[ prp ] Bar None ( October & Rep )

[kuropeco]

The bar was a very nice place, even if the last time October had been to it had been during Halloween, where he'd witnessed his brother almost getting into a fight with some blond guy. Overall, though, it had a very pleasant atmosphere, and a very good selection of food that didn't involve plastic wrappers or microwaves, and it was cheerful and welcoming.

Which was why he was currently asleep in a corner booth, with his head on his arms on the table.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Things were pretty quiet that day and Rep was sitting on one of the bar stools, turning to glance over at one of the customers who looked like he hadn't moved in a while.

Sometimes you just had to keep an eye out, because this was Deus, but mostly - Rep found - because he was used to dealing with really horrible zombies.

He got up and made his way over to October and nudged his foot with a foot. "Are you all right mate?"

 

[kuropeco]

October didn't wake to the voice, but he did wake to the foot prodding, jerking upright abruptly and almost hitting his head on the back of the booth in the process. He swayed a little, looking very dazed, then lifted a hand and rubbed at his eyes, yawning widely, before his gaze flickered blearily to the man beside him.

"Oh. Hello."

He yawned again, then said, "Where am I?"  

[Baneful]

"The Red Bull." Rep said with a shrug of his shoulders. "The bar. I just wanted to make sure you were alive Mr Rip van ******** Winkle. Can't have people dying or anything, bad for business generally."

He gave October's head where he'd bumped it a concerned look.

"Do you have narcolepsy?"

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

It took October a long moment to process this, first from Red Bull, which was a drink, and he definitely wasn't in any sort of drink - then to the bar, which made more sense, and finally to Rip Van ******** Winkle, which wasn't actually the first time he'd been called this.

"Oh. No, don't worry, I haven't died yet," said October somberly, casting a look around as he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his bruised head. "I'm sure when I do it'll be very unpleasant."

His gaze flickered up to the redhead.

"Not that I know of. I just like sleeping. What's your name again?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep wasn't sure how he felt about someone not knowing his name. It surprised him right off the bat, assuming by default that everyone he met from now into eternity would have heard of him and more importantly that they would have heard about his every single misdemeanour.

"Rep." he said.

"And probably, I've yet to see a pleasant death on this island honestly."

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

October blinked slowly at Rep. It seemed to take a very long time.

The words also took a long time to permeate his sleep fogged mind, which was unusual, since October was generally the sort of person who could wake up and go about his business as though he hadn't just been dead asleep thirty seconds ago. Maybe he'd drunk more than he actually should have.

"I'm October," he informed Rep, flattening his palms on the table, drumming his fingers. He wore black, slightly ratty, fingerless gloves. "Have you seen a lot of death here?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep found himself getting impatient almost right away just looking at October, but tried to keep it in check. He was a customer after all.

He wasn't expecting to be asked about death and shrugged his shoulders. "Aye, I guess. A lot of it. Death and I are old friends really, I keep him in business."

And it was completely bizzare to think that he'd actually eaten a chocolate bar given to him by death in person, the sort of dizzying strangeness that was almost commonplace in Deus. "It's shitty but you get on with things, life moves on day by day, you try and remember people as best you can and keep them alive in their memories."

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

October propped his chin up in one gloved hand that bore a small scar across his knuckles, curling his own fingers against his jawline. His other hand drummed idly against the tabletop, considering what Rep was saying, in spite of looking as though he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

"Do you hate Halloween as much as the rest, then?" October asked. "For death, I mean. I know hunters die, but don't Halloween just dissipate? That seems somehow unfair in the cosmic grand scheme of things."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep narrowed his eyes, but it was obvious it wasn’t directed at october. “I f-ing loathe Halloween.” He said darkly. “I hate them with a passion I can’t even f-ing express in words man. I just… they are so callous. I watched them once just like..”

He looked off into the distance, remembering Killzone.

“An old friend of mine like, an inspiration of a guy. He just, he was defending the portal one time, when they attacked our island. And they just laid into him, ten, twenty of them. We defended him as hard as we could, we healed him, we did everything we possibly could but it wasn’t enough. They killed him and it was like, it didn’t even matter to them. I mean how could it matter? They don’t even have the concept of death so how could they care that they’d just snuffed out the life of a guy who mattered, who was needed?”

