her palm slams against the table, no doubt rattling his cheek, but if it does, she certainly doesn't notice. "yeah!" she starts, completely oblivious to the condescension, "like i know nomes says they're god's little angels or whatever, but sometimes i'm like, you guys are just a bunch of hot dogs stuck together with skewers, aren't you?"

the pickle pleads for mercy. parker pleads for an out. neither of them get what they want.

"oh, nah, they don't," she says, with all the confidence of someone who has tasted an unown before. her mouth waters. not because they taste particularly good or like pickles, but because it's just sitting there and it's going to get thrown away if she doesn't eat it.

"you ever put orange juice in a metal container and drink it? they taste like that."

howard slayte

☉

some mustard drips out of the corner of his mouth. the meat looks so tender and juicy. fresh pork roast, pink little slices of ham, a more than generous amount of pickles. her stomach grumbles. she does not know all that shred's been through. she does not care what shred's been through.

he's in rocket. they're in rocket. they've all been in some shit, one way or another. 

"yeah, meltan. that's 'is name." the sandwich is riddled with bites missing, but it's face up and his head is on the table now. there's a stray pickle to the right of his pinkie. 

no, don't do that. don't eat his food. that's weird. that's so weird, parker. don't take the pickle.

"should be rocket science. gods know that's what they love talkin' 'bout. that's what i told 'im too."

silence lapses. she thinks about how hungry she is. and how she could go for - 

"did you know unown feel like hot dogs?"

howard slayte

☉

"fuck." stupid rubs off on her. she blames low blood sugar (FUCK, SHE'S SO HUNGRY) but quickly rights herself. "no, ew, fuck, gross. the little eyeball guy. goopy metal guy. y'think he'd still be standing if he tried 'n show me his prick?"

parker would have punched his lights out right then and there, but nomi probably could have flung him into the unown dimension to let the unown eat him. or whatever they'd do. 

do unown eat?

do they have mouths?

and if they eat, do they shit?

"i just said shot. bang, bang, kiss, kiss 'n all that 'cept probs minus the kissin' hhhh-h-man." halsin? no, that's from the weird bear fucking tiktok. "'cept minus the kissin' in his case. hell hath no fury like a woman who - who's gotta hear his pick-up lines with her own two ears."

kind of begs the question anyway - "so why's a guy like 'im want a guy like 'er? i mean, i get it, fuckin' look at me, but at least i'm hot. and what's goin' on anyway? don't we got like super tech cyborg shit now that'll make all 'is troubles go away? or at least an arm."

her eyes light up. "'m sure he could find an arm with a vibrate function."

howard slayte

☉

most of the food in the fridge is moldy. she stares enviously at whatever sorry sap lost their sandwich to the rocket admin's sticky fingers. admin fox (she does not know his real name, even though people have said it in passing to him probably like five times now and this is absolutely not the first fucking time he's talked to her) has been talking to her for probably a solid ten minutes now and still, no obvious escape route has made itself known.

parker's mental schedule today:
1. kiss nomi.
2. work out.
3. kiss nomi.
4. go to work.
5. get money.
6. repeat.
7. drop off money at hq.

and here's where it gets dicey. 8 is supposed to be 'kiss nomi' again, but the minx is out somewhere on an errand. blah, blah, world-saving stuff. so parker's stupid, lovey-dovey lunch plans? gone. hence the kitchen, hence the uh-oh small talk, hence fox (horace? horatio?), hence - 

hey, wait, yeah we're talkin' about shred.

"he asked if i wanted to see his nut. i'm surprised lulu hasn't shot 'im yet."

howard slayte

☉

she doesn't feel very dangerous. she doesn't feel very anything right now. defeated, maybe? relieved, certainly. in love, absolutely, but that last one's complicated too. always is. (not that she'd know; she's never fallen for anyone like she has nomi and there's somehow so much here. decades of love.)

"that bitch tries anything again, i'm gonna rip her arm right off," she says with a scowl. 

the morphine keeps on drip-dripping and she swallows thickly. laying low is her jam. she's always been the kind of gal to duck her head down and bang her nose against the grindstone. she doesn't have the heart to say nomi's gonna be the one to make it impossible.

"more excuse to live in that fancy new shindig we're gonna get. hey, don't we sign our shit next week?"

Naomi Sato

☉

something doesn't sit right. she blinks blearily, resists the urge to rip the drip out of her arm (because gods, it will hurt, it's going to hurt, she saw her arm fall off, bits and pieces of skin gone and bubbling like lava - ) but she doesn't. she thinks really hard about what is so weird and why it's so weird and then she realizes she said kallistatus' name right and nomi didn't bat an eye.

she didn't mean to. oh. alarm makes her blink down at nomi, but okay, gods, okay, her eyes are still that same ruby red. not all white with black hole pupils. if that were permanent, they'd maybe need to talk.

about, like, permanent sunglasses or something.

but this? a dye job? she can handle that. it's fine. everything's fine. nothing's changed.

i couldn't protect her. 

"yeah, i love it. we're like cotton candy ice cream an' i love cotton candy ice cream." she thumbs nomi's cheek, smiles. "an' i love you."

Naomi Sato

☉

parker can fuck up a burger chili dog any day of the year. she's got a stomach of iron, but she'll crash as soon as she sits her ass down. gorging on sam's means having the bestest, sweatiest nap afterward. gods, it's heavenly. 

the line moves fast. they know what they're doing. and by the time they're up at the counter, parker's ordering for the whole gang. her mouth waters as she prattles off avery's basket, an assload of fries, nomi's meal, her own three meals, and a side of chicken nuggies for maisey, and extra extra burg sauce. 

