Consistently Adequate

Arthur Morgan was a dangerous, violent man. A killer and thief. The price on this head astronomical, and earned by equally outrageous deeds. Handsome enough, sure; so you could forgive your mind the dreams where you rode him like a bucking mustang or the ones where he folded you in half, fucking you till you screamed in ecstatic release. Wasn't like you were getting that attention from any man in waking hours; you could understand your mind linking the object of your obsession with baser needs.

But in the other dreams he called you Bede. Hellcat. In those, he watched you with soft eyes and helped you braid your hair. He held you gently to himself as the two of you drifted off to slumber in a shared bedroll under the stars. He groomed your horse as carefully as he did his. Worse, the dreams played into that deeply-held and long-abandoned desire to be seen and valued for your skills. A girlish yearning, really, and one you thought you'd long set aside as nothing more than childish fancy. Yet these dreams crept into your unconscious mind, and in them, you knew. He saw you as an equal. A partner. One valued and respected.

It was those dreams you couldn't forgive your mind for tormenting you with. It was those dreams that sat so bitter in your soul when you woke in a cold bedroll, and brewed your coffee alone.

You knew you could leave it be. The dreams only came when you got on his trail; in a way, they let you know when the intel was good and he was close. You might've. The dreams were not good for your focus or your clarity. It was dangerous, would be dangerous on any hunt, and with a mark like him… But the money. The money had been too good to ignore when you'd first plucked his scowling face from a board back in '98. It'd increased fivefold since then.

I feel honour-bound to tell you all that my instinct was to describe this AU as "an Alternate Universe AU" pray for me fam I need it. But you know how AUs are often wildly different to the source thing? This one I am like "what if I only changed one thing". And that one thing is Arthur & Bede both ending up hunting Joe Kelly. In this version of event, the game's story progresses unaltered. I suppose the other thing that changes is that Arthur is low honour. He's pretty much mid-high in Company proper.

Bede took on the Ambarados alone and was injured in the process, and she took Kelly in dead.

They are both harder, more jaded versions of themselves. LH Arthur we know. Bede (justifiably, I feel) gets weighed down by years and years of doing good work and not being taken seriously. She already will shoot first and ask questions later on a bounty hunt, because she's pragmatic about how things would go for her in a fistfight, so she doesn't let it get to that. But in the main story, she might spare a bounty she had pity for, or not pick up ones that she thought didn't really deserve to die for whatever they did. This version of her has no real compassion for anyone anymore.

Bede finds a handbill for Arthur in 1898 for a thousand dollars and she's like, well shit. This is worth a go. Obviously she's warned not to go after him, but nobody ever thinks she can take on any bounty, so she ignores it.

The idea is that the first time they find themselves in the same place & time as their alternate selves are in the main story, that's when the dreams start. The idea without the dreams is that they're surprisingly evenly matched in skill to the point that they've had encounters and not managed to kill each other several times to the point where they build a grudging sort of respect for each other, while also being aware that the other will kill them if they make a slip.

They each have a time where they get close enough to land the killing blow but don't- either because of the interruption of another outside factor or because up close they're disarmed by realising something from the dreams that they couldn't possibly have known is true.

They are mutually deeply unsettled by the dreams. Hellcat feels disgusted with herself for wanting to be seen so bad she's apparently projecting that desire onto a dream version of the most dangerous mark she's hunted.

Arthur finds his dreams pathetic because in the dreams she chooses him over and over and accepts him as he is, which he feels is deeply pathetic of himself. Wanting shit like that. She's trying to kill you! Idiot

Also the mind-blowing sex. Mortifying. Makes it difficult to focus on the job for Bede, and since they happen whenever they're near each other, Arthur is always forewarned. They both hate or something else it

Bede backs off for a bit after this first starts because she figures she's losing her touch. Getting soft. Too lonely. Can't be having sex dreams about the guy she's planning to kill even if he is handsome. What

Then, after Blackwater, the bounty goes way, way up. And she's like, well. I'm sure I'm over those vivid and lifelike dreams by now haha. I'm so normal. and goes after him again. She messes up because of The Visions™ and Arthur could easily have killed her but he doesn't because even though he knows this woman has been trying to get the noose around his neck for months... Those dreams. Maybe he calls her Hellcat in passing and Bede is like, that's some coincidence! He called me that in them dreams! I bet it's fine and nothing whew he's handsome though anyway moving on. Murder! Violence! Get your head in the game girl!

this continues for a while and eventually they each realise they're just sort of dancing around the other, no longer fully committing to killing each other. Lying about it to themselves. Some bounty hunters corner Arthur and she helps him to escape. Arguing that if anyone was going to get him, she's been hunting so long it has to be her. Anything else would be insulting; of him, to her. Does he understand her? He goes by her hand or not at all. Idk banter is deeply important in every universe

At some point, Bede has enough money saved to make a deposit on some land, but the bank won't approve her because she doesn't have a male guarantor. This is something that'll happen in different circumstances in the main story too but I think at a different time? Anyway. The legal question of a woman owning property and land and getting bank loans and so on in 1800s USA is very interesting and complicated so. Much to ponder and research. Anyway girl is pissed

she's much more reckless hunting Arthur after this but even so they don't cross paths for a long while. She knows she's close to him when the dreams start up again. Worse than ever, in her opinion, because she doesn't need nobody, especially not some man. And in her dreams they do everything together. And he clearly loves her. She gets quite mad at herself

Finally, she gets real close to Arthur without much effort and this sets off alarm bells in her head, it shouldn't ever be this easy

Arthur fell asleep at his little camp fire and when he wakes up he coughs terribly

she's like "you're sick? I don't want to catch you when you're sick, Morgan"

he's very grim and very amused all "it'll be sick or dead at this point, I reckon, Bede"

naturally she's like how the fuck do you know that name, nobody knows that name

This is when they figure out the dreams have been a mutual experience htis whole time. They each know things about the other that they couldn't possibly know.

Bede is like fuck it I'm sitting round your fire then what's the fucking point. Unloads at him about how she can't even buy a place of her own so it seems she's stuck doing this forever. And she was hoping to either get out, or...

and he's like "or"

a long, long silence

"well the thing is, I was pretty sure all you'd do if I fucked up was kill me. I found it… comforting."

awkward silence

The fire does the work of smoothing this over for a while, or Arthur has another coughing fit and Bede talks to distract them both from whatever that means. "Whoever she is, she's luckier than me."

"I been thinking that--whatever it is, dream, ghost-- anyway he's a soft-hearted fool, probably going to get himself killed. Despite all that," (he is saved (?) from having to complete this thought by coughing. yey. :C

Bede: let's do it

Arthur: (Making such a face) Do what

Bede: fuck. We know we're good at it

Arthur: Don't be a fool. I'll get you sick.

Bede: maybe. Way I see it, you've already got me sick. All these… damn dreams of you and me. Living a life it seems neither one of us ever has had in waking. Be nice to have something real.

Arthur just looks at her in a way he intends to be skeptically but he can't quite keep the hunger out of his eyes. He knows what he ought to say but by god. hasn't he denied himself enough things

Bede: You know, nobody's called me Bede in years and years. Most folks don't even know my name.

Arthur: You said your friends call you Bede.

Bede: That's so. Just. I ain't got none. Listen. The money ain't gonna do me no good anyway. And I— hell. I know a mark's gonna kill me some day. Why not have some fun. Roll the dice.

✨And then they bang.✨

Anyway I know this post is kind of a mess, but this is how I do notes, in terrible terrible dot points. So. \o/ I guess uh I hope you enjoyed it

@shapsara I believe you wanted to know about the bounty hunter au 👀