(Untitled)

[aerialpsychotic]

...Okay, bars at the end of the universe?

AWESOME things, for the record.

Comments

[selflesslight]

Satya is off entertaining the other Val; this Val has a very specific goal in mind.

Knock. Knock.

[mad_patron]

Pyth, looking hastily dressed and generally unkempt, opens the door after a good minute and a half and brightens immediately.

"Hey! What's up?"

[selflesslight]

"Me and Stevie and another me and Satya are gonna go kick some ass. Want in?"

[mad_patron]

The first thing she can think to say is: "...And you're inviting me along because...?"

[wrecking_bell]

Steve approaches the door for the second time that day, this time armed with a doorstop and (thank you, Bar) a shapeless sweater to make his metal arm less obvious when he steps out into the street.

"...oh, yeah. Fuck," he mutters as he pulls it open. If he can't close the door, he can't get back into the house that way, can he?

There doesn't seem to be anyone about, so he slips outside, wedges the front door open just a crack and as discreetly as possible, and heads around to the rather more secret entrance. In an alley too narrow and rundown even for squatters, behind an army of sour-smelling garbage bins that haven't been emptied for years (he always holds his breath when he has the misfortune to go this way), is a door to a room with a door.

[transbiomorph]

Inside, a monitor bleeps, and a flickering fish-eye camera display fills with fleece and curly hair.

Tinny and faint: "Lu, can you let me in?"

When the inner door hums open for him, he's confronted by a bulky and vaguely menacing figure with an impassive gas-mask face, hands like a sculptor's experiment with chickenwire, a t-shirt and jeans that don't hide the strange shapes that bunch and snag where skin and flesh should be.

"hh-hhWhere've you been?"

[wrecking_bell]

Steve grins a little breathlessly. (To be fair, that's the main flavour his grins come in these days, but it's still a sign of the excitement growing inside him.)

"I bring great tidings. Where's Chips?"

[transbiomorph]

"hhhI don't know."

It's difficult to pick out tones and emotions in that patient, buzzing-at-the-edges voice.

"hhhKitchen, maybe."

[mad_patron]

Now it's Pyth's turn.

Knock. Knock. Kn--

[nowait_letme]

"...Yeah?"

[mad_patron]

"...Chainsaw."

She conjures up a smile from somewhere.

"Out-of-the-blue question: was rescuing me from Egghead fun?"

[nowait_letme]

"Sure it was."

He opens the door the rest of the way and steps out into the hall, closing it behind him.

"What's up?"

[selflesslight]

So Val is sitting by the fire with a book and a beer.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[nowait_letme]

Chainsaw flops down beside her without so much as a "hello".

Then he reaches over and steals her beer.

[selflesslight]

"...What the--"

[mad_patron]

Face. PALM.

"Val, this is Chainsaw. He likes making terrible first impressions."