[Log] Dear god, why? Who: Gin Charlie, Adriel Carson When: October 8 Where: The infirmary and up to the dorms. What: Gin Charlie meets someone very...interesting. Warnings: Adriel. Flirting. Cursing. Open or Closed: Closed Observable: No
*
Gin Charlie leaned against the wall in the plain white room and waited for the newest arrival to wake up. His rage had dulled to a low simmer. How dare they fuck with his body? He hadn't asked to be younger! He'd been just fine with being older, thank you very much. But nooo, they'd had to fuck with his genes again and here he was. Younger and with a better temper. Heh, no-one had told them about that. There was a reason he ruled with an iron fist.
They'd added more to his floor, too. And now this new one. Well, he'd make sure it got properly greeted and settled in. That was his job after all.
Adriel yawned as he woke, stretching his body as his eyes fluttered open, a frown on his face as he took in his clothing and the environment. It looked like a hospital. That never meant anything good. Bony fingers swiped over his chest and side as he looked around, thankful that there was no IV in him.
That was when he noticed the man standing against the wall. Interest quickly piqued, he licked his lips and leaned against his hands, crossing his legs at the ankles.
"Well hello," he said softly, a slow smile coming across his lips. "Who are you? Not that I object to your company, but..." He might well need to know his name for various reasons.
Well, this one was quick to perk up. Gin Charlie raised an eyebrow that had only a few greyed hairs in it now. "Welcome to Pacis Urbs," he answered instead. "I'm Gin Charlie. And what do I call you?" Aside from extremely-people-oriented.
Adriel bit his lip, filing away the name of the city, still looking the man up and down. Mm, yes, he looked like he'd be fun.
"My name is Adriel," he said, voice going up and down on his name. "How'd I get here?"
"The Machine brought you here." Gin Charlie smiled, and even when he was younger it was not a very pleasant expression; crooked teeth with an upper one missing, scars blanched to prominency across lips and cheeks. "You're in a different world, Adriel. You're in the Ludus, and may the sacrificed god have mercy on your soul."
Anger was one thing to control. Mood was another and Gin Charlie had never seen the need to soften up for the less-than-terrified newbies.
"Maybe mercy isn't what I'm looking for," he said with a soft laugh, shifting where he sat, rolling his shoulders. He hated scrubs; they weren't sexy at all and he looked about ridiculous trying to flirt in them.
"So, do I have to buy all new stuff or what?" Since he'd been essentially kidnapped. He wasn't too bothered about it, mainly because wherever this Pacis Urbs was, it was nowhere near his home or his parents' home. He had a chance to start over again. He gave his sister a week to find him.
"You're a wool-headed ninny, ain't ye?" Gin Charlie snorted. They saw all kinds here. "Whatever you had on you is in your dorm room. Any other questions?"
"Oh, that's good. I do have one last question." He hopped down off the bed and folded his hands behind his back, shoulders pushing out. "Where can a guy get a drink?"
"At the club for others. The Domus Hospes." Gin Charlie snorted. "Let me tell you this again, biddie. You're in a different world. You're not home. The Scientists can send you home, but you've got to work for it."
He nodded gratefully when Gin Charlie told him where he could get a drink, filing it away as well. And then he was called bitty and told that he'd have to work to go home. He cracked up.
"And who said I'd want to go home?" he said with a cheeky smirk. "I might just like it here. I have hopes for this place." If anything, his brother and mother wouldn't be able to find him. He still figured his sister would. She was tricky like that.
Gin Charlie grimaced. One of those. "You can live here forever if you want, but those of us who have will tell you it's a long damn time." None had lived as long as he, though, and for damn good reason.
"If you've got your shit together then I'll take you to your room and turn you loose. I'm master of the dorms. No fighting, and don't fuck with the drones."
He winked, a lopsided grin taking its place. Apparently flirting would get him nowhere with this man, but he wouldn't stop. He liked flirting.
"Ah, now, it can't be that bad here, can it?" he asked, stepping forward in acceptance of the offer to get going. He was looking forward to this.
"Talk to me again in a year and see if you're still enjoying it," Gin Charlie answered. He pushed away from the wall and headed for the curtain. He moved slick and graceful, a fighter in his prime, nothing wasted. He could put a hunting cat to shame.
"I shall," Adriel said, stepping off behind Gin Charlie, appreciating the view as he went. He didn't see how the place would be quite as bad as home, so he wasn't too worried about leaving.
