THE RANDOM SCENARIO MEME 3.0

[fighterfetish]

THE RANDOM SCENARIO MEME 3.0


- Post your character, name, and series in the subject. Include any preferences as well.
- Go to RNG and enter 1-7 for a scene type, and 1-20 for a scene to play out.

TYPE OF SCENE.
① Action → Gun fights, bar brawls, fights to the death are all possible scenarios.
② Angst → Characters suffer emotionally or physically from relationships breaking up, death, injury, etc. Hurt and comfort themes are included.
③ Crack → Genderswaps, super powers, sudden compulsions are all possible outcomes.
④ Fluff → Something that is devoid of angst. It's light-hearted and might have the overtone of romance.
⑤ Gen → General fun, things that didn't fit in the other categories.
⑥ Sex → First times, kinks, even dubcon are all possible themes of sex related scenarios.
⑦ Your choice → Think of your own scenario, choose one of the above or make a combo even!

ACTION.
① Zombies → It's the zombie apocalypse, lock and load!
② Bar brawl → You had one too many drinks, said something wrong, and now you're being asked to take it outside.
③ Chase → You're caught in a high speed chase.
④ Gun fight → You're caught in a big shoot-out.
⑤ Fight with a friend → You're fighting with a friend, all out.
⑥ Interrogation → You're being interrogated for some offense you've done.
⑦ Aliens → Aliens are attacking and you're not going to take your probe laying down!
⑧ Final battle → This is it. The battle that will end all the fighting for you. Will you win? Will you get that peace you want?
⑨ Training → You're not actually fighting, just training for the inevitable.
⑩ No hope → You know this fight has no hope. It's not going to end well for anyone involved, but you can't turn away.
⑪ Sneaking in → You're stealing a diamond or sneaking in to kick some bad guy butt, but whatever it is, you have to practice stealth.
⑫ Blue wire → You're faced with a bomb that needs to be disarmed.
⑬ Fight for honor → You've been disgraced or someone you care about has, so it's time to fight for honour.
⑭ Showdown → Time for a cowboy-style showdown. Whoever draws the fastest wins.
⑮ War → You're caught in the middle of a war here. Remember to keep your chin up and keeping fighting.
⑯ Apocalypse → The apocalypse finally happened and now you're left to scavenge and fight for whatever is left.
⑰ Sabotage → It's time to sabotage someone's plan! How is entirely up to you. Do you set up a bomb in their toilet? Do you double cross them at the last minute?
⑱ Big damn hero → You know you have to handle this one alone, so that means disarming or knocking unconscious the person who wants to join you.
⑲ Fight club → You know the rules... you're in an underground fighting ring and you're fighting with all you've got.
⑳ Threaten → You've just been sent here to rough them up a little, threaten them into behaving.

ANGST.
① Injury / illness → Your character has become injured or ill! To what extent is the mun's choice.
② Last moments → You character has been gravely injured and this is their last chance to say their last words.
③ Depression → Your character is depressed, what actions they take is up to the mun.
④ Betrayed → You character has been betrayed by the other. How do they react?
⑤ Tortured → Your character is being tortured and needs rescuing or at least a sympathetic ear to help him through it.
⑥ Jealousy → Your character is feeling jealous and must deal with it, how will they do it?
⑦ Breakup! → This relationship has gone as far as it can, it's time to breakup.
⑧ Broken → For whatever reason, the character is broken, mentally or or physically.
⑨ Fight → You can't even be in the same room as your friend or lover without arguing anymore.
⑩ Lost → You lost the biggest fight of your life and now all you can do is try to pick up the pieces.
⑪ Worst nightmare → Whatever you fear the most is now real or maybe you're just trapped in a dream together, but whatever it is, it feels too real.
⑫ Addicted → You're addicted to something, alcohol, drugs, sex, whatever. It's destroying your life and you can't do anything to stop it.
⑬ Hurt you → You're being forced to hurt someone you love either by betraying them or even being forced to shout things you don't mean. It's for their own good in the end though.
⑭ Separation → You were forced to leave this person for their own safety and while you've been miserable without them, you really didn't mean to run into them again... maybe it was by accident or you were watching them from afar this whole time.
⑮ Becoming a monster → You are slowly changing, becoming a monster: vampire, zombie, demon, something you can't recover from and no-one can help you.
⑯ Frozen → You are entirely helpless, frozen, to stop some kind of disaster.
⑰ Prison → You were very bad and now it's time to pay the price by turning yourself in or maybe the law just finally caught up to you.
⑱ Fear → You're not sure why, but you are suddenly terrified and you can't deal with it. You need help.
⑲ Hated → You are now hated by the person you loved the most.
⑳ Down and out → You're living on the streets, you've hit rock bottom, and you don't know what to do.

