the_last_resort | Blackmoon Celebration

[He sits down the bottle and with a contemplative expression he picks up two of the legs off the ground. It's ale.] It's ah, do they have any left around during your time? [Then after looking at those legs for long enough, sticks them in his ears, and purses up his lips at Boone as though he has buck-teeth, and wiggles his index fingers on either side of his mouth in his best quick spider impression. Then he pulls them out and resumes default "too-hard" face.]

He'll probably like that.

Never smelled anything like that before, but I'm sure there's something like it. People back home can get pretty creative when it comes to alcohol.

[If there's one thing not lacking after the apocalypse, it's alcohol and the people determined enough to make more.]

Someone I know back home makes moonshine with maize, mutfruit, yeast and a fission battery. It's, uh... well, it gets the job done, but you've gotta be pretty desperate to drink it.

[He glances up to catch Niko with fake spider legs in his ears and chuckles quietly, going back to his bottle. It's still not much of a laugh, but it's more than Boone usually offers.]

[He feels like even a little laugh is a grand accomplishment with Boone, though he has no idea how exceptional it actually is. If he did know he'd probably smile more himself. Instead he offers his drink to share lazily, for him to try.] Usually a grain. Yeast. I do not know for sure what is in this one, but usually I drink vodka. Do you still have that?

Is truly terrible world if no vodka.

[Niko thinks he would waste away.]

[He takes the drink and tries it, then offers it back. Better than Cass' moonshine, at least.]

Yeah, we've got vodka. Prefer whiskey, though.

[He puts his cigarette back to his lips, looking out past the fence.]

Spiders are going pretty nuts out there. Think they just wanna see the parade?

They hear us. Us in general.

[He motions around before he settles cross-legged, elbows on his knees.] When we go in the caves they'll follow you in the dark. They're stupid. They don't know how to get through thin barriers. You can put up a tent and if it is zipped? They won't know how to get inside.

But they hear you and they stay there. They will be there until you're ready to come out. Like food is no issue for them. For you? They can go hungry forever. They just wait.

Is just another celebration for winning against an enemy. Even if it's a really stupid [but very dangerous] one. [Then he switches subjects.] Have you had really good whiskey? Stuff at blues place. Music club. It's not so bad.

They sure can climb, though. Kinda... weird to watch, if I'm honest. None of them have gotten close to the fence tonight, but I've been patrolling at night before and caught them halfway up. Watched until it got to the top, then I shot it down.

[He shakes his head, looking up at the nearest turret.]

No, never been there. Was planning on it, though. Maybe I should make a point of it though, if the whiskey's good.

I appreciate the no violence policy. Some nights I am just not in the mood for a bar fight.

[Even if most places make you leave, Dorian's had proven mellow enough that he isn't so much worried about violence there. He looks up at it as Boone does, leaning to do so, and then sits back again.]

They're creepy as shit, I do admit. But they die easy enough.

[And that's when a fowl walks in front of them, on the other side of the fence. It looks at them through it, spoots out an egg, and then wanders off. And that's the entirety of the encounter. A bird of dubious construction just looked at both of them and dropped an egg, an it leaves Niko staring blandly for a moment.]

You mean some nights you are?

[Boone has felt the urge to punch people in his darker moods, but he's never actually done it. For one thing he realises he'd probably get his ass kicked, and besides that his method of coping with things is usually to go off and mope on his own.

He watches the bird, blinks when it drops an egg, and watches it walk off.]

Oh.

[Well. Okay then, that was weird.]

[Niko briefly forgets the subject of barfights because he's watching that bird just amble away, and then he looks at the egg. And then he barks a quick laugh, just because it was oddly ridiculous. He doesn't want to test the spiders, but the turrets are there and he reaches through slats to grab the egg quickly and lean back.]

[He holds it up to Boone.]

You want an omelette?

Gonna be a small omelette.

[He shrugs, but he's smiling a little. The whole thing struck him as pretty ridiculous, too.]

Might as well do something with it, though. So, sure.

