01 // Action/Accidental Voice

[strayfag]

--frozen goods worth more than a lousy gunshot wound. [That sound would be a high-pitched plaintive whine.] I don't want to be a prostitute. I'm allergic to STDs.

[Admittedly, this isn't the first time Badou's woken up half-naked on some unknown alleyway. In fact, the alley's much cleaner than he remembers it, and this time he's 100% sure he still

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[strayfag]

[Badou is never taking warmth for granted again. Never. He's managed to find his usual clothes and, after a long string of curses and some partially torn seams, negotiate his way into them, wings and all. Now that he's warm again he's very painfully aware of how tender the new wings are, even in comparison to the rest of him. The gunshot wound is healed, but it'd be easier to find an inch of skin that isn't battered and bruised. He could really use a smoke.

He doubles back the way he came, since it's as good a choice as any. The guy at the store wasn't too interested in twenty questions on account of retail having sucked out his soul already, but the area doesn't look too dangerous so he might as well dig around. He's just retrieved an odd little computer thing and returned to the mouth of the alley when he hears the sound of wheels approaching.] Nill? [He jogs a couple of steps to meet her.] Man, I'm glad you're alright. What are you doing here?

[The contents of the wagon make that obvious, at least from one standpoint.] Looks like I'm late. Did you wake up here too?

[manmade_angel]

[Badou doesn't look much happier than Haine did, but Nill is at least glad to see that he's managed to find clothes and pick up his journal. It was hard enough explaining to Haine that he didn't have to pay for anything and that his regular clothes were somewhere in the piles.]

[She nods in response to his question and holds up four fingers--she's been here four days. By his comment about being late, Nill gleans that Badou has only just woken up. No doubt he'll want to know what's going on, and Haine can explain better than she can. At least, without just opening Badou's journal and pointing to the long article for new people.]

[So she takes his hand and starts pulling him (and the wagon) back towards the apartment she and Haine share.]

[strayfag]

[Four days. There's no way he was passed out in the snow that long, but he figures between them they've already got more questions than answers so there's no point in grilling her.

The tug on his hand is more than enough to tell him Nill has something important to show him, and since that's a pretty short list he's going to assume it's someone they know. He doesn't think she plans to eat all of this herself anyway.]

I'm coming, just a sec. [He drops the journal into one of the grocery bags before pulling it out of the wagon. Then, after untangling his hand from hers, he takes the cushion off the top as well. Can't have Nill becoming a muscle-bound tranny too.] Don't suppose you saw any smokes while you were shopping?

[rain_of_bullets]

[Haine was busy trying to find a comfortable way to sleep on the floor without actually laying on top of his wings. It felt unnatural not to sleep on his back, but eventually he found a corner and propped up his side against it, resting his head down near his knees. Without a television, there wasn't all that much else to do besides sleep. And possibly wait for these so called experiments to start.]

[He wakes from a half-sleep when he hears the wagon wheels and footsteps outside the door. Nill's steps are light, but there's another set with her. He tries to roll the kinks out of his shoulders as he gets up to open the door, only to see his partner's one-eyed face looking back at him. If not for the girl with him, Haine probably would've shut the door in his face just to fuck with him. As it was, his mouth fell into its usual frown, a single brow raised in question.]

[Badou too? He could understand why he and Nill had been brought there. They were both already genetically altered mutants. But Badou? His only real superpower was to screw himself over on a regular basis and not end up dead.]

'the hell are you doing here?

[manmade_angel]

[Nill frowns at Badou when he asks for cigarettes. She knows it's a bad habit of his and that she really shouldn't encourage him to smoke.]

[Also, what person in their right mind would sell her cigarettes, much less show her where she could buy them? She turns up her nose a little and keeps walking--holding onto Badou by the corner of the cushion. Denied.]

[They finally arrive at the apartment (Nill chains the front axle of her wagon to the stairwell railing), and she smiles at Haine when he opens the door. Look! She brought a cushion, and food, and Badou!]

[She expects Haine and Badou to do their usual thing, so she picks up her share of the groceries and slips past Haine to get into the apartment.]

