seth/wynonna } { and these things i can't ignore

[bulletless]

There’s a soft chirp! as the ankle monitoring bracelet clicks into place, and Seth starts to come to, the whole thing feeling like a bit of a haze. When his gaze finally does clear and he can focus on the tall brunette in front of him, and his head tips to the side in confusion.

“Wynonna?”

It’s a second later that Dolls steps into view and he jerks into awareness, yanking on the arm flung over his head and finding it handcuffed. A couple more seconds reveals that he’s a) in a jail cell, b) being fitted for GPS and c) handcuffed to one of the bars. He struggles with the handcuffs for a moment, before he looks back at them, annoyed.

“Is this really necessary?”

“Says the fugitive from justice who faked his own death.” Dolls droll accent is already irritating and he grits his teeth for a moment before the man continues. “Never mind a murderer.”

He tips his head to the side for a moment, before glancing back to Wynonna. “Wynonna, c’mon –”

“If you’re going to pull that ‘you know me’ bullshit, don’t bother.”

“You know I was a criminal when you met me.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know you were a psychopath!” Wynonna looks genuinely angry, and his face softens for a moment. They had been friends – more than friends even – once upon a time, and he thought that out of everyone in Purgatory, she would be the one to vouch for him, but apparently she’s trusting this suit more than she’s trusting him.

“What did you tell her?”

“The truth.” Certain and righteous, just like every other member of law enforcement he’s ever met. “She’s seen your file, Seth. All the bodies left in your wake.”

“Those weren’t me. Those were Richie.”

“How convenient. But you continued to run with him?”

“My brother was sick at the time. In a way you probably wouldn’t understand. He’s better now.” Sort of. Seth turns his attention back to Wynonna. “You’re working with cops now?”

“Don’t turn this back on me,” Wynonna glares, before she caves just a little, and glances back to Dolls, almost as though she’s unsure of what to tell them. “It’s complicated. But my dad used to work with Black Badge back in the day.”

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Seth pushes himself up. “You’re Black Badge.”

Dolls frowns for a moment, straightening a bit. That clearly isn’t the reaction he was expecting. “You know what Black Badge is?”

“Yeah. Freddie filled me in on the details when you guys tried to recruit him a while back.”

“Freddie Gonzalez. As in the Texas Ranger who’s partner your brother killed. He was recruited for Black Badge, and then told you about it.”

“Yeah, well, Peacekeeper is a tough job when it’s a one man gig. Now are you going to call Freddie and have him vouch for me so I can get to telling you about the hoard of culebras coming into town, or are we going to keep doing this dance?”

Wynonna blinks. “Cul-what?”

“Culebras. Snake vampires. Are you sure they’re coming here?”

“I wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.”

Dolls set his jaw for a moment, before stalking his way back to the phone on his desk and picking it up. There’s a quick conversation and he finally hangs up and moves his way back to the jail cell.

“You’re letting him go?”

“He checks out. But if you try and stab us in the back? I will shoot you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Seth moves towards Wynonna. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Comments

[middlefinger]

Wynonna doesn't like feeling like someone has lied to her -- she had considered Seth a friend -- more than a friend -- and to find out all of those sordid details about him and his brother, well, it stung to say the least. And maybe it's not that simple, maybe things aren't that black and white, but it still stings, it still raises her hackles and it'll be a while until things are okay again.

Assuming they ever are.

It's easier to focus on business.

"So what do I need to know about these snake-vampire things. Cule-whatever you call them"

[bulletless]

In all fairness to Seth, most of that stuff went down after they met the first time, a long time ago, but he's not here to plead his case unless he's ready to hear it. He's just glad he's not getting shot and the fact that for a moment, she's still talking to him until he has a chance to explain more.

Preferably without Dolls listening.

"Culebras. And basically they're all the standard vampire tropes, with bonus snake scales and bonus abilities. Wooden stakes or taking their heads off is your bet best."

[middlefinger]

Wynonna knows that sometimes things get out of hand, and not everything is black and white and while she doesn't exactly trust him right now she's not going to close the door on him entirely either.

But she definitely plans on grilling him for more information when Dolls isn't around.

"Right. So Peacemaker is useless in this case -- good to know at least."

[bulletless]

"Unless you load it with wooden bullets, yeah."

He doesn't really know much about her shiny special gun, but he definitely noticed her packing it. He pauses for a moment because as looming as the threat is, he doesn't want to leave this unfinished, or at least not unmentioned.

"I know I owe you a very long explanation over very many drinks, but I hope that you'll give me a chance to let me give it."

