and Brendan right now. "Stop fucking talking. Just stop. And unless you have a death wish, stop taunting my brother so much."
Devin's eyes widen but he doesn't say anything.
"Brendan, you shouldn't have tried to kill Devin," I sigh. "Even though he kind of deserved it."
And with that, I stand up and stomp off in a random direction, not waiting for either of them to tell me how unfair it is I've taken the other's side.
For a while, I'm too busy relishing the silence to pay attention to where I'm going. It doesn't occur to me what a bad idea this is until a rocket swishes past my head, followed by another. I drop to the ground and wait for them to stop. They don't.
Great. Today just keeps getting better.
According to the Splinternet intelligence Wes has been following, the weapons stockpile we failed to raid today is protected by an automated perimeter defense system. I'm pretty sure I've just activated it. This can't be good.
More rockets whiz by as I hug the ground. Crawling on my belly, I turn around and start back the way I came. After I've moved a few feet, the rockets stop firing. I'm congratulating myself on a job well done when a laser turret pops up from the ground right in front of me. I roll aside just in time for the red beam it emits to catch my arm instead of my head. Fire shoots through my entire left side.
I'm going to die. Alone. At least it will be quiet, though.
Aiming as best I can, I fire my nanoblaster at the turret. It explodes with a blinding flash of light. That was easier than I expected. All is calm and the only thing I can hear is the pounding of my own heart. I wait a few minutes, letting my pulse return to normal and trying to decide what to do next.
"Dude, you okay over there?" Wes's voice echoes across the dunes. I hear Calla hissing at him to shut up, and then more rockets whoosh by above me. At least this time I know to expect a turret, and I'm watching for it. When it appears, I fire. This one is more substantial than the first, but I manage to stay out of its line of fire long enough to destroy it.
A shadow falls over me and I look up to see a robot that must be the size of my brother. Its blazing red eyes do not look happy to see me. Digging in the pocket of my InvisiSuit, I pull out a plasma bomb and chuck it. I scoot out of the way as fast as I can and watch the robot topple over. More shadows. I nearly fire before I notice it's just Wes and Devin, staring at me with matching concerned looks. "Get down, you dimwits!" I yell.
Then everything seems to happen at once. Another robot, even more massive than the first, appears out of nowhere and grabs Devin by the shoulders. Wes screeches and flings himself at it, pounding its metal body ineffectually with his fists. The robot drops Devin and focuses its attention on Wes. I have enough time to see the look of abject horror on Devin's face before a turret pops up in front of me, its beam slicing across my hip as I try to get out of the way.
By the time I look up again, the robot is slamming Wes into the ground. Just then, Brendan appears, wrenching Wes's limp body from its grasp. He sets Wes down gently before twitching as he's hit by lasers from his metal opponent's eyes.
"I've disabled the sensors for the defense perimeter," Calla says as she materializes behind the robot and punches it in the head. It turns to face her, and Brendan and I fire our nanoblasters at it in unison. It freezes, smokes, and finally falls down.
"Good teamwork, bro!" Brendan slaps my injured arm. I wince, then smile. It's hard to stay mad at him.
"You should check on Wes and Devin," Brendan says, his expression darkening.
Wes is still lying motionless on the ground where Brendan left him. Devin is kneeling next to Wes, long hair hiding his eyes. I sit down beside him; he doesn't even seem to notice I'm there.
"Wake up, Wes," he begs over and over in a hoarse whisper, shaking his friend's arm. "Please."
Suddenly, Wes opens his eyes and smiles.
"Are you a princess or something?" he asks. "Because you're really pretty."
"Shut up." Devin's smile is as brilliant as it is fleeting. "The fuck were you doing back there?"
"Looking out for you," Wes murmurs. "What we always do for each other."
"Well, don't do it again, okay?" Devin says thickly. "Promise me you'll never fucking do that again."
"For you, anything," Wes says, grinning. That's when he notices my presence.
Devin follows Wes's gaze, his hair falling away from his face as he looks up. His eyes are red and there are tracks in the dirt beneath them. He stares me down, daring me to mock him.
"Tell Brendan he can stay," he says quietly. That's as close to "sorry" as he's going to come.
(oh and since this is where it decided to go, I am marking my hc_bingo wild card spot... haha)
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Date: 2012-09-20 12:42 am (UTC)Though him freaking out at the end and being all worried about Wes and telling him not to do that again is so adorable I can't. I just can't. Too fucking cute. I really like having this play out from Kalen's POV -- it really shows how they're going to have to start really being a team if they're ever going to make their little terrorist operations work.
And hopefully, after this Devin and Brendan will be able to put their differences aside. Kinda.
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Date: 2012-09-20 12:57 am (UTC)Argh.
Anyway, I'm really glad you liked the ending! I'm still mad at him, though. A little.
