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“Well…” she began,taking a  moment or two to remember some details.She never shared this story with anyone before.Her gang just sort of…knew what  the story behind that nickname was,and her other friends,like Takuma,never really bothered to ask… ”You know Boris right? My weird,chatty friend?”

“He kind of happened to…shorten my name,my full name to that one day…for reasons I don’t quite understand.”

“Now obviously,we all thought it was a bit weird at first,but…after a while I figured …I actually kinda like it.”

“So…I let all of my close friends call me Xate instead of Alexa now…even if some of them …prefer not to do that.”

“…Of course,I get why.It is still a silly nickname,and I honestly wouldn’t let anyone in a professional setting call me that but ..if I’m close to someone…or planning to get close to them…I don’t mind being ‘Xate’  for them you know?”

Oh yea, one of her definitely colorful cast of friends. Charlie had yet to meet any of them face to face yet, and he was both curious and somewhat scared of doing that. Meeting new people and trying to blend into the group as an outsider was a scary prospect...

The story behind it was kinda silly, yea, but that’s what makes these names really charming. Just these out of the blue little jokes that end up sticking.

He cracked a smile at her usage of the nickname. So she only let close friends or people who she wanted to be close to call her that... Well, it obviously was the case that he was one of those people too, he couldn’t really deny it now with all they they’ve talked about and done. But he still felt happy and found it really cute.

As you may have been able to tell, I haven’t really been that active on tumblr as of late (I’ve only done like, two replies to one thread). But that doesn’t mean I haven’t given Charlie 0 thought or love. In fact I’ve been doing some Discord roleplaying with my good friend over at @wewillclockyou and since it is part of the canon for my boy here, I figured I’ll share this with y’all (and cuz it might seem a bit, jarring for something to happen with like 0 visible development or something, or maybe that’s just me being paranoid). Aaaaaanyways, let’s begin.

After bumping into each other in the café (the thread here), Charlie and Xate meet up and do some “ghost hunting”. Unbeknownst to them, they’re both actually looking for Stand related things in Morioh, he just disguised it as such ‘cause he didn’t want to seem like a weirdo.

Of course, you can’t cover up something like that forever, so they both end up finding out that they are Stand users. This helps by making everything easier to explain so they just keep going with their investigation. They didn’t really discover anything special, but Xate did have an encounter with an enemy, the “Copycat”.

After a brief clash, the hostile stand user escapes and the pair is left alone. They decide to call their hunt for clues off for that day, but walk around town a bit together. Both of their budding feelings reach a breaking point as they share a kiss together. Two, in fact. Since that, it was pretty obvious that they were both strongly attracted to each other.

Xate promises to take Charlie on an actual date to compensate for this, and they end up going to go get some ice cream together. It’s a good opportunity to get to know each other better and to steal some ice cream too.

✮ — Once again, Valentino rolled his eyes. The man’s sarcasm was starting to annoy him, even if he suspected it to be a mask to cover insecurities and doubts. If that was the case, he couldn’t blame the other; hiding your weakness was essential in that business. The efficiency of the facade was debatable: currently, it made concluding the deal harder than it should have been. That guy was testing his patience, and there were limits to how much snarkiness he could bear while trying to act professionally.      The thief brushed off his complaint with a wave of the hand. ❝That’s all I wanted to hear,❞ he said, placing a hand on his chest and forcing a smile. ❝I know you must be hating my guts, but I want to make sure we both survive; I do not like you, but your death would be a waste. While I’m reasonably sure this job isn’t going to be dangerous, I prefer to be cautious.❞ 

     Valentino listened carefully to Charlie’s explanation, trying to picture him sneaking around. The failure from before prevented him from blindly trusting the man, but he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he kept an eye on him, with the necessary precautions, Charlie could have been a decent ally.

    ❝Luckily for us, our missions focus on your specialty,❞ he commented with a smirk. ❝If you are as capable as you promised, your reward will be satisfying, and according to your performance, I might even consider contacting you again. The idea must sound horrible now, but I confide you’ll change your mind; I know how to make our lives easier.❞        Valentino paused, studying their surroundings one last time, before bringing his gaze back to his reluctant ally. He crossed his arms, and his smile turned into a serious expression. That was going to be the hardest part.