Quite suddenly, he shuddered, pulling his scrubs tighter on his body as his mind turned to more negative things. He grinned brighter.
"So what kind of jobs do you have here?" "If you can fight, you work in the Games. If you can serve drinks or look goddamn pretty carrying them, you can work in the Domus." Gin Charlie pushed aside the curtain and stepped into the hall.
He'd only gotten two steps when chaos entered from the elevator: screaming, blood spurting, swearing and lashing tentacles. Gin Charlie stepped aside and held an arm out to herd his newest charge closer to the wall. Medics appeared, robed in white with green sashes, and converged on the five tangled bodies. It looked like the sentient octopus had decided to get angry with a catgirl, a dark elf, a human girl and one of the Klingons. People were hauled apart, there was at least one dead body, and tentacles were everywhere.
"Damn. Looks like Damien's floor had a riot act today," he muttered.
A bevy of medic rushed by carrying the catgirl, screaming and clutching at the stump of her severed arm.
Working in the Domus sounded more to Adriel's liking than fighting in the Games. It wasn't that he couldn't, but he was strictly short-distance and didn't really want to attack anyone. Anyway, he'd worked as a bartender for years. He knew his town's drinks inside and out. They couldn't change that much, regionally, he decided.
And then there was screaming and he was getting herded to the wall. His eyes locked on the fight and he bit his lip, unable to hold back a giggle, bouncing a bit on his feet.
"Well then," he said with a shrug. "This is going to be fun. Is that a normal thing?" As if it'd been just an octopus guy, or just the cat girl. What he wasn't admitting was that the possibility of that being a normal thing was a little bit more than unnerving.
"Salted earth, they gave me another psychopath," Gin Charlie sighed. "Fuck it. No, it's not normal. And I mean it about no fighting. I will string you up if you do. No killing, either, or I'll do you worse."
"I'm not a psychopath," he said, all cheer and charm. "This place is just...interesting." And laughing was better than crying about something that couldn't be changed. "Soothing to know that isn't the norm, though. The fighting, at least. The...people?"
He turned his head, giving Gin Charlie a sideways look. He'd never seen anyone who had tentacles or cat ears or...well, who wasn't human. He could have sworn that he'd once seen a man turn into a wolf, but otherwise they all looked human. Now that was the most interesting part about the place.
"They all say that," Gin Charlie returned, and gave the kid a hard look. The smile was a little thin around the edges - maybe the kid wasn't really as cold-blooded as he was coming off. Who the hell knew? If he started trouble, Gin Charlie would end it. "We get all kinds. They tell me you're human, but that's only the majority by about half. Mebbe a little more, give or take who's dead this week."
The struggles had died down and already a bevy of student-medics were at work with mops and buckets, cleaning up the blood and slime.
Gin Charlie started walking.
"Dead...this week...?" He looked somewhat confused by the statement, but then shook it off and grinned brightly, refusing to show that he was even slightly off-kilter. He'd deal with that when he went to get drunk later. Until then, he would be perky and happy.
Hopefully getting drunk would get his mind off everything anyway, especially if he ended up having a good night.
"Well, I'm looking forward to meeting everyone. It'll be nice to meet some of the ones who aren't human, as well."
Wonder if they're any good in bed...? he thought with a smirk that was by no means meant for a child's eyes.
Yeah, kid was a psychopath. Or at the very least completely off his rocker. Gin Charlie would see about scheduling time for him to see the medics. "You're one of the few."
He stepped onto the elevator and held the door. "You will be living on the third floor. This is the infirmary, come here when you're fucked up."
"Noted," he said with a nod, looking back at the door of the infirmary before getting into the elevator. He had a nasty feeling he would be quite intimate with the place, after all, so it was best to remember where it was. "And third floor. How do you get to the Domus?"
Something else to know.
"And the Games. How do you sign up for them, on the off chance that I want to."
"There's a sign-up sheet for any job you want on my office door. The Domus you can get to easy enough, go out and head east across the grounds." Gin Charlie leaned against the wall, lounging carelessly as the elevator went up. "It's closed right now, it'll be open in another hour."
"The drones are the drones. They clean, they cook, they run errands. You screw with them or break them, I will break you." Gin Charlie watched the tapping, the stare.
"Hmm, okay, easy enough," he said softly. No need to mess with something that wasn't bothering him, after all.