I guess compared to this story, they put their differences aside? Kinda.
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Date: 2012-09-20 02:49 am (UTC)Dude, I don't know how anyone can not like that ending. It's awesome.
Kinda. Sounds about right.
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Date: 2012-09-20 10:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 12:45 am (UTC)Also, LJ-cuts are your friends! Really! :D
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Date: 2012-09-20 12:46 am (UTC)And I will try to remember to do LJ cuts. For some reason I never remember to do them on wall-o-text, just pictures. Don't know why. Although right now I'd just be happy if LJ would let me post my story including the ending.
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Date: 2012-09-20 01:02 am (UTC)I even put in a cut just for you. :)
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Date: 2012-09-20 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 01:22 am (UTC)That said, the Wes/Devin scene was adorable! Even if Devin was being an ass earlier.
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Date: 2012-09-20 01:25 am (UTC)There was a time when I questioned whether it was normal to get mad at your characters while writing them. Apparently I've just accepted that I'm not normal now.
I'm glad you liked the ending. I almost wasn't sure I was going to be able to write it.
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Date: 2012-09-20 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 11:42 am (UTC)Because my current idea for sexual extortion is for Jazz (or Savin, leaning towards Jazz though) to be the lamdlord of the house everyone stays in and -- yeah, you see where I'm going with thisBecause you smut-dar is on the fritz. ;)
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Date: 2012-09-20 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 01:27 pm (UTC)Seriously I could do this all day.
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Date: 2012-09-20 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 03:21 pm (UTC)(unnnf Savin and Devin I love you both, but especially together.)
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Date: 2012-09-20 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 10:14 am (UTC)making sweet sweet love toreading your Cliffton stories.no subject
Date: 2012-09-20 10:19 am (UTC)I think the stories are slowly evolving. They started out a lot goofier than this. The direction they're going in the end is less so and always has been but I'm trying to figure out how to preserve some of the goofiness as I go. This particular story might not be a great example of that. It kind of decided it didn't want to go where I was originally planning on taking it.
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Date: 2012-09-20 09:02 pm (UTC)This is one of those areas where the 'modern slang' really jumps out. Perhaps something like, "Let's see you try," instead?
Wes makes a choked noise - I think he's trying not to laugh.
Oh, Kalen, I think not. Just given the context? I think he's choking on hopeful surprise.
CallaBot to the rescue of Devin! I begin to see where that side-comment about Kalen and Brendan perhaps being science experiments-gone-wrong comes into play. Brendan's anger issues are scary.
I really like the unexpected shift in dynamic that happened with the ending. I wouldn't have expected that either. And I can't disagree with Kalen that Devin and Brendan were both wrong. Brendan was MORE wrong, but still.
Damn, Wes is so smitten. Why again is it that you don't think Devin/Wes could be canon? :0
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Date: 2012-09-20 09:44 pm (UTC)You win a prize! Wes is not laughing and you are the only person who picked up on it so far. Also, Kalen is pretty clueless which was one reason I liked him as a narrator for this story. Especially because virtually none of this story went down the way I originally thought it was going to and I got to be clueless right along with Kalen. Well, less clueless than Kalen, but still.
Right? The thing is Brendan really doesn't even understand what happened.
It's funny because I can't decide who was more wrong. I was actually more annoyed at Devin because for some reason I wasn't expecting him to take it that far until I was writing the story? Whereas I already knew
Brendan was scary. Although I wasn't originally expecting him to take things that far in this story either. This was supposed to be a goofy story! Oops.
I'm glad you liked the ending. Too bad LJ didn't, ha. I really was not sure I could make the dynamic shift work either so I'm glad that you feel it did. :)
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Date: 2012-09-20 11:55 pm (UTC)Oh, Kalen, I think not. Just given the context? I think he's choking on hopeful surprise.
You know, I feel dumb, because I didn't catch this -- but now that you mention it. OMG. Sarah! SARAH! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME HE WASN'T LAUGHING.
/is obviously clueless but not as clueless as Kalen because that end section screams that Wes wants to be with Devin. Bad.
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Date: 2012-09-21 12:02 am (UTC)You're not kidding. It folds right into the "unrequited pining" story from Wes' POV. He's so hopelessly gone, whether he even knows it or not. :0
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Date: 2012-09-21 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 08:44 am (UTC)I'm not entirely sure Devin knows how he feels in this situation though. (I gotta stop writing him because he's becoming pretty solid in my head, even if I keep writing him in uh...sexy situations, lolol).
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Date: 2012-09-21 10:15 am (UTC)Still LOLing at the icon. :)
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Date: 2012-09-21 02:03 pm (UTC)The icon makes me lol, too. :D
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Date: 2012-09-21 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-21 10:16 am (UTC)