FOURTH SHOT

[dog_eat_dog]

Lee ––

I met with Joel. I don't know if you've met him, since he's hardly been here longer than I have, but he's my better half. We went out into the woods and waited it out so he could put me down, but I didn't turn. And when Joel wasn't watching me, I went down to the damn clinic, where the world's most terrified doctor hacked off the wound.

So now that my shoulder has roughly the same texture as raw hamburger, and it doesn't seem to be spreading, I can finally let you know that your advice was complete bullshit... but I appreciate it all the same.

We should get drinks. Proper ones, this time.

Tess



------



Hey, kid.

You've been here much longer than I have. Let me drill you for information and I'll make it worth your while. What do you say?

Tess

Comments

Tess

[indirectcause]

I- sure, I don't mind helping you out. Y- you don't have to owe me or anything. We're supposed to look out for each other, right?

Ben

[dog_eat_dog]

An attitude like that and I'm surprised you've even lasted four months. Not that I want to owe you shit, mind.

Do you drink?

Tess

[indirectcause]

We're all in shitty situations, we're all still people. We should be looking out for each other. ....Not that it really works that way. [He's sure not bringing TRUST into that, nooope, because trusting someone and helping someone are two very different things]

I'm underage.

Ben

[dog_eat_dog]

Been a while since I heard that.

[She thought that do-gooder shit was dead. Even the Fireflies accepted that you had to have currency to get by, to get things done.]

I'm not asking if you're legal, kid. Legal doesn't matter. I'm asking you if you want a drink.

Tess

[indirectcause]

I like to keep just a little hope alive, y'know?

[Congrats, Tess, you've found one of the few people in his universe who is unlikely to be a douche]

I probably shouldn't. Lee will just find out and get mad and do that forehead crinkle thing at me.

Re: Tess

[dog_eat_dog]

Suit yourself. When you get to a point where your only options are weak as shit bathtub alcohol, flat soda pop and water, you'll be trying everything. Ten years from now, you'll be pissed that you didn't take advantage of the best.

[If he lives that long.]

Tess

[indirectcause]

[Haha...ha]

Yeah, I don't think that'll be a problem for me.

[Moving swiftly on!] What do you want to know?

Re: Tess

[dog_eat_dog]

I do things in person. Meet me in the lobby.

Tess

[indirectcause]

Sure thing.

[She makes him nervous in the same way Lilly did. That drive to keep her people together and safe, even if it meant they didn't like her for it, the person who made the tough choices.

Still, he'll go anyway. You don't piss that sort of person off, and he still does genuinely want to help her. So off to the lobby he goes]

Ben

[dog_eat_dog]

[Ben will find Tess in the lobby, as promised. She looks just like what her voice might suggest: her posture ripples with that "come at me" attitude, her hair is messily pulled out of her face with a bandanna to show she means business, and her eyes are sharp as a hawk's. She looks at Ben like she's sizing him up for a fight, even if that isn't actually her intention. At thirty-eight she is still waifishly thin –– christ, she was barely into adulthood when her diet became barely-sustainable rations.

When he approaches, she stands. Even if she's been thoroughly scrubbed down head to toe and is dressed in crisp, clean clothes, there's no washing off cuts and bruises, no cleaning up old scars. And, most noticeable of all under the thin cotton of her t-shirt, the amount of bandaging enveloping her right shoulder and the side of her neck.

Meanwhile, she picks him out because he's a seventeen year old boy.]

Ben, huh?

Tess

[indirectcause]

[Yep. She definitely reminds him of Lilly. As tall as Ben is, his lanky frame really doesn't pose much of a threat, even if he didn't look perpetually nervous about everything]

That's me. I'm guessing you're Tess.

Ben

[dog_eat_dog]

[She smiles, just enough to be nice.]

The one and only. Don't look so scared.

Tess

[indirectcause]

Sorry. Kind of a normal thing for me. I'm still getting used to the fact we can relax here. [That not every single person is a potential threat]

Tess

[rightchoices]

[ He's a little late getting to this, but there's a humorless chuckle in his voice when he finally does. He could go for a drink. Right now, though - ]

Told you.

[ Alright. He's thirty-eight, but he's spent a lot of his time with kids lately, okay? Sue him. ]

Re: Tess

[dog_eat_dog]

[And this thirty-nine year old lives for competition.]

Told me? Eat me, buddy, you didn't tell me jack shit. If there's anything to thank you for, it was alcohol to calm my nerves.

[That's her version of it, anyhow.]

[rightchoices]

[ Ha. Lee just chuckles at that. No point in arguing. ]

You remember how to get to the Lux?

[dog_eat_dog]

Yeah, I got it. Just say when.

[rightchoices]

You busy now?

[dog_eat_dog]

I've got all the time in the world, now. [Ideally, anyhow.] Just don't keep me out too late, or Joel will hunt you down.

[rightchoices]

[ Of course they all know each other. :') Lee's pretty goddamn happy for them, actually. ]

Gotta say I'm just as afraid of Ellie, I think. Heading down now.

[dog_eat_dog]

She's not so bad. As sheltered as it gets in our time, but she doesn't have much bite behind her bark.

[Tess is sorry that so much has changed in a year, that included, but she'll say what she knows

She heads down, too.]

[rightchoices]

Could argue that bark's just as important. See you in a minute.

[ And a thump of the journal being shut. He'll be waiting at the bar for her. ]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess is down shortly afterwards, looking very much like a new woman. Lee had seen her when she was nearing rock bottom, and now she's rapidly heading towards the best shape she's been in for decades, shoulder wound aside. A week's worth of good meals three times a day, full nights of sleep, painkillers and access to a shower does good to anyone who has been living hand-to-mouth for the vast majority of their adult life.

A week doesn't drown out the pointedness of her facial features or the scars from twenty years of struggle, but it's a start.

In jeans, a tank top and a slightly oversized cardigan to conceal her shoulder bandaging and the gun concealed in the back waistband of her pants, Tess might even pass for normal.

She slides into the seat beside him.]

Right where we left off, hmm? Almost, anyhow.

[rightchoices]

[ Lee lifts a hand when she approaches, one arm folded on the bartop. There's a drink in front of him and one to his right, clearly for her. The way his eyes track briefly over her face isn't meant to be insulting or appraising, really; comparing, maybe. He knows what it feels like to try to strip off the things from home with scalding water and clean clothes. And he only had months, not years, to try to compensate for. Jesus. ]

You cleaned up.

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess smirks and sits, hand curling around her drink immediately.]

Not bad to look at underneath all the blood and grime, huh? I'm practically a contestant for Miss Total Societal Collapse 2033.