meldaciomartyr

[meldaciomartyr]

❝ there ain’t no shame in looking for a better world. ❞

Red Dead Redemption 2:

Sittin' around the fire that burned in the old metal drum, Dave gave a thankful nod at a few o' the hunters that brought in some more firewood.

Of all the places he'd expected t'meet Glenn again, the Slums wasn't one of 'em. It felt too close t'Shinra even for the bold Lodbrok, even down here in the Slums, down on the floor and far below the attention of the loomin' Shinra.

'there ain't no shame in looking for a better world'. Glenn looked up at the Plate far above their heads. Dave held his hands out over the flames in the old barrel and checked the time on his watch; him an' a few other hunters were here t'deal with a nest of fiends who'd taken up roost worryingly close to civilians.

"No, I agree with that." And he did; wantin' a better world was never a good thing. What Dave hesitated over was the differin' morals that went with it. "- so long as it ain't at the expense of other folks. If innocent folks're gettin' hurt, then this better world is bein' sought the wrong way."

@soldier-lodbrok

#soldierlodbrok

[meldaciomartyr]

#fc #max martini

[meldaciomartyr]

Reno stormed outta the room an' Dave didn't know whether t'be concerned or relieved. He felt sorry for Ida's boy 'cause he was bein' overloaded with information right now, the truth 'bout his dad an' his godfather bein' a lying son of a bitch.

"I ain't plannin' on sendin' my hunters into the belly o' the beast. I got contacts dotted around the map who can feed intel back." Navyth, Dino, Vyv, Coctura, Wiz an' a handful of others. Dave remained standin'; not havin' moved an inch since entering this room.

"Ya make yer calls, I'll make mine an' we pool our results." It seemed the quickest way t'share intel an' try find valuable content in the enquiries. "That lady deserved her freedom."

It was messy an' probably not the best move t'make at the time, but he couldn't've let Sarah languish inside imperial walls, not after everythin' she'd been through. Dave bristled at the mention o' little Jake. This fella knew not only of Will, but of his little grandson too. Baldur's grandson, if truth be told.

"Ya done yer homework on the life Ida an' her boys found here. How that helps in findin' Baldur, I don't understand."

' don't. ' veld cut across the other man when he mentioned making some calls. he said quick too, which didn't reflect well at all. but this was a delicate situation and there were a lot of moving parts.

' leave me make the calls. the hunters haven't traded with imperial bases in months - trust me, it was part of my job to keep tabs on such thin— '

veld cut himself short when reno's patience seemed to meet its limits and he shot his adoptive father a look, before storming out the door of the house, making sure it slammed shut behind him ... an age ago, and he might have been able to trick himself into thinking it was a cocksure teenager, and he'd be waiting a solid hour before he called his old friend to tell him just how his patience had been tested by his son today.

but it wasn't an ago ago.

and it wasn't baldur he had to vent to.

heaving a sigh, veld sat back down into the armchair he'd claimed earlier, gaze still lingering on the door reno had stormed out of.

' very carefully. but i think your hunters would be best kept away from this - i know full well that sarah knight now resides in meldacio. caligo was only short of a tantrum to lose his bladesmith. '

pointing a finger at the door, veld held another deep breath in his chest, resolve cracking a fraction before he sat up straighter in the chair and switched his gaze to the hunter, ' and i'm aware that sarah knight's married surname is ulric. and that her daughter is the mother of his son ... yours and ida's, grandson? '

#exiledturk

[meldaciomartyr]

ffxv aes | dave auburnbrie 

(shout out to @meldaciomartyr for making me realize max martini is a spot on fc for our favorite hunter)

#ugh I adore this!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3

[meldaciomartyr]

@meldacioxhq

John & Judy’s reunion in 3.04 “Nothing Left Behind”

#loooove this

[meldaciomartyr]

Dave stayed standing exactly where he was, not waverin' from holdin' the former Turk's gaze. There was anger in there, bold and unhidden. He was partially disappointed when Reno stood an' put himself between them, but also relieved. It took a lot for him t'get angry, but right now he was raging an' it was an emotion that didn't sit well with the hunter.

