[PRP] You deserve it (Jerry & Cee)

[iloveyouDIE]

Cee was hanging out in the portal room. It started when she met one of the guys in the gym, an in-shape tech who shared an interest in free weights and was a particularly talented linguist. He was fun and casual and he was her in with the portal techs. Cee had a 'Banned Travel' list a mile long and already a bit of a questionable reputation among hospital-working Life techs. So she stopped by and saw her friend and laughed and joked and maybe, just maybe, one day she could get that banned list just a little bit shorter.

The petite woman was leaning on of those older computer monitors that always cropped up here and there, chatting away about some funny spar-bloopers she'd caught on the network when the techs sprung to life. An incoming portal got them moving and Cee scooted to the side to browse her phone and wait to see what was arriving.

Bilious

 

[Bilious]

The figure that shambled through the portal was wide-eyed behind cracked horn-rimmed glasses, looking nearly a year late for a haircut and would have been sporting a full if scraggly beard if the burn scars taking up half of his face hadn't put a damper on the growth there, and smelled horribly of living-alone-in-the-jungle-for-far-too-long.

His Hawaiian shirt was sun bleached, now leaning more toward the golden yellow spectrum than actual orange, his hunter coat tied around his neck like a cape, a guitar strapped onto his back on top of that, and a cardboard box of papers gripped frantically in his arms.

Was he really back?

After months and months of the only social interaction coming from the techs dropping off supplies (and stacks of antihistamines when they remembered) now and again, it seemed surreal for him to be back on Deus soil. All his friends, the rest of his things... hopefully still there and in one piece.

"And... and that's it? I'm... I'm done? I... I can stay?" He managed weakly to one of the technicians, who gave a hiss and wove a hand to try to clear the jungle stench.

"Maybe if you shower."

"I took notes of everything and... and I think i killed it I think it's dead I mean we blew it up and there was all those trees falling and... and I'm pretty sure it's dead-"

"Jesus, Collins, just go get a damn shower and get out of here!"  

[iloveyouDIE]

Cee glanced up from her phone lazily, the expression that of someone not expecting to see anything at all interesting. Jerry's arrival was almost written off as another, ragged returning soldier but...

She pushed herself away from where she leaned and at first slowly, Cee started to gain speed until she was right in front of Jerry, almost close enough for them to crash.

"Jerry?" Cee had her hands on her hips, feet planted firmly, and was peering through his sloppy hair and beard as if to confirm that he was the correct scar-faced hunter.

"UNGH.." The smell had hit her.

bilious

 

[Bilious]

He flinched slightly as someone came running, stepping out of the way as though expecting an emergency that would need the portal behind him, but when his name was said, he instinctively straightened as though ready to salute the trainee standing in front of him, blinking in confusion, "Er...! Yes?" He relaxed slightly as he took in who she was, but embarrassment washed over him as he realized what she was 'ugging' exactly.

His flush returned. "S-sorry about that, ahahaha um. I er... only just got back. It's been... er... what... what is the date now, exactly? Do... do I know you?" There was something familiar about her but he couldn't place it.  

[iloveyouDIE]

"I was gunna slap tha s**t outta you but I don't.." She extended her hand and then withdrew it as if his stank was physically hurting her. "I'll save it fer ******** later."

Cee stepped aside and pointed to the door. "C'mon yer gittin a ******** shower."

bilious

 

[Bilious]

"S-slap me? What... what did I do this time?" He managed meekly, but wasn't about to argue the point. He shifted his belongings in their box and the guitar on his back to a more comfortable position before hurrying forward, "I... I think that's a good idea. Before the labs decide to test me for Fear-infused microbes ahahahahahahaha..."  

[iloveyouDIE]

Cee sashayed along beside Jerry, checking her phone. "Hol'up." Perhaps he'd recognize her peculiar accent. She leaned up, elbowed him into a selfie (immortalizing his current look) and then began walking again.

"'I.. caught.. me.. a Jerry.." She spoke as her thumbs raced over the keys. "TAWEET." She clicked her phone to black and smiled at him.

"I'm Cee." And then a narrow eyed deadpan, "From Blue Kingdom."

bilious

 

[Bilious]

Jerry hesitated as she suddenly selfied, but it was the second comment that made him freeze in his tracks in the middle of the hallway and nearly drop his box.

"You... you're... you're real??"  

[iloveyouDIE]

"No Imma ******** ghoooooost..." Cee waggled her perfectly manicured nails, "No such luck. And not Insanity neither." The last bit was just a further reminder that she wasn't a bystander, but sporting the coat of a trainee hunter. "It was a pod dream fer me."

As they neared the dorm building it became obvious that she was going to be escorting him the entire way. Cee even slowed a bit until Jerry had unknowingly guiding them (because she didn't know where he lived).

"So now you know yer already in the doghouse wit'me." She did grin though, and there was something endearing in it. She'd genuinely enjoyed her time in the Blue Kingdom and finding the others was satisfying.

