• •Lose Control

[Ryan Annalise Nicole King]

For as long as Ryan had been alive she'd been the oddball out in her small community back in Montana; even amongst her family though they loved her anyway. She was the baby so she had her fingers in all the pies her older siblings called favourite things. She loved them all because it gave her something to talk about with them all. She could easily bounce from brother to brother to sister and back again. Erin was how she fell head over heels for snowboarding and horror films and he taught her to play the guitar, Parker showed her comic books and taught her how to draw properly while his twin introduced her properly to the Nerdom and her sister, Payson reminded her she was a girl. She gardened with her, gave her jewelry and though she was only a year older, taught her how to wear makeup without looking like some tramp.

Outside the family, she was still considered the oddball because she was so outgoing and crazy. She had a love for all things science fiction, wasn't afraid to state her opinion and knew she was smarter than the grade level she was stuck in. But her school went from the very first year you could attend all the way up to the very last before college, all in the one, exceptionally small building. Needless to say the amount of kids running around Vaughn wasn't exactly high. And Ryan was the only one who showed her nerdy colours with pride. But she was also the first one to jump up on a desk and start singing a silly song to make a fellow student laugh to cheer them up. She grew up with the idea that no one was turned away so she flitted between the groups that were created at the school easily enough because she could make people laugh. It drove Payson and their brothers mad when they were all at the same school together; which was the case most of their lives thanks to their parents not having much time between children to breathe.

In New York, and especially in Three Kings, Ryan fit right in; she truly belonged. She too often joked that these were her people and she was finally back on her home planet like she was some sort of alien. She fit in with her family, but with the crowd at the parlour, they all had similar likes and obsessions. Hell, the shop was covered in nerdy things, the personal stations could have been in a museum for all the collectibles scattered around. And Ryan loved every single second of being within the walls of it all. If she couldn't be found at home and she wasn't off at her secret of the zoo, she was roaming the shop just looking for something to do, some walk in to cover in her artwork.

They all had their share of long sessions and longer days yet. It could be a pain in the ass, especially when they had nothing to do and they'd all cleaned their spots tot he point you could eat off the ground. Other times it flew by without an issue at all. Ryan preferred those days but the other ones, much like today, needed an ending that didn't include plain old clean up. She was planning this all through chatting with her last client of the day and when she went through the routine cleaning and care of the finished tattoo, and warning her client, who was a regular not to go diving into the water for a couple weeks or she would hunt him down and tackle him, she locked the front door and turned around. "Tonight we hit Font! No excuses or death shall reign!" She called to the shop at large. Whoever was there would be forced to go and endure at least an hour of the terrible karaoke that the other patrons of the bar down the way frequented on these nights. In Ryan's personal opinion there were only a few that could actually hold a tune but after a few drinks, it all blended together and started, for the most part, to sound half decent.

Tag || Three Kings Gang!
Words || 703!
Clothes || Crazy Lady!
Music || Kinda Crazy --Whitney Duncan
Notes || <3!

[harley alice paige rivera]

Being an outcast was something Harley knew only too well. It had been her role for most of her life. Growing up no one had truly accepted her. Her mother had never wanted her, her father wanted more than she was capable of giving, and the kids at school thought of her as some kind of computer geek, or a freak who was far too nerdy for them to ever understand. Harley had taken her revenge on them one at a time, but that revenge had opened doors to dark passageways, and those passageways had led her to Jace, and to a life she hadn’t been expecting. Living on the run, working life as a criminal had never been part of the plan, but it had been what she was good at. Besides, Jace was the first person in the world to accept Harley for everything she was, and not care about the things she wasn’t. He was her first real friend, and her family when she had nothing else. She missed him now, had no clue where he was or what had happened to him, but she hadn’t given up looking for him.

However, she knew better than most that she couldn’t live in the past. That was how come she had wound up with her job at Three Kings. Working on the desk might not sound like a thrilling job to a total stranger, but Harley was with her own band of misfits; people who also hadn’t fitted in when they were younger. She had her secrets from them. It wasn’t like she could open her trap and tell them all about the last several years, her computer hacking skills, or how she could make ends meets when the months were tough. When she stepped through the door of the tattoo parlour, none of that mattered though. She didn’t need aliases unless she was talking about MMORPGS. She didn’t use a laptop unless she was helping someone look up design ideas. Harley was just Harley; the hyperactive girl who could out-nerd some of the biggest geeks in the city, and who didn’t look like she could cause anyone any harm. It was a nice change, and a taste of the life she sometimes wished she could actually have.

