2.b Roadkill
PrognosticHannya
Far Too Enthusiastic About Etymology
- Pronouns
- She/Her
AN: Whoo, finally! These two chapters fought me the entire way out, but I'm really proud of them. I've learned to be leery of promising update dates, but the next chapter (and vote) should be out today or tomorrow. We're going body-hunting!
Alright, bit of a note on this one. Please be be advised that Dean is a member of the Liberty Legion, Max Anders' hero team and the cape arm of the APS, which is basically the Bet version of TPUSA if it became a genuine political party. He's fairly uninvolved in the political side of things (unlike his parents), but growing up in that environment still left him with a particular… I'll say "traditionally-minded" worldview and set of values that of my own.
This doesn't mean he doesn't have good qualities, or is a "bad person", to be clear. I do my best to illustrate that he's still a kind, generous, heroically-minded person, or as much as he can be while also having the narcissism that comes with being a teenager.
It's just that he's the heir to a multi-million dollar investment fortune that was entirely raised in private Christian schools, and who spends the majority of his time fighting the "good fight" by beating up working-class gang members in the process of committing crimes. Despite hating the Empire and being honestly dedicated to the ideals of caped heroism, he has exactly the worldview you'd expect from someone in that situation.
Also, Dean's going to reveal a few facts about the DeWinter family's background, and just remember is view isn't exactly unbiased. On a positive note, I finally figured out how to make one of Gwen's parents a pirate!
Dean Stansfield PoV
As I look at the video on my phone — Vicky in a tight white dress sliding up against a guy in a blue shirt, who's very blatantly staring down at her… assets — my hands start to shake.
That… that… that little creep! Does he seriously think he can try to steal away my girlfriend like that? He's practically undressing her with his eyes!
Honestly, what was Vicky even thinking, wearing a dress like that? She's practically showing off her underwear to every guy at the party!
Once again, I curse the name of Patrick DeWinter, and my girlfriend's stubborn refusal to see how much he's into her.
Ever since that thug stumbled into Vicky and I's Literature classroom babbling like an idiot, I've had a bad feeling about him. Especially once he got partnered up with my then-crush (and now-girlfriend).
Okay, okay, I know what that sounds like, but it's not jealousy, I promise.
Initially, I ignored my gut reaction, and we actually became great friends! I'm self-aware enough to admit that my initial reluctance was probably just because he was a boy that was close to my crush, but as I "scoped him out" (i.e. got to know him while thinking I was some sort of spy) I actually realized he was a genuinely fun person to be around. He was funny and charming, and treated me just like anyone else regardless of my family name. He didn't try to suck up to me, and I really appreciated that.
He and Vicky barely talked to each other outside of class at first, I was actually the one to introduce the two of them to each other socially. I won't say I was BFFs with him or anything, or even as close to him as he and Vicky are now, but we'd sit with each other at lunch and joke about teachers, or about what girls we liked. He even came to my 15th birthday party (the real one, not the public one dad threw for the cameras).
I guess Vicky appreciated his refusal to acknowledge fame and status as much as I did, because the two of them went from Literature partners to fast friends.
That… became a bit of an issue once I started dating her.
We've had arguments about this a few times, and Vicky obviously disagrees, but c'mon, is it really that unreasonable to not want your girlfriend to spend all her time with other guys? Other guys that (as I discovered once I drank my vial) are into her? Guys with gang ties?
Oh yes, as my private detective discovered after the shortest of searches — seriously, who did he expect to fool with that? — the upstanding, charismatic young up-and-comer he presented himself as was a complete and utter lie. His parents aren't midtown small business owners, he doesn't have an older brother who is a doctor in Canada, and his sister isn't going to school to become a lawyer.
His mother is a criminal terrorist with the IRA, who fled Ireland after the British government had to capitulate to their demands for unification thanks to the Fairy Queen's rampage. After a substantial amount of digging on my detective's part, I found that while she was arrested on a gun charge that got expunged during the Shrove Tuesday Agreement, she was actually suspected of helping carry out several major naval hijackings, including helping take the Northern Irish Secretary of State himself hostage!