[strayfag]

[Badou would argue that smoking is the least of his bad habits, and everyone would be pretty surprised if he lived to the ripe old age of death-by-lung-cancer, but there's a good chance he'll be out-argued by a little mute girl again. Instead, he sticks out his tongue at her while she's not looking.]

[The apartment solves the problem of where to spend the night but the person inside is less than welcoming. He's aware of Nill releasing his leash the pillow, leaving he and Haine to their manly pissing contest.] Nice to see you too. What the hell do you think I'm doing here? [He has no fucking clue either, but he shakes the bag of groceries at Haine like an angry old lady.] If your lazy ass was here the whole time you could at least welcome us in wearing a cute apron or some classy homemaker shit. What were you doing? Baking shitcake all day?

[And he's just going to try shoving past Haine now.]

[rain_of_bullets]

[He doesn't flinch as Nill steps by, but wrapping his head around Badou being here takes a little longer. At least the genetic alterations haven't changed Badou's personality, though whether or not that was a good thing...]

[He remains just as disinterested as Badou continues to nag like an old housewife. Doesn't help that he looks the part, shaking the groceries and carrying on. Haine manages a grunt, but doesn't rise to the insults and it's sorely tempting once more to shut the door in the redhead's face; though this time at least, he'd have good reason for it.]

Fuck off. It take you the whole walk home to think that one up?

[His expression doesn't change in the slightest as he lets Badou shove past, though he doesn't budge an inch in the exchange, even if it means a bumped shoulder or two. So maybe Badou deserved a little slack given he'd just found out he'd been turned into a fetish mutant, but...]

[He shuts the door behind him, leaving the three of them to the bare apartment. No furniture, not much of anything really. Television would be good about now, but there wouldn't be much to watch either, would there. Haine glances from Badou to Nill. How long's his partner been here anyway? While he could ask, he doubts it's something the man will keep bottled up long. As if he didn't already listen to enough of the bitching, now eyepatch actually had something to bitch about.]

[manmade_angel]

[Nill's smile stays firmly in place as she takes the groceries to the kitchen. She knows she probably shouldn't be happy about Badou being here, but listening to them swear at one another makes the apartment feel less like it's in mourning. Even if Nill has been sitting near Haine and trying to comfort him, the both of them weren't exactly conversationalists. So the bickering makes her feel more at home.]

[She sets the first bag down, then goes back to Badou for the second. She smiles at him as though he and Haine aren't sniping at one another and takes the bag. Hmm... maybe sandwiches for lunch...]

[strayfag]

[Badou takes Haine being there for granted just a bit. Hell if he knows what is and isn't supposed to happen here. The shoulder bump is about as much of a friendly greeting as either of them can expect from each other, but Badou flinches at an unexpected stab of pain. They could heal the gunshot wound but not the bruises too? Assholes.]

Listen fuckhe -- what the hell. [He stops just inside the bare room that passes for Haine's apartment. Granted, it's not all that different from Haine's old apartment, but how the hell could anyone live here for four days? There's free goddamn furniture. That explains Nill's cushion.

He lets her have the bag with a little nod. She seems happy, but Badou hits Haine over the head with the cushion anyway, bruises be damned.] What the hell. Why didn't you drag up a couch? Who's sleeping on your hard-ass floor?

[rain_of_bullets]

...what.

[Haine turns at Badou's initial comment. He knows he shouldn't. Badou makes a big fuckin' deal out of everything, it shouldn't come as any surprise that he thinks an empty room is worth bitching about. Of course, the moment he turns, Badou catches him in the face with the new cushion. His hand moves automatically to swat Badou in the back of the head in response.]

What the hell are you whining about, it isn't even your apartment. Where you you think I've been sleeping genius?

[manmade_angel]

[On the floor--Nill's been sleeping there too, next to Haine when he looked less like he needed his space, and sometimes in the corner by the windows (her blanket is folded neatly there). She did want something better to sleep on, but she couldn't bother Haine to carry furniture for her. Not when he was already upset about the wings.]