CRACK.
① Sexswap → Uh-oh, you're suddenly the opposite sex!
② Forced confessions → No matter what it is and no matter how hard you resist, you're going to be compelled to spill some deep dark secret!
③ Mind-reading → You've suddenly got the ability to read minds!
④ Animal → You're suddenly part animal or transformed into an animal!
⑤ Awkward pick-up lines → You're compelled to use bad pickup lines on whoever is closest!
⑥ Back in School / Graduated → You're suddenly back in school! Or if you were already in it, you've aged and long since graduated!
⑦ Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my! → You're suddenly a vampire, werewolf, or zombie! Maybe even a demon or a devil, whatever creepy crawly you can think of. What do you do now?
⑧ Ghost → You're suddenly a ghost or at least invisible. What are you going to do with this new ability?
⑨ Awkward conversations → So did you just fart or what? Any conversation goes, as long as it's embarrassing and awkward.
⑩ Crossdressing → For whatever reason, you're suddenly dressed in clothes of the opposite sex.
⑪ Suddenly naked → Oops! Your clothes are suddenly gone.
⑫ Suddenly a kid → You're a kid again! Have fun with that second childhood.
⑬ Fortune cookie → You've suddenly received a note with something that will happen in the future, either precise or vague.
⑭ Super power → And suddenly you're like Superman! Any power goes.
⑮ Bodyswap → Somehow you've changed bodies with the other person.
⑯ Back in time → Somehow, you wound up in the past again. Do you try to correct something or just sit and wait for time to jump? Maybe it jumps to various points in your life or maybe you actually think you're back in the day. Have fun, run wild with the idea!
⑰ To the future → Is it everything you've dreamed? Is it horrible? Whatever happens, you're here to witness what happens to you in the future. Either you take the place of your future self or you're just there to watch. Might cause some confusion if people start seeing double though...
⑱ Angels, mermaids, and fairies! → You're not necessary something dark or evil. You're just something different. How do you deal?
⑲ Locked in a closet → For some reason, you're locked up in a closet with someone else. Do you make nice and try to figure your way out or what?
⑳ Finger trap → You're caught in a Chinese finger trap... with somebody else! You can't figure out how to get loose either... have fun with that.

FLUFF.
① Cuddling → For whatever reason, characters feel like being close and cuddling.
② Pillow talk → After the main event, characters are up for some pillow talk.
③ Celebration → Anniversary or some other big event is taking place and characters want to celebrate!
④ Love confession → Someone has finally decided to confess their love and today is the day!
⑤ Appreciation → You feel the need to show appreciation for that person closest to you, even if it's just a pat on the back.
⑥ Apologies → You made a mistake and now it's time to make it up in some way you know the other can't refuse!
⑦ Get back together → Why did you break up again exactly? Whatever the reason, it was a huge mistake and you both know you can work through it.
⑧ Date night → You've planned for a wonderful night together and you can't wait to get it started.
⑨ Family → You've either found out you're pregnant or you've already got that addition to your family.
⑩ Marriage → You're just about to get hitched or maybe you're enjoying your honeymoon. Maybe you've been together for years now! Whatever the case, it's time for that next big step.
⑪ Meeting again → It's time for that happy reunion finally!
⑫ Love at first sight → For whatever reason, you are now insanely in love with the first person you set eyes on.
⑬ Flirtation → You can't resist to do a little bit of harmless flirtation all of a sudden.
⑭ In the snow → Look outside! It's a winter wonderland, so why not go out and play in it?
⑮ Engagement → You've planned it all out and now it's time to finally pop the question.
⑯ Friendly games → You've set up the game station or board games for a friendly competition!
⑰ Gift → Time to give that special someone a gift just because.
⑱ Recovery → You're taking care of someone who's just recovered from some illness or injury.
⑲ Healing → Time to help mend that someone who's been through hell and back.
⑳ Better than ever → You've finally got everything you've ever wanted here. What is your ideal life and who does it include?

