IT'S ALL IN THE CARDS.

@riverdealt / highnoon starter .

“You know you’re a beacon for demons Tobias,” Luxanna grumbled, adjusting the grip on her gun, and shoving it back into its holster. She turned to the man, frowning. What he did was risky, but so was her job, both of them had become all too accustomed to dealing with demons and devils that it seemed normal, Luxanna’s old peaceful life, nothing but faded memories, something she could never return to, nor did she desire to go back to. This was her life now, keeping humanity safe from the darkness that seemed to never sleep.

 “It makes my job easier, but it doesn’t mean I enjoy it at all.” She sighed, rubbing her temples, taking a seat on a log close to their campfire, even from here, Luxanna could hear the distant shrieks and cries of demons in the distance. She knew this night was far from over. Closing her eyes she spoke again, her voice dry and laced with exhaustion “I couldn’t forgive myself if you got hurt, you know that right?” 

Fate reclines against the log, legs stretched out in the dim light. He’s flipping through the cards, looking for patterns, messages, anything that could point his compass as if they were drifters in a cloudless sea.

“You don’t have to worry ‘bout me, sunflower,” Fate assures her, reaching into his coat for a packet of crackers. He breaks open the seal and sticks the corner of one between his teeth, biting down on the wafer. “The deck tells me all I need to know. I just got to read it properly.”

Out in the distance, he can hear the lone cry of a prairie wolf singing to the moon. He turns to Lux, seeing her worried face half lit up by the campfire.

✦ the first five names on their contacts list?

Since a phone listing will be in alphabetical order, it’ll probably go something like this:

Ahri bastard malcolm Eve Kali (@unholyshe) Lux (@lightweaved​)

⍟ any games on their phone? what kind? how often do they play?

HD Poker and some kind of army building game that Graves roped him into playing. He doesn’t so much as play as he does scam Graves into taking bad trades.

✹ five - ten songs on their iPod/phone?

She gazes away slightly, a subtle shrug of her shoulders following the motion before violet eyes focused back on him. Bigger picture was a way to put it. She supposed if she had been hyper-fixated in the small things that happened, she’d have gone insane in that hell of a place long ago.

“ I suppose so. Though, I can’t say I feel particular animosity towards taking the money from the nobles around the area. “ She spoke, her tone hinting the accent of her birthplace, but also how nonchalant she felt towards her own words.

He did not look like your average Noxian. In fact, he looked far from them, perhaps one of the reasons she approached him in the first place. Curiosity, perhaps… Her knowledge about the culture of other places was strictly due to hearsay, and his looks did not spark any presumptions of where he was from, at least not from the top of her head.

There was one thing, however. One thing that made him similar to the rest she had encountered. That ‘darling’… She seemed to gloss over it, but her lips did purse slightly for a moment once she heard it. “ Judging by the trust in your wit, I would not imagine you’d care much for it either. Gladly for you it seems some are very willing to waste their money on this. “

“Nah, I wouldn’t say they’re wasting their money. It’s going to a good cause,” Fate says, pulling up the lapels on his coat. He scans the streets, watching for figures in the shadows. Lingering around at the scene of one’s victory was no way to get discovered, basking in the afterglow of another successful scheme.

If Malcolm were around, his nose would be able to sniff out some comfy, out-of-the-way bar to wind down at. But Fate had been going around Noxus as a lone wolf for some time. Sometimes, it got lonely not having someone to share a night’s company.

He considers the company before him. She was elegant and seemed to have an even temperament. More importantly, she didn’t bat an eye at the way he chose to make a living. He supposes that’s something all foreigners in Noxus share.

This tends to make Serpentine families fairly large as couples will have several children, and that makes for large family gatherings where one couple and their children will all mesh with the brothers and sisters of the couple, who also have their several children.

Linking families to connect them by blood is a common trend among the riverfolk, then. It means that they are likely to scout out marriages for their children, since marrying outside the Serpentine delta is rare, but they don’t discourage doing so.

This changes Fate’s origins a lot - he’s much closer to Shurima and it’s likely that Shuriman would be the second language that Serpentine folk would learn. The climate is much more tropical due to their proximity to the jungle, and the region itself is rather close to Bilgewater, too.

Somewhere in the middle of loose robes and tangled limbs, Fate finds his opening.

A hand lands purchase upon Ahri’s wrist, and it’s like a thread he’s finally found the end to. Fate reaches out for her other arm, pulling her limbs taut towards his, before dragging her snug against his own body. He grips at her waist, bringing his lips down to tease at her ear.

“Gotcha, foxy.”

He can feel Ahri make a show of protesting, rustling against his grip, rocking her hips against his (a poor act, Fate might note), and gasping in his ear as Fate pushes them back, step by step until her back collides with the wall.

Bringing his hand up from her wrist, his fingers trail along her bare skin, crawling up her arm and digging his nails in. Fate’s grasp comes to rest just before her neck , pressing against her sternum with just enough force that he can feel her ragged breathing. He meets her gaze, and in the flashing gold he sees the resolve in her eyes. Go on, they seem to say. Do your worst.

He only grins at her, using his other hand to plunge between her legs and work at her with his fingers. Like gears in a machine they work, prodding at her core, rubbing against her even as Fate assaults her neck with kisses. When her legs part, pleading for more of his touch, letting greed steer her desire, it’s when Fate drills his fingers inside.

Probably all lowercase and no punctuation. He would have a couple of favorite emojis, probably some dumb finger gun one.

With spindly fingers that remind Fate of danvers carrots, crooked and thin, he can see why.

Fate leans across the table, scooping up the scattered cards and arranging them back in a bridge shuffle.

Coffee one answered here!

🍀 what kind of jewellery are they wearing? what’s their favourite piece?

I figure TF has his own two bedroom apartment and there’s technically a room for Graves, but he doesn’t always stay around and lives in other places at times.

♌ how do they drink their coffee/tea?

I feel like Fate grew up drinking tea but Graves got him into coffee and he can’t get out of the habit. I imagine it’s pretty black but with a couple packets of sugar because he’s a person that enjoys a little smoothness in his drink.

When in Ionia though he’d be able to switch to tea pretty well.

♍ any pictures on their walls? what kind/of who? 

In modern Fate probably has pictures of his family, usually him and his older sisters. I don’t think he gets along as well with his mother and father as he does with his siblings and his grandparents so most of the pictures are of them.

He’s also got a poster of David Copperfield that he uses as inspiration.

☆ what is their phone’s background? 

It’s a picture taken from the back of Graves throwing a gutterball at their local bowling alley.

🌷 what do they have in their wallet? (also asked by @lightweaved)

Fate spots her across the boardwalk, sauntering across the docks. What a kind gesture! Fortune must be in good spirits.

He pulls a gold card from his sleeves, tossing it towards her. It shoots through the air before exploding in a small, bright light.

Fate barely has time to stuff his cards in the pockets of his coat before he’s whisked away like a petal on the breeze. He holds onto his hat with a chuckle as he follows the urgent steps of his partner, her wild braids lashing back and forth like a vine.

“Course we are. While I got you, starling, we can handle anything.”

They scamper along in the darkness, keeping to the shadows and weaving around torchlight and the small crowds gathered around bonfires. Fate remembers the feeling - his very first heist with Malcolm had an entire colony of butterflies in his stomach, and his heart raced like a tornado blowing across the plains.

It’s the same electrifying excitement that he feels in his veins as he runs with Akali, anywhere and everywhere.

She doesn’t seem to slow down until they’re outside the town walls. Fate places his hands on her hips, sliding his fingers along her bare skin, lips nipping along her neck as he places her back to a tree.