"Where can I get some cleaning supplies," he asked after a couple more moments of fidgeting. "You know, if my room gets dirty."
"You can get them from the QD in the commons. Or you can ask me. Depending on what it is."
The elevator doors opened and Gin Charlie stepped out.
"Bleach is my preferred cleaning product," he said simply as he stepped off the elevator as well, keeping his hands behind his back as his eyes skimmed one wall, then the other, taking in anyone and everyone he saw, classifying them as possibilities, maybes, and too-youngs. He planned on making the most of his likely-considerable time here.
"How often do you get new people here? How often do they leave?" he asked after a couple more breaths. If he wasn't careful, his reputation would get around before he could and then all his fun would be ruined.
"Depends," Gin Charlie grunted. "Cafeteria, there. Training area, here. My office, here."
He went straight into his office. Without looking he put his hand out, picked up and bottle of gin, and took a long pull. With the taste of alcohol on his tongue, he turned to lead this new biddy out to his room.
Nodding to each statement, he continued to follow Gin Charlie, skimming the list on the man's door as Gin Charlie took a swig of alcohol. He decided it best to just not say anything about that. He wanted to make a good impression, and the man already thought him a psychopath, so no need in feeding that image further.
"Anything else I need to know?"
"Not that I know of. If you need anything, call for me."
Gin Charlie lead the man to the commons. "Commons, here. Dorm halls, here." There was a group of kids playing jacks in the commons, squealing and cheering and chattering. Gin Charlie ignored them and they did likewise.
More nodding on Adriel’s part as his eyes skimmed the commons, but he said nothing about the kids. At least there were kids there; that always lightened the air somewhat, after all.
“And my dorm?” he asked, anxious to get out of these unflattering scrubs. Ew. And the material was horrible, too.
‘This way.” Gin Charlie strode down the quiet hall, taking a deep pull from his gin. The weight of the bottle was comfortable in his hand. He moved at a steady pace, watching the name plaques. There. He stopped and opened the door. A nice single.
“Here’s yours.”
“Thank you,” Adriel said, peeking in the door. A single room, which made him smile softly. Yes, that would be great for liaisons; however, the bedding was to be fixed, the floors and walls to be scrubbed, the desk to be polished. Plenty of work to do before the club tonight!
His smile brightened and he stuck out a hand.
“Thanks for the tour!”
“It’s my job. Need anything else?” Gin Charlie asked, dismissively.
“How do you get bedding and remind me where the bleach is?” he asked, a thrill going through him. Cleaning! He loved cleaning.
Ooh, could he hold two jobs? He asked that as well.
Gin Charlie eyed the utilitarian sheets and blankets, then the clean floor, then Adriel. “Hold as many jobs as you can keep up with. I’m not sure I have what you want right on hand.”
“Do you have a label maker, by chance?” he asked with a grin, ignoring the bit about not having what he wanted. He could work with anything that would clean.
“Damn if I know.” Gin Charlie leaned against the door frame and took another swig.
“Well shit. I was hoping you’d know. You look like the sort who’d know where everything was, after all.” A wink and he stepped into his room, cataloguing everything. He’d label everything later, but some soap and water was needed. He liked starting with a clean room, after all.
“Time out. Tell me again exactly how crazy you happen to be. Any medications I need to be fuckin’ informed of?” Gin Charlie asked.
“What? I like to clean,” he said with a shrug. “The only medication I need is a good ol’ bucket of bleach water. Makes me feel better every time.” He laughed, an old joke his sister used to make about him, then winked at Gin Charlie again. “I’m not crazy, at least not crazy enough to be on any medication.”
Gin Charlie gave him a blank stare.
“I’ll go see what I have.”
The blank stare amused Adriel and he gave him a grateful smile.
“Thank you very much.”
Gin Charlie shook his head and turned. Right. Sheets, bleach, label-maker. Well fuck. He headed off to his office.
Adriel vibrated and bounded off after Gin Charlie. Cleaning! He was looking forward to it.
“Soap and water will do for now, so I’m going to go track some of that down. Let me know when you find that other stuff,” he chirped.
“Laundry is at the end of this hall.” Gin Charlie pointed. He walked through the commons. A tall blue-skinned woman nodded to him as he passed. Gin Charlie nodded.
“Thank you!” Adriel chirped, bouncing off down the hall, gathering up the soap and a bucket of water, and high-tailing it to his room to get to cleaning. The sheets could wait. There was scrubbing to be done.