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 Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 5:41 pm
Preacher picked at a loose thread on her vest. If she just pretended she wasn't talking to Axel, everything was great. Well, as great as it could be. She was homeless and friendless and jobless and foodless... in fact, there were a lot of 'lesses' in her life right now that she longed to just forget about. Sighing, she closed her eyes and tilted her head up to the sun. Axel was too big a softie to attack first, she thought. It was an annoying habit of his, but she was surprisingly ok with it. Preacher felt calmed now, especially that she was forcing herself to think of Axel as "Blond Guy #1" instead of Axel. If it wasn't Axel, then there was no tavern, no odd, stolen kiss, no awkward silences. This method was working, more or less. So, instead of fighting, she let the tiny, fussy breeze ghost across her face. Preacher was so tired, so very tired... Axel, no, Blonde Guy #1's voice was moderate, a well-modulated manly voice, nothing terribly special. It sounded nice, soothing, when he wasn't tense or yelling or any of the myriad things Preacher made him do. Abruptly, the way he had hoarsely whispered out her name above her lips flashed through her head. Frowning, she forced the thought away, carefully trying to shove it in the farthest corner of her mind. "Ohhh great, ya finally admitted you're dumber than tha average bear. I kin see tha headlines now. But I'm sure tha military could use more knuckleheads. Plus, ya get free food." But her jab was said lightheartedly, with a smile in her voice. She swung her feet again and one sandal plopped off to lay in the dirt like,some strange, leathery animal. Maybe she should open her eyes, search for it... but she didn't want to look at Axel right now. If she looked, she'd think. Today, just for now, there was a an imposed on thinking. When the last question squirmed out of his mouth, she couldn't help it. Preacher threw back her head and laughed. Laughed loudly and long. And if her laugh held a thread of derision, well, it really was a silly question. "Holy s**t, ya think they'd let me into tha army? Ya must be ********' daft. ******** no. Slum kids live in tha slums n' they die in tha slums. Ya don't leave. Ya don't get to." Despite the fatalistic nature of her statements, Preacher trued to speak lightly. After all, right now, in this dirty ditch with a man she hated... right was a no-thinking time. Still, a faint thread of depressed inevitability clung on the tail end of her words,m drifting out after them like smoke from a cigar.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 3:58 am
As long as Preacher wasn't picking a fight with him (which Preacher usually managed to do with distressing ease, he had some kind of instinct for pushing Axel's buttons), Preacher actually made tolerable company. As long as Axel didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on his work, which was extremely boring but at least not infuriating. He didn't mind Preacher's teasing words about him being stupid. For once, Preacher's tone wasn't nasty. Maybe they had some kind of truce. He shrugged and kept on shovelin'. Preacher talking about dying in the slums made him stop. Just to catch his breath. Obviously. Axel leaned on the shovel, looking over at Preacher. His sandal seemed to have fallen off, and Axel stretched out a foot and kicked it back over the edge of the ditch. Axel didn't like his friends talking about dying, and although Preacher was most certainly not his friend he still didn't want Preacher to die. He wondered who had beaten Preacher and why. "You're smart, you know? You're a lot smarter than me."Depressing to admit, but true. "You could get in, if you wanted to. I bet you could. But you shouldn't," he added sternly, picking up the shovel again, "Because you might get eaten. But you could do something else."Axel wished he could offer Preacher some kind of help, but realistically, what could he do? He wasn't rich. He didn't have space to offer Preacher, or land, or money, or a job, or really anything but his lunch, which unfortunately he had already eaten.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 7:29 am
Preacher flinched, ready to curl in on herself, when the shoe came flopping next to her. Maybe keeping her eyes closed was not for the best, after all. A slum brat only survived if their reactions were quick and their eyes quicker. Squinting one eye open, she grabbed the shoe and twisted her foot up to put it on. The pressure from the twisting made her groan as her abused ribs protested. Still, she stalwartly keep her gaze away from Axel. When Axel said she was smart, smarter than the good, great Axel, she almost quipped out something witty about being smart or dead. And her mouth did open, and close, and open again, but no dsound came out from between her lips. She licked them, a little nervous. Instead, her eyes had popped open in surprise. And she blushed. People didn't praise girls like her... not by calling them smart. "D-dun sell yourself short.... or... or somethin'." She mumbled, blush still fierce on her face. Preacher wondered if she could get away with discreetly fanning her face, or if Axel would simply take it as a by-product of the hot sun. Gulping, she looked up and over his shoulder, yellow eyes staring at the walls behind him. "Hah! If I could join, mebbe I would. Free food, free clothes, a bed, n' ya kin choose ya death. It dun matter ta me if a titan eats me right up. M'life dun mean anything anyway. Ya could join up, get cushy on tha walls or summat. Better than diggin' ditches." Preacher darted a glance at him.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 8:05 am
