InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "POTATO!"

Rusty Beck (wantedafamily) wrote in madisonvalley,
@ 2024-07-23 11:40:00

Entry tags:

!closed, !log, [plot] cruise2024, logan danvers (logandanvers), rusty beck (wantedafamily), ~~2024 july

Who: Rusty Beck and Logan Danvers
What: Trying to get his packmate to talk
When: Evening of the first day on the safari planet
Where: A safari lodge
Warnings: TBA
Status: Closed/On-going

Rusty Beck was many things. Slightly scheming and manipulative wasn't always on the list but could be when they were needed skills. He'd inherited it from his bio parents, both of them -- though he didn't really blame his mother, not anymore after the wisdom that'd come with growing up a little more -- but Peter and Malia were the ones he'd really learned it from. Not in a bad way, of course not. He was just very determined to get what he wanted, which in this case was just Logan to open up a little.

Because Logan wasn't family, he was pack. And while even now, Rusty was still learning what it meant to be pack despite not being a were, he knew what it was to need someone who'd be there for you. It hadn't always gone so well for him, he tended to isolate and shut himself off from the people that wanted to be there, but he liked to think that might be helpful on this.

So he'd declared he was in charge of what they both did on this last planet, booked a room at a resort on the planet, and very quickly started going over activities. There was a mountain gorilla hike not far away -- or at least he was pretty sure they were gorillas, the information said they were, but with an alien planet were they really or just the alien equivalent and ow his brain why was he thinking about it -- which seemed pretty cool. And there was a local dance group that performed every night, which seemed like it might be neat. And a bunch of other stuff, but he was pretty much just going to let Logan vote on all of it save for the dance group at night. That one was an executive decision.

They'd been out most of the day -- had gotten there in the morning -- but now they were just chilling before heading to go grab dinner. It was a fairly simple room, considering the rest of the lodge, but they didn't really need much since they'd be out of the room most of the time.

"Okay, so. Tomorrow. Gorilla hike, monkey tracking, or something else entirely?" he asked, looking over from where he'd flopped down on his bed.

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logandanvers
2024-07-25 04:10 am UTC (link)

Logan had to admit that he was enjoying himself more on this trip than he had expected to when Madison had kidnapped them on a space cruise. Finding out that Rusty was his roommate had been a relief. Rusty was Pack and they knew each other well enough for Logan not to always be on guard when they were rooming together. In fact, rooming with Rusty and letting him take the lead on the things they did planet side seemed like a good decision.

Plus, it got him out of his own head for a bit.

He lowered the brochure that he had been reading and then looked over at his friend. "The Gorilla hike sounds interesting -- and possibly safer than monkey tracking since we don't really know if the planet's monkeys are the same as our monkeys."

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wantedafamily
2024-07-26 02:03 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, and I'd really like to not have to explain to your mom that you got attacked by alien monkeys, thank you very much." That wasn't news anybody would want to deliver to the woman, and he wasn't sure which would be a scarier reaction -- Elena the mom or Elena the alpha.

Lies. Totally Elena the mom. That was how moms just were.

Which only made him think of Kitty and hit him with a wave of sadness. His mother had been gone long enough that the pain wasn't as fresh, but it was very much still there. He'd suffered enough loss in life that losing anyone who mattered was just going to hurt that much more.

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logandanvers
2024-07-28 03:20 am UTC (link)

"Well, the good thing is that mom wouldn't blame you. She'd want to make sure our injuries were not life-threatening and then she would want to go have a discussion with whatever had caused us harm. I don't think that she would care if they were Earth monkeys or space monkeys. You don't raise hands -- or anything else -- against members of her Pack."

He looked at Rusty's face and gave him a faint smile. "You're thinking of your mom, aren't you? I can tell. You got the sad eyes for a minute."

For all that he didn't talk a lot, Logan paid attention to people and he was often the one that could tell when someone's demeanor was changing by even the slightest shift in their physical stance.

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wantedafamily
2024-07-28 12:06 pm UTC (link)

The mental image of Elena having a discussion with monkeys was amusing. Not enough to get him to smile, but still amusing.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "I am. It's... I think she'd have loved this whole trip. She'd have loved the planets and she'd have loved the family bonding opportunities." And he would've, too. He'd spent time with his dad, and he'd spent time with his sister, but God he missed his mom right then.