Gettin' angry and reacting 'fore thinking wasn't good. A lot more could be gained from calm an' measured conversations than shoutin' matches. "I'm aware o' what tone I used, don't mistake that."

"Ya owe me nothin', but him," Dave nodded to Reno, who hadn't said a word but that was more tellin' than anything. "- what ya owe to him is beyond what my words can reach." A childhood gone, a father ripped form him an' they could'a been a family all this time.

"I'll make some calls an' see what rumours're flying." Or he could play a more dangerous game; the hunters and imperials had had a trade system worked out - meat an' rations for medical supplies. It'd been a chance to see inside the walls of the bases ... but they hadn't continued that system after Sarah had arrived in Meldacio; it was too risky.

"We'll find him but this has t'be done carefully." Dave looked from Veld to Reno an' back to the older man. "- there are folks in Meldacio whose safety I ain't gonna risk. This can't be a rushed gung-ho half-assed plan."

in hindsight, perhaps sitting down wasn't the best of choices? he was in a vulnerable position, but he still had the only two persons in the house in his field of view. six of one, half a dozen of the other. if this were anyone else in his position, he'd lecture them over rookie mistakes.

muscle-memory clicking into place when the hunter's drawl took on a cutting edge, veld was back on his feet, closing the distance between himself and the man, but was stopped short when reno stood and placed himself between the hunter and the turk.

not a word spoken by his old student, but that was all the more unsettling. veld stopped himself mid-step and dipped his head in a shallow nod, gaze flitting back to dave.

' watch you tone, auburnbrie. your judgement isn't warranted - i will pay my dues eventually. but i owe none to you. '

' i haven't been standing over him yanking a chain all these years. at the moment, i don't know which base. but i will find out. '

#exiledturk

[meldaciomartyr]

He'd heard of these fellers; the Shinra Resistance Committee. Another faction set up t'try and break Shinra's chokehold on the planet. While he admired their goals, Dave had seen so many o' these organisations try to set up and be squashed by Shinra. But they always sprang new branches; the regular people were fed up o' Shinra's monopoly, but it was a big fight.

He didn't care much for Shinra, but every fight always had the same outcome; regular on-the-ground people who needed help.

"Ain't gonna hear no judgin' from us." The hunter nodded his head and there was a knowin' smirk at Glenn's words; them little cactuars were annoyin' pests."

"I'll make a call an' get a few more hunters in the area t'head this way. Cactuars first an' then the old behemoth. Do yer folks want any of the resources? Hides, horns, needles?"

He liked that guy. Glenn's gut instinct told him Dave was one of the genuine good ones - and till now his guts had been correct almost always.

Grinning at Auburnbie's words, Glenn clapped his other hand over the handshake as if that sealed their deal.

"Great - I really like there's factions like yours, ready to help the folks who need it most."

And even though the SRC maybe weren't the most helpless, there were some aspects that went abroad from a rebellion against Shinra. Beasts and monsters were hard to navigate without professionals. His brother was tied into work elsewhere, so approaching the hunters had been a first.

And it was a fucking odd request.

"Now, don't judge us too harshly. But we have two quite different problems. One is an old behemoth that regularly attacks an important travel route in the grasslands... and the other... well, a group of cactuars that have been giving us hell, stealing shit and then piercing my people half to death. Somehow the latter is the greater threat."

#soldierlodbrok

[meldaciomartyr]

Baldur was alive. That was the claim, but was it enough jus' to go on the word of a feller who'd already proven himself shady. But it wasn't jus' Veld's word, there was Sarah too. She didn't talk much 'bout her time as an imperial prisoner, but she'd told Reno that his father was alive.

But then Veld spoke again and Dave couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Ya let the man believe that all these years?"

