Boardinghouse[First Gen FREE-FOR-ALL]

It's back to the stairwell again, and Luke is more than happy to explain as they move along, making a few hand gestures along the way. "See, now, it was like that at first, but we did some practice. We can get about three city blocks of distance before feelin' any problems, but it's taken us a while t' stretch it." He runs his hand along the wall for support rather than the rail-handle, though by the look on his face he may be genuinely enjoying the texture of the wall as he steps downward. It's hard to tell, but is probably none too far from the mark.

Once they're at street level, Luke checks the street from the windows, making sure the coast is clear. "We might be able t' get some seagulls down the way a bit but they don't taste very good at all. We're better off goin' for some squirrels, there's an overgrown park near here that oughtta' have a bunch. Maybe even pigeons or lizards or somethin'"

Corosa takes that information and stores it away in the back of his mind. You can stretch the boundaries...? He and Satero hadn't even thought of that. It sounds interesting, and definitely sounds damn useful.

"The park?" Satero's saying as they duck out the door. "Shit, we were just there the other day. Got coupla pigeons before the dogs showed up."

For someone stuck in a city filled with ravenous monsters, Satero looks awfully at ease -- he's got his hands stuck in his pockets and his pace is easy, slow, his height and long legs letting him keep in stride with Luke without problem. He keeps looking back at regular intervals to check if Corosa's keeping up. Corosa's more intent on making sure that nothing else is following them.

With Corosa's silence and lack of input, Satero turns back to Luke, clicks his tongue, looks around the city, scratches the back of his head -- then starts filling the silence in.

He jabs Luke in the shoulder. "Alvarez, right? D'you actually know our names?"

Corosa stays silent. He'd told Luke his name as well as Satero's when they'd first met, but he's not sure if Luke remembers.

Paige grinned wolfishly at Brunhilda's projected picture and the single word that accompanied it.

"Well I'll take that as a compliment Brunny. Bow wow. Bow. Wow," Paige turned around to wink at Brunhilda, confidently trotting backwards over the rooftops in order to do so. He promptly spun back around and began to sing happily. His song of choice was none other than Elvis Presley's "You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog." He didn't so much sing it as belt it out at the top of his lungs. At least his voice was pleasant enough that it wasn't horrible...

---

"Wake up Cyrus..." Hikari gently shook Cyrus's shoulder.

"Hnn wha!" Cyrus twitched abruptly awake, pulling away from the wall he had been sitting against and eyes fluttering open. He blinked confusedly for a second before realizing that there was no barking dogs, and Hikari was not urgent, so there wasn't any danger. He relaxed resting his hand on his stomach, which ached and felt like he had just eaten a giant meal, despite the fact that they hadn't been able to find any food yesterday. "Going where again? Wha time is it?" he mumbled leaning back against the wall he had fallen asleep against.

"The meeting thing that we heard about," Hikari offered, straightening Cyrus' jacket that had become skewed in his restless sleep, "and afternoon..."

"THE MEETING!" Cyrus sat bolt upright in realization. Other people they were going to go meet other people and supposedly what? Team up? Work together, oh Cyrus desperately hoped so. He was fine really, and he loved Hikari, Loved?Loved?Was that the right word... yes? yes?, but he could tell she had been a social creature before, and they had so far... driven away everyone who had offered to join them. Well, he mostly thought that he had driven them away; most didn't want to stay when they realized they had to add frequent parasite attacks onto their list of shit they had to deal with. "Wait? Afternoon? What time was this supposed to happen? Why didn't you wake me! What if we're late? What if they go away and we can't find them and-"

Hikari gently grabbed Cyrus's face between her hands. "Don't worry, it's not that late, there's plenty of time, and the people will be fine with us. Things will get better for us..." Hikari said with calm and gentle force, then pulling Cyrus's head down to kiss his forehead.