[Not like they're gonna sit on it to keep it warm or anything.]

Come on. You can bring your friend the whisky bottle, and finish dismembering the spider, and we'll make up for size of egg in cheese.

[Really Niko's not great at Omelette so it'll be more of a scramble, but no one would really complain about that. He's pleased to have gotten something, though. Better distraction than the fistfights he was mentioning.]

[He stands up and like Boone did for him, offers down his hand.]

[He finishes his cigarette and stubs it out on the side of his bottle, then lets Niko help him to his feet.]

You any good at cooking?

[He might as well figure out what he's potentially gotten himself into now. He's agreed to food before and it's been pretty awful. He usually ate it anyway, though. Only the most vile food got put to one side or furtively dumped behind a bush.]

I'm ex-military. I make food that you keep down and keeps you going. I know how not to burn it, at least. [Cheese, things that are not cheese but also are pretty good, egg. That is what makes an omelette. He takes ale and finishes it off so he can dump the bottle into recycling when he goes, though some part of him wants to save it for a molotov cocktail. he needs to get out of that way of thinking.]

At least it will not be on the streets, ah? For a little bit. I think I have had my fill for today.

I'm ex-military too, but I still burn my food.

[He shrugs.]

Still eat it, though. So I guess it doesn't matter.

[Boone wonders if he could manage to burn an omelette. He's never made one himself.]

The ones back home are made outta deathclaw eggs. They're about...

[He holds his bottle up and his hand, the space between them just about covering from his chest to his stomach.]

...that big. You can feed a couple people with one egg.

Holy shit! [He sounds surprised in a pleased way.] Well, maybe not so good if no cheese, but sounds like there's much of it. I not make so much. But I make enough to try and I don't know, maybe not get stupid drunk like last time.

Or at least if we get stupid drunk we'll be at my house.

[And it's actually not a far walk, it's a tall little house with a tiny yard he doesn't care too much about, so it's all tall grass and wildflowers. There's a fold out couch-bed taking up one end of his main room, his hound staring out lazily from beneath it in a pile of sleepy dog and the cat-thing mewling for food almost as soon as he comes in.]

Yes, yes, you'll be fed. We have guest, be nice.

[He goes over to the kitchen space which barely has any dirty dishes since he mostly eats out, and plugs in his spawner to stoop and squint at the settings. He doesn't look at Boone because he has to find a manual on his communications device and look up codes for the various parts he wants to add to his sandwich.]

Sometimes I do fight, yeah. I don't really like it I guess. I just feel like I need to defend my pride. I don't do it so much anymore. Pride just gets you into shit. I'm better at doing what I'm told.

Never had many omelettes back home. Getting an egg from a deathclaw's nest in the first place is too much damn trouble, and they're not even that good.

[Boone reaches down to pet the cat when he sees it. It's still a funny little thing to him, and it rubs against his leg once before going to follow Niko for food. He sees the hound too, but doesn't go over to it. Instead he just sort of ends up watching Niko fiddle with the spawner. He doesn't use his own much- like Niko, he prefers to eat out. He lowers his eyes as he speaks, then shrugs and folds his arms.]

I dunno. Doing what you're told can get you into trouble, too.

[He doesn't really feel like elaborating on that, though.]

I get into a lot of fights, but I don't start them unless it's Legion. It's never hand to hand, either. I'm kinda useless without a weapon. It's why I carry them around with me all the time. Can't afford to be caught unarmed. Never been in a bar fight, though. Seen them, but never been in one.

Where I am from, starting them is easy. Sometimes I start them by being a Serb. Some people start them by being homosexual. All you have to do is "be" something, and people will want to fight you. My cousin would be beaten by loan sharks, and when I tried to fight them off of him he would only yell at me for making more trouble.

I deserved it, though. He was right.

[He has cheese and sort of a bacon cube and a real onion out of the fridge and some green pepper. Which he chops into loose cubes without the finesse of a chef, but they won't ruin anything. He even sautees them like his mother would.]