GEN.
① Nice meeting you → It's your first time meeting this person! You bumped into each other on the street, in a bar, at work... whatever!
② Drinks → You're out for drinks! Or just chilling at home with some beers. Wherever!
③ Lost → You're lost and you kind of need help finding your way to where you're going. A little help with directions?
④ Costume party → You're at a costume party, both of you are wearing masks. Do you keep the anonymity or take it off and see whose company you've been enjoying?
⑤ Wrong number → Oops, actually you didn't mean to call that person...
⑥ Drunk → You're already drunk! Drunk dialing, stumbling into someone, showing up unexpected... what type of drunk are you anyway? Aggressive, loving, happy? How does the other react?
⑦ Old friends → you haven't seen this person in a long time!
⑧ Rivals → you're suddenly rivals! Or maybe you have been all along...
⑨ Problems → you've got a problem with each other, just got in a huge fight, whatever. Try to work it out!
⑩ What are your intentions... → This person? They're dating a close friend, family member, etc. You need to find out if they're going to hurt them! Or you need to discuss your friend/family's dating choice.
⑪ I saw you → you saw the other person doing something bad and you need to confront them about it.
⑫ Sorry but no → the other person has feelings that you just don't share. They don't necessarily have to be romantic... maybe you just don't agree with their sudden desire to quit their job and start a business making tiny, fuzzy teddy bears.
⑬ My hero → you need to tell this person how much they mean to you. They've been your best friend or your role model your whole life and they need to know.
⑭ Enabler → you're enabling the other (or each other) to do something bad, really bad. Addiction, stealing, killing, or just any other self-destructive behavior.
⑮ Cooking → Time for an impromptu cooking lesson!
⑯ Oh, sure, I remember you... → It's that awkward moment when someone comes up and seems to know you, but you have no idea who they even are!
⑰ Rescue! → One of you was in trouble, but you came to the rescue!
⑱ Boss → One of you works under the other. Is your relationship good? Are you scheming things? Or do you hate each other?
⑲ Perfect crime → You and the other person have just pulled off the perfect crime... or you're planning to! What are you doing? The heist of the century, an assassination?
⑳ Movies → movie night! Maybe it's a sleepover. Whichever the case, it's time to eat a lot and have fun.

SEX.
① First time → it's your first time together or your first time ever! Enjoy the awkward times!
② Bondage → You and your partner decide to experiment a little with ropes or handcuffs or whatever you'd like to tie your partner up with.
③ Rough / Aggressive → Your characters want it rough.
④ Romantic → Slow and gentle, meaningful, that's how characters want it.
⑤ Dubcon → Character A wants Character B and it doesn't really matter if Character B wants it as bad or not.
⑥ In public → Characters feel like taking a risk and doing it in a public place.
⑦ Roleplay → Naughty nurse fetish? Pirate kink? You and your partner decide to try it out now!
⑧ Healing → You've both fought hard or gone through a rough time and it's time to get some R&R in.
⑨ Last time → This is the last time you're going to this because you're breaking up or maybe your lover is running off to sacrifice their lives in some heroic way. The possibilities are endless, but you better make this one count.
⑩ No strings attached → You're just friends with benefits. Nothing wrong with that, right?
⑪ Anonymous → You met in a restroom or bar, any location of your choosing, but you don't even know each other's names.
⑫ Toys → You're eager to try something new, so why not toys?
⑬ Aphrodisiacs → You've been slipped a strong aphrodisiac somehow and now you absolutely cannot control yourself.
⑭ Show → You're putting on a show by either doing it right in the club or filming it for a bunch of people.
⑮ Ménage à trois → It's time for that threesome you've always dreamed of.
⑯ Non-penetrative → Frottage, handjobs, whatever you want to try out.
⑰ Controlled → You are under mind control and must do whatever your lover asks of you.
⑱ Hate sex → It's not just rough or aggressive, you absolutely cannot stand each other.
⑲ Extreme → Fisting, knife play, whatever you can think of so long as it tests the boundaries.
⑳ Fantasy → This is just a fantasy, a dream, and you know it, but what is your ideal fantasy and how willing is your partner?