She worried about her old partner in crime though. Harley would worry until she found her answers. There was nothing she could do to change that, but she couldn’t just stop living her life until that day came. That was why she loved being at Three Kings so much. They kept her from falling down the rabbit hole of her own madness. It meant a lot, meant even more that they were there without even realising it. Harley was cashing up for the day when Ryan came out to lock the door. She was just about finished, scribbling down the figures in their books and putting the register in the safe when the brunette shouted her demands for the rest of the staff. Laughing, Harley pulled her pigtails tighter and pushed her glasses up her nose. “So long as the first round isn’t on me.” She said, grabbing her coat from the rack behind the counter, slipping her arms into the tight sleeves.

• • •

TAGGED! Ryan Annalise Nicole King & Three Kings
WORDS! 545!
OUTFIT! Happy Harley!
LYRICS! When I Still Have Thee - - - Teenage Fanclub
NOTES! <3

[Ryan Annalise Nicole King]

Ryan loved Three Kings more than anything else. She really fit in and that meant something to her. She only really had friends back home because there was only one school from beginning all the way to the end and then all the kids either disappeared off to different schools or they stayed at home and tended to the farms. That was all there really was to Vaugh, Montana. And most of the people went back after school. That wasn't the case for Ryan. She couldn't go back to stay and her parent's knew that all too well. She visited for all the holidays, taking a few days from the studio to head to the midwest but she could never stay there. She was much too different to live in small town Montana. It had made her laugh knowing the man who introduced her to the art lived in Vaughn! But of course, he didn't have a shop in Vaughn. No, to get there, you had to drive into Great Falls. Heaven forbid something akin to a tattoo parlour be within walking distance of the good folk of Vaughn!

That was another thing that had made Ryan laugh growing up. She knew better than most just how many of those "good, God fearing country folk" had tattoos, because Max did them! There were more that had ink than those who didn't. But they kept it to themselves, keeping their pieces hidden from public view unless they were down at Sun River. Still, Ryan had felt like an outcast back home, with her interests and her knowledge; even at a young age. She could have tested out of most of her classes all the way up to the final grade but chose not to simply because she didn't want to add to her freakshow nature. It was bad enough she seemed like the only person in the school who had an obsession with comic books and superheroes, who was a feminist, even at eight and knew that girls were just as good at things than the silly little boys were.

She had been set in her ways from a very young age and all her parents and older siblings could do was laugh because they knew she would do great things. She was well on her way to completing her disertation and being rewarded with her PhD. She had a career she loved more than her limited edition Yoda lightsaber; and she loved that thing more than life itself! "As always, the first round's on Carter." Ryan said with an overly large grin on her face as she turned her attention to the oldest of the bunch. Ryan had a sweet spot for everyone that worked at the studio; they were her New York family after all. Carter reminded Ryan of her brothers and it comforted her knowing she had someone like that close by that should she really need the help, he was there and willing to provide it. Not that she would ask, she was far too stubborn to admit she needed help in the first place! But it was like he could sense trouble brewing and swooped in on those rare occasions like Batman, there to save the day! "Why is it always me? Why can't it be Ash, huh?" He asked, goodnaturedly. It had never really bothered him, he actually enjoyed spending his money on his friends and Ryan knew that; which was why she always said him first.

Tag || harley alice paige rivera & The Three Kings Gang!
Words || 584!
Clothes || Crazy Lady!
Music || Kinda Crazy --Whitney Duncan
Notes || <3!

[harley alice paige rivera]

There was no option to return home for Harley. The same could probably be said for several of the places where she had stayed before her twenty-fifth birthday. Before New York, back when it was just her and Jace, life had been as close to perfect and yet as far from it as Harley could have ever imagined. Staying in one place was never really an option because sooner or later someone in law enforcement caught wind of Jace’s appearance or of their aliases. It was then they had to pack up and grab the first bus out of there, heading to a new random city where they could get lost in the crowd and pretend to be new people all over again. It was really no life to live, but Jace was the first friend Harley had ever really had. He kept her out of the line of fire as much as he could and he enjoyed her company when they weren’t pulling jobs. She missed him now, sometimes caught herself talking at home as though he was sat in the kitchen or about to walk through the door at any moment. Jace had been her best friend, had taught her everything she needed to survive. Harley missed him, and it killed her that she couldn’t talk about him out of fear of anyone finding out her secret; their secret.

