[ thread ; closed ]

[itsbritish]

Who: Mason, Shilo, and the GraveRobber [later].
Where: The Abyss.
When: After this thread.
Summary: The meeting between a dead-man, drug-dealer, and scared shut-in.
Rating: R (Language).
Other: Mason swears a lot.

Comments

[itsbritish]

"Right. More like a bird." Mason inwardly let out a sigh of relief that he found her before someone else did. Terrible things happened to girls and guys down here, if they didn't know how to protect themselves. And Shilo didn't seem like she quite knew how to look after herself, yet.

The bat slung over his shoulder as he smiled cheerfully at her; time to make a good first impression. Minus the fact that his tee-shirt was also covered in his blood and gravel from when he hit the sidewalk. "How do, I'm Mason." He gave a confused look as he suddenly became aware of the heaviness in his pockets. Holding up one hand, he dug around said pockets to pull out the various pieces of jewelry that he had stolen. "Huh. Well, that'll get me some nice ass later."

He paused as he looked at Shilo and began to dig around through the bits of jewelry that he had -- appraising it as he went through -- and found one piece that seemed like it would only go for about fifty or so dollars. A small broach mostly carved material than gold. The rest was shoved in his pockets as he tossed the piece at her. "Here you go. Call it a measure of good will from me to you."

[wantsoutside]

His appearance startled her. She wasn't sure if that was just the style or if he had been hurt somehow. He didn't look like he was in pain, in fact he looked kind of happy. She smiled softly and nodded to him while smoothing her skirt.

"It's nice to meet you, Mason. Um... th-thanks for coming." She had her head down but looked up at him shyly, wrinkling her nose at his vulgar statement.

The gift caught her off guard but she managed to catch the small piece of jewelry awkwardly. She examined it, turning it over in her hands as she took a few involuntary steps forward. Her smile widened when she realized what it was. A cameo, like the one her mother had.

"Thank you. It's beautiful." She turned her smile on him full force, no trace of shyness or caution now. One way to a girls heart is definitely through presents.

[itsbritish]

"I do like it when a girl thanks me for coming." A flash of teeth as his smile broadened inappropriately, amused with his own crude joke. His head bobbed from side to side as he inwardly snickered to himself; trying to remember that he should write that one down for others to enjoy. "But, we should get out of here, 'cause this isn't any place for ya."

At the 'thank you,' he at first shrugged in a uncaring manner. "No problem." His nose wiggled a bit in disgust at the piece of jewelry. More honest than he would rather like being, but he quickly tried to remedy it. "I'd give you others, but I promised a girl with an amazing rack that I'd give her something shiny. And I don't think she'd appreciate just the shiny that comes off of me. Though, she should. Agreed?"

His arm shot out so that she could grab it; not quite wanting her to wander off or someone grab her while he's looking off in some other direction, trying to get a good grasp his bearings. "Come on, Shilo, grab on. We'll get you home, like that girl in the story where she's always trying to get home. Yeah, that one." He nodded slightly, like he was making sense despite his slurred speech.

"By the way, how old are you?"

[wantsoutside]

The joke went straight over her head.

"Um, I guess I agree... but isn't a rack... a medieval torture device?" She could understand why someone would want something shiny... but she couldn't quite grasp why someone would want to give shiny things to a woman with an apparatus that could be used to painfully stretch someone. There was only so much a girl could learn from books.

She took his arm and smiled politely at him once more before looking at the ground. He seemed strange, stranger than strange, but he was the only friend she had at the moment.

He was the only friend she'd ever had in her life.

"I'm seventeen."

[itsbritish]

"You're kidding me, right?" Jerked backwards slightly so that he could get a good look at her face to see if she was indeed fucking with him about not getting what it was he was talking about. However, it seemed like she was being very serious about her question. His expression shifted from being amused, ready to break out laughing, before forcing seriousness. "Oh, I hope that she'll torture me."

Mason wasn't able to keep this serious expression, though, as soon he looked away he started to laugh. Loud and obnoxious. "Ah, shit. Okay, now, if you see anyone walking towards us that looks suspicious let me know, okay?" In his free hand, he had the bat and was more than willing to bash in a few skulls so that assholes would learn to leave nice little girls alone.

"Seventeen." He nodded once. "Call me when you turn eighteen, all right?"

[wantsoutside]

Her cheeks flushed crimson when he examined her face. It was embarrassing, talking about stuff she wasn't familiar with. It was obvious now that he meant something else. Maybe a coat rack. The torture comment didn't even get a response as she was too busy wondering why anyone would want to be tortured.

"Okay." She said meekly, not meeting his gaze while her face was that red. At least he was laughing now... even if he was laughing at her. Her new mission of looking for suspicious persons was preformed with enthusiasm because it meant not having to look at Mason or say something else that might embarrass her.