Comments

[americasdirtiest]

Mickey's perfectly proud to admit that he's uneducated -- who the fuck needs to learn science? -- but he's not stupid, and he catches the sneer in Jack's voice, as discreet as it may be. The problem is, Mickey doesn't really bother all that much with banter, and especially not when he's in a mood like this.

He doesn't sneer, he doesn't laugh, and he doesn't bother to correct Jack. Instead, he surges at him like a bear sprung from a trap, hackles raised high, and although he's shorter than Jack he's startlingly good at getting up in someone's face like that. "You can expect me to knock your fucking teeth into your mouth, that's what you can expect," Mickey snarls, and there's no sign that he doesn't mean it. He looks Jack over with a curled lip and reaches out to wrench the tumbler out of Jack's hand, making to down it himself.

[thebetterstory]

The drink goes; Jack stays. He doesn't flinch, but closes his fingers into the empty space left behind, a loose fist made of apparent reflex more than intent. This is why he likes being where no one recognizes him on sight. Everyone's honest to his face like this. Jack believes him from a scant few inches away, close enough to smell the sweat and the alcohol as it goes down, and his smile doesn't falter.

He's downed enough liquor to not particularly care about the threat, even if it's more of a promise; he hasn't downed enough to feel particularly like provoking Mickey blatantly. The idea of a fight sounds attractive, just enough that he won't run or back down just now, but not necessarily the casual brutality he can read in the threat, in the hackle-raising, in the snarl.

"In which case," he offers, unmoving, not at all a capitulation so much as the next move; not conciliatory, not inflammatory. Straight down the center. "I think you should definitely have another drink. Your own this time, I imagine."

[americasdirtiest]

It seems to be enough. Mickey doesn't exactly deflate, but he doesn't explode, either. He bares his teeth in something that could be a grin or a threat and nods, taking a half a step back. "Oh, yeah? You paying?" He looks Jack over with a slightly raised brow, the implication clear in his eyes: one look was enough to tell him that the guy can clearly afford it more than he can.

He looks him over again after a second, a slight crease forming in his brow. Seriously, he definitely recognizes the guy. "You buying?" he asks, bluntly, but with just enough of a twist that it's clear it's not just an echo of the first question.

[thebetterstory]

"Sure," comes the flippant reply, because after all, of course he can afford it. He could afford this entire block and every building, every bottle of alcohol on it if he wanted. And everything else that gets filed away in the corners of pockets and the spaces hidden under drawers and above doorways. He's about to put a hand on Mickey's chest and encourage him that half-step back - and straight into the punch he absolutely believes would rattle his teeth, Jack knows - when the man does it on his own.

Then comes that little frown, and Jack's mood abruptly nosedives, because he knows what that means. He doesn't want to know how this man would act once he realizes he's standing in front of the prince; he likes him just how he is, for a given quantity of like. He raises an eyebrow at the question that, indeed, he hears even as he motions for two more drinks like the one they just shared by proxy.

"Not tonight." Jack knows better than to buy anything anyone around here is selling with that kind of question. No matter what it is he can get much better quality from much safer suppliers back home, and not end up dead in a gutter because someone hates what his father is doing today. There's always someone. "Although I guess the next time I am, now I know who to talk to."

