luther "the big shy one" hargreeves | #00.01 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
obediences) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
capencowl20202020-01-19 01:03 pm
obediences) wrote in capencowl20202020-01-19 01:03 pm
for i am born to be what i must be and i must be.
WHO: Luther Hargreeves & you!
WHAT: A government enforcer, obedient to the wrong people because at least they weren’t as bad as his last authority figure.
WHEN: Catch-all for throughout the plot, will add prompts as needed
WHERE: In the streets, at government facilities, with his team of fellow enforcers, at home, wherever.
After a decade in the City, Luther Hargreeves knows how this dog-and-pony show goes.
The meta known as Space is a steady and reliable appearance at public events throughout the month: he smiles politely for photos, he haunts the Archangel Gabriel’s side as a bodyguard, and he parrots the right words, the PR lines he’s been drilled into saying, the party line. Order and stability is more important than ever these days, now that the Porter’s spewing chaos back into their well-ordered life.
Or so they say. Or so they tell him.
You can find him working security, most likely, or watching the celebrations with more hawk-like attention than cheer (probably keeping an eye open for trouble). Parades, parties both public and private, his schedule’s packed with them all.
The truth is, though, that they’re stretched thin. Pulling long hours, doing the usual work of hunting the resistance, but also trying to track down new metas now, all the ones who slipped through their net when the Porter started working in overdrive.
His teammates can start to sense the change in the air when Luther’s stomping around the government complex, glowering at their map on the wall with pins of known resistance activity, or throwing himself into obsessive training and punching the punching bags a bit too hard until they spill stuffing all over the floor. Even the Ratification streamers hung (in an obligatory sort of fashion) around the office don’t improve his mood much.
get @ me! i'm on plurk at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
quadrille if u wanna plot or if you want me to add a personalised starter for you :> will match prose or brackets, too.
also of note: he’s still 6’5”, but looks human in this AU and doesn’t have his half-ape physiology!
WHAT: A government enforcer, obedient to the wrong people because at least they weren’t as bad as his last authority figure.
WHEN: Catch-all for throughout the plot, will add prompts as needed
WHERE: In the streets, at government facilities, with his team of fellow enforcers, at home, wherever.
[ RATIFICATION CELEBRATION | OTA ]
After a decade in the City, Luther Hargreeves knows how this dog-and-pony show goes.
The meta known as Space is a steady and reliable appearance at public events throughout the month: he smiles politely for photos, he haunts the Archangel Gabriel’s side as a bodyguard, and he parrots the right words, the PR lines he’s been drilled into saying, the party line. Order and stability is more important than ever these days, now that the Porter’s spewing chaos back into their well-ordered life.
Or so they say. Or so they tell him.
You can find him working security, most likely, or watching the celebrations with more hawk-like attention than cheer (probably keeping an eye open for trouble). Parades, parties both public and private, his schedule’s packed with them all.
[ GOVERNMENT TEAMBUILDING | OPEN TO OTHER ENFORCER PALS ]
The truth is, though, that they’re stretched thin. Pulling long hours, doing the usual work of hunting the resistance, but also trying to track down new metas now, all the ones who slipped through their net when the Porter started working in overdrive.
His teammates can start to sense the change in the air when Luther’s stomping around the government complex, glowering at their map on the wall with pins of known resistance activity, or throwing himself into obsessive training and punching the punching bags a bit too hard until they spill stuffing all over the floor. Even the Ratification streamers hung (in an obligatory sort of fashion) around the office don’t improve his mood much.
[ WILDCARD ]
get @ me! i'm on plurk at
also of note: he’s still 6’5”, but looks human in this AU and doesn’t have his half-ape physiology!
no subject
But it's easy enough to be a hypocrite, and so of course Luther's overdoing it today. He stops hitting the bag as Haru approaches, mops some sweat off his brow, and glances over at her. His closest thing to a little sister, in this world, with almost all his family gone.
"Some of them hold up better than others, but they're pricy. I should probably just take it easier on them. Kind of a waste, though."
It means he's always holding back, and never really getting to test his strength in full. It's frustrating.
[prescription drug use]
Even today she would often fall into the old habits if someone didn't force her to slow down, but thanks to him she was a little better at reigning it in. It turned out that having someone in your life who was genuinely a lot like a big brother did a lot to keep you from overdoing things simply because you can - or maybe that was just her? Either way, between him and the sleeping medications she'd been ordered to take all those years ago she was at least getting enough rest that she wouldn't need any joints replaced for the next ten years.
The fact that she had pain medications for when she was off duty likely helped a lot, too, as she felt less need to be constantly on the move when she was a little drugged and had a nice bed with a (sorta) nice boyfriend to curl up with and scroll through the internet. The fact that she could ask Nikolai to fetch stuff for her was a real boon, too.
no subject
"You didn't bring me a sandwich by chance, did you?"
