text

[nishizono]

hey, fellow prisoners! or should i say guests? having some trouble with the technical definitions lately.

i need some help. personal reasons. it's more of a crafts project, and i don't have anything to trade any of you - all the good shit i had are currently confiscated, sorry about that. anyway, here's the list of things i'm looking for:

- 1 box condoms
- 1 roll copper wire
- 2 metal files (1 long, 1 short)
- 1 roll electrical tape
- 1 liter acrylic paint, any color
- 1 car battery
- 1 telepath
- 1 roll fairy lights

if anyone can point me in the right direction, or if anyone's willing to help pull this together, i'll owe you something. we can negotiate.

Comments

[warandpeace]

Don't underestimate my ability to find things to talk about.

[He can generate a history lesson in a heartbeat.]

I'll meet you by the doors to the tunnels when you decide you're ready to have a look around.

[nishizono]

[ that's actually pretty horrifying, uhm ]

that sounds like a threat, you know

i'm ready to look, my body just needs a day off

or five

your friend ahab is really fucking heavy

[warandpeace]

Depends on how you feel about listening to me.

Why?

What did he do?

[He is, indeed, very heavy.]

[nishizono]

i don't mind your voice, it's the subject matter that scares me

he slammed me on the rooftop floor at least twice

i'm staying here until i feel less like tenderized beef

[ he asked for this he can't be annoyed but he didn't ask to get suplexed ]

[warandpeace]

Oh.

[To both things. One meaning that he won't discuss it here. The other a sort of 'that explains everything'.]

Well, I hope you two had a good time.

Most of the people he fights with that I know enjoy the attention.

[nishizono]

you're telling me he's popular or something?
how?
i don't understand either of you, you're both weird as hell

[ he's gonna have to move at some point. maybe. he could just fuse with the floor. ]

did you name the dino yet

[warandpeace]

I'll call him Che.

I'll come up to you but it might take me a few minutes.

[He'll accept being strange, thank you.]

A lot of people like him, yes. He's very competent.

[nishizono]

can't be the only reason, i know some really competent guys and they're universally reviled
it's the face, isn't it
and the size of him
he's fucking huge

[ you know, from a fighting perspective. ]

what kind of name is che????

[warandpeace]

Che Guevara was a guerilla fighter in Central America who had an exceptional history.

[Sometimes problematic. But sometimes there's a lot to admire there still.]

He's competent with the intent to help.

Even if occasionally helping involves sparring.

And that sparring might end up with someone bruised up.

[But he is on his way, and since texting is hard with a crutch he'll have to shamble his way upstairs without a response. No elevators for the faulty, alas.]

[nishizono]

oh huh
so he's someone you respect? the things he did in central america are cool to you?

[ there's no wikipedia here hmm ]

i'm not complaining, i asked to spar
he goes hard though
getting blindsided by a truck hurt less than this

[ don't mind him, he's just lying flat on the roof, torn shirt sleeve and all. if a zombie walks in before you, it's been cool. ]

[warandpeace]

[It takes him a while, but he makes it, luckily finding no zombies eating Tetora. But he does find him levelled out, and he hobbles over to look over him.]

[Then he pokes his shoulder with his crutch, chuckling gently.]

He got you good, didn't he?

[Trucks probably can take less damage, too.]

It's CQC. It's not meant to be flashy. It's meant to get the job done in the least amount of moves possible and borrows from a number of martial arts fields.

[nishizono]

He's annoying. He's really annoying and I don't get what you see in him that makes you wanna jerk him off. My ass hurts. My back hurts. My shoulder's fucked up.

[ For all anyone could tell from his tone, Tetora might as well be reciting phone numbers. He squints, then (very slowly) rolls himself into a seated position, before looking up at Miller with a look of determination. ]

Help me kick his ass. You can teach me, right?

[warandpeace]

[Kaz reaches down and, rather than explain his reasoning for being with Venom Snake, he not so gently grabs his hand and hauls him up to his feet.]

[An impressive feat with a crutch.]

I can teach you but you gotta be able to get up after he throws you down. Or as soon as you wake up.

Come on. Stretch it out. Don't let it get sore.

[nishizono]

[ Don't mind the little whines and hisses; he hasn't been this hurt in a long time. ]

I'm not sleepy. And he's the one who wouldn't let me keep going. [ It's not a lie, he was ready to go after the third knockdown. Just... complications. Breathing. Things got weird. ] How often do you get thrown down, huh? Do you two spar like this? Who's lasted the longest?

[ He's not frustrated by being told to sit out a fight. Nope. ]

That crutch was built for one person, not two.

[warandpeace]

The man that taught me CQC was the man that taught him. And he was the one that threw me around. Knocked me out more than once. It's just how we were with each other.

I don't fight with Ahab. I've not brought that into our relationship.

[He's not fought physically with him, anyway.]

Yeah. But you got two legs and I know he wouldn't have left anything broken without taking you for help or fixing it. It's not his style.

[nishizono]

You two are so annoyingly agreeable it's irritating. [ That's a compliment, if anything Tetora says can ever be considered a compliment. ] You two don't even fight? What the hell is that.