[americasdirtiest]

"I guess you do," Mickey replies, although he doesn't sound completely pleased: if the guy's not a customer, who the hell is he? "Mickey," he offers, and gives a little wave in lieu of a shake. It's not intentional, but it's enough that Jack can see the ink on his knuckles, thin black lines spelling out F-U-C-K across his fingers.

Then again, is that really any kind of surprise? Mickey is grimy where Jack is clean, smells of grit and earth where Jack smells of cologne and luxury, wears his hair in rough, messy spikes. He's wearing a sweater that's gone ragged at the edges and colorless with age. He's a man reared on the same kind of brutality he almost showed Jack, wears it like another skin under his clothes.

So yeah, the tattooed knuckles probably aren't really that surprising.

His eyes are sharper than they should be, for all that, and they're regarding Jack with increasing keenness, even as the drinks come by. He takes a hefty gulp of his without tasting it -- and then, somehow, it clicks. Not too poor to own a TV, after all.

Now that he actually gets it, though, he doesn't show all that much reaction. He raises his brows, blinking once, glancing Jack over again. "Shit," he comments absently.

[thebetterstory]

Silas Benjamin is a man that pulled himself up by his military-rooted bootstraps; he doesn't wear that side of himself as proudly as the side that was crowned with butterflies, of course, because he is far from alone in that, but it's common knowledge. It used to be respectable, back when Silas paid attention to his people and was loved for it. Many suspect that his son's stint in the military is an attempt at an echo of that heritage, as if it could ever be the same. They expect nothing dangerous, some cushy desk job, some stars and some stripes to hang on his own crown.

They don't know how seriously Jack takes it, how completely he fits in amongst them - as much as he does anywhere, anyway, out where anyone can see him - until they see him read vulgarity scratched into someone else's skin, the rattiness of their wardrobe even when not compared to his, and he doesn't so much as look twice. It's not - entirely, at least - because it's beneath him to do so.

Jack knows it's coming the moment before the penny drops and he sighs, pulling a few bills out of his front pocket, dropping them on the bar to close out his tab - which, because of where he is and who he isn't, consists only of the past three drinks. "Don't do it," he warns, but not with heat so much as a bored kind of resignation. He's used to telling people what to do. He's used to being more or less listened to when he does.

Instead, a moment later, deliberately, he holds out his hand, looks Mickey in the eye, and says, "Jack." No last name, no captain, no prince - just Jack. Jack and just barely enough liquor and barely enough desperate loneliness hidden down so deep he doesn't even know it's there, driving his actions tonight and now this: "Just looking for somewhere to clear my head for a night."

[americasdirtiest]

Mickey is very much not interested in doing what other people tell him to do, but it's already occurred to him that he very nearly punched the crown prince in the head just now, and that probably means he should lay low for a minute lest he be abruptly executed by the secret service or whatever. "Yeah," he mutters at Jack's warning, his eyes keen and wary but not deceitful. "Right."

Jack -- "just" Jack -- holds his hand out and Mickey looks down at it. He doesn't particularly like to shake hands, but even his disdain for authority wavers for a moment... until he looks up again and sees what's in Jack's eyes, the perfect sincerity with which he wants to keep up this charade.

Mickey knows a thing or two about that.

And there's something else, too, that he recognizes in the other man, even if he'd never say it out loud or even admit it to himself. Just looking for somewhere to clear my head for a night, Prince Jack Benjamin says, and as unlikely as it is, something in Mickey "Fuck U Up" Milkovich's chest tightens, echoes it, with that extra layer of meaning neither man will give voice to.

He swallows, breathes out, manages to relax. Equals, for the moment. So fuck this guy, then. "Jack," he echoes with a slow, insolent grin, and very pointedly keeps the one hand at his side and the other on his drink. After a moment, he fishes out a pack of cigarettes and offers one to Silas fucking Benjamin's fucking son.