"What kinda sick torture is that?" He had only met Baldur once; that fateful day down by the Slough, but t'think the man had been alive all these years and told his family were dead, it was beyond cruel. Keepin' an eye on Reno, Dave shook his head and tried to keep his temper from flaring any more. He couldn't afford to escalate this encounter, not if Reno decided to choose anger.

"Where is he? Which base?"

' me and you got different pasts too. ' veld countered with a dry smile. easy judge another from a distance, but he couldn't put himself in the boots of the head-hunter; he didn't know what it was like growing up with a mother who ran the organisation, the expectation that came with her reputation, the pressure that surely cast on his shoulders.

the turk didn't know what that was like and the hunter sure as hell didn't know what it was like to slowly realise that you were on the wrong side of history. to put end up standing across from the daughter you'd thought lost because of your mistakes ...

' i don't. for all i know, i could end up with a bullet between the eyes when all this is done. and it would be deserved. but for now, i trust i'm required alive for intel - baldur tummelt is alive and a prisoner of the empire and currently on lucian soil. '

gaze flitting back to the hunter, veld chose his next words carefully, ensuring he kept reno in his peripheral - this could go one of two ways, and if it struck a nerve with the latter, then he was right in the firing line.

' i trusted the wrong people. i thought a mistake i had made had led to me losing my daughter. i buried that guilt inside and when i was faced with my friend trying to leave ... i inflicted that same guilt on him. baldur believes that ida, reno and loqi died. drowned, actually. '

#exiledturk

[meldaciomartyr]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HIS EYELASHES FOR A SEC? 

This post brought it up with that gorgeous edit. I’m just adding a little more evidence.

BECAUSE. SERIOUSLY.

this has been a max martini eyelash (and clavicle) appreciation life blog post.

#fc #max martini

[meldaciomartyr]

“Find glory in a song that rings true Truth like a blazing fire, an eternal flame Find, one song, a song about love Glory, from the soul of a young man A young man, find the one song Before the virus takes hold Glory, like a sunset One song to redeem this empty life”

— One song, glory

#musings

[meldaciomartyr]

#i don't know why #but I love this gifset for some reason #fc #max martini

[meldaciomartyr]

““I wish I could be cold like that, then it wouldn’t hurt so bad, I could be the train for a change and you could be the one tied to the tracks, baby wouldn’t it be nice just to plow through life, fall in love, cause a crash, walk away without a scratch and crush hearts like ice, I wish I could be cold like that, so cold like that…””

— Garth Brooks “Cold Like That” (via it-keeps-me-hanging-on)

#musings

[meldaciomartyr]

He could read folks, an' knew he could do it well. Not this feller though.

Eyin' Reno again, Dave felt like grabbin' Ida's oldest boy and shakin' him senseless; he was the fella who always said they had t'be on watch 24/7 an' not let themselves slip ... an' here he was tellin' the godfather who worked for the enemy all of their details. Had Reno lost all of his senses?

The hunter had no comment for the non-change of names. It was a moot point; he would'a recognised Loqi as himself even if the boy had appeared with a different name. The happenings on the slough had cemented the child's face in his mind's eye, an' Dave had always had a good head for faces an' names. Dave stayed standin' when Veld sat, stature stayin' jus' as he'd been in a response stance.

"Me an' you got different ideas o' loyalties then I reckon, sir." 'Cause Dave couldn't correlate placin' loyalties to a company or empire above actual folks. This Veld feller had been close family friends with Ida an' her husband, the godfather o' their eldest boy; that had t'take precedence. Family came first.

"Why now? If yer so scared one of us is gonna shoot y'all dead, what makes ya think it ain't gonna happen?"

he could see attributes of this man in that little boy - will? the kid definitely had the hunter's eyes. but then the angle changed and the lighting of watching the boy swing out of loqi's belt and there was a slope to his nose that was reminiscent of ida. what a sordid fucking mess this all was ... they'd pieced together their own family from the shattered pieces of what had come before.

and here he was shattering it all over again.