[middlefinger]

"There's a thought."

Wooden bullets isn't something she has, but she imagines she might be able to get her hands on some if she really needed to.

At his words she purses her lips and concedes. She turns to look over at Dolls. "We're going to Shorty's to get some drinks, don't wait up."

Dolls looks less than pleased at this but he knows when Wynonna has her mind set on something it's hard to talk her out of it.

"If he tries anything, call me."

[bulletless]

Seth gives him a mocking salute before he turns to follow Wynonna over to Shorty's. He doesn't say anything until they're seated in a booth, with a bottle or two in front of them, and he's pouring the first round.

"So - I got locked up. For theft, not murder. That's kind of where this all got started."

[middlefinger]

Wynonna grabs her first shot, downing it before she bothers responding.

"Right, well we've all been there. More or less."

She's never been in-prisoned for a long time or anything, but she's spent a few nights in jail and even more time in juvenile hall -- happens to the best of them, if you have a very loose definition of what constitutes as the best of them.

[bulletless]

"Well, Richie was on his own for a while. And while he was on his own this culebra, Santanico Pandemonium, she got in his head. Made him think he was the hero she needed. So on her say so, he broke me out of prison, and we started to head to her, not that I knew this at the time."

He leaves out the fact that she's not going by that name anymore, because he doesn't need people reacting poorly to good allies. He knocks back his drink, pours another and knocks it back again, before he continues.

"When Richie was under Santanico's sway, he went a little crazy. Humans can't really handle it for that long, especially from a distance. That's how the Freddie's partner and the bank teller died. Richie did it, I was just along for the ride. After that, everyone else we killed was a culebra."

[middlefinger]

Wynonna pours herself another shot and downs it as she mulls over his words. The thing is - she wants to believe him. She likes Seth. But she's been wrong about people before and trust isn't something that comes easy to her these days.

"So what, I'm supposed to just take your word for it?"

[bulletless]

"It would be nice."

He's mostly kidding about that. He pauses for a moment as he traces a finger against the rim of his glass. He knows that this is a lot to take in, so he takes a breath and leans back against the booth.

"You can talk to Freddie. I'm sure with that call from Dolls he'll be here eventually."

[middlefinger]

"I'll be sure to grill him when he does."

Still, in the meantime...

"But until then, consider yourself on probation, don't make me regret giving you another chance, okay?"

[bulletless]

Seth nods slowly, because while it's not what he wanted, he knows it's what Wynonna needs. They'll deal with the culebras first, and figure out the rest from there. "I will do my best."

And he meant that. He isn't really in any position to keep losing friends.

[middlefinger]

"Good."

Because Wynonna isn't in any place to lose friends either, she doesn't exactly have a lot of them.

"So you mentioned these culebras has bonus abilities -- what kind of bonuses are we talking about?"

[bulletless]

"Depends on the culebra, but they're generally snake adjacent." In various weird and creepy ways. "One I know has wings, one can create this kind of scale armor to protect themselves, one can go boneless so he can slither in and out of places which is actually kind of fitting for him as he has no spine."

Never forget that Sex Machine is a fucking asshole.

[middlefinger]

"So the special abilities tend to fit the person's personality, then?"

At least, that's what it was sounding like to her.

[bulletless]

"Yeah, a little, I guess." He shakes his head a bit because he really doesn't know how all of this works. And the idea that his brother got mind control powers because it's an aspect of his personality is not comforting in the least. "Or who they have the potential to become."

It's hard to argue against the fact that those wings make Kisa look like a goddess.

[middlefinger]

"It makes sense -- a lot of the revenants have abilities connected to who they were when they were human. Like one who used to take people's confessions who fed off people's guilt and killed those who couldn't earn forgiveness."

That was not a fun time in her life considering she became one of his targets.

[bulletless]

Seth squints for a moment as she explains that, and he pauses midway bringing his beer to his lips. There's a beat of silence as he processes, then tips his head to the side. "That revenant is gone now, right?"

Because there's a lot of forgiveness that he is probably never going to get so he's pretty much guaranteed to be dead.

[middlefinger]

"It is -- I was able to take him down thanks to Waverly."

It turns out her sister's forgiveness was the only one she really needed, and the one thing that asshole didn't bet on, that her sister would be able to forgive her. Waverly is the best.

[bulletless]

"Team work makes the dream work, I guess."

But he's certainly relieved. While Wynonna might be able to forgive him in order to save his ass, but he doesn't want to have to rush her. That's going to have to come in it's own time.

"Culebras'll be a lot easier to deal with."