[thebetterstory]

Jack waits while Mickey weighs it out, while he considers, and he isn't hoping for anything. He tells himself this fiercely as Mickey breathes out, already decides he'll reach for his drink before he goes because if this goes the way of anxious, false niceties - or, considering the surroundings, very real danger - Jack wants nothing to do with it.

The response he gets in the end is far from charming, of course, and not at all what he's become accustomed to; this is why Jack grins, then, for just a moment and it's more real than any of the others he's given so far because he understands exactly what this is. No one says fuck the crown prince. It's okay to say fuck this guy named Jack.

As a rule Jack doesn't smoke, but that only gets someone in his position so far with the men in his unit, so he's taught himself to smoke socially; besides he understands this, too, and accepts the cigarette as he reaches for his own drink.

"Do you really pay for your drinks here, Mickey, or am I just double paying for the company?" he asks, some of the previous archness seeping back into his voice because some things can't be inoculated against. He still doesn't sound particularly concerned about it. The Royal Treasury can afford it. "And," he adds with false humility, raising his glass slightly, "The privilege of still having my teeth where they were when I sat down, of course."

[americasdirtiest]

"Hey, I pay," Mickey retorts, but without much heat this time. With the moment of tension past them, he turns to the bar at large to see only occupied tables in front of them. Immediately, the target of Mickey's hostility turns from Jack to the two young men perched at Mickey's favorite spot. He doesn't even bother to walk over there before shouting, "Hey, fucking move it," at the pair. Either they're easily cowed or aware of who they're talking to, because they grumble as they move away, but don't actually try to protest.

"C'mon." Mickey jerks his head at the table and bulldozes more than weaves his way through the crowd, lumbering bow-legged like he just climbed off a motorcycle. "It's, uh." Private. "Out of the way of all these assholes."

[thebetterstory]

Actually, that does surprise Jack a little. He'd expected they could get along with a cease fire for the time being, share a drink, a few exchanges, go their separate ways; he hadn't been expecting something that looks much more like an alliance, and it shows. What doesn't show is how for just a second he's grateful for it, because Mickey isn't the only person in here with a TV, and he isn't sure he can negotiate keeping someone else or multiple someone elses quiet for any amount of time.

Jack raises both eyebrows and follows along in Mickey's wake, comfortable and self-assured, and if this feels a little more familiar, well, he doesn't notice. He keeps his chin down and uses the grudging respect the other patrons here that know Mickey give his... host... to hide behind, and is a little ashamed but not enough to stop himself. It might be stupid, he thinks for a brief moment, to go somewhere a bit more out of the way; that's not really something he's concerned about right now, though, and instead of blatantly saying thank you when they settle he just smiles again, genuine but not sweet, not too smooth.

"It's charming, really, even full of assholes. At least a dozen ill-advised ways to pass the time obvious to even the most inexperienced eye," he comments, drink in one hand and cigarette in the other getting faint emphasis for the majority of his meaning.

[americasdirtiest]

There is is again, when Jack sits down, when he says that. Something Mickey can't define at all: something in the way he holds the drink, or the swagger in his voice, or just something about the set of his mouth and the glint of his eye. Something that echoes down in Mickey's gut, that reminds him of a day a couple of years back when he looked into a different, younger man's eyes and thought, yeah.

Not that it's really an active, conscious thought; Jack has been playing the same game as Mickey for just as long as Mickey has, and he's easily skilled enough that there's nothing in Mickey's thoughts going, You know, this guy is probably a raging 'mo. It's just a... feeling, a twinge. Something like sympathy and discomfort at the same time. He shifts slightly in his seat, slouches down a bit, flicking a fingernail against his glass so it makes a ping sound.

"Pretty much any way you wanna pass the time out here is probably gonna be ill-advised," he drawls, drily. "That's the only fucking reason people come out here. To get into shit." His eyes flicker up to Jack's face, knowing without knowing. "Right?"

