Max Guevara (max5) wrote in welcomethreads, @ 2013-08-10 11:51:00 |
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This town was nuts. People were fluttering around, talking about books and movies. Alec wouldn't be surprised if Princess Leia came wandering through, bikini and all. He couldn't quite buy any of it was real, but it was a pretty freaking great headtrip at the moment. Comfortable beds, hot water he couldn't run out even if he camped in the shower for an hour. (Which he had.) But there was just something creepy about it. A lot of somethings. Actually it was pretty much all creepy, all the time. Alec didn't like things being yanked out of their control without a say so on their part. He might not have been as quick to jump on the anti-Manticore train as Max, but he was on the train, out of the station, and way the hell down the tracks. The days when he let someone else call the shots in his life were long past. Ripping him off to fairytale suburb was definitely not good. But still. Perks. Even if he couldn't quite take advantage of the beds to really sleep. He was too on edge. Alec just didn't usually cop to that. He needed less sleep than normal people anyway. They'd have to go back sometime though, and in the meantime - Alec was going with a perk appreciation program, along with trying to figure out how he could cram half an apartment into his pockets just so it hopefully stayed there whenever they did end up back where they belonged. Half the crap in this place they could fence for a fortune back home. The fixtures alone were worth a few hundred. There was also a lot of TV he hadn't seen. So far Alec had watched 10 hours of premium cable. Whatever reality or year it was, the softcore latenight porn still sucked. Or, more accurately, didn't suck well enough to be interesting. Same crappy plots and bad music, and all the action was offscreen. But he'd gotten bored with that, and after another hour-shower (hot water was never going to get old), Alec had settled in the kitchen, pair of sweats he'd acquired from someone else's apartment on, wet towel on the floor in front of the bathroom, and a PDA that was decidedly not originally his in pieces on the counter so he could figure out what components to try to keep and sell. There were also two open boxes of cereal on the counter, three bowls, his regular clothes draped across the sofa, an empty microwave popcorn bag on the table beside it. Generally despite having very little actual stuff, Alec had managed to already make a mess of their apartment and set the DVR for 12 hours of "Real Sex" marathon. He looked up as the door opened. "Hey, Maxxie. Hey, did you find cheeseballs?" Nevermind she hadn't been out to get him more snacks. Max’s feelings about the place were on par with his, although she’d never admit that and deny it if it ever came up. Still, she was obsessed with the shower. She could live in that bathtub and be happy. Everything was clean. Creepily clean and bright and crisp, and it was closer to what Logan had. She hadn’t stayed much in the apartment since getting there, unlike Alec. She was on her feet checking on the place, looking for weak spots, figuring out where everyone came in. She knew there was some magic squad trying to do the same thing, but Max stubbornly did everything herself too. She wasn’t counting on anyone. After getting frustrated and kicking at the barrier a few times, Max restlessly went back into town. She wanted her bike back, but she’d probably make it from one side the other in an easy enough trip. It was better not to think about how closed in they really were. Manticore would make anyone twitchy about being trapped. She didn’t exactly scream friendly at anyone, so they mostly let her walk on by, although the natives in this town were cheery. Annoyingly so at times. She often gave them wtf looks and went on her way. Whenever she popped back in she’d notice Alec doing something annoying, so she wasn’t surprised when she walked in now to see his stuff thrown everywhere. Max scowled and slammed the door. “Yeah, of course I did, we’re psychically connected so I got it transmitted you wanted junk food.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm but she did have some groceries. It was weird how easy it was to find food around here. People probably took it for granted too. Typical. She tossed her leather jacket, hell yeah that came with her luckily, over the back of a chair and put the bag down. “This place does not appreciate crap food. I got real stuff.” Like fruit, something that was rare in their world, because it wasn’t as easy to find naturally grown anything. Logan was basically the only person she knew who got it easily, but that’s what being a rich boy would do. “Hey idiot, this isn’t your pig sty, we got a nice looking apartment and it’s staying that way, you feel me?” She threw one of his shirts at his head just to make the point. "We share a profound bond, Max, the least you could do is know when I'm low on orange snack food," Alec answered absently. He held up the processor chip for the PDA he'd taken apart. "You saw they had whole boxes of these things, right? Seriously, Maxxie, if we can strip them and take the components back, we'll score a fortune on the black market. And then we can feed all the Little Orphan Scalies back there for a few more weeks." Food of any kind had Alec homing instantly in though, and he went for the bag to poke through and see what he wanted. "They told us to get jobs, right? So you can be the maid. We'll get you one of those outfits. This is smalltown USA, bet they've got some kinky old guys around with a thing for that. You can make it a traveling service," he