She just kissed me she just kissed me... the thought ran through Cyrus's head like a frightened rabbit, but outwardly he relaxed. He gave a genuine smile and said, "You're always so upbeat... Up or down today!?"

"Up please there's been no signs of doggies for forever," Hikari said cheerily. Cyrus smirked happily and bent over, going on his hands and knees so Hikari could pull herself up onto his back and then slide into the crook of his neck. Cyrus then stood up in a large sweeping motion. Hikari laughed as she tightened her knees around Cyrus's shoulders and grabbed his stripe of longer hair like a horses mane.

"Oop, ya up there?" Cyrus said grinning and looking up.

"Mhhmm," Hikari patted his head, "Door is forward twelve and directly to the left..."

Cyrus immediately set forward. The pair hadn't had time to get up on the roofs the night before, but they had squirreled themselves away in a second story room for the night. Once they got moving they moved with little extra difficulty despite their separate "conditions." Hikari and Cyrus had developed a shortened form of communication that allowed Hikari to quickly give directions, and when she was on his shoulders she used her ankle stubs to nudge him in the ribs and direct him like a horse. They chatted idly as Cyrus trotted along, weaving between the ruined buildings and rubble, and eventually Cyrus even raised his hands up and interlaced his fingers with Hikari as they walked.

"Oh oh oh!" Hikari suddenly perked up and pointed, Cyrus sensing which way she was looking by feeling where she pointed. Instantly he tensed, ready to swing Hikari down into his arms if they needed to run from danger.

"What-"

"I think I just saw Aaya!" Hikari said quickly before Cyrus panicked. Cyrus blinked a second in thought, trying to place the name and and then made a little 'O' shape with his mouth.

"Those two!" Cyrus said finally remembering Aaya and his partner Jynx. The four of them had lived together for a bit, but the two teenage boys had broken it off after two much time. They had never offered much of an explanation, and Cyrus wasn't positive where the relationship with them stood. But.. they were his age, well the age he was inside... not that they knew that... but still his insecurity and protectiveness was slightly overridden by his desire to hang around. You never just 'hung around' in the pit. "Wanna see what they're up to?!" Cyrus asked.

"Of course!" Hikari answered happily, "Forward!"

"HEY AAYA! JYNX!" Cyrus called out beginning to jog, unable to sprint with Hikari on his shoulders, but not sure it was necessary to carry her in his arms for this. However, the pair did not seem to hear or see them and they turned a corner. Cyrus and Hikari pursued them and managed to see them as they disappeared into a building far down the street.

"You can slow down Cyrus, they've gone into a building," Hikari said as she bounced on his shoulders. Cyrus slowed down to a walk, huffing lightly now (he was not as in shape as he used to be...) and the pair slowly made their way down the street and then into the building.

"Oh, this is a lot of rubble... and a ladder," Hikari commented. This presented a dilemma, going up a ladder would be awkward together, and very hard and dangerous for Hikari to do by herself. Still, through careful nudging and maneuvering, Cyrus and Hikari made their way to the bottom of the ladder.

"Aaaayaaa! Jynx! Hellooooo this is Cyrus and Hikari! Wanna help me up!?" Hikari yelled up into the hole in the first floor ceiling, hoping to get the boys' attention...

"Drawing and quartering."

Salim hissed in Aaya's mind at Jynx's random musing's aloud. Right. Talk about chopping shit up, and then playing with a box-cutter---'Cause THAT'S not creepy or anything.
Salim, be nice! Aaya squinted and frowned a little, silently giving his sibling a mental scolding. He's making dinner. Not exactly... the prettiest job; now leave him alone. Aaya sniffed and yawned, stretching on the old cushion. Just as the boy's eyelids start to flutter closed though, Salim's voice cuts through his thoughts once again. Hey bro, somebody's coming----

"Aaaayaaa! Jynx! Hellooooo, this is Cyrus and Hikari! Wanna help me up!?" sings the cheerful voice of a young girl, echoing lightly around the room. Aaya's eyes snap open and he bounces to his feet, aqua-green eyes bright. "Cyrus and Hikari? Aw, sweet! Jynx---" Aaya turns to look at his partner while striding over to the ladder. "---we haven't seen them in forever, eh? I'll help them up, no worries," he adds enthusiastically, reaching the hole in the floor that served as the entrance to the boys' safe-haven.

