01-28-2019, 04:31 PM
[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: calibri; font-size: 8pt; color: #484848; line-height: 22px;"]hayley knew all about the history between the groups. the arson attempts, the lost lives, the clearly outlined history of aggressor and defender. she was also entirely aware of who she was as a person, and the kind of shit she wouldn't tolerate. she wasn't someone who sat back and took it; rather, she was the kind of woman who, when punched, pulled out a gun. she was entirely aware of the fact that, once upon a time, the lodge had been composed of people who were children and disabled, largely unable to fight back, and yet the badlands hadn't held back, hadn't hesitated. it spoke largely of the sort of people they'd been, back then. but nowadays? they had two children. two. and that was counting brendan, who really wasn't much of a child, and defended the lodge with a ferocity that made even jackson avoid eye contact with the younger boy.
she'd been walking with jackson. the pair moved along slowly, sides pressed together, heads close and eyes on the ground as they spoke in hushed tones about... well, that wasn't the matter at hand. no, their conversation ceased when hayley's eyes flickered up for a moment and landed on the trio standing in a confrontation.
❝-and if we did then she would be able to-❞
❝we'll talk about this later.❞ she interrupted him, and when he glanced at her in confusion, his eyes followed her gaze to brendan and the two foreigners.
❝joiners?❞
she couldn't recognize the boy, but the tallest of the group was a semi-familiar face that she certainly couldn't forget. ❝badlanders, i think.❞
she picked up her pace as she drew closer, visibly tense, and jackson didn't hesitate to follow right alongside her. though, upon his arrival, hayley hadn't exactly been happy to see the father of her child, she found herself rather happy to have him alongside her. sure, brendan was a force to be reckoned with, armed with his staff. and sure, she'd done some gruesome things in her life, and was nothing to laugh at, standing at six feet tall and armed with the shotgun slung over her shoulder. but jackson? jackson looked like the kind of guy you didn't fuck around with. six-foot-three, plenty of muscle, he had the whole mountain-man look going on with him, with the beard and the untrimmed curly hair. he looked like the kind of guy you'd expect to see surviving in a place like flintlock, hunting and building fires and all that shit. looks could deceive, but they had their value, after all.
❝it's certainly been a minute since i've seen you.❞ hayley said as she neared the group, hands tucked in the pockets of her coat. she'd been heavily pregnant the last time she'd been to the badlands, and it was visibly apparent that she no longer was. she wasn't sure if catalyst remembered her name, but she knew the boy likely didn't. ❝i'm hayley, the new leader here.❞ she introduced shortly, and she glanced at jackson to introduce himself.
❝jackson.❞ he said, and then did something that caught her by surprise: ❝hayley's husband.❞ outwardly, she kept her features calm. cool. composed. inside, though, she was screaming. she and jackson weren't married, not in any memory she had, and she was not okay with him pretending they were. but she couldn't say that aloud, not in front of the badlanders, and it occurred to her that he very likely knew that.
instead of reacting to her apparent new marriage, she motioned to the area around them. ❝it's a little windy out here,❞ she said motioning to their right, the direction of neither the lodge nor the base of the mountain, ❝there'd a shed this way, we can get out of the wind to speak.❞ and, without waiting for them to agree or not, she turned and began to head towards it. jackson, on the other hand, hung back to take up the rear, dark gaze shifting over the pair of badlanders without emotion.
she'd been walking with jackson. the pair moved along slowly, sides pressed together, heads close and eyes on the ground as they spoke in hushed tones about... well, that wasn't the matter at hand. no, their conversation ceased when hayley's eyes flickered up for a moment and landed on the trio standing in a confrontation.
❝-and if we did then she would be able to-❞
❝we'll talk about this later.❞ she interrupted him, and when he glanced at her in confusion, his eyes followed her gaze to brendan and the two foreigners.
❝joiners?❞
she couldn't recognize the boy, but the tallest of the group was a semi-familiar face that she certainly couldn't forget. ❝badlanders, i think.❞
she picked up her pace as she drew closer, visibly tense, and jackson didn't hesitate to follow right alongside her. though, upon his arrival, hayley hadn't exactly been happy to see the father of her child, she found herself rather happy to have him alongside her. sure, brendan was a force to be reckoned with, armed with his staff. and sure, she'd done some gruesome things in her life, and was nothing to laugh at, standing at six feet tall and armed with the shotgun slung over her shoulder. but jackson? jackson looked like the kind of guy you didn't fuck around with. six-foot-three, plenty of muscle, he had the whole mountain-man look going on with him, with the beard and the untrimmed curly hair. he looked like the kind of guy you'd expect to see surviving in a place like flintlock, hunting and building fires and all that shit. looks could deceive, but they had their value, after all.
❝it's certainly been a minute since i've seen you.❞ hayley said as she neared the group, hands tucked in the pockets of her coat. she'd been heavily pregnant the last time she'd been to the badlands, and it was visibly apparent that she no longer was. she wasn't sure if catalyst remembered her name, but she knew the boy likely didn't. ❝i'm hayley, the new leader here.❞ she introduced shortly, and she glanced at jackson to introduce himself.
❝jackson.❞ he said, and then did something that caught her by surprise: ❝hayley's husband.❞ outwardly, she kept her features calm. cool. composed. inside, though, she was screaming. she and jackson weren't married, not in any memory she had, and she was not okay with him pretending they were. but she couldn't say that aloud, not in front of the badlanders, and it occurred to her that he very likely knew that.
instead of reacting to her apparent new marriage, she motioned to the area around them. ❝it's a little windy out here,❞ she said motioning to their right, the direction of neither the lodge nor the base of the mountain, ❝there'd a shed this way, we can get out of the wind to speak.❞ and, without waiting for them to agree or not, she turned and began to head towards it. jackson, on the other hand, hung back to take up the rear, dark gaze shifting over the pair of badlanders without emotion.
[b][i]make your girlfriend mad tight, [color=#4A272E]might seduce your dad type