New York might not be home forever. She didn’t know, and nothing was set in stone. All Harley knew was that Three Kings paid the bills and it was a job that allowed her to surf the web and play games when it wasn’t busy as the front of the store. She was a receptionist, so when people weren’t coming in and out, she wasn’t as busy as the artists. Still, as much as she loved her colleagues and her friends, there was a huge chunk of her life and her past that she couldn’t reveal to them. There were times when she desperately wanted to confide in someone, but she knew that she couldn’t. There were no guarantees that they would understand where Harley had come from, or her reasons for doing what she had done. They might not see that Jace had saved her when she had been at rock bottom, that she had owed her life to him. Harley couldn’t afford to take that risk, not when she was still pulling jobs on the side to ensure that she had the money to make ends meet from month to month. New York was an expensive city to live in, and Harley needed more than her wages to survive from time to time, especially when the colder months meant the bills cost more.

Ultimately, even with her colleagues as friends, Harley felt alone. She knew she was on her own in many ways. Her secrets were her burdens to carry, and with it looking more and more unlikely that Jace was going to show up any time soon, they were going to remain hers and hers alone. All Harley could do was push on with her life, fake the smiles when necessary, hide under her bed sheets from the monsters, and cross her fingers that everything would one day be okay again. Laughing at the standard banter between the Three Kings staff, Harley brushed her fringe back from her eyes and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Because we can’t break tradition?” She offered, hugging Carter for good measure while the rest of the staff gathered their belongings. Harley grabbed her bag and slung it across her body as Ash stepped up from the back, hitting the lights as he did. “And because I’m way too awesome to pay for the first round.” He added, his usual cheeky grin in place.

• • •

TAGGED! Ryan Annalise Nicole King & Three Kings
WORDS! 637!
OUTFIT! Happy Harley!
LYRICS! When I Still Have Thee - - - Teenage Fanclub
NOTES! <3

[Ryan Annalise Nicole King]

Unlike quite a few people in New York, Ryan could go home again; if she wanted to. If when her doctorate papers were all said, done and published, she decided that being a tattoo artist really wasn’t for her and she wanted to be at home with the rest of her family, working on the nature preserve, she could pack up and go. But she didn’t want that now and she honestly didn’t know if she would want that in the future. She was the freak show in her hometown because she wore odd clothes and darker makeup, had tattoos and piercings and she loved all things nerdy and geeky. She was a nerd, she was a geek and that made her a bit of a freak in the eyes of the people of Vaughn, Montana. It was sad, since she knew every person in that town and she had helped to cheer up the ones around her age when they’d been younger. She still had friends in Vaughn but even they took their jabs.

But Ryan loved what she did, who she did it with and where she was in the world. She was her father’s daughter after all and she knew if she couldn’t make it in New York, like him, she could find her way back home and maybe like her parents, she could find someone there who didn’t think she was the odd one out. Ryan loved Vaughn, loved the nature preserve but she could live without some of the people in it. It had always made her curious why Max wasn’t looked at like a weirdo like she was but then she really thought about it. Max wasn’t a small man, she was a big guy and looked like one of those outlaw bikers. He was covered in tattoos, had a beard that would probably rival the members of ZZ Top, wore a ton of black and enjoyed riding his custom Harley through the available months and then the big ass truck he owned when the winters and the snow denied him the opportunity to take his bike to the streets. If she hadn’t known him as well as she did, she wouldn’t want to get on his bad side either. Of course she did know him and knew just how much of a nerdy teddy bear he really was.

Knowing Max had toughened Ryan up. She looked like a pretty brunette who wore her nerd status like a badge of honour with her clothes, with what she spoke about and the games she played. But she was as equally feisty. She wouldn’t back down no matter what was thrown her way. People couldn’t say anything to her that she hadn’t heard before. Unless they brought up her part time activities. She hadn’t told a soul in Three Kings aside from the man in charge himself because she had to miss a full weekend and the boss man didn’t let that happen unless there was a damn good reason for it. It was a pain in the as to reschedule appointments that were supposed to be hours long. Thankfully, continuing her education had been an acceptable answer and he’d let her go on without many more questions for her; at least not until she’d returned and he took her back into the office and peppered her with questions until she was dizzy and nearly begging him to keep his mouth shut when it came to what he knew.