At the base of the ladder peering up at him, Aaya was greeted by the smiling face of a young Japanese girl with no feet. She sits on the shoulders of her tick partner, an equally cheerful looking middle-aged blind man with a rebellious grey streaked fauxhawk, onto which the girl held for balance. "Hey guys!!" Aaya grins, happy to see their familiar friendly faces. "It's been awhile---how you two been? Wanna come on up? Jynx was just startin' dinner!"

The boy hops down the top few rungs of the ladder and leans over, his high-set ponytail flipping down over into his face. He smiles, holding his arms out to Hikari, offering to help his two friends. Gently but without any weakness, Aaya hoists the small teen girl up off of the older man's shoulders. "Here Hikari, I gotcha---you okay Cyrus? Just a straight shot up, and take a left---once you reach the cushions, feel free to take a seat man, that's where the party's at." Aaya carries the footless young girl over to the center of the room and gently seats her on the fluffiest cushion before glancing over at Cyrus to make sure he was doing well; satisfied that he was, Aaya flops down next to the girl, his face all a-grin.

"Aw man, aw man, we haven't seen you two in forever! How's it going? You guys hanging in there? To what do we owe the pleasure?" The pony-hawked boy, naturally a social creature, seemed to bubble over in the presence of he and Jynx's newly acquired guests. All four of them [five to Aaya, as he included Salim] had once been a small group and had lived together; it was a short-lived arrangement though, for at the time, Jynx and Aaya had still been more than a little affected by what happened to their previous partners, their siblings. The boys had been wary about meeting up with other teams...after all, the last time they'd met up with strangers---

Salim clutching his head, pulling his own hair, screaming in pain, claws, teeth, biting Willow's throat, laughing----

---their partners ended up dead.

Aaya smiled to himself. That was the past though. He and Jynx...they were different. They'd be fine. Same with Cyrus and Hikari. They wouldn't do anything stupid, wouldn't make the same mistakes. Things were going to be different. Better.

Salim snorted, breaking the pondering silence of Aaya's mind. To fuck it better be better, the ghost grumbled.

Jynx blinked, pausing mid-cut to look back at Aaya before turning back to the animal he held in his hand. The organs were set aside, they weren't the best tasting but they were still edible and they needed all the protein they could get. He shifted, his free hand snatching up that cleaver before he started to hack clumsily thought meat and bone.

It made his hair stand on end everytime he did this. He was still undecided if it was because he was scared or because of something else entirely. I'm not like Willow. I'm not like Willow. I won't be like her. He bit his lip until it bled, not even noticing it until his teeth finally released that torn flesh. He wiped at it with the back of his hand, looking down at his handwork before turning to face the room.

He didn't smile, it seemed that expression was reserved only for Aaya, but he looked about as friendly as he could. The short-haired boy still managed to look creepy, but that seemed to be an inherent trait rather than one caused by mental scarring. Those dark eyes looked like they were trying to take in everything, seeming to make up for his quiet nature.

"Finished." That single word was said quietly as he set aside the cleaver, moving to pick up a dirty rag to wipe his hands off with. Out spot. Out I say. When he looked back over Cyrus had made it in, patting the floor before standing up and moving to the couch. It secretly amazed Jynx that the man was able to get around so well, even without Hikari.