' loqi and kim didn't give you away. ' veld added, folding his arms across his chest and nodding his head towards the unusually quiet reno, ' he did. i taught until he was a teenager. i recognised him. loqi, not so much. but keeping the same names wasn't the most intelligent of choices. '

veld pointedly ignored the glare he felt coming from reno as he purposefully took a few steps forward, rounding the corner of the threadbare couch and claiming the closest armchair for himself. elbows set on the cushioned arms, the exiled-turk gave a gesture reminiscent of a shrug, his eyes back on the head hunter.

' loyalties take time to waiver, mr. auburnbrie, just ask ida. the secrecy was required because i value my life. i know better than to walk right into your home and claim a change of perspective ... ida would shoot me dead. either that or, ' again he nodded his head towards a certain former protégé, ' he would. '

#exiledturk

[meldaciomartyr]

Max Martini as Dave Atherton in ‘Lie to Me’

#fc #max martini

[meldaciomartyr]

“I care. I care a lot. It’s kinda my thing.”

— Leslie Knope (via wordsnquotes)

#musings

[meldaciomartyr]

Dave shook the other fella's hand and noted it was a strong shake an' the feller was sturdy built. The build o' someone who was used t'bein' in battles.

"Nothin' disloyal bout hunters takin' a hunt." That was his outlook on this; course it was an under the radar way o' helping out a just cause. But Dave saw it more important t'help out the ordinary folks who needed the hunt done.

"The hunters're hunters. We don't serve Shinra. We work for regular folks."

@meldaciomartyr liked for a Small Something

He offered the other man a hand to shake as greeting. This was official business after all. And Auburnbrie had appeared damn kind so far. But Glenn had to make sure he was aware of what he was asked to do here.

"You sure about taking this hunt? If Shinra finds out you accept requests from us, they will mark you down as illoyal. With all consequences."

#soldierlodbrok

[meldaciomartyr]

He heard the boy out, noddin' slowly and taking his time to think over the answer. If he'd kicked up a fuss an' yelled an' hollered about how unfair this was, then it would'a been a one-track hike back to the truck.

But Reno didn't. Instead he stood there after his reasonin' and wait for an answer. "Yer on this hunt cos Ezma spoke on yer behalf an' reckoned y'been haulin' yer weight in HQ."

Dave thought the same too, but it would'a always been taken with a pinch o' salt cos the boy was living in his house an' it'd be seen as some kinda nepitism. Least this way, he'd earned the chance t'cut his teeth on a hunt. I retrospect, Reno should'a taken part of a hunt in Leide first, like all other new recruits; the varmints an' dangers of the Vesperpool were stronger than the weaverwilds.

"Things are different here, but y'gotta hear me when I say yain't gotta be the same role ya were back in the other place." He could be a hunter teenager here, not a spy operative. "- what I say goes on this hunt, understand?"

shitty situation was a fucking understatement. an impromptu dunking into the cold waters of the vannath coast, couple that with the knowledge that daemons spawned after sundown and the lack of understanding what could spawn beneath the waves ... shaking his head again, reno pushed the memories of that night to the side.

put it in a box and put it on a shelf and don't go poking at it, that was how things were dealt with. simple as that. because if you dwelled on things, then it would fester.

y'aint in the same job here that ya were back home, reno

but ... didn't he still need to be? if he stopped holding themselves to those standards and rules, then maybe he'd get complacent? if he got complacent, then maybe he wouldn't notice if a threat got too close? what if someone had an inkling that they were in lucis? what if veld sent some of the others to scout out lestallum or even meldacio and he didn't notice?

what if nothing happened?

scrubbing a hand over his face and through his hair, reno made a paltry attempt to dry his hand on his soaking pants, nodding his head at dave's question, ' yeah ... yes, i am. i wanna see this through - i know my capabilities and my limits, dave. '

' i know things are different here. i know the expectations are different, and i know what i'm doing on this hunt is an exception to the norm because of that, but i know i can put certain skills to use here and actually do somethin' good with them. '

#proxnotxaxfool