Even worse, instead of taking her second chance in America as the blessing it was, once she got here she dove right back in with the criminal scum she ran with in Ireland, and was suspected of being a member of the Marche!
I couldn't honestly find much about his father — his mother didn't even marry the guy — but from what I can tell he's an alcoholic wastrel who's never had a job harder than tending a bar, and bums around the city looking for loans.
As for the doctor older brother? Flat out doesn't exist. His only older sibling is his sister, who is not going to Law School, but instead was a senior at Winslow at the time.
Yes, Winslow. "Our entire school is a gang recruiting ground" Winslow. "Worst school in the city" Winslow. Those are his people.
What a lovely young chap, such a bright and valuable addition to Arcadia's culture!
I may or may not have punched a wall when I realized the only reason he got into Arcadia was because they needed a few decoys to act as fake Gallants. It makes me sick: sure, the "Gallant" that exists in PR isn't real, but I know he inspired hundreds of boys and young men all over the city to be better versions of themselves, to try to live up to that paragon of what a good, noble man should be.
And DeWinter… well, even leaving aside the gangbanging, the guy's barely a man anyways.
Oh yes, that's another fun fact about Patrick DeWinter: he's queerer than a three-dollar bill. I had suspicions since he's always been a bit of a delicate girly-boy, but getting my powers only confirmed his desires to do awful things with several of his male classmates in gym, including — and I hold back a shudder — myself.
I know, I know, I shouldn't be judging him for that. If there's one thing my power's taught me, it's that everyone has their own temptations, and I wouldn't feel this way about, say, a kleptomaniac that can't help but want to steal everything not nailed down. Heck, I don't even feel like this towards some of the other people struggling with this type of thing.
It's just something about the combination: the thought of being emasculated by someone who's barely even a man, combined with the fact that his lust is aimed at me in particular? It leaves me with a deeply uncomfortable feeling I can't quite identify. I can feel his gaze burning into me every time he looks across the room, and I can feel the tingles crawling up my spine as I imagine some awful mental molestation. I have have spent an inordinate amount of time covered in goosbumps from imagining him… pleasuring himself to some sick fantasy of me.
Yeah, I know it's irrational, and it's beneath me to let it color my interactions with him, but who ever said feelings made sense? Besides, I don't feel that guilty, it's Patrick DeWinter. It's not like I'm judging Mother Theresa over here.
There's a silver lining though, and that's that if it wasn't for wanting to shudder every time he stares at me in the locker room with that pink spiking in his aura, I might have been tempted to use my powers to get him to act on his temptations, and ruined his life along with another innocent person's.
No one deserves that, not even him.
And did I mention this lying, sleazy, gangbanging catamite, this weaselly little bastard (in both the figurative and literal senses of the word, given his mother's marital status) keeps trying to sleep with my girlfriend?
She doesn't believe me, because somehow Patrick can shake off her aura, but he can't hide from me: I can see how his lust spikes whenever he looks at her.
If it was just that, I might not have had as much of an issue. After all, pretty much every guy in school is into Vicky, I know my girlfriend's a catch.
Honestly, if it was just that I wouldn't normally be so mad. Hell, I originally didn't even suspect it for what it was, given his boy-loving and how those pink spikes can also be a sort of aesthetic admiration and envy, usually of one girl towards another she feels is more attractive and desirable than her.
I mean, I even catch Amy getting those spikes occasionally: that girl really needs some help with her self-image. She's perfectly pretty, but with the way she keeps enviously eyeing up Vicky and then feeling shame and despair, you'd think she was some lovechild of Medusa and Grendel.
The thing is, it isn't just those pink spikes: a "crush" is a complicated thing to pin down, even to an empath like me, but it's hard to miss that Patrick DeWinter has some of those purple more-than-friendly feelings towards my girlfriend mixed with the bright pink of what is unmistakably lust.
He hides it well, but there's no hiding from my power, and the feelings when he's staring at my girlfriend from across the lunchroom are completely unmistakable.
Is it bad that sometimes, I wish he's just give into his temptations and forsake girls entirely? It'd certainly make my life a whole lot easier.