Hikari. Jynx was still undecided about her, watching her almost warily. He knew she was safe. Her personality was a lot like Aaya's, and it wasn't as if she really could (or would) attack. She didn't look at thing like his sister, either in action or appearance. Maybe he was just too fucked up to accept that, though. All he could think about were Willow's hands, her face, her--

He stopped that train of thought right there, feeling dirtier as he seemed to try and rub the skin off of his hands. The rag was finally dropped on the floor, dragged around to mop up the blood that splattered around the basin. He licked his lip, trying to stop the bleeding with his tongue before he faced the small group in the room once more.

"Hi Cyrus... H-Hikari... Got fire, Aaya? Uhm, the rabbit... It's cut up."

Spoiler:

"So I'll take it the park's no good, huh? Hmm..." He scratches his chin, thinking for a bit. "I ain't going down the hatch t' look fer rats, s' a bad idea. Let's check the park n' see if we can't catch anythin', then head to another area." His hand is always on his beltknives, one of the other, one combat knife and one buck knife. He and Chauvin had struck lucky once, the pawnshop they found had been ransacked however long ago but there were still a few things left. The knives they had were some of the treasures, and the lighter Chauvin had taken as a prize was one of the others. The knives had been damn useful, almost as much companions as his partner had been, saved his life on more than one occasion.

"Yep! Luke Alvarez." He grins again, brushing his hand across the mossy brick of a building as he went by. "N' yer names... Sa.. Satero righ'? N' Corosa?"

Cyrus let his grip linger on Hikari as she reached up to receive Aaya's assistance. Hikari however, reached up and allowed herself to be hauled up and deposited on the couch, swinging her legs gently and smiling. "Thanks Aaya!" she said as she was lifted into the room, "Wow, when did you two get this place!"

Cyrus struggled into the room after some wrestling with the ladder, and then crawled his way over to the couch, sitting down with a "WHUMPH" as he relaxed down onto the cushions. "Man it's awesome to see you guys again!" he said with a wide smile, "We've been pretty good, ya know, surviving..." His smile faded a bit and he shrugged; There wasn't much else you could do in the pit. His smile was renewed a second later and he leaned back into the cushions of the couch, "We don't have a couch though, this is way nicer than that ratty mattress we found to sleep on..." Jynx had finished cleaning the rabbit and turned around. Hikari looked down to avoid the sight of the poor mutilated animal.

"Your lip is bleeding Jynx," she said glancing up again, looking through her bangs with her hands folded neatly on her lap. She smiled at him though and said, "I am really glad you're both all right, I was worried you two had gotten yourselves eaten or something after we stopped seeing you around..." Hikari brushed a piece of hair away from her face, "Oh Cyrus you have some of those matches we found left right?"

"Huh, oh yeah!" Cyrus fumbled through some of the pockets on the ragged coat he had on. The coat didn't fit him at all at this point, being too short for his height and too large for his now dangerously skinny form, but it was warm enough outside anyways and he mostly kept it around for the pockets. "Uhm, here we go!" he pulled out a small matchbox and pulled out a match out of it. He offered the box and the match to the air, whichever boy could take it. "Just give 'em back when you're done, we got places to be..."

"Oh yes! Have you two heard? Apparently one of the people in the pit, I think people have been calling him the cowboy, though I don't know why, has been inviting everyone he can find to come together into one big group," Hikari said excitedly, "We were going to head over and try to join up. I mean, life would be so much easier if there were more people to help out with things don't you think?"

"Yeah," Cyrus said, "We'd love to stick around for dinner, but we have civilization to rebuild!" The thought crossed Cyrus's mind that they really ought to get going, if they were going to try to find the place they had only heard vague directions to before nightfall. He cocked his head slightly in Hikari's direction, blinking. She caught the look but instead turned to Aaya and Jynx.

"Hey, we're probably going to get going again soon, but do you two want to come with us? I understand if you're getting by fine by yourselves and don't want to join a group, but Cyrus and I would love to have you along..." Hikari said. Cyrus confirmed that he shared the sentiment with a vigorous nod and a hopeful look directed at the room in general.