[ They're hobbling their way to a three-legged finish line like this, and it's almost... cute. Hah. If Kitou could see them now. ]

I haven't been this beat up in a while. He's strong.

[warandpeace]

He carried me on his back while being assailed by superhuman adversaries. He's most definitely strong.

[Again, bragging on Venom Snake's abilities. He helps Tetora as far as the railing (which is its own complicated mess) before nodding towards the stairs.]

You go first.

And not physically, no. We don't fight. [The closest he came was harshly bumping his shoulder.] We've argued. He's been more merciful than I would have been on several occasions.

[nishizono]

You've argued.

[ If he sounds unimpressed, it's because he is. Sickening. Get matching tattoos or something.

He's still mostly staring at Miller with unbridled stink-eye as he navigates his way down the first few steps. Tetora has to look away to focus on his feet - no good breaking anything now - but he picks right back up on the bratty thread the moment he reaches the lower landing. ]

So the dogs aren't your practice kids or anything, are they? This isn't some post-retirement life crisis?

Fixed

[warandpeace]

Technically neither of us are retired. It's-

We're...

[There's no good endings and no real way he can tell that story. Not unless he perverts the future to something more kind to them. He doesn't know how to describe any of it.]

I guess the dogs make pretty good family members.

[Then Miller starts on his own surprisingly practiced descent. He's gotten better at this.]

WOW I DIDN'T HIT COMMENT

[nishizono]

So they really are your kids.

[ Some days he's not sure if he likes Miller because of the initial kindness and their mutually shared language, or if he finds the man frustratingly nice despite having no clear motive to be so. He's always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the grand villain reveal. That it hasn't happened yet is both terrifying and relieving.

The same can be said for Miller's practiced shuffle down the steps. ]

You do a lot of one-legged climbs, huh. [ No judgment, no insult. Miller's more agile than he is right now. ] Come on, let's walk back. I'm staying in your room.

[warandpeace]

[Kaz doesn't think of himself as nice, but he is a caretaker. It's ingrained in him, taught by those years of watching his mother slowly deteriorate. Tetora is a broken soul and Kaz is weak to broken souls. He's glad to be needed and be appreciated. Tetora's a hard worker, put to adulthood and hardship much sooner than other people should be.]

[Whatever Tetora gets, regardless of his status as a moral person, Kaz is glad to give it.]

Yeah, I refused to get a prosthetic for a long time. It was my way of honoring my- nng -lost camrades. But I needed one. So I did it. Right now, we all need it more than I do, so I can do without.

Should I tell Ahab?

[If the boy he murdered is going to be there for a while, he should probably know.]

[nishizono]

[ He's not dead excuse you!!! ]

If you want to. He's your man, not mine. I'm just insinuating myself into your life like a bad drunken decision.

[ It's the only way he's ever known to live. He picks up where the previous ones have left off, wrapping around other people's connections and leeching off them until he has to move on. Kitou, Sasayama, the whole cast of mismatched faces and names that had been Shinji's (or Amamiya's, or Yosuke's) - he slotted into their lives as a crude approximate of the man they used to know. Tetora left them no choice on the matter.

Truthfully, it's a lonely way to live. But it's the only way he has. ]

Here's something I don't get though - you guys have fancy prosthetics, right? But where you're from, no one's developed the tech to regrow limbs? Wouldn't it be easier to start with organic limbs than... that? [ You know, the arm and the leg. ] It'd be a lot cheaper too, you don't have to repair a flesh limb.

[warandpeace]

[Rest in Peace Tetora.]

I didn't have my limbs fixed until the Moira. And... Well. I don't think I'm ready yet.

[To have them in full. He hates the way they look, grotesque and stumped. But they're also his penance.] Maybe one day. There is the technology but I'm not sure that I want to go that far. Cipher is behind it, and...

[He just trails off because the situation with Cipher and Outer Heaven and the damned Snakes is so damned complicated.] Don't worry about it.

He won't mind you being there, by the way. [Kaz guesses that for all that he just beat the kid up, he'd probably want to look out for him.]

[nishizono]

It's your arms, Miller-san.

[ He understands the concept of not accepting help from the devils you know, especially when you either don't trust or are unsure about their motives. Tetora's too used to backstabbing people at every turn, has made a life on it if he were honest, but he gets it. Not everyone lives an unethical life.

For whatever godforsaken reason. ]

I'll take your couch. Race you?

[ He's just being cheeky now. ]

[warandpeace]

I think you still have the advantage.

[He doesn't do half bad, though, for someone that has to be careful with his navigation. He has a railing. That's worth something.]

That's fine. Knowing Ahab he'll probably sleep outside or something to give you some privacy. It wouldn't be the first time. He used to sleep in the field frequently.

[As usual, he sounds endlessly impressed with him. Not that Kaz didn't sleep in the field too, but it's more the constant reiteration that Venom Snake throws his all into his work. To Kaz, he deserves to be admired. Not forgotten as roles dictate. He's worth something.]