And what's worse, I know Vicky thinks he's fit, too. I mean, objectively I can admit he's not an unattractive guy, even if it's in a bit of a girly way. He's got this soft, feathery pale blond hair that makes you just want to run your fingers though it, a jawbone sharp enough to cut glass, and what even I can admit are enchanting green eyes.
He's a lot more muscles than you'd expect from his slender physique, too, I was absolutely shocked when I saw him strip for the first time in the locker room: I felt more than a little insecure looking at his skin pulled over his tight muscles, despite somehow still being as soft as a girl's.
It's honestly a little bit disturbing. If you look at him from the back, you could be fooled into thinking he's just an especially tall girl. Makes sense with his preferences though, I suppose. Only figures the half-man only looks half a man.
And even putting aside all that, Vicky knows I don't like him! She knows we don't get along, and I can't tamp down my stupid freakin' disgust and jealousy enough to see him rationally, but she still chooses to make him my replacement at Ashley's party? She couldn't have taken Cody, Brad C., Chet, or Tanner? Heck, even Brad H. or Kevin would do! But no, it has to be Patrick freakin' DeWinter.
At that point, I can't reach any other conclusion except that she's deliberately trying to make me jealous.
Well Vicky, mission frickin' accomplished! Seeing you rub yourself all over that two-timing little gangbanger has ruined my day!
I just… I just don't know why she's straying. We've been having troubles recently, but this? Purposefully going with a guy she knows I hate just to tick me off?
Is it me? I don't think I've been a bad boyfriend…
Does she… does she want more? You know… in that way? She says she respects me wanting to wait, but… does she resent me for it?
I know, I know, it's a bit old fashioned. I'm not even that religious, but it's just… I want our first time to be special, you know? Not some rutting in the back of Crystal's car, or some rushed humping desperately trying to beat out Mrs. Dallon returning home.
I thought she was ok with it, but… She's never really struck me as the loose type, but is she being influenced by the other girls at Arcadia? I know a lot of them sleep around, and she does have Amy to make sure there aren't any accidents…
Does me not wanting that make me a bad boyfriend?
I shake my head, clearing it. There will be time for self-recrimination later. For now? Now it's time to find out exactly what the heck Vicky was thinking…
Alright, bit of a note on this one. Please be be advised that Dean is a member of the Liberty Legion, Max Anders' hero team and the cape arm of the APS, which is basically the Bet version of TPUSA if it became a genuine political party. He's fairly uninvolved in the political side of things (unlike his parents), but growing up in that environment still left him with a particular… I'll say "traditionally-minded" worldview and set of values that of my own.
This doesn't mean he doesn't have good qualities, or is a "bad person", to be clear. I do my best to illustrate that he's still a kind, generous, heroically-minded person, or as much as he can be while also having the narcissism that comes with being a teenager.
It's just that he's the heir to a multi-million dollar investment fortune that was entirely raised in private Christian schools, and who spends the majority of his time fighting the "good fight" by beating up working-class gang members in the process of committing crimes. Despite hating the Empire and being honestly dedicated to the ideals of caped heroism, he has exactly the worldview you'd expect from someone in that situation.
Also, Dean's going to reveal a few facts about the DeWinter family's background, and just remember is view isn't exactly unbiased. On a positive note, I finally figured out how to make one of Gwen's parents a pirate!
Dean Stansfield PoV
As I look at the video on my phone — Vicky in a tight white dress sliding up against a guy in a blue shirt, who's very blatantly staring down at her… assets — my hands start to shake.
That… that… that little creep! Does he seriously think he can try to steal away my girlfriend like that? He's practically undressing her with his eyes!
Honestly, what was Vicky even thinking, wearing a dress like that? She's practically showing off her underwear to every guy at the party!
Once again, I curse the name of Patrick DeWinter, and my girlfriend's stubborn refusal to see how much he's into her.
Ever since that thug stumbled into Vicky and I's Literature classroom babbling like an idiot, I've had a bad feeling about him. Especially once he got partnered up with my then-crush (and now-girlfriend).
Okay, okay, I know what that sounds like, but it's not jealousy, I promise.