Jynx blinked at Hikari, reaching up to wipe some blood off of his chin before looking away briefly. A dart of his eyes to the side before he looked back to the trio on the couch as Cyrus held up the matches. There was a shuffled of feet, treading carefully over the floor before he leaned foward to pluck said item from the blind man's hand.

"Thank you." He said quietly before retreating, holding the book in his hand as he kicked the basin away from the wall and started to put odd chunks of wood and various burnable items back into it's bloody bottom. He made a haphazard "pyramid", smaller chunks and paper in it's center before he used a match to light it. they caught fire, and the smell of burning blood briefly filled the room as Jynx moved to hand the box back.

"I didn't think there were any matches left." He mused softly, seeming not to notice the smell in the room as he grabbed an old terra cotta planter, it's hole in the bottom plugged up with a rock. The rabbit was dumped into it before he started to poke at the slowly growing fire with another half-burnt piece of wood. "Appreciate it."

The makeshift pot was set in the flames, already blackened sides lapped by yellow flames. Jynx licked his lip again, sucking on it gently before turning back to Aaya and moving toward him. He listened as he perched on the rickety arm of the couch, trying to ignore the feel of crumbling foam and wood beneath him. His dark eyes glanced down at Aaya briefly, gauging the other boy's reaction before flitting back between Cyrus and Hikari. He was watching again, sitting over them all like some sort of sentinal as his still dirty fingers toyed with the frayed ends of his shorts.

Hikari and Cyrus' hopeful looks tugged at his heart, making it ache for some unknown reason.

"... You can make it without assistance?" He shifted a little, perching on foot next to his thigh as he half-hugged his knee to his chest. "Is it far?"

He worried. It was hard enough to move around when you weren't blind and footless.

"Of course Jynx and I will go with you!!" Aaya blurted out suddenly. The two boys had lived the vast majority of the past two years in relative solitude together; so who knows? It might be good for them to meet up with some of the other teams. Sure the threat of unknown danger gnawed at the back of Aaya's mind---but his naturally social nature was getting the best of him, excited at the thought of meeting and befriending others like themselves. Besides, how could they say 'no' when their friends Cyrus and Hikari seemed so eager? Aaya had caught Jynx's look too; surely the boys couldn't let a blind old man and a small girl with no feet attempt the trek alone.

Aaya grinned at Jynx, eyes smiling mischievously over at the other boy. Sounds like quite the adventure for the four of us, eh Jynx? he mused to his partner silently. Still smiling, his youthful mind reeling with possibilities, Aaya shoves his hands in his coat pockets. "A cowboy huh?" Aaya's eyes got that playful devilish gleam that seems almost exclusive to teenage boys. "Well then---sounds like an interesting fella. And you say he's trying to gather everyone in the city?" The blonde boy claps his hands together. "What're we waitin' for then? Let's not keep the mysterious Cowboy waiting on us any longer!", he says with a sassy smirk.

The boy whirls around and grabs up the butcher's knife, giving it a nonchalant look before placing it in one of his numerous coat pockets. Sure hope I don't forget about that later and end up sitting on it or something, he thinks with a snort, bounding over to his clothes-and-objects-nest-bed-thing and pawing through it to see if there would be anything else helpful to bring along for the journey. He eventually decides on a half-used spool of twine, an empty Altoids tin, a small stick of chalk, and a hammer, and shoves these items into his pockets along with all of the other assorted items already in there. It was going to be one thing or the other eventually; either Aaya was going to topple over from all of the things he was carrying, or that darn old coat was just going to rip from the weight of all the crap he had stashed in it.

Salim had been silent for most of this preparation as well as during the previous conversation with Cyrus and Hikari. The dead brother finally gives Aaya some sort of response as he shakes his head, his white semi-transparent hair floating around his face as if underwater. You're an idiot, he states simply, that odd ghostly silvery smoke wafting from his large empty eyes, revealing no emotion. But whether he was berating Aaya for weighing down his coat so much or disagreeing with him on matters concerning traveling to meet up with other people, Salim didn't explain. Instead, the ghost fell back into a silence that was relatively unusual for him as his still-living younger brother ran back over to his friends.