[thebetterstory]

"Or to get out of it, I imagine," comes the reply, his gaze steady when Mickey looks up into it. That's the trick, he learned a long time ago, to making people believe whatever he's saying; he hasn't quite realized, yet, that it sells the truth that is the truth as well, even when he doesn't mean for that to happen. The smile is still lingering about his mouth, but it's slipping back to the practiced veneer that it is: a little aloof, a lot enigmatic, a taste of friendly taunting. Then he shrugs, settling back a bit, making sure to keep the back of his shoulder turned towards the rest of the room.

"Sometimes, even a different kind of shit can be an escape from whatever shit you're in when you start," he continues, and if Mickey's claim had been dry, Jack's turns just the slightest bit bitter, a thin thread of brass through otherwise polished silver. "At least it's new and interesting anyway."

[americasdirtiest]

Now a cloud of genuine confusion forms in Mickey's eyes. "Thought you said you didn't want anything," he says, a question in it. "What did you, come here just to drink and fucking people-watch? You can't do that back in--" He catches himself before Jack can and self-corrects with a look that says, preemptively, Okay, I get it. "--back home?"

But then, what does it matter, right? Jack Benjamin can afford the gas to drive all the way out here for ten minutes if he wants to. That thought pings something angry and ugly in him, but he keeps it quenched. He's poor: that's, like, the one thing it's never paid off to get all pissed off about, unless that anger directly leads to a way to make more money.

[thebetterstory]

"I don't," he assures him, a little patronizing, his own gaze keen over the near-stumble but even moreso over the catch. Mickey, he's already shown Jack, isn't stupid but it's still interesting to watch his brand of intelligence mapping itself out in words and in phrases both spoken and not.

"And I don't care what other people do, as long as they leave me out of it. That's what I came out here for," he follows up, then does his own self-correction, a touch of uncharacteristic graciousness because he might be crown prince but he recognizes sufferance when he's being granted it. "Not that I'm opposed. Just. You know.

"I really can't, back home."

[americasdirtiest]

Similarly, Jack's catch was probably a good idea on his part, because Mickey had an acid retort all lined up on his tongue and ready to go before Jack opened his mouth again. He lets it slide with a little snort to mark the fact that he could have said something.

"I mean, just, shut yourself up in your Goddamn room, throw a lock up on the door..." He trails off, wrinkling his nose, thinking of his own home: the sister and four brothers and father and pregnant wife, not to mention the secret boyfriend coming in and out at all hours and the various criminal enterprises, and how even when Mickey locks his own door that's no guarantee he'll get peace and quiet when he wants it. He's not outright stupid, but he doesn't tend towards introspection when he can avoid it, so it's an unusually deep thought when he considers: how much worse does that have to be when you're partly in charge of, like, everything?

He shrugs, lowers his voice, leaning on his elbows with a bitter smirk. "If it was me, I'd just have them all fucking killed if they try to so much as knock." But this time it's swagger, he knows, or he would have killed his own father long ago.

[thebetterstory]

It would be different, Jack would reply if that question hit the air between them, if any of the people knocking on Jack's door actually wanted his attention, his company, his input specifically. There are people that must pay him fealty in one way or another because he's the prince, those that seek his favor because of the sway he has, but if it were someone different they would do exactly the same. No one comes knocking on his door because he's Jack.

Almost no one. Mickey snorts at him and, for a moment, disappears into his own thoughts; it doesn't look comfortable for him. Jack takes a drink and on the downswing, smiles broadly in an attempt to feel it. "You know, I tried that once. No one listened. Something about the popularity poll, blah blah blah.

"Besides, do you find the tantrum solution works out any better for you?" It's light, still teasing because that is how hearts are won, but not too much because that is how hearts are lost.

[americasdirtiest]

"Fuck you is how it works," Mickey jeers back without missing a beat. It has more of an edge to it than Jack's teasing, but it's still recognizable as such; whatever vulnerability he might have on the subject is still locked down so tight that he can't even let himself get defensively angry about it.

He picks up his own drink and drains about half of what's left instead, grateful for the numbing burn of the vodka as it sears its way down his throat.

[thebetterstory]

It's fair enough, honestly, even to a man well aware of himself as entitled; he raises his eyebrows.

