In tune (Venable x reader): Chapter one
Summary: you arrive at the outpost and try to be the one to lighten the mood by making dumb jokes and playing the piano/singing, and accidentally get Ms. Venableâs attention.
A/N: this whole fic started because i saw the piano hidden away near the door in the music room in one of the first episodes, and then when Stevie Nicks sang later on i actually was so happy to confirm that it was in fact, a piano.
This has been sitting in my drafts for too long, maybe if i publish the first chapter i might feel forced to write the rest?Â
Warnings:Â Nothing too interesting happens in this chapter when it comes to Venable, i really got carried away with context and writing bullshit? Other than that if you think i should add other warnings please do feel free to say it
|| Masterlist || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 ||
~2200 words
 Ever since you were a kid you managed to get yourself into the strangest situations, and they always seemed to outdo each other. About now you were starting to think you reached the peak of life experiences, after the apocalypse what else was there for you to see?
When the end came you werenât too phased. You just watched things happen to you and accepted them, not that there was anything else you could do. But you didnât panic. You didnât cry for your lost life. There wasnât much to lose either way.Â
You met Timothy eventually. You had time to think about all of these questions he kept asking you, but you didnât really. For the most part you were numb. You knew he was trying to get to know you, given that you were in this situation together for a reason, and sure, you talked to him, you cracked a few jokes to ease the tension. You told him a bit about your life in the past year or so, and listened to his and to his plans for the future studying at UCLA.Â
After some time you came to understand that you two were supposed to be some sort of modern Adam and Eve, the new beginning to humanity. The both of you were told about your perfect DNA, and that just magnified the voice inside you saying that this was a big mistake. You didnât say anything about it because this was the only reason you were alive, but deep down you knew this was wrong. You were sitting in someone elseâs spot.Â
Sometimes you would look at Timothy and feel like there was a rock sitting in your stomach. He was good looking, sure, for a guy. But that was just the problem. You never had any actual relationships, you always distanced yourself from people. You did feel attractions, you did feel love, but not for men. You didnât hate kids, but also didnât want to have any. Especially not now with this guy you were stuck to. You also didnât hate him. None of this was his fault, so you pushed the thought aside for the most part.
Two weeks later you were sent to Outpost 3, and soon enough you met the person in charge. Wilhemina Venable and her perfect everything. She showed you to your rooms and explained the purple-gray hierarchy, and at that you heard that voice again, telling you this was wrong, surviving And also being part of âthe eliteâ?
Timothy asked a few questions, and you almost shivered at the tone in her voice. Very determined and void of emotions. You understood the sureness of everything she said and it didnât leave any space for you to answer or question. You didnât have anything to say really. You werenât that interested in the logistics of this whole thing. If you started thinking about it you knew it would be hard to stop.
âThe house rules are simple. You will refer to me only as Ms. Venable.â she said, looking straight into your eyes. She also said something about not leaving the building, not that you were planning on running away any time soon. The ice in her demeanour was impressive, you wondered for a second if her makeup and hair had looked this perfect when the bombs fell. If her outfit looked as crisp and if the grip on her cane was as strong, or if she was holding the cane at all. You could have assumed it was just an accessory, it didnât look out of place on the hand of someone as elegant as her, but something told you otherwise.
You must have looked spaced out because Timothy was staring at you. She raised her voice just a bit, adding âNo unauthorised copulation of any kind, under any circumstances.â And at that you felt that rock get a bit less heavy, relieved you wouldnât be forced into it at least for now.
âThe two grays you saw on the way in should work as a reminderâÂ
Sure you were happy with the rule, but not everyone would, and it made you a bit uneasy to think about the tension that would form after a while. Killing people for it felt unnecessary and if there were other purples you knew there would be complaining to be heard. Just something else to look forward to!
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On the first week there you mostly listened to the other purples blabber on about their lives, and all the things they didnât get to do and all the money they didnât get to spend on all these useless things. There was arguing all the time, no one seemed to agree on anything except all of what they lost, and pitying themselves for the situation they were in. You appreciated Dinahâs attempts at motivating everyone and keeping a positive mindset, but all of those empty words fell flat.Â
One day (or night? Or afternoon? You werenât sure) everyone was sitting in the music room, purples in the couches, Mallory sitting on the floor next to Coco, some grays standing around and Venable at the farthest table seat from you, reading a book. You could sense the silence wouldnât last long. It was only a matter of time until Mr. Gallant started complaining about the song playing on repeat, but before he could, you tried something.
âLetâs say we had a cat at the outpostâ
Everyone looked at you curiously, a cat? Why would there be a cat?
âWhat would you guys name it?â
Coco looked at you as if you had just offended her family name âI donât know why or how you plan to get a cat in here. Have you lost your mind Y/N?â
You chuckled at that âI donât want a cat, itâs just a question, to get our heads away from the whole apocalypse thingâ
She made a face at the stupidity of your question âI donât know, probably Oscar or Felix or somethingâ
âUgh Coco donât be basic. You know, I would name it Rip Taylor, or Larry Kramer. Or any of the great gay radicals of the 70âs and 80âsâ Gallant said gettig more exited about the question.