     ❝It should be obvious we need a way to keep in contact. If we are going to strike on Monday, I refuse to wait and rely on your promise, without a way of knowing what you are doing. We need to organize and take care of every detail, too; communication is essential to our success. How do you want me to contact you? Do not try anything funny; I am not naive enough to fall for a cheap trick.❞ 

Maybe he was pushing the joke-y and confident angle a bit too hard, considering the other’s reactions to it so far. He must have been making this a lot more difficult then it needed to be, so it was probably time to lay off, at least a bit. It was in his best interest to keep things professional and to not devolve their discussion into a fight. He could hold his ground but still being uncertain of Valentino’s abilities gave him a disadvantage.

“You’re putting words in my mouth.” he added quietly, breathing out through his teeth. “I don’t hate your guts. I am somewhat annoyed, but I wouldn’t say that it’s as dramatic as that, you haven’t done anything to warrant that, yet.” He still reserved the right to be pissed off at his ‘rival’, but right now there really was no point to being so drastic. After all, he wasn’t just pushed away from the job or stabbed in the chest or something, so that was already good.

Great... More ‘partners’ to contact. But hey, if he thought about it as some weird screwed up variation of networking he could stand it a bit more. Just like with a normal job, he’d have to prove himself to his higher-ups to get better pay and more prestigious jobs. He couldn’t just rely on them forever though, he’d definitely need to branch out more on his own.

If he kept things going like this, every Stand user in the area would have his phone number... But it wasn’t like he had a choice. There still wasn’t really any trust between the both of them, so having some way to keep in touch before pulling something like this off was vital.

Best kid Beatrice

✮– That man was so blindly optimistic it hurt. His confident and showy attitude reminded him of how he had had felt when he had first joined Passione: confident  there was nothing he couldn’t achieve with a bit of work and luck. Stands and thievery were both exciting, they were intoxicating like a drug, and as such, they could make you forget how dangerous the game is. Some of the novice members of the organization had lost and paid a harsh price; he had almost been one of them.

  He remembered feeling unstoppable when Sweet Dreams had manifested for the first time. Meeting other users, especially some with more aggressive stands, had tragically reduced his confidence, though: he had learned having a Stand didn’t grant victory.

   ❝I appreciate your enthusiasm, but before taking flight, we need to make sure you won’t get burned and precipitate like Icarus. The sky is great, falling from it and hitting the ground isn’t.❞ He exhaled, then crossed his arms. ❝I hate to be the boring one, but you wouldn’t be the first man I see getting in troubles because he thought his stand was omnipotent.❞

   For a moment indecision took over his facial features. Valentino had quite few points he wanted to make, mostly based on his own experience, yet he didn’t feel like talking about his past too much. It was a part of his life he wanted to forget, even if it was always tragically relevant; while he couldn’t exactly go around claiming to have been part of a criminal organization, those years had definitely shaped his personality.

  ❝You see,❞ he eventually began, vague as ever, ❝I used to work with people like us, and I can assure you things got ugly at times. Stands sometimes made it worse, tragically. Awesome powers or not, promise you’ll be careful, okay?❞ 

  ❝On a more optimistic note, it’s good to hear you’re not a blank slate; it’s good to hear we have something to work with. I do need more details, however. You don’t have to share why or how you began to steal, talking about your specialty would be enough… Have you ever broken into a house without attracting any attention? Stolen in public and got away with it? Pickpocketed?❞

That optimism and confidence wasn’t really anything more then a ruse, a bit of an act. If the student didn’t do that, he’d probably just get trampled by anyone who’d want to take advantage of someone with a couple of misarranged thoughts and doubts. But as the saying goes: tell yourself something long enough and you’ll believe it, or something like that.

What the other thief had shared did pierce right through the mask, almost cracking it. Of course he was aware that Stands weren’t really equal but way to rub it in... “Listen, I’m well aware that I ain’t got some omnipotent powers that’ll get me outta everythin’, chill.” In fact that was why he was so glad for this diplomatic outcome, being in the dark about the other person’s powers really put him at a disadvantage. He had a lot of utility but his offense and defense weren’t amazing... Best wipe that thought from his mind for now, unless he accidentally blurts it out under pressure.

So this wasn’t Valentino’s first time tangoing with others like them, huh? It was good that at least one of them was more experienced with this kinda business, as most of Charlie’s interactions with other users were too short to really gain any valuable insight. That and his paranoia and fear usually pushed him to get out of those situations as quickly as possible.

“Alright dad, I’ll be careful.” he spoke with a bit of a grin, putting as much sarcasm as he could into that ‘dad’. Even though he wouldn’t admit it, he was glad to have someone else looking out for him. Made him feel a bit safer. Not that he’d let his guard down just ‘cause of that though.