He clenched his hand tightly. “And it happens over and over and over. Even grown up they are like kids, casual, flippant and cruel. Born from human nightmares and designed to do nothing but hurt us. I’d get rid of all of them if I could. They are an anomaly which needs to be undone and one day I’ll help undo it, when we are finished with the horsemen.”  

[kuropeco]

October listened silently, one hand still propping his chin up, elbow on the table. The other was drawing absent patterns in the grain of the wood, his eyes flickering over Rep's face, a slight frown on October's own, not out of displeasure, but thought.

After a moment, he said slowly, "They seem...single minded. I haven't experienced many of them, but it feels like the fight is uneven. How do you kill something that's already dead? Or that can't die?"

He was silent for another minute, then continued. "There was s**t like that, back during that whole..." A hand waved. "Zombie stuff. And I thought that was bad because it was humans, but we can die. Halloween seems to just...continue on, taking what they want."

A pause, and then October said simply, "I'm sorry about your friend."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep seemed to hesitate for a moment, aware that he’d showed some sliver of vulnerability to the other man and acutely self-conscious of this fact. Still, October didn’t treat it as a weakness so this was a bonus. He nodded. “They can be, and it’s definitely possible to kill them, it just takes some really serious effort. You need to kill them over and over again until their core degrades and breaks. Then they are dead forever. They can’t reform. It’s really, really hard though and how do you trap them long enough to do it?” he shook his head. “It’s not practical and we need to make it more efficient.”

He sighed, before raising a brow at the other man. “Oh you were there? I’ve been fighting that s**t for ages. The Grail. It’s a legacy that ******** with people like, to the point they become those zombie things. It’s complicate but I don’t think it’s like, I don’t think it’s a malicious thing, its just something that happens as a side effect of people messing with it. No that that makes it awright what happened. Halloween is the same I guess, just dangerous from existing.”

He forced a smile. “It’s fine, Killzone would be happy people just remembered him and tried to keep on fighting the good fight. He mostly wanted people to be positive and to be good to one another.”

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

He made a mental note to remember this; facts slid through his mind and fell into their respective places, sorted into important, less important, concerning, and people. October did not want to be thrust into a world where he couldn't defend himself against creatures who couldn't die; so at the very least, knowing that it was possible they could was a vital piece of information.

"I wonder if there's a different sort of approach we could use," October mused. "Some sort of...well, if its their core that needs breaking, I'm assuming just stabbing it over and over again would work, but that would take a lot of effort, as you said."

He hadn't realized more people had experience with the zombies. "Yes, I was in a building known as the Apartments," said October. "I don't remember much about some things, but what I do remember was vastly unpleasant. I had no idea the Grail was connected to them; where is the Grail now?"

October's fingers moved across the table. "Positivity and good are necessary for survival," he said somberly. "Sometimes it's not easy, but I like good things."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

"Who knows? I know for the horsemen we used like a really, really big ******** bomb sort of thing. Like a magical explosion that just wiped their s**t out, meant they couldn't reform properly and stuff like that. We could probably do the same to Halloween too but those guys are like, less tightly ******** clustered together." he shrugged his shoulders. "Either way its no my specialisation, my stuff I do is mostly legacy based, I leave the mass damage to the guys who like explosions."

And for a moment he thought of Jerry and couldn't help but grin.

"And man you were there. That's ******** horrible. And er. The grail is well... that's both complicated and probably classified. Just er. Be careful of vines on the island if you get my drift."

He laughed again, seeming to find the absurdity of everything amusing. "And aye, it really is, I was depressed for so so ******** long, but for whatever reason, these days things are sort of looking up again."

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

October hadn't been around for the really big ******** bomb, but he'd heard of the destruction of the Horseman Islands, at least from doing a bit of general research here on the island. His fingers were still drumming absently on the tabletop as he listened.

"Legacy based," October repeated, then said, less a question and more a statement, "Like the Grail. The virus."

He hadn't forgotten the way they had all turned, the way they had struggled to survive for weeks on end, doing what they could. Gaining a family where they could. Sometimes he thought of Brief; of the others as well, but mostly Brie, because she had been the one at his side for all that time.

And now she too was gone.

He pushed those thoughts away.

"Looking up is good," said October seriously. "I'm glad. You're married to the pink dress one, aren't you? The buff one with the mustache and the nice heels."

Baneful