Ryan knew the group she worked with wouldn’t tease her or torment her. They were a pretty sweet group of people. Her aversion to telling them was all on her. She felt like if she told them, it would somehow jinx her chances at the PhD. After she got that, she would tell them and let the jokes and the new nicknames fly. But until then, she was keeping her own trap shut until it was time to come out as it were. “Harley’s right. And if Ash ever bought the first round, it would mean you weren’t here. And that wouldn’t be the same at all, now would it?” Ryan asked, adding a little bit of a pout to get her way in this non-argument they were having. “Besides, Ash doesn’t pay for the good stuff, you do.” Ryan added as she waited on the step for the doors to be locked up again.

Tag || harley alice paige rivera & The Three Kings Gang!
Words || 738!
Clothes || Crazy Lady!
Music || Kinda Crazy --Whitney Duncan
Notes || <3!

[harley alice paige rivera]

Harley had no clue was home held for her anymore. When she had first run away there had been voicemails she couldn’t listen to out of fear of what she might hear her father say, and then Jace had told her to chuck the phone altogether. She had tossed it in a dumpster at a gas station somewhere between Miami and Tallahassee, though the memories were fuzzy. That whole year still seemed like one crazy dream to her, but it had been the first taste of freedom that Harley had ever experienced. Naïve and confused, Jace had been the one to protect her from the dangers and teach her what she needed to know to keep herself safe from harm and out of the way of being caught by the cops. Why he had ever taken a chance on a lost kid like her was beyond Harley’s knowledge and whenever she had asked he just used to smirk and either tell her to get some shut eye, or cryptically comment that together they could have anything they wanted. Even that all felt like one big old dream to Harley now. This was the closest to normal her life had been in a very long time and she was still unsure of whether or not she was fitting in like she ought to be. She had relied on Jace for so long that supporting herself without him was proving a hell of a lot harder than she had expected.

New York was a damn sight better than motel rooms and bus rides though, that much was for sure. She might have had to slip back into her dark and criminal past to make ends meet every couple of months, but it was still something more than what she had had before. Nothing felt right going at it alone, but then she had always dreamt of finding a way out and maybe this was it. The thought was not a confident one and as much as Harley loved Three Kings, the people there, and her job, she still didn’t feel like the stars were aligned for her just yet. There was a black void out there, a part of her life where something was missing, but she hadn’t never been great at figuring that sort of thing out. Unless it was part of a computer, Harley was far from being the best as fixing it. Her talents resided in technology; repairing, upgrading, and hacking. It wasn’t something she could list on her resume, since the last eight years had been lived off the radar and on the wrong side of the law. Plus, all of her training and lessons had been informal; there was nothing outside of what high school education she did complete to support her abilities. She had already proven herself at work when the computers on the desk had gone down with one malfunction or another, but aside from that, everything else was still under the table dealings done in shady bars and places where she wished more than anything Jace would show up to guide her through it all again.

Harley wasn’t a hardened criminal. She had been spared that life by the same man who had brought her into this side of the business. She was like the Wizard of Oz; the one behind the curtains. Jace was the face who dealt with everyone, handled all the face to face stuff. Harley’s job was to do all the technical work. For that reason she hadn’t felt like she was any kind of criminal until the time came when they had to go on the run again and change their names, starting all over somewhere else. Then she’d feel that regret that had overwhelmed her when she had first left home and first met Jace. She had to move on from their time together and the friendship they had, but it was difficult when it had been one of the best things in her life so far. Jace had allowed her to be who she really was and commented time and time again on how he liked that about her. She remembered him calling her a breath of fresh air when they were in Las Vegas and she didn’t want to doll up in some slinky dress for a casino, but rather wanted to hit up a magic show and work out how the tricks were done. Since then, Three Kings was the only place she had found that same freedom to be herself. “Or it would mean someone was sick. And I don’t want to be sick. I only got rid of the flu last week.” Harley rambled, stepping outside and waiting on the sidewalk for the rest of the group. “Come to Hawaii and I’ll show you what the good stuff really is. There’s a tiki bar on the beach right next to where our house was. That has the good stuff. Not New York.” Ash loved New York, and he was sticking around for the foreseeable future, but Hawaii and the ocean would always be where his heart was, and everything was always better there.

• • •

TAGGED! Ryan Annalise Nicole King & Three Kings
WORDS! 863!
OUTFIT! Happy Harley!
LYRICS! When I Still Have Thee - - - Teenage Fanclub
NOTES! <3

[Ryan Annalise Nicole King]

Three Kings was Ryan’s home away from home away from home. If she were ever having a bad day, she would skip on into the tattoo shop and immediately be calmed and feel herself getting all happy and bubbly again. Her appearance told the world she was some sort of tattooed, nerdy punk rocker chick but in reality, she was only two of those three attributes. Reality was Ryan was a bubbly, energetic super nerd who would rather discuss how totally awesome Batman is over Superman any day of the week if the choice was that or high fashion; or shoes. Ryan didn’t care about those things. She preferred her Chucks, combat boots and cowboy boots over pretty much anything even though her choices for the “office” would have been seriously questionable if she worked anywhere other than where she did.