"Eloquent, but effective," he replies, dry but smirking. "I'll have to try that next time myself."

[americasdirtiest]

The reply seems to mollify him, as much as he's ever mollified. He lets out a little chuckle and grins, slouching back in his seat, tapping the pack of cigarettes idly against the table. "From what I hear, that's not exactly a problem for you, is it?"

[thebetterstory]

That throws Jack for a moment, too many vague words strung together in a conversation already vague with the effort of two strangers from two completely different worlds sitting together at a table. There's also the problem that he's accustomed to fielding criticism, much of it from people in Mickey's position or similar, so the options are a bit too plentiful for a moment.

He smiles to mask that reaction, just a small one from one side of his mouth, and then he thinks he gets it, but just to be sure: "What, having a next time?"

[americasdirtiest]

Mickey raises his brows, slightly quizzical and rather pointed. He doesn't know a lot about Shiloh politics or whatever goes on outside this crappy little stretch of territory, but they get the tabloids out here, too. What little he knows about Jack Benjamin is mostly what he's rumored to get up to at night.

"The other thing," he offers with a smirk. "The 'fuck you' part. The way they tell it out here, you get more pussy than Animal Control." He reaches again for his drink, his wedding ring flashing in the reflection of the bar lights. "I, for one, am jealous."

[thebetterstory]

"Oh."

That's all he says for a long moment. Oh. Not in any particular tone, his expression a bit distant, the smile fixed, because it's not a surprise. Indeed it should even be somewhat of a victory with how much energy and effort he's put into cultivating that particular reputation, how many times he feels like he's sold himself to be the person his country thinks he is, the person his father and his mother want him to be.

Instead, it just makes him feel hollow and tired. He can't even raise enough energy to hope that he merely looks like he's trying to figure out how to respond on a matching level of urbanity; the easy, lifelong lie sticks in his throat until he clears it, works it free so he can say it.

Girls, girls, girls. He's supposed to take a rakish pride in that, to smile knowingly at the other man's jealousy, so that's what he does after the brief hiccup, his tone a little too dry at the start before he smooths it back out where it's supposed to be.

"Well, whoever they are, they're not lying about that. But I can't say I recommend it as a problem-solving tactic, either," he offers. Then, smirking back like he's supposed to: "I can certainly recommend it for a lot of other things, though. Shiloh girls don't fuck around."

[americasdirtiest]

Jack's reaction is just weird, in a way Mickey definitely notices. It's not a thing he's really inclined to probe into all that deeply -- that would require more curiosity than he's got in him on this matter -- but still. Weird. Like Jack's heard it one too many times, which -- Mickey doesn't even like any of the girls he's slept with, and he still talked that shit up like crazy before he was chained down. He'd been raised to know that was a banner of pride.

Then Jack finally chips back in to the conversation, with something that's more along the lines of what Mickey was expecting. He snorts, lighting up the cigarette he's been toying with. "Yeah, well, trust me -- neither do country chicks. Not to mention those Gath bitches."

[thebetterstory]

The script is easier once it's a dialogue instead of a monologue - not that it was every really a monologue, only the part where Jack had to decide which line to pick it up from on his side - and he knows where to smile, where to laugh, what words come next. It's easy. He's practiced boasting.

"Maybe I'm the one that should be jealous. Gath," he laughs, because for the context of this conversation, they're not just the hated enemy. "I'm pretty sure that would count as treason if I tried to go there, literally or metaphorically. Country girls, on the other hand, aren't something I've had much experience with."

[americasdirtiest]

It's easier for Mickey, too. He knows how this part is supposed to go on his end, had it drilled into him by his father's fists, and when he taps his ring and then taps the side of his nose knowingly, he can almost see Terry grimacing with stoic approval. "If you ever wanna find out..."

He lets it trail off there, because even he can't see himself openly trying to pimp to the crown prince, but. Hey. If he ever wants to find out. "Either one of 'em, I mean. Lot of Gathian girls drag themselves down this way."