This one goes out to Katherine. She’s a wonderful patron and friend from Patreon.
Title: CONQUISTADORE
Author: Harper Kingsley
Original Fiction
World: Being Blaise
Genre: drama
Rating: mature(?)
–
He’s not a bad guy. At least, he doesn’t think he is. He’s just someone that knows how to take care of himself in any situation. He’s not the kind to leave an opportunity unplucked.
There’s always been a hunger in him. A boundless need to survive. No matter what test was thrown at him, he always fought to the very end. It was one of those things that kept him special: pure.
Sometimes he feels a genocidal fury. The echo of his people at home, their fierce warrior spirit and their need to subdue, conquer. He hates that part of himself. That sour evil persona that rode in his skin.
He needed to get away from the temptation. He needed to start somewhere new and fresh.
He needed just one chance.
So when he found the letters from the delightful Smith family, he was happy to take the call. It felt like destiny. Everything he ever wanted neatly wrapped up in a bow.
A new name. A new life. A great opportunity.
*
The Family is a strange one. They smile at him so brightly and pull him into their home. He forces himself to put on a bright persona, one of such saccharine sweetness that it nearly turns his teeth. He is willing to do anything to stay in this much sweeter country, even act the fool.
He is enrolled in school. He gets a job stocking shelves in a grocery store.
He had been a ruler of men, and now he was mopping floors and reading books. He had never been happier.
It’s why he chose the name Blaise Lumineer Andrews for his new life. It displayed his enthusiasm and just the right amount of gaudy ridiculousness to brighten his mood.
*
He slipped his way through every bit of their life. He became serpentlike and sly, spreading himself out until they had no choice but to accept him.
He became one of the centers of their world. They LOVED him, and he knew it well.
Which is why it was such a shock when they abandoned him at a mall and disappeared. He was a smart man, he could have figured out where they were. But he also had the common sense to accept what had happened.
He’d been abandoned.
Again.
It hurt to know how many times it had happened and how many times it would probably happen again. People come and people go, and they would always leave him behind with a shallow goodbye.
Blaise hugged himself for ten minutes straight.
Then he went and got wasted, shoving off the grasping hand of amorous would-be lovers. He didn’t have any kind of skin-hunger at the moment. He only wanted to be left alone.
To wallow in the loneliness of knowing that he was alone in a country far from home. The only people that he’d had to cling to in this strange place had thrown him away.
He’d get along, he always did.
*
The man in the mirror was a shadow of someone he used to know. He doesn’t even have that name anymore.
He works so hard everyday, but it never feels like he’s getting anywhere. There’s never enough money and there’s a growing sense of helplessness that he hates.
He’d spent a childhood scrabbling in the muck with his aunt at his side, so he feels like he should be managing better. His aunt is long gone and it’s just him now, which makes everything different.
Poverty was the reason he’d turned to crime in his first life. But he’s trying to be someone new this time. He wants to make a different choice.
It’s just hard sometimes.
He’d get a spark of temptation when his stomach was gurgling and he was eating ramen out of the pan.
Back in the old days he’d still be eating ramen, but at least he hadn’t had to be the one to cook it. There’d always been a bitchboy or two running around, ready to fall all over themself to please him.
He missed having minions and lackeys. He missed the hustle and bustle and NOISE of having other people around.
He hated living alone.
At least when he’d been a villain he’d had company and someone to take care of him. But now he couldn’t even afford the cheapest of Companions.
Being Blaise was harder than he would have thought.
=THE END=
STORY PROMPT => Tungee (American Dad) isn’t actually an orphan boy, not in the way that he presented himself. He’s really a guerrilla fighter that found some letters and tricked his way out of a warzone.
He’s not a bad guy. At least, he doesn’t think he is. He’s just someone that knows how to take care of himself in any situation. He’s not the kind to leave an opportunity unplucked.
