maxine_bastet (maxine_bastet) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-04-16 16:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | bastet, vainamoinen |
Take Me Down Where the Love Honey Flows
Who: Max and Brent
What: Max discovers paradise on the Deluxe floor and has no intention of leaving.
Where: Pax, Deluxe Floor
When: Sunday , April 16, 2017, morning
What: gdoc complete!
Max awoke that morning into a riot of colour. Her eyes were dazzled by it, and a sense of pure happiness spread in her. Cali was busy playing with a swath of pink cloth on the floor, though she had no idea where it had come from.
Max got up, still in her pajamas, first exploring her new apartment, and then out in the hall, eyes wide and inquisitive all the while. Cali followed her dutifully, towards one end of the hall where she found a table piled high with food. A gigantic grin spread across her face as she tried many of the offerings, dropping some bits of meat onto the floor for a very grateful Cali who finally tried climbing up Max’s leg to get to the table. “Hang on, hang on,” she said, picking her up and setting her down next to the meat. Cali wasted no time digging in.
After they were both fed and happy, Max picked up what she was sure was a bottle of rum and kept going, exploring the rest of the floor and then taking the stairs up to the next, and the next. Each floor was a different surprise, but something was pulling her upwards, and she didn’t stay long on each. Finally on the top she found what she knew she was seeking.
She and Cali stepped out into the hot arid air and she breathed a sigh of relief. She breathed in the scented air, the sand sticking to her bare toes, the rustling leaves of the nearby palms seeming to fill her with a sense of calm. Belonging. This was what she’d been seeking. “We’re home, Cali,” she said happily, smiling around herself, taking in everything around them.
She wandered around, found an open and empty apartment that led to a view so spectacular it took her breath away. Settling herself against the trunk of a fig tree, open bottle of rum in one hand and a large bunch of fat grapes in her lap, she sighed contentedly and watched the nile in the distance as Cali scampered nearby chasing a fluttering leaf in the wind.
A familiar voice broke through the quiet air. "Well hey, Cali." Brent bent at the waist, patting the little kitten's head when she paused in her pursuit of the leaf. Cali rolled happily onto her back, exposing her belly to Brent’s hand and playfully nipping at his fingers. "How are you? Where's your mom, huh?"
Belatedly he looked up, catching sight of Max and her burden of pilfered goods. "Oh hey, Max. There you are. What's all that? Where'd you get that?" He shuffled over to her, kicking up sand as he walked. "My floor's got grapes, too, if you want some. And wine. And… wheat, I think? Not sure what you can do with that, really, but I figured I'd mention it."
Max flinched and opened her eyes from enjoying the pleasant heat of the sun on her skin when she was sprayed with sand, though a wide smile breaking out on her face when she saw who it was. “Hi Brent,” she greeted happily. Everything about her surroundings made her happy, and while she did notice and acknowledge the strangeness of it, she accepted it as what is, and chose to enjoy it fully.
She held up the bottle in her hand and smirked. “Rum! I found it on my floor before I came up here. Check out that view! I think I’ll camp out here forever.” She took a healthy swig of the brown liquid and then settled the bottle deep into the sand and pushed herself up to her bare feet. “I’m going to build a fort,” she announced happily, looking around herself. There were tall reeds that looked pretty sturdy she could use as tent poles. Wide glossy palm leaves for a roof. Grass she could weave into rope. Excitement jumped in her belly at the idea of it - living out her days in this desert paradise, eating fruit and playing with Cali and baking in the sun. If only there was meat she’d never have to leave.
"Wow." Brent dragged out the word, impressed by the view of the river that should not be. But his attention returned to Max soon enough, and more importantly, to the bottle of rum now resting by her. He dropped down into the sand beside her, pulling the bottle up and to his lips in a single vigorous motion. "It's nice," he said, leaning back beneath a verdant grape vine. "Weird, though, right? Super weird. Kinda hoping I don't get fired, since we can't get out and all. I kinda like my job." He shrugged, raising the bottle again. "Oh well."
Max looked down at him, only slightly perturbed that he'd helped himself to her rum. Then she smiled widely again. “Who cares?” she asked loudly of the nearby river. “There's other jobs. And besides...what if this is forever? I plan to set myself up good while everyone else is wandering around in a daze trying to get out. I can have the crib, my cat, my beach view...and I'm going to hoard all the rum once I get back to...where I got it,” she ended, deciding at the last minute not to reveal where she got it from.
"So are you gonna helped build my fort, or are you gonna just sit there?” she asked, playful grin on her lips and hands on her hips.