said absently, pulling out an orange and then walking over to the sink to start peeling it. The shirt she threw at him ended up over his face, but he just tucked it up so it was still draped over his head. "You met the neighbors yet? What do you do with neighbors when you're not all squatting somewhere condemned, anyway? Borrow a cup of sugar?" “If by profound bond you mean severe annoyance, than yeah, we share that.” Bantering with Alec was second nature by now, and only half the time it was sincere annoyance for Max. She liked the familiar. She liked something feeling normal. She came over when he held up the chip and took a look at it herself. “We need to get a duffel bag or two, something we can carry with us all the time. Store smart, get the rare essentials.” Max smiled at the thought of them coming back with a payload and the look on all their faces. It was exactly the sort of thing Terminal City needed. “Not bad thinking,” she was generous enough to add. And he followed that up by talking about the maid uniform and she rolled her eyes so hard she felt they might pop right out of her head. “Maybe they got some bored housewives too, you can be pool boy.” Max smirked and then moved around to start picking up after him. “But you’d just love that, wouldn’t you? I hate double standards.” She grabbed the empty popcorn bag and threw it away, closed the cereal boxes and sealed them as best as possible, and smacked him upside the head when she walked by. Just for good measure. “Like I’d know?” She shrugged and peeled her own orange. “We had neighborly feelings in the building, but no one had anything to trade.” Max pulled out a bottle of Tryptophan and set it to the side carefully. “Lucky they carried this at the store.” Alec gave her a sunny smile. "That's me, always thinking ahead. I'd be a boyscout, if they were around. They probably are around here, huh? This seems like a boyscount kind of place. All wholesome. I think I'm allergic, Maxxie. All this fresh air and crap. They probably designed our lungs to fail with too much pollution-free air." Though for someone bitching about it, Alec was remarkably happy to take advantage of the good parts. Like the orange he was currently tearing white strings off of. "Pool boy, I could do that." He grinned and tapped his chest. "Don't blame the player for the way the game is played, Maxxie, I'll just take advantage. Swim a few laps, ask her if she needs help with that suntan lotion. . . " he winked lewdly and and then flinched away from the smack, glaring. "Cut that out." It was like she thought the back of his head was made out of steel or something. Alec eyed the bottle, looking faintly surprised for a second. He'd forgotten Max was one of the batch that got hit with that. It hadn't popped up for him yet, but he was a batch later than Max - it might still, he had no idea. "Yeah. Though I'm not noticing any shortage of milk on the shelves, either. Which bugs me. Have YOU seen cows? Like in town? Enough to stock daily without trucks coming in from out of town?" “It’s a magic town, they probably don’t have boy scouts, but I get what you mean.” It reminded her of the areas outside of the cities, where there were a lot of trees and less questions. Max used to think settling down in some quiet little town could be a nice way to live, but there were limits here and it was eerie. “I’d love your lungs to fail if it kept you from whining. Fresh air’s a good thing. But the rest of this place is weird. I feel like we’re creeping into a horror vid right before something bad happens.” She gave him a completely unimpressed look when he suggested the pool boy image, and there was no doubt in her mind he’d make plenty that way. Max used her looks to get ahead in the past, usually to distract someone or get in closer, but her temper flared up fast. All it would take was one scumball before bones got broken. She saw his glance to the bottle and got self conscious, taking it and curling it against her stomach. She hated the defect, for a variety of reasons, but most of all for making her feel weak. Alec was a friend, most of the time, and that was hardest for her. She liked her friends seeing her weak less than her enemies. It was weird and mental and she didn’t think too hard about it. “No, I didn’t see any livestock. And if that barrier goes around, how do they keep stocking everything?” Max disappeared into her room for a minute to drop the bottle off there, and then she came back to peel her orange into the trash nearby him. “I don’t like it. I hate when things don’t make sense.” At least their program made sense, in a way. They were genetically engineered super soldiers. It was messed up, but it was smart for the government to create. All the tattoos on her body and the ‘legend’ of whatever she was supposed to do? Nope. That was some mojo she didn’t want a part of, and now it was everywhere. “Are we just supposed to accept ‘it’s magic!’ as an answer for everything?” "You say that now, but in two days after I died, you'd be missing me because no one here speaks Max but me," Alec said, unperturbed by her apparently lack of concern with his imminent death by asphyxiation. "No one else is going to know what that exact shape of scowl means. Or that you can only express affection by hitting." He cocked his head and thought about it. "If it is a horror thing, we'll probably be fine. We live with monsters, what more could they throw at us?" Not that Max would appreciate them being called monsters, probably - but Alec figured lizard-men, dog-boys and such would count as horror monsters, to most people. The awkward moment passed and, for once, Alec didn't say anything to make it worse, just let Max hide her pills away in her room and pulled himself up to perch on the counter, popping a section of orange into his mouth. "That's what I'm wondering. I mean, what are the side effects on magic food, if that's what it is? Because I'm thinking the processed stuff is probably safer." Alec popped another section in his mouth, savoring the sharp citrus burst before swallowing and adding. "We could do some recon. Park by the store, watch shipments come in." Steal anything that looked useful. Or tasty. "I'm still stuck on the cell networks all being up and running everywhere." There was a reason they'd all fallen back on pagers, where they came from. "Do you know how much porn is on the internet here, Maxxie? It's like 90% porn, 10% cat pictures." “Somehow I think I’d find the strength to go on. And I express affection in a lot of ways, I just like to hit you.” Max didn’t deny it was affection though. At first she genuinely didn’t like him, and it was uncomfortable to see Ben’s face all the time, but he grew on her. Like a fungus. An annoying, loud, arrogant fungus. He really turned it around and came through, but he still did things like call their friends monsters. She glared at him. “Don’t you know whenever you say shit like that it’s like begging the universe to make things worse? And they’re not monsters.” She understood what he was saying, but she disliked the comparison. Max considered them an extension of her family. “It might be magically processed. It’s not like we can starve ourselves until we get an answer. The people here seem all right, the natives.” And cheery. Alarmingly cheery. Max chewed on the orange slice and for a moment she forgot what they were talking about. Because good fruit was rare and this was delicious. She was so used to food that basically tasted all the same, whatever would keep people alive. Especially since they ended up in Terminal City. A moment later she shook herself out of that tasty place to get back to the conversation. “Yeah we can do that. I want to know more about this Mayor, does she seem fishy to you? She feels like the definition of fishy.” Max in general disliked authority figures. There was always something in it for them. Politicians in particular were liars in her experience. She was about to comment on how useful the cells up and running was, and then he went talking about porn. She made a disgusted face and threw a peel at him. “If I catch you watching any of that in the general area here, you’re gonna regret it.” After a beat she blinked. “Why cats?” "One day you won't have me to push around anymore, Maxxie. And you'll realize what you lost," Alec said. "You should think about that before you pummel me, next time. We live dangerous lives, Max. You should savor the good things while they last. Like me. By not hitting me. I wouldn't say no to you fixing me an omelette, either." Alec threw her a wide grin and then shrugged. "Hey, looks like monsters to anyone else is all I'm saying." Alec wasn't Max, and he hadn't embraced the various types of weirdo transgenics as his family at first blush. There were still a few who were weird enough to throw him. But Alec had come around, and he was buddies with a few of them (more or less) now. He didn't think of them as monsters. And ever since the news started flashing X series pictures, Alec knew they were pretty much in the same boat now, whether they could pass for human or not. But in a strange town with people who didn't know Max and Alec were a different breed of the same thing - they'd see monsters. Alec paused mid-orange chewing, eyes drifting toward the cereal boxes with a sudden expression of deep suspicion. "Thanks for that, Max. Now I'm going to worry whether I'm crapping out pixie dust or something for the next month," he grumbled. "Maybe we should start with the hunting and gathering thing. HIt the woods and look for berries and mushrooms." There was a zero percent chance of Alec, whose longest lasting love affair so far was with cheeseballs, giving up processed food, realistically speaking. "She seems hot, mostly," Alec said, shrugging. "Which doesn't mean she's not fishy. But she's got that whole authority trip, politician by day dominatrix by night kind of vibe." Which was sexy, but mostly made Alec not trust her either, he was just typically flippant about it. Alec had spent a lot longer playing by the rules than Max had, but he shared her inherent wariness of people trying to rule his life. "Hey, I live here. What are you, the porn police?" He laughed, shaking his head. "Beats me. But cats everywhere." “Sure, when you’re gone I’m going to remember all the good times we had. I can’t think of any right now, but I’m sure they’ll come to me eventually.” Max gave him a look that could make most grown men cringe for the omelette comment. It wouldn’t do anything to him. Her withering glares only worked on people with shame. It was mostly for show. The past few months, Alec became her right hand man, in a way. For all his talk, he was a good person to have at her back, and she knew he could get stuff done. They were on the same team. It’s why using him as her fall guy for Logan made sense. It was believable. “Apparently there’s vampires and werewolves here. I think we’re becoming less strange by the minute.” She laughed in reply to the pixie dust crapping, and she was equally amused when he started talking about foraging. “I know you’d pick your cheesy pixie dust crap over something healthy anyway. Besides, for all we know they’re magic berries.” Max wiggled her fingers in what she thought emphasized the magic part enough. “And we’ll end up high and thinking we’re Bambi or something.” She didn’t know if their