#doublepulse

Bdubs’ love manifest in his loyalty. He is a ride or die through and through, he will steal for you, he will kill for you, he will die for you. His love is his willingness to commit atrocities for you and more often than not, he will act violently if someone wronged his partner either via words or actions. (ie: Impulse saying his horse was stolen and Bdubs immediately going to throw hands.) His form of love is extreme, grand actions for his soulmate. His love is a sword, cutting through anyone who even dares to mess with them.

Impulse’s love manifest in his trust. He is supportive of you first and ask questions later, and his optimism can blind him, but that’s only because of how much he trust his partner. His affections showed most when he’s just out and about, doing things so that his partner can be happy. (ie: digging for ridiculous amount of copper for Bdubs) His form of love is pure, usually just small but thoughtful actions. His love is a shield, protecting his partner from any harm and just doing his best to keep them happy.

Both of them had history, bad history with each other, bad history with how the world treated them. They dealt with it differently. Bdubs, scarred by experiences, believes that the world is ruthless and so the way he shows his affections reflects that. Impulse, scarred by similar experiences, still believes in the good of the world and so spends his time showing his soulmate that love can be simple, it can just...be.

for this, we won’t be starting in our current timeline. we’ll be starting about nine years before. and we won’t be focusing on etho and bdubs. we’ll be focusing on etho and impulse.

etho is 28, impulse is 30. see, etho starts out as a member of xisuma’s police force. and it’s important to note what etho’s view of the world is like at this point. because he looks at morality as very black and white. either there’s good people, or there’s bad people. there is no in between. but we’ll return to that later.

impulse is a witness to a petty crime, etho meets him. they get along pretty well and go out for a few drinks together. they become friends and hmmm there’s some sparks flying. except… they lose contact after a night of drunken fooling around. it’s your typical “I’ll call you later” except the “later” part never comes.

so etho goes off, putting his attention to his job and impulse to other things.

enter bdubs three years later. bdubs is 29, impulse is 34.

and scar is running for mayor. bdubs and impulse meet by chance, right around the time impulse is attempting to start up iPawn. and bdubs comes in, helping him set it all up. and in turn, impulse helps bdubs out with different ways to market scar’s campaign.

it’s a great partnership! impulse’s shop is taking off, scar is getting more support. and oh wow impulse is pretty sweet guy, uh oh bdubs is feeling something for him, and now they’re kind of going out!

except… scar makes a mention that they’re in need of funds for the campaign. and bdubs… he gets a bad idea.

surely impulse won’t mind if he takes some money to fund scar’s campaign. he’ll pay him back and everything!

impulse finds out. and he’s not happy. bdubs’ actions damage their relationship. and once scar finds out, he offers to pay it all back. though, someone beats him to it. see, scar isn’t the only one running for mayor.

so is scott.

and scott’s family pays impulse the money back… as long as impulse will vote scott instead of scar.

and that only serves to fracture bdubs and impulse’s relationship even more.

it’s around this time coincidently, that etho pops back up. during those past three years, etho rises through the ranks, becomes a detective. and he’s successful. but that all comes crashing down with a single case.

the case etho works is a messy one, a serial killer. it’s chaotic, all over the place. etho and his team are being led in one direction only to be spun in a different one. it’s a wild goose chase, full of dead ends and loose threads.

there’s only a few witnesses, even fewer suspects. and one of those witnesses is etho’s best friend. they grew up together, and etho has always thought of this friend as a good person. when his coworkers bring up this friend as a suspect, he denies them.

and nothing gets him to believe them until he catches his friend in the act. it’s enough to shake his entire world view and it’s messy.

etho quits the force, and who’s doorstep does he show up on? impulse’s. and impulse, who’s just been betrayed by one of the most important people to him, offers his home. etho crashes with impulse for a while, turns to alcohol to cope with everything that’s happened. his entire world view has been flipped upside down.

and he does that for a while. until impulse says enough is enough and drags etho to a newly formed dogwarts. he had heard from ren that he needed members and etho needs a job.

so impulse introduces etho to ren, and etho finds himself working with dogwarts. and it’s while working with dogwarts that etho starts to find a taste for chaos. he starts to lean into this idea of “who cares if I’m good or bad, as long as I’m thriving on the chaos.”

and scott (who is obviously not mayor) catches wind of etho working with dogwarts and wants information. etho says “why not” and spills some info, it’s his first real act of chaos, of playing to more than one side.

he meets cleo by chance, right before scar’s election. so early days of crastle. and hey, cleo seems pretty fun, let’s hang with her for a bit. so now he’s split. bdubs joins them Officially during scar’s campaign, and yk. the closet meeting and at first etho really does see bdubs as a way of getting info on scar for ren.

except he falls for bdubs and suddenly betraying him isn’t so easy anymore.

AND THEN ETHO IS EXPOSED. and bdubs knows, and scar is throwing etho out and who can he turn to?

impulse.

etho bunks with impulse again after everything (he moved in with bdubs and can’t go back), and the entire situation has bdubs thinking of impulse and he works himself up to see him. etho is out (meeting with scott) and when impulse opens the door, bdubs throws himself at impulse and collapses in his arms, apologizing like crazy.

they haven’t really spoken since the night impulse confronted him. and now he’s going to see him to apologize.

and impulse is confused because all etho told him was that his position was compromised, he needed a place to stay. but bdubs tells impulse everything and ignoring how badly it hurts that the two people impulse wanted most chose each other, he makes up with bdubs and comforts him.

etho comes back when bdubs is still there, and it turns awkward. very quickly. but impulse makes them sit down, and the two of them hash everything out.