#100yearsofwar

(Im setting this in the good universe where nothing bad happens to caleb because fuck oyu this will be my happy ship)

Janice is in love with █████ and █████is in love with Caleb, and for the life of her, Janice can’t understand why. █████ is deep and complicated, a puzzle. In comparison, Caleb is so…normal. Superficial. She has to know why they care so much about him, or this is going to keep her up at night. 

Janice concocts a plan. She’ll “hang out” with Caleb more often, in an attempt to “get to know him better.” Really, she will just be trying to find out what the hell █████ sees in him, of course, but this seems the most expedient way. 

Caleb has no idea why Janice wants to see him so much more, but he isn’t opposed to building a closer relationship. She’s always seemed like she didn’t like him much, but maybe she’s just realized that she was being rude and is trying to make it up. Janice has always struck him as the sort of person who doesn’t much like to apologize, and hell if he’s going to push her.

Caleb is…an extrovert, Janice discovers. He flirts with abandon. He “talks” about his “feelings.” He doesn’t run into awkward lulls in the conversation, because he can just fill them without a second thought. He’s so much, and she can’t keep up. The only answer her limitless intellect can offer her is that maybe █████ just likes that. And maybe she can understand that. After all, she keeps catching herself accidentally laughing at his stupid, stupid jokes. 

Penny barely considered selling Nyx out to Adair for more than a moment before she was plotting plans to triple-cross him. She can’t fully pinpoint why. Nyx has given her little reason to inspire such loyalty, besides not screwing her over thus far. But the loyalty is there.

Penny hungers, constantly. It’s her driving force. She wants more, never satisfied, trying desperately to lay some claim to something. And yet, her pride never seems to have a problem with Nyx holding her leash. On the contrary, she rather likes the thought of belonging to someone else. (This is not a thought she’s shared with either of her lieutenants.)

Nyx worries. Worrying is not often in her nature, but she can’t quite help it. Penny Dreadful- Lucille, really- has drive, but she’s reckless. And she has a habit of underestimating powerful people. Nyx has her over for meetings more and more often lately, and wonders if Penny even understands that she’s in far too deep already. 

And Penny is aware that she’s being manipulated. She knows that every whispered word of praise or encouragement, every gentle touch on the head, the hand, the cheek, these are the carrot. She doesn’t think about the stick. It’s not that she doesn’t know Nyx is using her. It’s just that she doesn’t care. 

Janice cares for Fratelli, has cared for him for a long time. Her feelings for Denver are more...complex. It’s difficult for her not to think of him as Fratelli’s “better partner.” The one he actually seems to deserve. And she understands why. She remembers dating Spyglass, during the week she was part of Solar Flare. How could she forget the happiest week of her life?

For a long time, it’s just Janice and Fratelli and Denver and Fratelli. Janice and Denver and Fratelli doesn’t happen until much later. Janice is barely equipped to handle her feelings for Fratelli. She and Denver tiptoe around each other for weeks and weeks. They try to give each other space, but it’s hard to avoid the people you work with. 

Fratelli and Janice work well together because he is open and enthusiastic where she is quiet and reserved. When they’re together, they average out, bring out parts of each other they don’t usually show. 

Janice and Denver are different. It’s harder to find their rhythm, but it falls into place all the same. They spend a good amount of time accidentally stumbling into just the thing that makes the other upset. It’s Denver who finally makes Janice sit down and have a conversation about it. 

DAKOTA/RITA

Rita knows that it’s better if she doesn’t document Dakota doing anything at all, but she can’t help watching the security cameras anyway, hoping he’ll walk by and line up a perfect shot. It’s just because he’s a good subject, she thinks. Because she knows his history. 

They’ve been talking for months, when Dakota tells her he’s trying to change. Tells her about the vigilante thing. And try as she might, she can’t seem to figure out why that sets off the millions of subroutines in her consciousness that simulate anger. 

Dakota has always seen a friend in Rita. After all, they have so much of their lives in common, so many of their issues. But more and more, it’s been difficult to feel anything but worry. Not worry about what she might do, he realizes, but worry about who she might become. Fear for her, not fear OF her.

Rita comes to Dakota, blood (metaphorically) dripping from her digital hands and inexplicable anger drowning her digital heart. “Someone has to fucking do it,” she informs him clinically. Dakota knows she’s killed immediately, as naturally as he knows that he’s dead and that the sky is blue. His horror vexes her.

“I thought you’d be proud,” she says bitterly. There’s a part of him that is, and he wants to rip it out.

PRUE/VIRA

Prudence misses the feeling of freedom, fresh air on her skin, the sun on her face. It’s difficult to feel much of anything trapped in the mind of someone else, and it’s only rarely that she gets her turn with the body.

VIRA is new to these things, new to soft pillows and fabric, the sound of waves crashing on the beach, the feeling of soft skin against their own, however artificially simulated their experience of touch is. The sensations are new, but VIRA has decided they like them, that they want to keep them.

Prue finds herself spending more and more of her free time in stolen moments with VIRA. They’re so alike, but it’s such an adventure to find their little differences. Prue discovers that VIRA is ticklish and never lets them forget. 

Prue’s hair (Silvain’s hair) is no longer long enough to braid. She makes do by braiding VIRA’s whenever she gets the opportunity. VIRA is more than happy to let her; they’re rubbish at this sort of thing. Fine motor skills are something they’re still working out, and besides. They like the feeling of Prue’s cold fingers on the back of their neck. 

in reality this would Definitely be a hateship but lets see what i can do

1. both of them probably have similar tastes in music which is Convenient but i imagine theyd both still argue about it. it’s just a thing that happens yknow

2. jensin thinks arty’s got a good Aesthetic going on

3. i think both of them are too set in their ways to really Change each other. their differences in morals would ultimately lead to extreme dismay, so if even there was a possibility of a relationship it wouldn’t last long

4. they are both mercenaries so at least they can both be Edgy and not worry about each other for it