Initially, I ignored my gut reaction, and we actually became great friends! I'm self-aware enough to admit that my initial reluctance was probably just because he was a boy that was close to my crush, but as I "scoped him out" (i.e. got to know him while thinking I was some sort of spy) I actually realized he was a genuinely fun person to be around. He was funny and charming, and treated me just like anyone else regardless of my family name. He didn't try to suck up to me, and I really appreciated that.
He and Vicky barely talked to each other outside of class at first, I was actually the one to introduce the two of them to each other socially. I won't say I was BFFs with him or anything, or even as close to him as he and Vicky are now, but we'd sit with each other at lunch and joke about teachers, or about what girls we liked. He even came to my 15th birthday party (the real one, not the public one dad threw for the cameras).
I guess Vicky appreciated his refusal to acknowledge fame and status as much as I did, because the two of them went from Literature partners to fast friends.
That… became a bit of an issue once I started dating her.
We've had arguments about this a few times, and Vicky obviously disagrees, but c'mon, is it really that unreasonable to not want your girlfriend to spend all her time with other guys? Other guys that (as I discovered once I drank my vial) are into her? Guys with gang ties?
Oh yes, as my private detective discovered after the shortest of searches — seriously, who did he expect to fool with that? — the upstanding, charismatic young up-and-comer he presented himself as was a complete and utter lie. His parents aren't midtown small business owners, he doesn't have an older brother who is a doctor in Canada, and his sister isn't going to school to become a lawyer.
His mother is a criminal terrorist with the IRA, who fled Ireland after the British government had to capitulate to their demands for unification thanks to the Fairy Queen's rampage. After a substantial amount of digging on my detective's part, I found that while she was arrested on a gun charge that got expunged during the Shrove Tuesday Agreement, she was actually suspected of helping carry out several major naval hijackings, including helping take the Northern Irish Secretary of State himself hostage!
Even worse, instead of taking her second chance in America as the blessing it was, once she got here she dove right back in with the criminal scum she ran with in Ireland, and was suspected of being a member of the Marche!
I couldn't honestly find much about his father — his mother didn't even marry the guy — but from what I can tell he's an alcoholic wastrel who's never had a job harder than tending a bar, and bums around the city looking for loans.
As for the doctor older brother? Flat out doesn't exist. His only older sibling is his sister, who is not going to Law School, but instead was a senior at Winslow at the time.
Yes, Winslow. "Our entire school is a gang recruiting ground" Winslow. "Worst school in the city" Winslow. Those are his people.
What a lovely young chap, such a bright and valuable addition to Arcadia's culture!
I may or may not have punched a wall when I realized the only reason he got into Arcadia was because they needed a few decoys to act as fake Gallants. It makes me sick: sure, the "Gallant" that exists in PR isn't real, but I know he inspired hundreds of boys and young men all over the city to be better versions of themselves, to try to live up to that paragon of what a good, noble man should be.
And DeWinter… well, even leaving aside the gangbanging, the guy's barely a man anyways.
Oh yes, that's another fun fact about Patrick DeWinter: he's queerer than a three-dollar bill. I had suspicions since he's always been a bit of a delicate girly-boy, but getting my powers only confirmed his desires to do awful things with several of his male classmates in gym, including — and I hold back a shudder — myself.
I know, I know, I shouldn't be judging him for that. If there's one thing my power's taught me, it's that everyone has their own temptations, and I wouldn't feel this way about, say, a kleptomaniac that can't help but want to steal everything not nailed down. Heck, I don't even feel like this towards some of the other people struggling with this type of thing.
It's just something about the combination: the thought of being emasculated by someone who's barely even a man, combined with the fact that his lust is aimed at me in particular? It leaves me with a deeply uncomfortable feeling I can't quite identify. I can feel his gaze burning into me every time he looks across the room, and I can feel the tingles crawling up my spine as I imagine some awful mental molestation. I have have spent an inordinate amount of time covered in goosbumps from imagining him… pleasuring himself to some sick fantasy of me.