One of the side-effects of his superstrength means he's almost always hungry, too, his metabolism struggling to keep up.
no subject
"I'll likely end up digging into my snacks later in the day, too, since I have no plans of leaving early. You're free to have some now though, if you need something to hold you over." She laughed a little.
In her first few years here she'd been prodded about always having trail mix and jerky on her whenever possible. In the end it had worked out though. She and a few other enforcers had once been trapped in a building by some of the resistance for several days, comms down so that reinforcement couldn't be called in to simply solve the issue. Her weird little habit had come in handy, keeping them fuelled enough to take the chance to break the stalemate when the opportunity arose.
no subject
"So. On another note. What do you make of all this, the stuff going on?" They weren't paid to think about the latest Porter crisis, but even ground-level soldiers couldn't help but develop some kind of opinion on it. And clearly it was some kind of burr stuck in Luther's skin, considering how he was punching it out into the bag.
no subject
Conditioned. Most of them needed to be conditioned, but gods knew she knew better than to say it. Aside from her little forays into posting memes on a burner phone, she stayed well away from anything that would get her in hot water. While the people at the top - or at least as 'top' as would care to talk to someone so low on the rung - knew she didn't have any loyalty and was just here because of the benefits, she didn't even hint at that outside of closed meetings. She'd memorised the party line and simulated a 'person' in her head that believed all of the lies so that she could easily fall back on the persona at a moment's notice.
"I was looking forward to maybe getting some time off with the next big victory, get a couple weeks away from winter, maybe have a special night or two with the boyfriend, and now that's a far and distant fantasy." She then scoffed. "Not that that's anything close to the biggest problem with all this, but it's nice to have something to look forward to."
She then took a large bite out of her sandwich.
It was Luther's turn.
no subject
Ordinarily, that sort of thing might give someone pause: might make them start doubting the worthiness of their mission, whether or not they really were on the right side here. But Luther had already experienced five teammates (family members) bristling against authority while he held firm, steadfast in his loyalty. If he could defend a dubious mission even against his own brothers, then he'd accept these masters unflinchingly, too.
And he snorted at her complaint, bemused. The girl always had a talent for cheering him up, for cracking through some of that sober, stick-in-the-mud exterior of his. "The trick is to have your boyfriend in the field with you," he said with a flash of teeth, a rakish smile. Although he and Allison were cagey about their personal lives, it was a well-known fact that the two of them were usually fighting side-by-side whenever Luther wasn't with Askeladd's team. "Capitalises on the time you can spend together."
After a thoughtful pause where he took another swig of water: "Apart from that, I agree with you. It's a whole lot of unknowns and a mess I hadn't planned for. Maybe I should've realised things couldn't stay quiet forever."
no subject
It was true. Nikolai's powers and hers seemed to compliment each other fairly well. Nikolai's monsters were intelligent, and she could communicate with them just as she could any other animal. With so many eyes on the field that knew what they were looking for she and Nikolai were terrifyingly good at scouting, and when his monsters got into battle she was able to warn them of anything incoming from their blind spots. That was before you got into his darts, which he'd become amazing at using over the years, and her fire. While not as impressive as the monsters and her communication abilities, the powers had been useful in herding people to locations for capture.
They weren't the most useful against metas with super strength or lasers and the like, but they were great in fieldwork. There were a few jokes about them being a power couple, and, well, they certainly weren't disagreeing.
Haru stretched a little.
"I mean, this is a little more than just noisy. This is like someone walked into a funeral home with a dozen subwoofers and a huge sound system on max playing the most mind-numbing music they could find." Yeah, she sounded a little bitter.
could probs wrap in the next round?
"Still. You know I agree. How are you putting up with it? Taking care of yourself?"
He asks, as if she hadn't just walked in on him essentially throwing a tantrum in the gym. Pot, kettle, black.
Guess who forgot to log into this account! (I am so sorry) (also sounds good!)
"Not too bad. Niko and I keep bugging each other to make sure neither of us is putting work first. And by that I mean Niko calls me regularly to remind me that, no, work and training is not more immediately important than whether or not I ate in the last two days." She shakes her head and laughs lightly. "You'd think I had a history of this!"
She does, and that's the joke.
Haru then looks up at him. "What about you? Anyone keeping on your tail to make sure you don't forget basic bodily needs?"
& end
So: "Allison, of course," he says, and it's uttered so simply, like it's a fact of the universe. The sun rises in the east, the Porters weren't working before this month, and naturally his field partner is the one who looks after him. Who keeps his head on straight. His only thread leading back to home. His family, in every way that counts.
But some other things still don't change, and that's how quickly Luther pivots away from the subject again. It's a private and precious corner of his life, one where no one else is allowed in. No matter how much he likes them.
"Come on," he says, finishing the last swig of his water, and offering up a smile. "Your lunch break should be over by now. Your turn at the mat, and I'll watch your training form."