[But that's why she got the cushion! A few more trips and she would've had all three. But lunch sounded good before she went back down again. She leans out of the kitchen doorway and holds up jars of mustard and mayonnaise--both, neither?]

[strayfag]

[Badou ducks, expecting retaliation, but Haine's swat still catches the back of his head, drawing out another curse.] Seriously? [Well, ok, Haine is weird and completely socially inept. He already knew that.] You could have picked something up for your roommates.

[He tosses the cushion into the corner with the blanket and shrugs out of his coat carefully. When Nill sticks her head out, he considers it a moment before shrugging.] Mayo. No mustard.

[He parks his bony ass against the window sill and exhales a breath of distinctly, horribly smoke-free air. Who the hell breathes this shit all the time?] So what the hell is going on here?

[rain_of_bullets]

[So maybe it hadn't dawned on him just yet that Nill might not like sleeping on the floor. He hadn't had anyone stay with him before. The one time he'd shared a room with Nill before this, it'd been a hotel, where the furnishings came with the room already.

But rather than let the bastard know he might be feeling somewhat guilty the more he thought about it, he flipped him the finger, saying nothing in his own defense. Nill seems okay, but she can't exactly speak up if she's not happy. Not that she would be likely to even if she could. ]

Fine. You just enlisted your scrawny ass to help me carry it back here.

[He glances over at Nill as she pokes her head out of the kitchen, but doesn't reply with more than a shrug. He'll eat whatever she puts in front of him.]

Fuck if I know. Someone dragged a bunch of people out here to be their next experiment.

[Because once just wasn't enough apparently.]

[manmade_angel]

[Condiment orders taken, Nill ducks back into the kitchen to build the sandwiches. She doesn't have much in the way of variety, given that she's still trying to build up a stock of food in the refrigerator, but she has lunchmeat! Turkey and ham, mostly. And from what she's eaten thus far, it tastes better than what they had underground. If they weren't all experiments, this would be a nice vacation.]

[The sandwiches she produces while they're talking aren't the prettiest things, but they're functional. She has difficulty getting the slices of meat out in one piece, the lettuce leaves are a little big, and the tomato slices are a little thick (she adds more meat to compensate). Nill's very proud of them, though. And she only cut her thumb once!]

[She and Haine only have two plates, so she figures she'll eat hers off the counter. Once she's done with Haine and Badou's, she carries them over.]

[strayfag]

Fine. [The maturity in the room is overwhelming. But Badou knows Haine just honestly doesn't get people sometimes, so he lets the subject drop. He can deal with carrying a couch... probably.

Haine can do most of the work.

As for the experiment stuff...]

Shit, seriously? Didn't we already use that plotline? [Apparently Haine is in the running for albino labrat of the century or something. Badou is really trying not to think about this, and why both he and Haine are sporting dainty wings.] They've got shitty taste.

[And just then Nill emerges with food, and Badou realizes he's starving. He takes the plate from Nill and doesn't even hesitate before tearing into it. When he speaks again, it's around a mouthful of food.] 'sgood. [Swallow swallow.] Where's yours?

[rain_of_bullets]

[At least that's one problem solved. A couch might make sleeping more tolerable. Trying to find a comfortable way to lay down without cursing aloud and doing something to upset the wings has proven more difficult than he'd thought.]

[As for the experiments... ]

Yeah.

[Haine frowns, though it's hard not to agree. Two out of the three people standing in the room were already genetic experiments before they'd arrived here. And living that once was enough for anyone.]

[Badou doesn't ask him anything else though, so he figures he's got things more or less answered. He's not freaking out, which is saying a lot for Badou. Haine takes the plate offered, but spots the small cut on her thumb before glancing back up to her face.]

It looks good.

[He isn't her mother or Bishop, so he doesn't bring it up. She knows how to wash it out and how to wrap it if nothing else. All the things he's fairly clumsy with.]

We only have two plates. Not like we were expecting visitors.

[He lifts his sandwich off the plate and holds it out to Nill.]