"Rabbit done?" Aaya asked enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together like a little gremlin. "We can have a quick bite before we leave----or bring it with us!" he adds.

Suddenly his usual sarcastic self again, Salim mentally interjects Aaya with a sneer. Oh yes, 'cause I'm SURE that poor fuckin' bunny is just DYING to see the inside of your coat again.

Aaya cheerily scans the room, looking at Cyrus, then Hikari, then finally settling his gaze on his tick partner. Aaya smiles warmly at him.

"What do you say Jynx..? Ready for a new adventure?" A boyish grin and a flash of teeth.

"I wonder if the cowboy had to eat his horse." Jynx's attempt at a joke was sorry at best, mostly because he looked completely serious while he said it. He seemed to notice this, trying to remedy it with a somewhat awkward smile before giving up and turning away with a blush. It would have been better if Aaya was just there to see that, and Jynx felt rather embarrassed.

He understood Aaya's expressions enough, responding with an arch of his own brows before a slight tilt of his head. It's been a while, could use some company again he seemed to respond before shifting toward the pile of crap, digging out said oversized shirt before using it ot pull the rabbit meat carefully from the fire. He munched on a piece without thinking before wrapping it up and handing said bundle to Aaya.

After handing over the meat he kicked the basin carefully over to the window, kicking it over in a flurry of smoke, fire and ashes onto the street below. It caught dead weeds and broken wood on fire below, before slowly dying out with the lack of dry tinder. Jynx wiped his hands off on those already filthy shorts, looking down at the ground below before walking toward the couch.

"We're going. Sounds like we're going together, for now. Aaya has his mind made up." Jynx shifted, moving to the previously mention pile of crap. He kicked it aside before lifting up the edge of the mattress, pulling out a well-worn and somewhat bent pipe that looked like it had been used sometime recently. He looked over his shoulder at the pair on the couch, his face once more blank as his body followed the motion of his head.

He seemed to take a deep breath, as if he were quelling some uneasy feeling that had settled in the pit of his stomach as he looked at Hikari. Jynx was silent for a moment or two before hesitantly speaking. That lip was tucked between his teeth once more before he stopped, wiping it off with the back of his hand once more as he turned away. Apparently he hadn't gotten up the nerve to actually speak more than a few words to Hikari. Instead he moved to Cyrus, glancing at Hikari out of the corner of his eye before looking back at the man on the couch.

"Cyrus, I'll help you while Aaya helps Hikari." With that he grabbed Cyrus' hand, leading him toward the ladder while Aaya picked Hikari gently off of the couch. With a little effort on all of their parts they made it down the ladder before heading out hesitantly onto the open street.

Spoiler:

"Yeah, that's right," Satero says. He looks extraordinarily pleased at the fact that Luke knows their names at all.

Then he returns to the subject of the park. "Nah, I wasn't saying it was a bad idea, just pointing out that we'll have to be on guard." He pauses, scowls, and adds, "Not that that ain't usually the case."

He looks back at Corosa again. Corosa catches his eye, but holds his silence.

They reach the park entrance -- or at least, what used to be the entrance -- without running into anything or anyone on the way. Corosa starts a few times but he always does. It's his job to see death everywhere, and it's Satero's job to run headfirst into it.

Arrival involved the usual checking and setting of traps, a routine Alvarez had swung into very easily, a routine it seemed had been ingrained in him from the very beginning of whoever he was. The bird nets hidden in the trees were torn and useless; Luke is willing to bet someone had stolen the contents either very recently or before Corosa and Satero even checked out the park.

With that done he picked a good spot and motioned to the other two to do the same. All they had to do was wait and shoot... And keep an eye out for each others' necks.