video; UN: TripleJ

[kyley_b]

[The hair. Oh dear god, the hair. Kyle's recognizable mass of curls has been gelled within an inch of its life and sculpted into a wavy helmet. And where are his sleeves?!]

Yo Trench, what up what up, it's ya boy Kyley-B!

So's I need a little help here - anybody know a place in town where you can get some dope-ass ink? Because, you know, if you look up 'too much swag' in the dictionary, there'll be a great big picture of my face, and attitude like that deserves the best, you know what I'm sayin'?

Help a guy out here.

PEACE!

Comments

[hearthebell]

Space?

[He seems especially and keenly interested in this; maybe, before his life's path was set, he harbored dreams of being an astronaut as so many young children do.]

So this wasn't your first afterlife experience, unless you were a highly decorated and experienced pilot.

[He doesn't know what to call Trench; since he died, he defaults, just a bit, to considering it an afterlife.]

[kyley_b]

Yeah. Which sounds cool, but mostly sucked.

Oh, no, this is the first place I ever died. I just got abducted by aliens before. Which has happened to me a lot, actually.

[hearthebell]

How many time is a lot?

[To his credit, L isn't the type to write off things that sound ridiculous. He never has been, even when he existed in his own comparatively grounded reality.

Coming to Trench has only made him more open to the myriad wild possibilities that exist across universes.]

...why did it "mostly suck?"

[Rougher and more colloquial language sounds kind of stilted and unnatural coming from him. That's not atypical.]

[kyley_b]

Uhhh, like... four times? I think four, yeah.

[Kyle grimaces.] It was a whole survival situation. We were trying to rebuild some alien city and shit. But the people were great.

That's like here too, don'tchu think? The place is kinda balls, but the people? Bro. I met so many of yous that are just great. You're pretty great.

[hearthebell]

[L would have to implicitly agree that, for some things, four times is in fact a great many. He murmurs something about how all of that must have been difficult, within the jaded context of being a Sleeper, and how everyone here is sort of special by the standards of their own world in some way.]

In Trench? I suppose... I.

[He stops, short, after stating his sentences initial noun. It's just so strange.]

I... think that people are... people. And I try not to think of them any particular way until they've given me a reason to think they're good or bad. I like you, though... it's actually too bad you have a boyfriend.

[He says it tongue-in-cheek; maybe there's some earnestness there, but L tends to be braver in situations where he knows he's safe. A partner makes someone off-limits, and therefore he's probably always going to be more honest and straightforward knowing that nothing could ever come of it.]

So... that tattoo. You're loitering, if you stay for much longer without deciding.

[kyley_b]

[Kyle shrugs it off. Aliens are no big deal. Unless they give you pinkeye.

At that little flirtation, Kyle laughs and winks.]

Lucky for you, I'm a handful. And I do have a soft spot for sad brunettes with shitty taste in music. Although I dunno if we established if yours sucks.

[He hums aloud, clearly thinking.] I guess I better not. Karkat might pitch a fit. BUT if I think of something really cool, I'll do it anyway. What about you, you gonna get anything?

[hearthebell]

[L pauses, trying to think of how to answer. He doesn't actually listen to music, not really as a deliberate or active thing. His appreciate of culture is practically nonexistent, which honestly gives him more time to obsess over murderers.

He laughs, still a strange sound from him, but relaxed. The gentle amusement of someone who invited ridicule and is being a game, good sport about it. If flirting was always like this, maybe he'd do it more.]

I didn't come for a tattoo; I came to meet the other guy with an orca omen. I suppose that makes us both loiterers.

[If there was any doubt at all that L was earnest about enjoying Kyle to some extent, the omens seem to get along nicely. Lycka's increased in size to better nudge and shepherd Willzyx around, avoiding the sharp things, looking at the colorful and eye-catching ones.]

[kyley_b]

Yeah, we suck. Let's go get somethin' to eat instead.

[Willzyx is having the time of his life, doing barrel rolls in the air.]

Why'dja care if I had a orca?

[hearthebell]

I could eat...

[He's open, and enthusiastic about the idea. The parlor's receptionist is looking at both non-customers with exasperation he's not even trying to mask.]

I'd been here for weeks before I finally met Lycka. That day on the beach, I thought there was something deeply wrong about seeing one of them isolated from others and alone. It... made me see some things differently. Specifically, that a soul might simultaneously shun a world they perceive as rotten, and still want to have a place in it. The right place, with the right pod, so... we've been looking.

[kyley_b]

Dope. C'mon! [He's just going to herd L on out.

In spite of being Jersey-ed out, this is still Kyle, and so he listens.]

You took that super literally, my dude. But I'm cool with it. We're a pod.

[hearthebell]

[Narrow and insubstantial as he is, L is fairly easy to herd when he's going somewhere willingly.]

You turned out to be really nice.

[He sounds surprised and humbled, in the way someone only could if an assumption was proven dead wrong.]

Just so you know, I don't eat meat, vegetables, tubers, or most grains, so... cafés are good for me.

[kyley_b]

Did I? Heh. Sweet.

The fuck DO you eat?

[hearthebell]

Lots of things.

[Slightly defensively.]

Candy... cupcakes, croissants, chocolate, cake, marzipan, pudding, whipped cream, ice cream, Bavarian cream... all cream... oh, and fruit. Except the ones classified as vegetables culinarily, like tomatoes or avocados.

[kyley_b]

So sugar. Damn, dude, you gonna get diabetes. But okay. Let's find a fuckin bakery.

[hearthebell]

I haven't yet...

[Not that he's been tested, and not that being young and surviving some punishing habits in relative health is terribly unusual. A man simply looks at life differently when he always expected to die young, and was proven soundly right on the matter.]

I like bakeries, though. It's a little late in the day, but I know one that bakes scones around teatime. Maybe some are left.

[kyley_b]

It sucks, take it from me. I had to get a whole new kidney and shit. A fuckin sociopath's kidney no less.

Duuuded yeah, let's go!

[hearthebell]

A new kidney, as well?

[L's sounding a little skeptical now.]

Either you've led a very extraordinary life, or you're a compulsive liar. Either way... I want to hear more of your stories.

[Take me away from the world for awhile, he doesn't add, leading the way to the teatime bakery and their slightly cold scones.]

[kyley_b]

Dude, yeah. I got diabetes as a kid, and my kidneys failed. I almost fuckin DIED. I had a rare blood type so it was hard to find a donor.

What, you think I'd make that up?

[hearthebell]

I don't know if you'd make it up.

[Blithely and honestly.]

I've only just met you... and when people are nicer than I thought they'd be, I don't make any assumptions. What I want is rarely the case in reality.

[kyley_b]

That's pretty fucked up right there, dude.

C'mon. Sugar coma time.

/wrap?

[hearthebell]

You think so? Maybe I should try to be more trusting, at least here in Trench.

[He'd never, ever make that mistake where he's from. Old habits carry over. Old habits can be harsh and hobbling.]

If the crash can let me sleep through the night, I'll consider it a rousing success.

Totally

[kyley_b]

[Kyley-B shakes his overly gelled head.]

You're nuts, bro. I think I like it. C'mon.