"Well I mean, what do I get out of it?" Brent asked, completely serious. "Are you going to build a fort for me if I need one? I've got a lot of cats to feed, too, I should probably start seeing if these floors have any cat food or like fish or something…" He took another swig from the bottle, oblivious to her irritation at his theft of it.
Max frowned and took her bottle back, sitting cross-legged on the sand in front of him and pointedly drinking more than he had. “I found meat on a few altars on the different floors,” she said with a shrug, glancing over her shoulder at Cali’s antics. “Cali loves the roasted...whatever it was I found on my floor. I’m gonna have to go back there every day to feed her, I think, I haven’t found any meat around here,” she said, glancing around at her almost perfect paradise.
“Besides,” she said, seamlessly changing the subject back to her previous request, “it was my idea first. First thing I need is something to cut these palms with,” she said, glancing around the area at the various slender trees that would be perfect tent poles, with conveniently large and glossy leaves she could use for a roof. “I think I can weave those reeds into some rope to tie them together with too,” she said, gesturing with her chin towards the thicket of them along the banks of the Nile. She took another long sip of her rum, looking down at it mournfully as the bottle only got emptier. She’d have to go get a few more before anyone else found them.
“If you must have your own hut, please let’s make it over there,” she said, indicating to further down the bank of the river. “If we’re going to live together, I don’t want to have to listen to you snore or whatever. And what if I have a guy over? You don’t want to hear that.”
"What? Gross. No. Nevermind." He reached out, pulling the bottle from her hands. It was nearly empty now, and Brent made quick work of at least half of what remained. He set the bottle down in the sand beside Max. "I'll probably go see where that meat is you were talking about. I'm kind of sick of canned tuna. And if you don't even know what kind of meat it is, I bet it's something I need to try.
"Besides," he continued, veering wildly from one topic to another with barely a breath. "I heard there's a tent or a bed or something on at least one other floor. Why build something if the hard work's already been done? It makes no sense. It's too hot up here, anyway. Why do you like this?" He paused for a beat, squinting up at the blazing sun. "I like that bog floor better. There's these little flowers, too. It's nice."
“This is where I belong,” she said firmly, as if there was no room for discussion. “It’s an extension of my soul, if there is such a thing.” She drank the last of the rum, frowning at the empty bottle and letting it fall to the sand. Then an idea occurred to her. He wanted meat. She wanted more rum, and possibly a weapon. She stood instantly.
“Let’s go,” she said, looking down at him as if he should already know her thought process. “We’re going back to my floor...we can carry more with two of us, and I can get some stuff from my place. We’ll get the meat, get the rum, and build my damn fort.” She wouldn’t take no for an answer. They were doing this, now.
"You're high, aren't you," Brent said. "I mean I'll go if there's going to be meat. I'm not saying I won't. But if you're high and you're not sharing that's just really bad manners." He folded his arms across his chest. "I didn't come up here to get a bunch of errands. I'm trying to enjoy my time off work, you know? And I'm glad you belong here and everything, but damn. It's still crazy hot."
Max narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not high, though I’d like to be. That would just...be the best thing ever…” she trailed off and then after a second refocused herself. “That’s not the point. The point is, there’s food and alcohol to be had, and we need to go get it. You don’t have to come back up here if you don’t want to. I happen to like the heat.” She said it as if his criticism of the environment was a personal affront to her, which probably could be since she felt so at home here.
She turned and headed out of the ‘apartment’ they were in, towards the elevators, then paused just outside. “You coming?”
"Yes." He clambered up from the sand, not bothering to brush it off where it had collected on his clothes. "But I'm not coming back up here. I'm going back to that bog. I liked it there. You want a house or fort or tent or whatever, you go right ahead. Enjoy that sun." He looked back up to the sky that should have been a ceiling, glaring as if it cared about his opinion. But he followed her to the elevator, sliding past her to enter it first, and jabbed the button marked 7.
Max followed him and shrugged, “your loss,” she said, pushing the ‘2’ and standing next to him. “Meat and alcohol’s on my floor, yo,” she said, grinning at him. “I may share with you if you’re nice.”
Brent pursed his lips, plainly considering. But when the elevator came to a stop at the seventh floor, he stepped off all the same. "You drive a hard bargain," he said, "and I'm sure I'll be back up there before you know it. Maybe I'll bring some more rum or something when I come." As the doors began to close, he gave her a vigorous mock salute. "Have fun up there Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."
Max laughed as the doors closed, echoing his salute back to him as the doors snapped shut.