"shrine for what, nomes?" she asks curiously 'cause she's pretty clueless. not to the eyeballs, surely. nomi's love for them came later. 

she slaps a drink cup into both their hands and then goes about getting some sprite and cheerwine in her own. mmm, sugar.

avery jones Naomi Sato

☉

it takes a bit of finagling. she's not exactly small, but with nina clambering out of the way, parker manages to haul herself into the driver's seat. when she's done, she lets out a sigh, slaps both palms on the steering wheel, and flashes a cheeky grin at her partner in crime.

"yeah, you wish," she says and she drops one hand down onto the stick. her canine sinks into her bottom lip and as the garage door continues its slow, rickety lift upward, she revs the engine. poor sal covers his ears next to the garage door, but even he can't hide the wily joy on his face.

"'kay," parker says as they lurch forward into the narrow alleyway behind sal's candy shop, "this means you're gonna be our gunner. the water blastin' you did 'a me before? that kinda shit. that's why we popped the window out the back. other racers 're gonna have tricks up their sleeve too. got it?"

nina larson

☉

nomi breaks anyway and throws herself over parker's lap. she goes to sit up, but her shoulder feels heavy too, and she vaguely remembers the sensation of getting shot by - her brother/confidant/groomsman/friend - the councilwoman's lapdog. 

hot air comes out of her nose and she gives up the ghost on sitting up. nothing about her body wants to work with her right now. it wants to go back to sleep and forget everything all over again. it wants her to go far, far away so it can heal. 

"fuckin' hate morphine," she mutters. 

she half-closes her eyes, relieved when nomi doesn't tell her that they're dead or some wild shit like that. she couldn't live with herself if she let nomes cross that line. her non-bandaged hand rests on the back of nomi's head, clumsy fingers sifting through the new blue locks. her tongue is thick. 

"you let kallistatus dye your hair?"

Naomi Sato

☉

it's me, the stranger says, as though it's obvious, but saying it so only makes it obvious. saying it with the amount of pain in her eyes - pain you gave to her, because you didn't say it back to her, you idiot. she loves you and you were too chickenshit to say it back and now - a groan wells up in her throat, pressure in the back of her head, but thankfully no blood dribbles down her nose. 

her throat should be dry and scratchy. she should feel pain, with how croaky her words are, but it's all so far away.

i'm nomi. your nomi.

all of her nightmares chased her to the brink. all of her nightmares brought her back to the surface. ink had bled all over the grey, brutal in technicolor. names of the dead and damned and long, long gone lay on the tip of her tongue. 

you brought them back, would be accusatory. 

you made me remember, would be damning. 

you made me bleed, would break her. 

she smiles a wolfish smile and chapped lips threaten to split. 

"'course y'are, cupcake," she croaks and goes to lift her left arm. it's bulky, almost dead to the world. her gaze slides lazily down to it and she blinks groggily a couple of times, registering the thick gauze wrapped around her. 

"did we get 'em?" she asks slowly.

Naomi Sato

☉

she's bobbing in the water and every time she comes up for air, she cannot stop herself from screaming. and it's like that for an eternity, this feeling of drowning and then of not drowning, but when she's not drowning, she's dying. she's on fire and she's dying and she doesn't want to die but she doesn't want to drown either because someone she loves is dying/dead out there. 

we're keeping her under because of the shock, they tell nomi. the skin graft was successful, they say. she'll be okay, they promise. 

they don't know that under those sterile blankets, smothered by the morphine, she is being chased in circles by her monsters. red fire burns her house down. black fire destroys her nerve endings. blue fire kills her love.

when she wakes up, really wakes up, without a start, hooded eyes take in her surroundings. her pain feels far away. her brain feels sluggish. her arm feels heavy. and where is - ?

"who're you?"

Naomi Sato

☉

there are bits and pieces of her cooking in the flame and all around her is a world on fire - the happiest parts of a life she doesn't remember go up in smoke. and how is it that after all this time, she's ended up here again? stumbling through the ashes of a house she could never call home, boots crunching on familial bones. 

where is her sister?

she'll take the money they squirreled away. she'll take on the debts so they don't take avery too. she'll let rocket string her up and she'll let rocket eat her alive; she won't make the same mistakes her parents made.

she knows better than that. she knows her place in this world.

the woman who comes out of the smoke is not the same one she watched over these past few hours. remus holds her back as hands reach to cradle her face, her arm, and her teeth are white, eyes wild and white like a dog's, too lost in all the pasts that have erupted from these horrors. 

the sterile walls blind her. someone is screaming (is that her? could that be her?). the stranger with the blue hair isn't a stranger at all, but by the time she realizes it, by the time she's screeching, "NOMI, NOMI, NOMI, PLEASE," she's already halfway under from the needle, medics crowding her, pushing the one remaining tether to her sanity out of arm's reach.

Naomi Sato PENELOPE LIVY Gunner Graves

☉

it's not fair that nomi knows her well enough to expect the way she snatches at her waist, because now parker's the one letting out a surprised and turned on mmmm when nomes immediately tousles up her hair. she drags her close, one hand dropping possessively to her ass, but before they can show becky what it means to really make love, nomi finds her sense. 

parker nuzzles affectionately at the side of her neck, planting kisses, and saying, "i wanna live here with you too. you 'n maisey 'n hell even alphabet soup can come too. i'm sure they'd love it."

maybe she can teach them how to play fetch in the backyard. wouldn't that be something. 

there are things about slateport she's going to miss. her routine, for one thing, but hell that's been screwed since the day she met nomi. that's just it, isn't it? everything's gotten all turned upside down since she had bodyguard duty for this drop-dead gorgeous super genius. 

once, that would have frightened her. now she wouldn't have it any other way. 

"'kay, now let's go tell becky we're gonna take it at asking price 'cause we fuckin' can and then tell her she's invited over for dinner 'cause i bet ya that shit husband of hers don't cook."

Naomi Sato

☉