Though she couldn't resist another question, "Why? I mean, why eighteen?"

[itsbritish]

"Good girl." Shame he didn't have anything else to give her. Only thing else he had was a bag of various drugs that was duck-taped to the inside of his jacket. She seemed like a nice sensible girl who didn't need too much of that in her system.

"Legality issues." Another smile. "But you're sweet." His tone turned soft, kind. "I don't think I'd try any of that with you." Reminded him of a little sister, she did. Something small and nice that he wanted to look after without any real desire to try to get into her cute dress later. Though, he did take a moment to look at said dress to see if he was having some sound decision or on something that counteracted his normal libido.

Yup, it was the former.

"Fuck me, didn't know I could have one of those."

[wantsoutside]

"Try any of what?" she was genuinely curious about this kind stranger now. He swore, she had never heard those words come from anywhere but the television before and that was only when she watched shows she wasn't supposed to. He said strange things that she didn't understand. He even wore shirts covered in blood but something about him seemed ... safe. Safer than being on her own, anyway.

"Is it because I can't legally vote until next year?" She forgot what she was supposed to be looking for and focused on his face instead. Her thirst for knowledge was practically burning her throat!

"Didn't know you could have one of what? You say a lot of weird things."

[itsbritish]

"Things that most girls down here are probably quite used to." While he was trying to make a joke so that she wouldn't worry, he did seem a little sad to think about 'em. Couldn't protect them all. But this one would be safe at least. Mason wondered how many cliches could go off in his head by the time he was finished; the small battles were the ones that mattered. Was that a cliche? Shit.

"Not really. It has more to do about what your body will be able to do when you're older." His head canted slightly to the side like he had a sudden crick in his neck. Very awkward to talk about this as it felt like he was telling a girl about the sort of things that her body would go through that he always liked to pretend never, ever happened.

"I do, yeah." Mason smiled. Was it weird to decide that he liked someone in just a few minutes of talking? He decided that it wasn't; something about her was just likable. "Eulogies. You know, those things you get when you're struck with an idea." The end of the bat waved slightly at his head as he tried to explain what it was he was thinking of to her.

"So, what's a nice girl like you doing down here, anyway?" Some concern, some joke. "Not thinking of becoming a 'bad girl,' are you?"

went to the mall >__> but am back now.

[wantsoutside]

"Oh." It was the only reply she could think of while her mind was racing with all this new information. It was like some puzzle or a mystery that she had to solve but everyone else seemed to know the answer. If only her dad had bothered to give her "the talk."

If it was weird, then Shilo was weird too. She thought Mason was funny, strange, and actually pretty cool. He had that bad boy vibe but he was trying.

"I'm trying to ... um... chase the morning." she mumbled the last part, realizing it wouldn't make any sense to him. "I'm kind of on the run, I guess. I heard if you wanted to get lost, this was the best place to do it."

Her father had absolutely forbade her from even talking about the Abyss. If people weren't supposed to talk about it, then they probably weren't supposed to come down here either. The easiest place to hide was where no one wanted to find you.

[itsbritish]

"Yeah. You can get lost down here." Mason tilted his head up to stare at the sky -- couldn't even tell if it was night or day down here. "Lots of people get lost down here." He was speaking mostly emotionally as well as physically.

He decided that it was best to cut the shit and stop trying to make metaphors -- or were they simile, what the fuck were they? "But you lose yourself, too." His tone of voice somewhat sad as he looked away from Shilo, trying to have her understand why this wasn't a good place to be as well without trying to scare her too bad. "Sometimes, you no longer know who you are when you stay down here too long."

A tired sigh. "You're a nice girl, Shilo. I don't think that anyone would want to lose that bit about 'em. Not enough nice girls around here." He wondered if he should add 'and if you stay here too long, you won't be a nice girl anymore either.'

[wantsoutside]

"I'm trying to find myself. I won't let them cage me again, I can't go back until I can take care of myself." She said with a firm voice that rarely came from her frail body.

Chase the morning. Yield for nothing.

Those words echoed in her head and she nodded to herself. She smiled up at Mason as if to say 'don't worry too much about me, everything will work out' without actually saying anything at all.

"I promise not to lose myself. I won't stay here long enough to let that happen." She squeezed his arm reassuringly and looked at the darkened streets of the cesspool she would now call home.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

[itsbritish]

"I don't quite like cages." Mason meant more on the idea of being in prison, which he always seemed to narrowly escape from. It might have something to do that he was just really good at running. And breaking windows open with his body to jump out of police cars. Or cars in general that seemed to wish to bring him harm.