Preacher's almost-compliment took Axel by surprise. He had started digging again, but he looked up now, wondering if Preacher was about to do something unpleasant. Preacher was just sitting there, rather flushed, although that was surely from the hot sun. He stopped shoveling. Axel frowned thoughtfully at the dirty side of a building not far away. They had an uneasy truce, but he still didn't want to make too much eye contact with Preacher. He was doing his best to squash it, but the unsettling memory of their kiss kept resurfacing. Axel tried to focus on Preacher's words about the military instead. He had to admit, Preacher had some good points. Much better than the people that went on and on about doing good for humanity or whatever. Stupid, dreamy people that wanted to go get eaten for no good reason. "Wouldn't be bad in the garrison," Axel said slowly. "I guess I wouldn't mind going around arresting thugs. I don't like ditch-digging much." He looked slightly more cheerful at the thought. Preacher was right, just about anything would be better than digging ditches. Axel didn't really know what to say about Preacher saying his life meant nothing. It was troubling, deeply troubling, but he couldn't think of anything to say that Preacher wouldn't turn around on him. He dared a look at Preacher. "You're not, um."Axel wasn't generally prepared for touching moments at the best of times. Certainly not after digging a ditch and then being pushed into said ditch by his worst enemy. "I mean, you're really, um."Axel coughed while trying to collect his thoughts, inhaled some of the dust floating around after their brief scuffle in the ditch, and coughed harder. "You're not terrible, you know. I don't really think you're disgusting." COUGH. "Don't go getting yourself eaten. I still hate--" cough, cough. "--you, but I don't want you getting eaten." COUGH, COUGH, wheeze."You know, you're right. ******** ditch digging," Axel added, his eyes watering.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 9:45 am
She still swung her legs idly, her heels sending down small showers of dirt when they hit the side of the trench. thump thump thump "Dunno anyone that likes ditch diggin'. Horace hired ya, eh? Imma letcha in on sa secret round these parts.... ya ain't gonna get paid but half of what he promised ya." Normally, she'd have let him stew and work and sweat, but.... he was being sort of halfway nice. And if Preacher was nice back, maybe she would get some kind of good karma. Enough good karma that she'd be able to drive that memory of that tavern night out of her brain. Ugh. She wondered if kissing everyone felt the same. Blinking, she pinched herself on the soft skin of her inner elbow. The sharp pain helped a bit, although it vaguely reminded her of hands sharply tugging her hair back. "A-anyways." She covered her self-conscious stutter with a cough. "Look round ya. You're tha only ditch digger here. Alla tha people round here know it ain't worth their spit. Military is a constant, ya ken?" Suddenly, Axel coughed and coughed again. A frown plucked at the corners of her mobile mouth. Axel was hard to understand through all that coughing. Had he said she was disgusting? Preacher had thought he.... "Tch." Whatever. She had, as usual, thought wrong. She refused to let him ruin her mood again, even if the damnable memory of their kiss kept lurking on the edges of her mind like an unwelcome visitor. Preacher shivered a little. He had been hot, hotter than this sun. No. With that thought, she scampered over to Axel, slapped him hard on his back, and smiled cheekily (if a trifle shakily) up at him, flush still staining her thin cheeks. "Dun die, ya idiot." And she scampered off, scaling the ditch and taking off back to her part of the slums.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:05 am
As much as Axel didn't want to admit it, he suspected Preacher might be right. It was hard to find someone who paid what they said they would, and the man Horace had a skeezy look about him. He had to remind himself that it was Preacher talking, and Preacher would undoubtedly find it hilarious if he managed to talk Axel into walking away from a paying job. Preacher hated him, despite his weird almost-pleasantness. "I'm not going to walk off the job," Axel grumbled, getting back to shoveling. If Preacher was wrong, and he hoped Preacher was wrong, he had found a steady job. Sort of. A horrible and embarrassing steady job, but whatever. There was probably a low chance of being eaten while digging ditches, anyways. Then Preacher smacked him and ran off, which was so very Preacher-like that Axel actually relaxed. He had been starting to wonder if Preacher was sick or dying. "Don't you die either," Axel called to Preacher's disappearing back. The military ... huh. He shook his head. Axel had always thought it was an awful career choice, but the way Preacher described it, it was almost attractive. And you got a sharp-looking uniform, too. Hmm.
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