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moonmaidensblessing · 9 months

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Jasmine Jolene x Anna Culpepper / BioShock AU / pt. 1

I originally got this idea from this post talking about different BioShock AUs! The idea of Jasmine and Ryan getting married to save face and have Ryan an heir is really interesting to me. Of course, I took it in a sapphic direction because of course I did. :) This is a scene where Jasmine shares the news to her closest friend, Anna Culpepper, who is not happy about the situation.

TW. alcohol use, pregnancy mention, general distressing tone.

“I… I told him!”

There was a shock like crackling thunder, ripping through the senses. “What?!”

“I told him I was pregnant!”

“Jasmine!” Anna felt breathless as she reflexively gripped Jasmine’s arms, held her as if she might suddenly slip away from her, out of grasp. Jasmine didn’t look right. Anna felt sick.

“Anna…” Bracing for the worst, Anna stared in wide-eyed horror, watching for something to make sense of it in Jasmine’s face. She waited for the punch, the wind to be knocked out of her, the worst thing finally to come true. “He.. proposed.”

Like a freight train, wailing horns and grinding wheels and screaming metal and then everything stopped.

“He.. he wants me to marry him, Anna.”

Anna Culpepper was speechless, absolutely floored. Her grasp on Jasmine didn’t relax as she held her now as if to study her, as if she may just be out of her senses. Naive, helpless Jasmine. Her Jasmine. Maybe she was just confused. Something might have been misunderstood. Anna couldn’t believe it. She felt her brow furrow, concern cresting itself in her expression, slowly shaking her head.

“Jasmine… Are you sure?”

There was a dazed gleam in Jasmine Jolene’s eyes as if she was not in this world but her own dream. Something else, too. Something that made Anna’s stomach turn, a creeping fear in her countenance, like something wasn’t right. Jasmine didn’t seem certain, her tainted happiness, an obscure sense of doom beneath a porcelain facade. “He told me we needed to be married. That’s what he told me, Anna. He said: we should be married as soon as possible.”

The sick churned and made Anna all the more tense. No, this wasn’t right. It didn’t make any sense. Andrew Ryan never was a good part of Jasmine’s life, killing her chances at reaching her dreams, using her and never seeming to consider her a real, feeling person. Stringing her along all these years just for his own pleasure. Anna couldn’t stand the way Andrew Ryan treated Jasmine. Not to mention his hypocritical nature undermining his whole scheme for utopia. Andrew Ryan was a man who got lucky in order to gain wealth, and who couldn’t see the faults for his own ego. Anna’s favor of the man only fell rapidly over her time living in Rapture. She had seen enough of his true colors to know he wasn’t a reliable leader who would put his needs over his own values. An intensely individualistic capitalist was selfish. Go figure.

Jasmine smiled softly, weakly. The blue color of her eyes was like misty puddles, welling with an emotion both wistful and sad. Anna didn’t understand what Jasmine was feeling, but she was apprehensive of her anyhow.

“I know you must not understand… It’s okay. I wanted to tell you as soon as I could.” Jasmine brought her own hands up on Anna’s arms and gently urged them back to her sides. Yes, that little, light smile playing itself beautifully on Jasmine’s lips made Anna’s heart ache. The ache deepened as Jasmine went on. “I wanted you to hear it from me, and not in a gossip column in the Rapture Tribune. I’ll be moving into his apartments tomorrow, and I wanted to see you before I left.”

Anna Culpepper felt like she had been dealt a blow, shocked and trying to grapple with what Jasmine was saying. It wasn’t what she had been expecting when Jasmine came over to her own luxury accommodations in Olympus Heights. It wasn’t like Jasmine was going to be far away, but under Andrew Ryan’s thumb, furthering his control over her, it made Anna afraid for Jasmine. She knew it wasn’t the right choice, that it would only lead to further ruin for Jasmine, but Anna didn’t know if she’d be able to convince her to break this off. Never had Anna been more worried for Jasmine than she was at this moment.

“Jasmine, honey, please listen to me. You can’t do this. This isn’t going to end well…”

Jasmine made a small scoffing noise in spite of her pretty, tightening smile, a hardness, a guardedness, coming up into her gaze. “I know you don’t like him. I know you don’t trust him. But, this time, it was different. Please, hear me out! It was different this time, the way he acted was so serious, a seriousness I’ve never seen in him before!”

“Jasmine…” Anna began, practically pleading, shutting her eyes and dropping her arms in a defeated defiance. “I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in here.”

Jasmine lost her smile in pained disappointment, a wounded thing closing in on itself. Anna felt the ache deepen and cleave in half; she wanted to grab Jasmine again, hold her close to her, promise her that she just wanted to protect her! As Jasmine suddenly turned away, Anna frowned and sighed, submitting and balancing herself off of Jasmine’s reaction to a less assertive route in approaching her. The statuesque blonde woman took a few paces away from Anna, a soft sway to her gait that kept Anna’s eyes following her. Jasmine’s grace was effortless, an elegant creature of long dancer’s limbs and glittering eyes and smile and white-blonde hair. She was unreal, out of this world beautiful, and her whole being was as sincere and sweet as could be. Anna couldn’t stand to be the cause of making Jasmine frown, but she wasn’t about to let something bad happen to Jasmine.

“Why are you saying things like that? I thought you might be glad for me. I’ve been in love with him for so, so long. I thought I’d never be with the great love of my life. Now’s my chance, Anna! Maybe, this was actually a good thing…”

Anna couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she didn’t react so strongly, keeping a clamp on her overwhelming feeling of dread. “Jasmine.. Are you sure about this? We were just talking about breaking things off with him. What changed? Aren’t you worried?”