"Well, all right, then." His head gave a slight tilt as he thought of that; wondering if he should actually agree with that smile Shilo was giving him. Lips pressed together as a soft 'hmm'ing sound came a few seconds later followed by a dismissive noise.

"We are going to my lovely hotel room." A cheerful sort of tune. "Since you don't want to go home and that is the only home I got at the moment. I can't seem to keep a place very well. It's quite hard, actually. Why the fuck does rent have to come every month?" The arm with the bat made an elaborate gesture to his side. "How the shit am I supposed to remember that? I pass out every few months anyway."

He turned slightly to her as he took the hysterically annoyed tone out of his voice to his slightly calmer one. "I have a theory that involves rent and apartments. I think that it is all a big conspiracy." Sniff as he snorted up some shot that had threatened to ruin his talk with her -- and raised his arm to wipe it on his sleeve a few seconds later. "By cockroaches. In order to have places to sleep and eat and dead skin to nom on. Those bastards." He shook his head at the bugs.

"They're terrifying, you know. 'Cause they don't quite die. You gotta do some amazing shit to 'em to make sure that they are dead." Mason nodded as he continued with his spiel; not stopping even if it seemed that he may be weirding out Shilo in the process. "I once saw a movie about cockroaches. They ate the guy living in the apartment 'cause he had -- fucking -- I don't even know. They're vicious little bastards."

[your_zydrate]

Another night, another stroll through the Abyss - spotting the needy and the wanting from his vantage point, above it all, King of all he surveyed.

Which was - on this particular moment, an alleyway in which two people, two unlikely people - perhaps a pimp [judging by the baseball bat, a particularly strict one] and his prey? No - it wouldn't do, would it, for someone else to get airs, like they could just lay claim willy-nilly. It was unseemly - and amusing.

He hadn't had to show his strength in awhile, hadn't had to get his hands dirty - no, they were too concerned with losing supply lines only he had. No one dared cross him, for fear they'd be cut off entirely.

"What do we have here?" GraveRobber voiced aloud, approaching with an air of nonchalance. "One too dirty and one too clean," He glanced from Shilo to Mason, and back again. "I can't decide which is prettier."

[wantsoutside]

Mason's rant elicited quiet giggles from shilo. She wasn't sure if he was trying to be funny or generally confused by the purpose of rent. She seriously he hoped he was joking about the passing out part. She was also rather relieved that they'd soon be in a safe room, indoors, with four walls.

And then he piqued her interest, not with talk of conspiracy theories, but with the mention of cockroaches. She stopped in her tracks and turned to him, excitedly, "Did you know that cockroaches can live without their heads until they die of thirst because their brains are scattered throughout their bodies? I love entomology. Bugs are fascinating."

She was about to continue with more facts about cockroaches when a familiar voice caught her attention. She looked over her shoulder and was shocked at what she saw.

"You." She gasped as she turned around to look at him completely. "You're real?"

She thought she had dreamt him, but she had seen that face before... she just didn't know where. Shilo knew that voice, she had just been talking to him over the network. Nothing was making sense. Maybe it was the disease, making her see things, making her think things that weren't true.

"I... I think I need my medicine."

[itsbritish]

"That's what I'm talking about! Bugs should die when they're cut, not stick around for fucking cake and tea!" He shook his head a few times. His intent was that after he dropped Shilo off at his house, he would go to a crack din so that he could get some drugs and kill some of the cockroaches present there. Despite the kinship that he felt with the buggers, he rather didn't like them fucking with his rent. This was why he needed a house. Mortgages weren't every month. Wait, they aren't, are they?

The cheerful smile and happy air around Mason vanished as soon as the man started to approach them. He took a meaningful step forward as to pull out of Shilo's grip so that he could take a good swing at him with his bat. Twice. First as something of a warning; second with the intent that if the newcomer wasn't careful, he would bash his brains in. Still, the guy's voice did sound familiar to him, but he would worry about that a little later. Like most of his spur of the moment violent thoughts were. "All right, my friend, I think it'd be best if you back the fuck off."

The bat pointed at the man's face. "Pretty one here's you. And I'd hate to mess it up. Got i--" His threats stopped as he looked back slightly at Shilo; hearing her comment of needing medicine. Not so much on the comment about their 'guest' being real or not. Thought she meant something like he was some boogeyman, but Mason knew how to deal with such men. So, no need to worry there. Still, looked back at him, the bat making a few 'poking' gestures in the other's direction. "You, don't move."

His tone turned kind, again, as he asked. "Do you? What are you on?" Half-interest, half-concern. Interest in if he could abuse the drug in his own system; concern as he wondered if she actually was some diabetic or some shit. 'Cause then they'd have to go to a hospital and he fucking hated hospitals. Didn't mean he wouldn't go, though.