Cee poked him in the least dirty looking patch on his shirt, now smirking, "So now you gotta work twice as hard to git inta my good graces again."

bilious

 

[Bilious]

"I... I didn't... I had no idea that..." Blue Kingdom had been a long time ago, now. A long ago memory that had been over ridden by a lot of worrisome feelings about being thrown out of hundred story buildings and having to stab a dear friend and face off against other friends and...

The delirious romp in the supplies cabinet with the bombshell fellow blue kingdomer had been far from his mind. A pleasant dream, compared to the rest. He couldn't even remember how things had lead up to that- it was all a fog until the sudden awakening of clarity had rushed in in the midst of such a... tender and intense moment of impromptu passion had rather ruined the situation entirely.

"Goodness," He breathed, wobbling toward the dorms as quickly as he could to keep up before leading her toward the stairs in an awkward befuddled silence for several minutes.

"I... I'm er... sorry about... the er... I had... I thought you were just.. a part of the whole... I didn't realize... if I had known I wouldn't have... Oh, Gosh..."  

[iloveyouDIE]

Somehow Jerry's stumbling apology sent Cee into a fit of laughter, complete with stomach grabbing and pointing at him. It hit the fine border between cute and cackling.

"Ahmy gahd chill!" She actually shoved him, forceful but friendly, "If you were the face I saw outta the pod, I prob woulda popped you one." She mimed a straight jab and had an accomplished smile. "I got Bix right in'is face."

Cee's wrist flapped with a jangle of bracelet, a dismissive motion, "But I been here a little while now so I hallucinated all kinds s**t by now."

She forced their journey to resume. "SO where you been cause you look fuuuuucked."

bilious

 

[Bilious]

"You... you wouldn't be the first one, ahaha- er, to clobber me I mean, I don't know about Bix's luck but I'm not entirely surprised... Most people just aren't quite as receiving of my informational Welcome jingle than I'd hope- I've been trying to fine tune it thought..." Jerry laughed nervously still as he lead her up the steps toward the full hunter dormitory wing, shifting his box to try to fish out his keys from somewhere inside.

"Oh, er... I've been on an outpost. There was this trouble in this jungle in..." he hesitated. The briefing had concentrated more on the ways he could have possibly been disemboweled than details on location. "Er.. .some place with... a lot of trees and things that could potentially kill you outside of the supernatural spectrum- um." His brows knit, "I think it's been... ten months? Maybe longer, I'm a little muddled, ahahah but," He gripped the box tighter against his hip as he slammed the key into the door as though shoving a knife into something that had wronged him and gave it a twist, his voice taking on it's own sharp edge, "It's dead now. That's what matters."

As soon as the door swung open, he shuffled inside to toss the carton down onto the makeshift coffee table and give a much brighter, if slightly self conscious, "tadaa! Um. I used to have more instruments but... well, things happen. I miss my uke," The sitting room slash kitchen had been left tidy, but the air held that stale smell of disuse all the same. The walls were decorated with a torn, slightly burnt vintage Little Shop of Horrors poster, a few sad handmade posters advertising Hunter Choir Auditions and countless pages of notebook paper filled with guitar tabs, hand written music sheets, and a few magazine pages, all taped up like a giant pin board. There was an electric piano in the corner, and a couch along the wall that must have lead to an equally sparsely furnished bedroom.

"Home er... sweet home. Not as er... nice as a fancy casino but ah.. my wages get garnished a lot so I make do, ahaha..."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

The air was not as stale as it should have been but Jerry wouldn't have known that a few months ago all the windows in the entire island had been blown out. Glass littered the the floor but it seemed a maintenance crew had come in and repaired the glass, as they had every window.

Cee, after taking in the room, "Nice. Not quite laid out da same as some of the others up here." Apparently she'd been in a couple second floor rooms. "You go shower.." She pointed to what she assumed was the direction of the bathroom.

First, she click-clacked her way over to the kitchen and threw open cabinets until she found a white kitchen bag. Jerry was handed it, "An put yer clothes in here."

bilious

 

[Bilious]

Jerry looked startled and concerned behind his half-beard.

"Y-you're not going to... to burn my clothes or something, are you? This shirt is... is sentimental!"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"No! I don't believe in burnin clothes." Cee snorted. She was with clothes, the way some people were with books. "But I know you ain't runnin out this second ta do yer laundry so you better keep em in a bag so yer room don't stank."

He was given a hand wave and a very definitive stare. It meant that he was dismissed. Cee immediately began opening cabinets, closets and drawers until she'd found a broom to sweep up the broken glass by the windows.

It became obvious that Cee didn't require formal meetings or awkward introductions. She wasn't the type to be short on conversation for the sake of similar interests. She did what she wanted and she would order others to do everything else. It may have seemed aggressive but it was a method that worked.

bilious