There it was again; the flash of uncertainty troubled her lovely face, stealing the focus of her stare as she brooded with unknown thoughts. Anna wanted to stroke Jasmine’s hair until she calmed back down, assure her that things were going to be alright. She feared she didn’t actually know if that was true.

“No. I thought, as soon as I found out, that I should tell him. I was… scared. I didn’t want to tell him at first. But, after a while, I started to feel more and more urged to tell him. I wanted him to know. I wanted to see what he’d look like if I told him. It was.. Unlike anything I’ve seen before. He looked calm, a lightness about his movements that didn’t come from his confidence and ease… No, something changed in him when I told him. I saw it.”

“And you trust it? You trust him now?” The challenge in her voice began and, noticing it, softened. She didn’t want to drive Jasmine away, not now. She couldn’t stand the thought of her leaving here without hearing what Anna needed to say.

Jasmine looked gently offended, a pained frown and sad eyes.“You don’t think I can take care of myself? You don’t trust me?”

“Jasmine–” I love you. I do trust you. I don’t trust him, and I never will. Anna wanted to confess, drop at her feet and beg her not to do this. It felt like madness, like some trip through the looking glass into a world where suddenly things didn’t make sense to her. “--Please, I’m simply worried about you! You told me you were so afraid of him finding out, scared to death, Jasmine! You were sitting right here, crying your eyes out! What do you expect of me?” Anna ran her fingers through her short, dark, curly hair, creating a wildness to her look. She stood clenched in her crimson, silk peignoir, still damp from her recent bath. Anna had been alone before. Or, so she thought…

“I know, I remember…” That troubled look, closing her eyes as if that might dispel the memory. “But, please, trust me. I want this. I know what I’m doing.”

She was turning away again, lingering away from Anna, keeping a level of distance between them that hurt Anna to notice. Her paces took her along the room, towards the farthest wall; the wall was made of thick, heavy glass through which the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean shined with a deep blue that magically turned the room into a cool, dreamy oasis. Anna’s apartment was among the elite of Rapture, reflecting her love and appreciation for beauty and elegance. Many times, she and Jasmine spent time together here, even before Jasmine moved on up into the same neighborhood. They had known each other practically since she first came to Rapture. Anna instantly took a liking to Jasmine, and they had hit it off right away. Anna was a dedicated and loyal friend once you won her over, and she would go to great lengths to help the ones she cared for. Jasmine was the closest friend she had in Rapture, and she would be damned before she let the likes of Andrew Ryan destroy Jasmine’s life. This had gone too far.

“Jasmine…” Anna tried to offer something, think of something to say that would make her see the danger that lurked. The silence teetered for several moments, and, with nothing else to say, she simply smirked and crooned, “Let’s have a drink.”

Jasmine hesitated for only a moment. They both knew neither one enjoyed a long, drawn-out fuss. They hardly argued, but when they did it was always intense but quick. The smile returned to her face like two curved petals, tender and fleeting. Her eyes were weary but persistent, that spirit that shone in her despite it all, falling deep into her stare like freefall in a cloudless sky. The look was like a touch, gentle palm cupping cheek, an apology, or maybe a truce.

“I’ll drink with you, but just club soda.” She said this now as she peeled the white gloves from her hands and put them into her handbag, following Anna as she made her way to a gilded, geometric bar cart all glittering and gold with its menagerie of bottles. Anna loved exotic booze, and she wasn’t going to let living at the bottom of the ocean ruin that…

“Club soda? Are you on a diet again?” Anna chimed curiously as she handled three crystal glasses, ice twinkling against the glass as she lined them along a nearby credenza. She lingered a moment before she selected the liquor she preferred for the night, a fruity rum from Cuba that cost more than she was willing to admit. The third glass fizzed with a burst of club soda, dribbling and popping with froth.

As Jasmine approached, Anna turned with two glasses in her hands; a playful look, the two women exchanged mischievous glances. “Why did you make three?”

Anna chuckled richly, a sparkle to her brown gaze that lit up her entire demeanor. That special magic she had was coming to shine: the show-woman, the powerhouse, the diva. Her laugh could fill up the room like light, infectious as Jasmine smiled wider in genuine amusement.

“One’s for the baby, of course.” Immediately, she drained one of the glasses with a hearty eagerness that made one wonder if she truly was celebrating or snubbing out her anxieties. When drained, she placed it, ice glittering against glass as it moved, upon the credenza once more. She took the club soda that was standing by and handed it to Jasmine; a tingle danced up her arms as the two met eyes as Jasmine’s smile filled up her lovely face. Like the face of the moon, all dazzling and pearlescent, soft pink cheeks and lips framed by the sleek, curled hair. Anna could’ve kissed her, over and over, like reuniting with a lost treasure, like something precious that could slip away.

Jasmine took the drink gratefully, tipped the glass in the style of a toast. “Cheers.” She hummed before taking a sip.

The two women settled upon a nearby couch, crushed velvet in rich burgundy, and nursed their drinks respectively. A tall, green palm fanned and shaded them from the glow of an elegant, vibrantly colored lamp overhead. The blues of the sealight and warm white-gold of the lamp met and softly blended into a cool, dreamy haze that complimented the lush colors of the furniture and walls.

Jasmine and Anna sat in silence for several moments, the tension between them lessening into a calm lull of mutual respect and care; neither one could stay angry at the other for long. Jasmine knew Anna cared about her. Anna understood that Jasmine was free to make her own choices. They held a healthy boundary with one another most of the time, very rarely crossing a line out of genuine affection for one another. Anna knew she would need to cross a line tonight if she was going to save Jasmine. She was going to try and do it as gently as possible.

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