prompts { 2022 } fictober

[iluvroadrunner6]

Going to do one fic a day in an attempt to buff my word count for this year. Is this dumb when I already have prompts that I'm working through? Maybe but I'm in for the challenge.



PROMPTS:
1. “I chose you.”
2. “Nobody warned you about me?”
3. “That was not my intention.”
4. “How would that even work?”
5. “No, anything but that.”
6. “Adaptable, I like that.”
7. “Check that again, are you sure?”
8. “Do you remember?”
9. “Sounds like a you problem.”
10. “It’s my name on the line.”
11. “Think! For once!”
12. “You’re making my head hurt.”
13. “I don’t want you to do that.”
14. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
15. “What are you doing?”
16. “You’re looking, but you don’t see.”
17. “Are you serious?”
18. “I don’t think this is your problem.”
19. “Do we have a deal?”
20. “There’s only us.”
21. “I never said that.”
22. “Who said this is a good idea?”
23. “Not on my watch!”
24. “Is this safe?”
25. “You know I’d do anything.”
26. “I’m doing it, shut up.”
27. “That’s not why we’re doing this.”
28. “We all have our reasons.”
29. “You love this, don’t you?”
30. “I know what this looks like.”
31. “I’m not alone and neither are you.”

Request plurk
Completed: 31/31
Word Count: 63,823

Comments

10/19 ~ do we have a deal? (3/4) ~ wynona earp ~ 1,280

[stupetballs]

“Leave me alone.”

The word sends vibrations through their small little cavern, and his eyes glow orange, bringing his inner demon to the surface, as though that will scare her away. The angel wants to laugh, but she’s not feeling that mean this morning, and she wants Bobo to engage, rather than retreat. She’s found, as time passes, that the more she is left to her own devices, the more the isolation grates, and a part of her she thought she suppressed is itching under her skin.

Where is Wynonna? Where is Nicole? Why haven’t they come for her already?

So when she wants to find reasons to suppress those errant nerves, she goes back down to the second floor to irritate Bobo.

“I’m not bothering you, am I?” She waves her hand, and the tree he’s been leaning against disappears into a flowering bush. “I’m just shaking things up a bit. Trees can be so cliché.”

Bobo huffs as he pushes himself out of the leaves, spitting errant petals up into the air as he glares up at her. “There is an entire world here that you could populate if you wanted. Why must you continue to vex me?”

“Careful, Bobo. You almost sounded like Doc there for a second.” She tips her head to the side. “I thought I clarified that this is your punishment, didn’t I? Which means we don’t get to do what you want.”

Bobo’s eyes glare into hers like daggers, and he tries to regain his breath. “So, this is about the engagement for you?”

The angel raises an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“It’s not torture if I do not engage.” Bobo tips his head to the side. “If I ignore you, then there is no way you can defeat me.”

“So what? You’re saying this punishment is more than you deserve? It is beyond the pale for all the terrible things you’ve done.”

“I did those things because it was the only way to survive.”

“No. You did those things because you liked them. And deep down, you know that.” The angel steps closer, resting her palms against the force field as she smiles her menacing smile. “So until you’re ready to admit it, to really seem penitent for the things you’ve done, I’ll keep delivering a well-earned punishment.”

Bobo growls, slamming his hands against the side of the walls at her, before stalking off to the opposite side of the cage, sinking to the floor and staring straight ahead.

“I will find my way around your machinations yet. I spent many years in Hell. You’re no worse than that.”

The angel smiles, watching him as she does. “We’ll see about that.”

* * * * *

For a while, he seems to keep his word. Every day, his eyes stare straight ahead. He feigns sleep. He ignores her so readily; she thinks she might lose her touch. She may have to up her game. Beyond her being here, she doesn't know what could push his buttons.

She has no other leverage.

Until she has an idea. She pulls a large tome off of the shelf and makes her way to the chair she’s been spinning in day after day.

“Willa Earp. After spending many tears happily growing up with her siblings, she married a cute local boy, settled down, had some children. The demons came for her as the Heir—as demons are wont to do—but since she had time to grow up and mend bridges with those she hurt as a child, her sisters were there to help her. And when Bulsharr came to collect, the three of them could break the curse together.”

Bobo looks at her, confusion in his features. Like he doesn’t understand what she’s doing. He still doesn’t speak, but he is paying attention.

“John Henry Holliday. After his friend, Robert Svane, rescued him from the well, they could travel the world together, researching ways to break the curse. By the time they reach Ward as the Earp Heir, all of the work is done for him, and his daughters were free.”

“Waverly Earp. With her father in her corner, she can master her angelic abilities and learn more about the legacy she was born into. She gets to have a father she’s proud of, rather than a drunk who never wanted her because she wasn’t his.”

“None of this is real,” he finally rasps. “That’s not what happened.”

“No, but it could have.” She slams the tome closed and turns to face him, raising an eyebrow in his direction. “All the choices you could have made. All the lives you could have made better. You say you used to be a good man once, Robert, and that Hell ruined you, but how long had you been damned before you came across Doc in that well?”

She sets the book down and takes a step forward.

“When you came to my bedroom that day, you already knew you were going to kill him, didn’t you? Because it was better to take the coward’s way out than actually try to do something hard.”

He falls into silence again, before diverting his eyes back to the wall again. But she’s content with that for now. She feels she made her point.

* * * * *

“I have a proposition for you.”

The angel looks up from her light reading, eyeing the man in the cage across from her. Bobo has been silent for days, sulking and observing, which has been little fun. As annoying as it was when he wouldn’t take any responsibility for his actions, at least he was something to engage with. Now, she’s already gotten herself through several of the volumes available to her and she’s bored.

But now he wants to engage again. This should be interesting.

“Oh? Proposition away.”

“You give Waverly back—”

Never mind, she already doesn’t like where this is going. It must show on her face, because he grit his teeth in a huff.

“Will you let me finish?”

“I didn’t say anything.” The angel raises an eyebrow as she pushes herself into more of a sitting position. “I can’t help it. This is the first thing you’ve said in days and it’s drivel.”

Bobo takes a breath before he continues. “You give Waverly back, and I will submit myself to whatever judgement she deems fit. Whether it’s kill me or leave me here to rot, I don’t care. But I cannot atone if she is not here for me to atone too.”

There’s a curveball she didn’t see coming. That he has been listening to the angel as she ranted, repeatedly, is a surprise. She assumed he was simply going to dig in his heels forever until both of them had lost their minds.

Bobo looks at her pleadingly from behind the barrier, eyes focused intently, likely trying to see the bits and pieces of the woman he wants her to be.

“What I propose is mercy for both of us.” He takes another step closer, one hand lifting to press against the barrier, as though an offering for her to seal the deal.

He’s doing what she wanted. And she knows that when Waverly returns, she’s likely to finish what she started, give him what he wants. End him, take him off the chessboard, however you want to phrase it. And once all is said and done, she will be alone.

And that notion is more abominable than her current company.

“Do we have a deal, Waverly?”

She looks up at him, meeting his eyes, and she knows what her answer has to be.

“No.”