Andre said âJudas, or Alejandro. Cats are traitorsâ
Gallant smirked âI see what you did thereâÂ
Evie leaned forward, cup swaying in her hand âI donât know about cats but I quite like poodles. Maybe even a greyhound. I would name him Mr. Chandon. After the champagne of courseâ
âMy grandma had a cat, she was called Pumpkin.â said Timothy.
Coco scoffed âLet me guess, was she orange? How originalâ
âActually she was whiteâ he answered with a malicious smile.
Coco tried to change the attention from that interaction âAlright, Y/N you asked the question and you havenât answered it yet. What would you name it?âÂ
You gathered everything in you to make a serious face. You waited for a bit until everyone had their eyes on you and answered âFish.â
At that the room erupted with laughter, after a minute or so you wiped your eyes so that your makeup wouldnât get ruined, your cheeks already hurting. You managed to straighten up a bit and looked across the room to Venable. Youâd imagine she would call you all dumb and set a new rule that kept everyone from laughing, but instead she just looked at you with her eyes slighly narrowed, the rest of her face covered by the book.
âHow about puppy?â Mallory said. Everyone laughed even harder.
Your voice was now high pitched, you struggled to get the words out all at once "You see⌠that's a great one, but i think Bark is even better"Â
"Come here Bark" said Andre, laughing harder still and slapping his knee.
You knew this would make you look stupid, because it was. But still you welcomed a laugh after all this time, and only something this dumb would work.Â
After that you took it upon yourself to keep people entertained. You wouldn't let your fears show in front of all these fancy people, especially not Venable. It would be much better if they thought you were funny and light hearted than to find out about the monsters you kept sitting in your room.
You knew she could crush you with a finger anytime, and you found yourself thinking about her way more than you should. Was it her looks? Was it the attitude? You had always been one to look in wonder at the strong confident women you met throughout your life. But you also convinced yourself you didn't need anyone.Â
The things you had lived through were more than enough to confirm it. You always managed to figure things out on your own.
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By the third week you understood Mr. Gallantâs annoyance at the song constantly playing, even though you only had to assemble in the music room for the âCocktailsâ once a day. Everyone was thankful about how oddly soundproof that room was, you couldnât hear a thing down the corridor, and for that reason it would be mostly empty for the rest of the day.Â
Despite that annoyance about the song, you still spent quite some time there. Ever since you stepped into the room for the first time, the shelves completely lined with books called out to you. For a while, the free time you didnât spend reading, you spent hovering about the shelves, registering the titles and reading the synopsis for the ones you didnât recognise.
The other thing about the room that called out to you was the piano, just sitting abandoned. It would probably get very dusty if not for the greys who had to keep the outpost spotless. You were surprised no one had played anything yet, after all, you were stuck with a bunch of rich people, and in your head every rich person had piano classes when they were little. At least that was the type of rich person you always wanted to be.
You had been anything but rich before the apocalypse, but you did know some music theory. You were a band kid and played classical guitar since you were little, and you found yourself thinking about how lucky you were that your mom put you in those classes. Music did become a very important aspect of your life very fast, always the thing you could use to escape, to soothe whatever mood you found yourself in. The end of the world, of course, couldnât come without irony, and the one thing that used to keep you sane was starting to have the opposite effect.
Piano was most definitely not your instrument. You loved to listen to it, but to play anything you needed a lot of practise. Still, by now you wanted anything to drown out the voice calling the occupants of interplanetary craft, so every now and then you would try to go by ear on the chords for a pop song you remembered, and mess around with it until some other purple entered the room.
One evening during the Cocktail hour Coco asked you to play something. âWe all know you can play, just please, Iâm so sick of this songâ She said looking at the radio with a disgusted look on her face.
âEhrm, I donât actually know any piece all the way through. Piano isnât really my instrument so most of the music I remember would also not sound right.â
âYou donât know it all the way through, but that means you know at least a little something. Go on darling don't be shyâ Evie said, and you couldnât help but feel uneasy playing in front of these fancy people.Â
You sat down on itâs large bench, you wanted to at least try something classical, to try and show them that you werenât absolutely uncultured. Choosing Moonlight Sonata might have been predictable, but at least it wasnât Fur Elise. The first movement was all you could remember, but it was the piece you knew the best. In the end you were met with applause, to your surprise.
âAh splendid! I had no idea poor people even knew about Beethoven!â Evie was certainly one for theatrics, the way she overreacted made you giggle, almost letting you forget the shakiness in your hands.
âPlay something you can sing to, I heard you sing before, you have a lovely voiceâ Timothy said with a big smile, and you realised just then how that sounded. When did he even hear you sing? By the way Coco and Gallant looked at eachother you could tell they had gossiped about you before, and the thought that the whole outpost might be thinking about it too made you want to puke.Â
To hide your discomfort you started playing the first song you could think of, and while you played the only thought on your mind was Ms. Venable. What if she thought you and Timothy had a thing? Would she kill you both without even hearing you out? Somehow that wasnât the part that disturbed you the most, though you couldnât quite understand what was. She didnât hang around the music room much during the day, and when she did she would either hide behind a book or have an argument with someone and leave. Right now you hoped she wasnât even looking at you and didnât hear the tone of what he said.
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