Ryan didn’t know if she would stay with the Three Kings Studio or if she would find herself somewhere else. But what she did know what that she would stick around for as long as she was able to. She loved the shop and she had no inclination to actually put to use the PhD she was secretly working towards. She wanted it simply because her parents wanted her to have it. She loved tattooing people, meeting them and hearing their stories behind the ink she was creating for them. She had her own crazy stories to go along with her own ink so she absolutely loved hearing other people’s tales. Ryan had spent an entire afternoon with the receptionist when Cassia first got hired on because she was covered in all sorts of tattoos and they were all different, obviously done by multiple people. Ryan liked the idea the other girl had, collecting tattoos as souvenirs. It was clever and she wasn’t likely to forget any of the experiences she’d had. If she ever got the chance to travel further than New York, she might do the same for a couple places.

“You haven’t had Montana Moonshine. That shit is knock you on your ass with one shot strong.” Ryan said, brightening with laughter. “Come on Carter. Move your ass.” She said even as the man in question was turning the key in the lock. “Hold your horses, Country. It’s done.” Carter said, holding the key up before shoving the lanyard the key was attached to into his bag. Lazily, he flung his arm over her shoulder, putting more weight than he needed to just to annoy her. “Lead the way, Country.” He said, grinning down at her and chuckling when her elbow connected with his rib cage. Ryan kept up the conversation about liquor the entire walk to the bar, waiting until they had their first round on their table before she slapped the table top. “Who’s singing what?” She asked, bouncing in her seat.

Tag || harley alice paige rivera & The Three Kings Gang!
Words || 508!
Clothes || Crazy Lady!
Music || Kinda Crazy --Whitney Duncan
Notes || <3!

[harley alice paige rivera]

Harley had ended up at Three Kings purely by chance. She had called in to get some work done and they were having problems with the computer on reception. She had given Ash the instructions on how to fix it and he had asked if she needed work. After that she had been a fixture behind the desk making sure the computer didn’t break down on them again, and operating as a receptionist. It had unknowingly been her first step to getting the clean life she so craved, but it hadn’t been enough for New York City, which is why she was still doing what she was best at on the side, and why she still missed Jace. He had been her rock for all those years, and the first best friend she had ever had. To not know what had become of him or where in the world he was could kill a girl, Harley was sure of it. She would do just about anything to hear from him again, even just for a minute.

Until them though, the closest friends she had, and the only semblance of family, came in the form of Three Kings. It was all she knew, and she had no intention of giving it up unless she had no other choice. Harley didn’t want to live the life of a criminal, but it had sort of landed in her lap all the same after trying to get her own back all those years ago. Then, after meeting Jace, it had been all she had known because it was all she was good at, and he had kept her safe from any real danger. There hadn’t been a chance at going straight until she was on her own and in New York City, and in New York City everything was expensive and Harley didn’t have any real skills on fancy paper to get her the kind of job she needed to make the kind of cash she needed to live a legitimate life. She had to do the best she could with the wages she got from Three Kings, which did enough, but didn’t always make it when certain months came along, or when things broke or extra bills needed to be paid.

Harley just grinned along with her co-workers. She wasn’t a big drinker like they were, though she drank when they went out like this. When she had left home she had been scared and underage, and Jace hadn’t been the kind to take advantage in any way. He hadn’t even tried to coerce her into a beer when she had pointed out that she was only seventeen. Most of the time she stuck to soda when they had been travelling, because she needed her head to be quick and clear to do what she needed to do, even though Harley boasted that she could work herself around a system in her sleep. Harley listened to the banter for the most part, walking along the outskirts like she had always done in life. Only when they reached the bar did she speak up again, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it on the back of the booth. “Uh, I don’t sing until I’ve had at least one drink.” She pointed out, while Ash proceeded to argue over who sung first last time they came here and why he wasn’t going first this time.

• • •

TAGGED! Ryan Annalise Nicole King & Three Kings
WORDS! 572!
OUTFIT! Happy Harley!
LYRICS! When I Still Have Thee - - - Teenage Fanclub
NOTES! <3