[And after a moment of consideration, gets some whiskey out of the cabinet for himself but offers it over to Boone.] Put this by where you're sitting. [Since that ale will be gone.] Would you want me to teach you how to fight?

[Those seem like stupid reasons to attack someone, but Boone still isn't surprised. And if someone was kicking his ass and someone else came to help him, he's pretty sure he wouldn't be yelling at them. He watches Niko cook for a little while, but when he offers him the whiskey he heads over to the couch and sits down with it, setting it on the table. He drinks some of his own, thinking about Niko's offer.]

It would probably be useful. You sure you wouldn't mind?

[He probably wouldn't be offering if he did mind, but he feels like he should ask anyway.]

Hey, I have a new friend. I want to keep him safe. I like to keep my friends. [Though he doesn't think people who are his friends suffer the best fates. It's enough for him to add.] It might even spare me a few bad dreams to know you have that.

[He brings over a couple of cheap plates and forks liberated from a restaurant (he didn't really need a lot of silverware). He offers the leftver porkish meat chunk to the dog under the bed and gives the cat a piece of fish from his fridge to quiet her. Him. It.]

[He sits by Boone to eat, digging his heels in to lay back on a mass of pillows and blankets that serve as a decent back prop. He deems his work not too terrible, but still chases it with whisky.]

Edited 2014-07-13 22:02 (UTC)

[Well, it's better than the omelettes back home. Not enough for him to feel like he wants to go hunting for deathclaw eggs any more than he did, but it's nice enough.]

I dunno, you shouldn't worry too much about me. Kinda have a habit of not dying when I should.

[It's nice to know that Niko cares about him, though. He'd assumed he'd be on his own for the most part here. He isn't great at making friends. It was part of the reason he brought Rex along. He likes being alone sometimes, but... not all the time.]

[He's still a military man at heart and scarfs the food like one, before immediately turning to his whiskey. Still, mid-drink the turn to his words gives him pause.]

[He then turns it into a quick smile, and he looks at the bottle.] You seem like a good guy to have that habit. There are a lot of assholes back home that I wish didn't have it.

[But then he kicks his foot light off the edge of the bed and wrinkles his nose, scanning the unfamiliar words at the front of the bottle to keep his gaze occupied and even traces under the letters with his finger so he can sound them out in his head]. It's a good trait to have in a friend instead of an enemy. I've had a lot of bad people betray me. They make the good people suffer for it. [He probably shouldn't be telling a member of security about this. Hell, he might end up in a fist fight for inviting one into his house (it's still one that he'd get into as he likes Boone better than the people he's been running for). But it's nice to have the company.]

[Well, he's no saint, but again that's not really something he wants to go into the details of. He goes back to his own bottle, and leans back against the pillows keeping him propped up a little more.]

Yeah. If my friends could stay alive like some of the people I've known, maybe I wouldn't worry so much about... losing them.

[He wanted to say "bringing them down with me", but he doesn't know if he wants to explain what he means right now. They're having a nice time, right? He shouldn't bring that into it.]

Hey. Hey... [He says in a tipsy voice, leans over and takes one of Boone's hands and clasps both of his around it. He gazes at him earnestly.]

It is important for you to know that you will not lose me. Because it is very hard to kill me. I've survived ships sinking, and ambushes, and villages destroyed, and crossing an ocean. I am a survivor. And I am taller than you, so I'm easy to find.

[Well, at least he looks convinced. Boone won't let himself believe it though, no matter what Niko has already survived. He frowns a little.]

You are pretty tall.

[Then again, a lot of people are taller than Boone.]

Where I'm from I'm average. Everybody is kind of big.

[He stays laying on his side, and while the grip on his stolen hand has eased he's pressing the pads of their thumbs together to see which one his bigger. And he squints really hard at it like he's concentrating.]

I like being where there's a lot of different sizes and shapes. Sometimes it's too noisy. But sometimes it's good to see so much that is different in one place. See that it can exist like this. Maybe not happy together, maybe just indifferent, but exist.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject