( burn it to the ground )

[cheapbastard]

CHARACTERS: billy butcher + ota
LOCATION: the station
DATE: early march
CONTENT: drinking, being horrible, being awesome
WARNINGS: language and maybe some violence

01. UNFORTUNATE INVASION (CLOSED TO YENNEFER)

( there's a lot of fucking people packed into this station and more showing up all the time. you can't step outside without running into someone who might ask a question or might wanna talk about everything and nothing. billy's gotten used to the solitude of his room, enjoying the respite he has. he can lock the door and shut everything out and pretend that he's back home, just waiting to get up and get dressed and take care of business.

of course, his business here is the business of orbs and he's not sure he really likes it. but, it's not like he can fucking change it either. he can't just open the door and take a space walk home. he's stuck and that's a fucking nnoying.

the bed's are too thin, the walls a weird color but it's still his room and billy take advantage of that by tossing a ball that he'd found on the last planet against the wall. he's splayed on his bed, betting himself that he can hit certain spots and then doing it before the ball comes back and he catches it.

he's won a lot of money against himself. he's very wealthy now. be jealous. )

02. MESS HALL

( maybe billy's gonna live here now. maybe he's going to move his shit out of his room and live in the fucking mess hall because he is certainly not going to live with that fucking woman, whoever she is. what kind of a name was yennefer anyway? did whoever birthed her mishear her mother naming her jennifer?

it's stupid. that woman is stupid.

for once, while he's in the mess, he's not drinking. well, he is but it's water. he's made himself a plate of food and he's sitting his ass on the table instead of the bench, tapping his foot while he tries to clear his head. if there's new people showing up, billy wonders if that means they're going to be punted to a new planet sometime soon to save another fucking orb.

he shakes his head, growling under his breath because what fucking luck. maybe he will take that space walk. )

03. WILDCARD

( if you'd like to do something else space station related, hit me up. i'm at jortles for questions. )

Comments

oh here go hell come

[choicely]

[ Yennefer has purposefully been avoiding the living space she's been assigned — it's too sterile, too austere for her preferences as much as this station in and of itself already is, which leaves her with few other places to retreat to that even bring her some semblance of peace apart from the so-called "sunlight room," where she has been spending most of her time recently since first waking up on Ximilia.

Occasionally, she ventures to the mess hall, but the only food she procures for herself falls in the vein of something that does not require her to do anything in the way of actual preparation — or a portion of a dish that has been prepared and left for others to partake of.

Returning to her room is an inevitability she already dreads facing, but apparently she should have considered the possibility that it would already be half-occupied when she enters; she stands in the doorway for what feels like rather a long time in itself, closing her eyes and breathing out a long sigh. ]

Surely this is a mistake.

[cheapbastard]

( when the door opens, billy's about to start in on the person for not knocking and invading his privacy but he stops when said invader is someone he doesn't recognize.

the ball he's been throwing comes back and he catches it before he sits up, eyeing her critically. )

Yeah, it's gotta be a mistake. You've got the wrong room. This is mine.

( so, turn around and ease on down the road, yennefer. )

And I was busy.

[choicely]

[ Considering that the door had opened for her without her even needing to reach for it, all signs point to this being a space intended for her just as much as it apparently is for someone else — that, or people are under the impression they can wander into any space they like.

It doesn't occur to Yennefer that as of right now, she could very well appear to be that person, but from her perspective, this is the room she's meant to inhabit and she doesn't very much feel like looking elsewhere. ]

I assure you that I do not. [ Even if she had made an error, something in his response prompts her to dig her heels in rather than admitting to it. Beyond that, however, she'd spent so much time looking for the right chamber that she's fairly confident she's found it now. ]

There are two beds. Clearly this is a room intended for more than one person.

[cheapbastard]

Yeah, that bed's meant for my shit. That's where I store stuff when I need to.

( right now it was free and clear but he'd definitely put things on that bed before. she was just lucky he hadn't made a giant mess of it before she'd showed up. )

I don't even know who you are.

[choicely]

And nowhere else in this room serves as a sufficient enough place for your shit? Such as under the bed you're occupying now, for instance.

[ She's already seen the utter lack thereof on the bed itself, which doesn't really lend any additional defense to his position that he requires all this space for his personal belongings. Given that she herself arrived with little more than the clothes on her back and the pendant around her throat, she finds the possibility of him having that many possessions very low indeed. ]

What difference does that make? I don't know you either.

2

[aurable]

Communal areas aren't for solitary 'dark night of the soul' brooding. [ A terse but not too-aggressive voice cuts through what was surely Billy's 'alone time' as a door slides open.

Drift walks in, human this time around, with a dishtowel over his shoulder and a bottle of something purple, slightly vicious, and vaguely luminescent in hand. He puts the bottle on the counter beside Billy. He steps back as he takes in the sight before him. ]

Bench piss you off?

[cheapbastard]

( billy narrows his eyes at the statement even if...he's not really wrong. but billy had wanted to brood and he'd wanted to do it publicly so he could make a scene or some shit.

he looks the other man over, trying to place him and then shakes his head. )

Everything pisses me off. It's just my sparkling personality.

( billy's eyes flick to the bottle. )

What's that?

[aurable]

Energon. One of the Doctors wants to screw around with a sample and I just need to water it down so he doesn't get his hands on the stuff that will burn a hole through the station.

[ Drift explains as he starts to wipe down the prep counter that Billy had so thoughtfully left in disarray after coming in like a temperamental storm. ]

Everything, or everyone?

[cheapbastard]

So, not for drinking then, huh?

( since it would probably turn his internal organs to goo if it was strong enough to burn through the station. doesn't mean he doesn't wanna try. he's stupid like that. )

Everything. Some people are okay.

( he could count them on one hand but they existed. )

I don't hate everyone. I think that's progress.

[aurable]

I think he might be attempting convoluted suicide by making pudding with it, but nothing that man says ever makes sense. [ Drift shrugs with all the resignation of someone who's long since given up trying to appeal to the fork-in-electric-socket crowd. ]

A short list, I'm assuming.

[ A beat as Drift hedges a bet. ] Newcomer rub you the wrong way?

yes billy you're right yennefer IS a dumb spelling!!

[kovach]

[ sometimes kovacs does actually bother to eat, when he remembers, usually too caught up in something or other to give it much thought. the plate in front of him shows a few remnants of fruit, possibly surprisingly healthy for someone who ends up eating so poorly most of the time. then again, maybe it's just to balance the fact that now that he's finished his meal, he's already onto a cigarette.

he breathes in the smoke when billy butcher suddenly sits up on the next table over. kovacs knows him from a few conversations but he's never gotten chummy. unlike the naggy women in his life, some people are a bit better about not being so persistent for cozy chats. then again, he does recall that recent text post from the man that he'd purposely ignored. ]

Not gonna turn this into a church confessional now too, are you?

[cheapbastard]

Left my collar in me other pants. Why, you need someone to listen to you?

( unless you tell him something interesting, kovacs, he ain't gonna be any help. still, he swings a look over, eyes flicking to the cigarette than up to the man's face. )

Because I think I'm outta the business. Everyone here has a fuckload of issues and I don't wanna be the secret keeper for anyone else. I'm no good at that, I just wanna blab.

( he doesn't and he won't. )

[kovach]

Do I look like the kind of guy who needs to take a load off his mind?

[ no, wait. don't answer that. it's absolutely rhetorical since there's actually plenty that's pent-up, even if he has no intention to actually consult it with anyone, not even those he's more familiar with, much less the swearing preacher. ]

Took you part-timing the open ear gig to figure that out? [ the fuckload of issues bit. ] Considering what we're all here for, it's kind of already in the fine print.

[cheapbastard]

You don't want me to answer that.

( because yes, yes you do, kovacs and you know it. billy snickers but doesn't delve deeper into that. )

Hey, maybe some people just wanted to take a trip to fuckin' space and made some shit up. A regret can be pretty major, sure, but maybe someone regretted not picking the blue shoes. Seems like a generalization, man.

[kovach]

Yeah, people starved out in the fucking desert and almost got dusted by an alien mob all for a pair of shoes.

[ there's a sarcastic tone that's almost playing along with the joke, but there's definitely some tension in it, considering it's a bit of a sour subject these days. it can definitely be blamed on a number of things that happened at the end of aforementioned mission, and the fact that some people have been on his ass about how far he and some of the others are actually willing to go to get what they all bargained for.

he sighs, bringing his cigarette back to his mouth. ]

If that's the case, then we're all even more fucked up than we assume.

[malta]

[ maybe joe would not have taken any mind to the man, but then he sits on the table like a feral raccoon and maybe he misses his family more than he would like to think about.

(andy, from the background: i am right here, stop telling people i'm dead
joe, fake crying: sometimes i can still hear her voice)

so as he would do for his sister or his garbage brother or his beautiful, wonderful, flawless husband, he slaps down a plate of churros (he made them because he eats his feelings) and sits at the table next to him, on the bench like a normal human being. ]

You ever wonder if after Jesus started doing miracles people still asked him to do carpentry for them? Bet he'd make you a chair.

[cheapbastard]

What makes a chair a chair?

( billy glances over, rolling his eyes. he knows what you're trying to do joe and he's not going to sit in a chair now on principle. )

Chair's something you sit on, ain't it? I'm sitting on a flat surface so ergo, this is a fuckin' chair.

[malta]

[ joe's laugh is bright and sudden, clearly this is the best answer he could have gotten out of all the possible answers and he is all about it. well played, sir, well played. ]

Is a table a chair, is a hot dog a taco, is a churro a donut? You've really tackled the most basic of existential questions.

[ joe's impressed. ]

[cheapbastard]

I like to make people think.

( with stupid, idiotic questions about the most philosophical of questions. he smirks and sits up, shrugging his shoulders and feeling a little lighter now that he's gotten a laugh. )

But now I really want a fucking taco. Can't remember the last time I had one and it hasn't been here. This place has been lacking in food.

[malta]

Are there ingredients?

[ buddy. buddy, pal, friend, guy. make the tacos and then there will be tacos! joe remembers the ingredients and he can suss out the measurements by eye, so if they have meat and veg to go in the taco... ]

I can make tacos.

02.

[oiorpata]

[ by contrast, andy is in fact drinking. glass in hand and a bowl of cereal in the other, she's on her way out of the mess hall to eat elsewhere when billy's pissy energy radiates and enters her field of vision. it's just that strong, apparently. ]

[ she barely even notices he's sitting on the table. that's her favorite place to sit too. ]

[ she tilts the glass. it's vodka, or something close to it. ] You look like you need this more than I do.

[ not that she's going to give it to him. he just, in fact, looks like he needs one of his own. ]

[cheapbastard]

Probably.

( he looks up at her, arching an eyebrow before he dissolves into a laugh when he realizes that she's just making a statement. fuckin' horrible asshole.

he approves. )

But, I'm fine with just drinking everything else in this fuckin' kitchen until I calm down.

[oiorpata]

[ to further prove her point, she will take a sip and try not to look too amused herself. ]

Water fixes dehydration not anger management. [ or maybe it does both, she doesn't actually know. ] You might be better off with tea. I've heard it's useful for winding down.

[ she prefers alcohol for that, obviously. ]

[cheapbastard]

Thanks for the advice but I'll stick to what I got.

( he turns his attention back down to what he's drinking and rubs at his eyes and then slides that same hand through his hair. )

Tea's not really my thing. Never has been, never will be. It's just bitter fuckin' water.

[oiorpata]

That's why you add all the sugar to it.

[ andy loves a good sweet tea. ]

But water's probably the healthier choice overall, so I'll give you that much.