general wilderness training was going to translate here, but she’d look into it. She wanted all their options covered. “Besides, we’ve already eaten it. So we’re screwed, might as well enjoy it.” The orange, for example. She was enjoying the hell out of that. “Wow, how do I not take you more seriously with such amazing observations like she’s hot and probably a dominatrix at night.” Max sighed and moved past him to plop down on the couch. For now she was done cleaning up after him, although she’d probably have to do more of that soon. She was tired and her brain was running in circles over everything that was going on. “If I was the porn police, I’d be making a lot more money. You’ve got the privacy of your own bedroom. To look at cats, if that’s your thing, since you’ve been seeing them everywhere.” "That hurts, Maxxie. Think of all the sewers we've shared," Alec faux-pouted at her then gave it up, grin only barely sheepish when she glared. Alec was used to it by now. As long as she wasn't punching him in the balls, he was usually doing just fine by Max standards. "Too bad Joshua hasn't shown up, we could start a dog fight ring. Werewolves vs. dogmen, winner gets a bowl of puppy chow and a hundred bucks, we get the betting ring." He lifted his hands automatically. "Kidding, kidding." he was, for once. Alec didn't make friends the way Max did, and Joshua had been Max's friend first too. But Alec cared about Joshua. . . despite their rocky start. "What do you think happens if a werewolf bites a transgenic dog? Weredog?" Assuming that's how werewolves actually happened, but it probably was. Alec snorted. "Magic mushrooms, maybe. And hey, we could make some cash off of that one." He cocked his head, watching her fingers wriggle. "Watch it, Tinkerbell, you'll magic up some ghosts or something." Max could probably pull off Bambi. Alec had seen her pull the big doe eyes routine before. . . it usually didn't last long before she started punching, but it looked pretty effective. Girls always had him beat when it came to that trick. "I said she had the vibe, not that she actually was. But hey, if you want to bust into her house and find out, maybe try a few things out - I'm game if you are," Alec answered, rolling his eyes. He kicked his feet against the counter, drumming his heels absently, then hopping down again. "We're supposed to get jobs - there's one for you. You've got killjoy down to an artform already anyway." He walked up behind her though, ruffling her hair with a not-sticky hands (because he didn't actually want to be hit) and then turning to head for his bedroom. "I'll get dressed, maybe do another case around town. Getting itchy in here anyway. You want to crash out a while, or come with?" he called over his shoulder. Alec managed to sneak a real smile out of her with the reference to the sewer. He grew on her and he knew it, otherwise she would’ve kicked him out a long time ago. End of the day, he was still one of them. After everything they went through together, she had his back. She’d just grump about it along the way. “You better be kidding,” she threatened, but there was no teeth behind it. She knew that Alec genuinely cared about Joshua. It was impossible to dislike Joshua. He was the sweetest and most genuine person alive. “I don’t think that’d happen. Maybe. Super were?” It was hard to say how much more messed up their genetics could get at this point. She figured it was best not to challenge that. No biting allowed. “Making cash is high on the list, but we’re not drug dealers. That always goes wrong.” Max was a thief and an opportunist. She still had standards. She saw the bad road that could go down. As for the big innocent eyes, looking like she did came in handy. A perfect soldier could use all weapons at their disposal. “Pick up as much money as we can on top of the duffel bags of medicine and all that jazz. Can you imagine going back with an amazing payload. It’d be like ten Christmases rolled into one.” “Sure, that’s top of my list. Idiot.” She wanted to get information out of the mayor eventually. There was something there. She’d go about it the nice way first, and if worse came to worse, she could throw Alec at her. Fact was he did make it work. Max swatted at his hand when he wandered by, but she was thankful he used the non-sticky hand. She would take another shower later, just because, and she didn’t want his gross on her. “I figured keep up with the messenger thing. I’ve got experience.” They were well educated and fast learners, she could do more, but why fix what wasn’t broken? She considered his offer and shook her head. “Nah, got back from mine. You go ahead and make yourself useful. I’m going to chill.” She turned the TV on to see “Real Sex” on the screen. “What the he-- are you taping this?” "Josh would run away with it anyway. The werewolves around this joint all look like teenagers or shrimps," Alec said dismissively. Or at least the two he'd seen mentioning the wolf thing. Alec and Max weren't exactly that far from teenage range themselves - but he was pretty sure neither of them felt like kids and hadn't for a long time. If they ever had. Manticore didn't leave much time for childlike wonder. Alec made a dismissive sound, since he was a lot less picky on how he made his money. He wasn't going to deal anything that would kill people, but if people wanted some extracurricular chemicals and he could provide and reap the benefits - no harm, he figured. But he didn't argue, since he hadn't been serious anyway. "Gotcha. See you later, then." Alec grinned over his shoulder. "Watch and learn, Maxxie. It's educational. When it's not really weird." Sometimes both at the same time. |