He wasn't going to argue on that whole sad eyes thing, though. Arguing with Logan worked roughly as well as arguing with Malia did sometimes. Which was to say, not well at all.

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logandanvers
2024-07-29 03:21 am UTC (link)

Logan nodded. "I think that she would have enjoyed this trip, as well. Madison seemed to really pull out all of the stops for the cruise." Logan had spent some time with his mom and Dan, but it was Rusty who saw him the most during this trip.

The main difference between arguing with Logan and arguing with Malia was that sometimes, Logan let you think you had won the argument until he came at it from a different direction.

"Even though you are missing her, are you having a good time on this cruise?"

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wantedafamily
2024-07-29 10:58 pm UTC (link)

It wasn't the way Rusty would've chosen to bond with his Packmate, but he was glad to have been able to be there for Logan. He wasn't entirely sure how helpful he'd managed to be, but he'd at least tried. Okay, so his trying had been in the form of figuring out all the things to distract Logan with.

Still.

"I am, yeah," Rusty said. "It's a nice change from when the place throws major crap at us that's slightly terrifying." He wasn't wrong and they both damn well knew it.

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logandanvers
2024-07-30 08:17 am UTC (link)

Figuring out all of the things to distract the teenage werewolf had actually been a stroke of genius. Rusty distracting Logan made sure that he enjoyed himself on this trip. To be honest, Logan was feeling better than he had in a while; at least since he and Kayla had broken up.

He hoped that she was also having a good time on this trip. She deserved to have good things and happy times.

He flopped over on his side so that he could look at his Packmate and still be comfortable. "You have got that right. I would much rather that it did things like this then throw the big bad stuff at us."

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wantedafamily
2024-07-30 06:59 pm UTC (link)

"I think the worst of the big bad stuff for me is that it's just so not like where I'm from," Rusty said after a moment. "My world is completely normal, as far as I'm aware. It's a lot like Madison Valley was before the time jump, just bigger and busier."

Ah, Los Angeles. Had to love it.

"Which is why it helps having people around in certain situations," he said, with a reasonably pointed look in Logan's direction. He knew it was probably hypocritical of him to point that out, considering his own tendency to try and withdraw, but everybody needed somebody who'd call them on their shit and who'd pull them out of their shell. His was Malia, he was Logan's. Seemed fair enough to him.

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logandanvers
2024-07-31 09:22 pm UTC (link)

Logan gave Rusty a small smile. "Whereas, I have been exposed to the supernatural stuff in my world since I was a toddler and my twin and I shifted into wolves for the first time ever."

At Rusty's pointed look, Logan sighed. He had known that would be coming at some point. He was actually pretty impressed that Rusty hadn't poked at him for this long. He flopped down on his back and was quiet for a long moment. Anyone who didn't know him would think that he was shutting down and ending the conversation. However, anyone that knew him and was Pack would recognize that Logan was doing what he always did -- thinking on how to express everything he was thinking and feeling.

"I miss her, Rusty. I get why we broke up and I understand her reasons and support her taking care of herself and getting her own self pulled back together." He turned his head to look at his Pack brother. "I love her. She was... is... was, hell, I don't know. I have never been in love before Kayla and this change is so hard. She was the first serious relationship that I had ever been in and we seemed to fit so well together."

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wantedafamily
2024-07-31 10:35 pm UTC (link)

Logan's words made Rusty think of Gus. "I kind of get it," he said, putting the words together slowly. "Back home, I was... I'd had a boyfriend. His name's Gus. And we just... it didn't end well. And not in the 'this sucks but ultimately it will help one or both of us' way like you and Kayla didn't end well."

He quirked a smile that was somehow both wry and sad at the same time. "I didn't react well to something, he kept pushing at me to forgive him, and... it ended. Should I have reacted the way I did? No. But I tend to get mean when I'm hurt. And... yeah."

A sigh. "But we wound up reconnecting. Of course, it was thanks to the fucking psychopath who'd tried to kill me once and wanted to do it again, so I'm not exactly how well it's gonna go." Or how well he wanted it to go, but anyway. "I guess what this weird nonsensical rambling is trying to say is, I know what it is to have your first real love end in a way that is both truly painful and entirely confusing."

Look, he's trying, okay?

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