well, that one hurts like a bitch. she flinches back from the words. tendrils shiver over her skin and she wants to vomit, but she loses the ability to when they move up to coil around her neck. if this were any less dire, if she could manage around the pressure in the air, she would have bitten out one last remark. 

'cause this is weird fetish porno city right here. 

but her sense of humor drains with the rest of the color in her face. she can't even reach up to claw at the thing pressing hard on her windpipe. all she manages is a gasp and a narrowing of her eyes. 

she searches racing thoughts. what does she even say? that she wanted to bone the ship captain, but it's more than that but the feelings are clearly only one way except when they're not but they can't do anything about it and it doesn't matter anyway because parker's starting to feel a little confused and over the whole thing?

no time to blurt any of that out. she nearly bites her tongue off when the shadows rip into her flesh, flaying the shoddy stitch job she'd put there in the first place. blood seeps down the side of her leg, dark red and viscous.

"i gave you...my whole life...fucker," she squeezes out, fingers tightening against the edges of the chair. i gave this organization my whole fucking life.

and this is what i get.

Cillian Quinn

☉

parker is here for a number of reasons. 1. she's pretty sure if she ignores something of this magnitude, Cillian Quinn isn't going to give her a pass again. 2. she's up shit creek already and fuck it, she lives here, and she'd like to see the world keep moving in all its shitty glory, thank you very much. and 3. fucking nomi is here. 1 and 2 are farts in the wind compared to her third reason.

'cause she's pretty sure nomi saved her life and debts always need to be paid. 

it's organized mayhem. her earpiece is crackling. this isn't some low level shakedown. this is a war front and she's pretty sure that mangy mutt in front of them is some sort of super-pokemon. the deerling's ramen bowl wearing cousin makes her brows furrow. she's no expert on pokemon by any means, but what in the shit?

"the tomb. right." parker nods to amulius and both raise their fists in unison. her fingers shake as she curls them, heartbeat skittering and breath coming in short gasps. fear crawls down her throat and splashes around in her insides. but she swallows it, shoves it down, and with the help of valerian's light screen, attempts to clear a way for them.

amulius blitzes forward; fire burns from curling feathers, a supernova heat meant to clear some of the fray so the scientist and her bodyguard can advance.

SWORD RAID

blaziken uses flare blitz to attempt to clear a path to the tomb.

I3na1MCI

☉

he's pulling his punches, which is a sobering thought. that and her still-healing over, busted face and bruised lip do not appreciate being punched right now. they twinge and she jerks forward, restraints ringing her with lovely red marks. 

this simultaneously wants her to cooperate with him and also spit in his face. does she go the self-preservation route? of course not. her blood's boiling, she's scared shitless, and homeboy here just summoned shadow tentacles or whatever the fuck around his arm. 

"what kinda - heughn - std is that?" she says through a couple of gasps. "i gotta go get tested now?" blood dribbles neatly down her chin.

Cillian Quinn

☉

here is what she discovered about herself: when being held to the wire, when at the knife's edge between life or death, she handles it the way she handles most uncomfortable things, only ten times worse.

when the shadows emerge, she startles, jumping in her chair. they clasp around her wrists and her ankles and bind her, resolutely. her head tilts, gaze sliding to one side to look at the tendrils that hold her in place. the klefki looks wrong.

she doesn't know anything about shadows. put that on the list - the novel, at this point - of Shit Parker Doesn't Know. 

he draws his sleeve back. oh, she's done that move before. she knows what's coming next. she could stop it. probably. but her mouth is in no way connected to her brain right now. 

"pegged ya for a kinky fuck, but i gotta be honest 'fore ya get your hopes up - i'm not into what you got down there." 

she grins down at his crotch.

Cillian Quinn

☉

piss girl might real quickly turn into shit girl. she should have worn darker pants than her blue jeans. bumps are on the back of her neck; every hair is on end and she understands that this is real fear. brave face be damned; she's scared shitless. face pale, knuckles white. her jaw is tense because if she doesn't keep herself wound like an elastic band ready to snap, she might just break down. 

under severe pressure, she discovers something about herself. she takes her seat and leans dramatically around the side of the chair to inspect the drain. the rusted color around it. a muscle in her cheek flicks. 

"'cause toby patterson's a nosy piece of shit," she says, lip curled in a smirking snarl. 

Cillian Quinn Naomi Sato

☉

parker's never really been anxious in her fucking life. not compared to this. sure, she walked in on her parents with their brains blown out, avery clinging to her leg and crying, and she blamed herself for that (and still blames herself for that), but that was child's play compared to this. because shit like that rocks you so hard you can barely feel it. 

you're just in it. you're living it. you're thinking how do i get to the next part? how do i get out of this alive. you suit up and you pick up the slack your parents couldn't and you pay their debts off with your fucking life is what you do. 

she'd really, really hoped her life would be enough. avery got sucked into it too, but it was better than losing her. better to have them stay a family. but now, after everything, after years of being the fist for rocket. the body. the violence. the hammer. number six, 'cause that's how many hits they get until they're down, even if she can do it in one, or two, or three. 

her leg is bouncing. she's waiting outside. she's thinking, this isn't fucking fair and i've done nothing wrong and look at me now, dross. fuckin' look what you've done.

they're gonna label her a traitor and all she can think of right now?

that some motherfucker is out there thinking about her face and going, aw, yeah - piss girl. 

Naomi Sato Cillian Quinn
mentions of skyler dross angelo vestri teehee

☉

yumi's reaching out for her. yumi's giving her a lifeline. yumi's taking it all back and they're gonna go keep having fun and not have a care in the world and parker's gonna thank her in a dozen different ways over the course of a next couple hours and she's gonna go home all moony-eyed and pass out with half a dozen totino's on her chest 'cause she passed out thinking about yumi's sexy - 

oop. nope, that's not quite right. 

yumi, instead, denies her in every sense of the word. and worse, worse than that, is asshole mcgee seems to have caught on and is not even trying to hide his smug fucking face. 

so parker does what yumi literally just told her not to do and she does something stupid.

by punching him in the face.

Yumi Hasegawa

☉