Yeah, I know it's irrational, and it's beneath me to let it color my interactions with him, but who ever said feelings made sense? Besides, I don't feel that guilty, it's Patrick DeWinter. It's not like I'm judging Mother Theresa over here.
There's a silver lining though, and that's that if it wasn't for wanting to shudder every time he stares at me in the locker room with that pink spiking in his aura, I might have been tempted to use my powers to get him to act on his temptations, and ruined his life along with another innocent person's.
No one deserves that, not even him.
And did I mention this lying, sleazy, gangbanging catamite, this weaselly little bastard (in both the figurative and literal senses of the word, given his mother's marital status) keeps trying to sleep with my girlfriend?
She doesn't believe me, because somehow Patrick can shake off her aura, but he can't hide from me: I can see how his lust spikes whenever he looks at her.
If it was just that, I might not have had as much of an issue. After all, pretty much every guy in school is into Vicky, I know my girlfriend's a catch.
Honestly, if it was just that I wouldn't normally be so mad. Hell, I originally didn't even suspect it for what it was, given his boy-loving and how those pink spikes can also be a sort of aesthetic admiration and envy, usually of one girl towards another she feels is more attractive and desirable than her.
I mean, I even catch Amy getting those spikes occasionally: that girl really needs some help with her self-image. She's perfectly pretty, but with the way she keeps enviously eyeing up Vicky and then feeling shame and despair, you'd think she was some lovechild of Medusa and Grendel.
The thing is, it isn't just those pink spikes: a "crush" is a complicated thing to pin down, even to an empath like me, but it's hard to miss that Patrick DeWinter has some of those purple more-than-friendly feelings towards my girlfriend mixed with the bright pink of what is unmistakably lust.
He hides it well, but there's no hiding from my power, and the feelings when he's staring at my girlfriend from across the lunchroom are completely unmistakable.
Is it bad that sometimes, I wish he's just give into his temptations and forsake girls entirely? It'd certainly make my life a whole lot easier.
And what's worse, I know Vicky thinks he's fit, too. I mean, objectively I can admit he's not an unattractive guy, even if it's in a bit of a girly way. He's got this soft, feathery pale blond hair that makes you just want to run your fingers though it, a jawbone sharp enough to cut glass, and what even I can admit are enchanting green eyes.
He's a lot more muscles than you'd expect from his slender physique, too, I was absolutely shocked when I saw him strip for the first time in the locker room: I felt more than a little insecure looking at his skin pulled over his tight muscles, despite somehow still being as soft as a girl's.
It's honestly a little bit disturbing. If you look at him from the back, you could be fooled into thinking he's just an especially tall girl. Makes sense with his preferences though, I suppose. Only figures the half-man only looks half a man.
And even putting aside all that, Vicky knows I don't like him! She knows we don't get along, and I can't tamp down my stupid freakin' disgust and jealousy enough to see him rationally, but she still chooses to make him my replacement at Ashley's party? She couldn't have taken Cody, Brad C., Chet, or Tanner? Heck, even Brad H. or Kevin would do! But no, it has to be Patrick freakin' DeWinter.
At that point, I can't reach any other conclusion except that she's deliberately trying to make me jealous.
Well Vicky, mission frickin' accomplished! Seeing you rub yourself all over that two-timing little gangbanger has ruined my day!
I just… I just don't know why she's straying. We've been having troubles recently, but this? Purposefully going with a guy she knows I hate just to tick me off?
Is it me? I don't think I've been a bad boyfriend…
Does she… does she want more? You know… in that way? She says she respects me wanting to wait, but… does she resent me for it?
I know, I know, it's a bit old fashioned. I'm not even that religious, but it's just… I want our first time to be special, you know? Not some rutting in the back of Crystal's car, or some rushed humping desperately trying to beat out Mrs. Dallon returning home.
I thought she was ok with it, but… She's never really struck me as the loose type, but is she being influenced by the other girls at Arcadia? I know a lot of them sleep around, and she does have Amy to make sure there aren't any accidents…
Does me not wanting that make me a bad boyfriend?
I shake my head, clearing it. There will be time for self-recrimination later. For now? Now it's time to find out exactly what the heck Vicky was thinking…
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