69novels Chapter 30-4 Half-Chained Love (III)
Chapter 30-4 Half-Chained Love (III)
Chapter 30-4 Half-Chained Love (III)
Well, if that’s the deal I got, that’s the deal I got, right, Veylis?
I kill other me. I get my consangs back? I get the rotlick back? My life gets better, and I get to fuck and snort and be Steelhard?
Yeah. Yeah, alright. I’ll play grav-ball. I’ll play.
Yeah. I know I’m the alternate. I know I’m time-made. But fuck. Who's to say what’s real? It’s all an illusion. Whoever wins decides what’s real. Whoever wins gets to give us whatever life they decide.
My choices are pretty limited if that’s the case.
Never much did like myself anyway. So. This shouldn’t be that hard. Just gotta channel the old man is all.
-Aedon Chambers, Fuckbringer (Anathema)
30-4
Half-Chained Love (III)
“Wait, what? Both of them? With Shotin? The Planefucker?” Chambers looked on at Marlowe with wide eyes and disbelief. He could understand the words, but they were making any sense to him. She just kept nodding.
“Yep. Both of them. At the same time. The half-strand would sneak out from one room and then go straight to the next. I caught his ass that one Salvation Day—I tell you, I fucking screamed! I thought we were being raided or something. My family—we’re arms dealers, right? And I just went for the nearest piece I had on me and the next thing I know mom and dad were beating-feet out of both their bedrooms, both naked! And then I get tackled at the same time while Shotin’s just standing there frozen—”
“Jaus,” Chambers gasped. “What the fuck.”
“Yeah. I know! Anyway, me, mom, and dad go tumbling down the stairs and he ends up catching us using his plane and keeping us from getting hurt. By this point, my younger brother is out too, half-asleep and trying to figure out what’s going on. Mom and dad are already screaming at each other, reflexive blaming already kicking off. And then there was me. Sixteen and stupid as shit. But still not stupid enough to miss all the obvious signs. And the fact that Shotin’s cock was hanging out from his unzipped trousers.”
“I—uh... Jaus.”
“Yeah. Anyway, that piece of shit—that motherfucker—he looks at me, shrugs, and then interrupts my parents, and I shit you not, he says: ‘Listen... I know your policy on threesomes, but...’”
Utter disbelief gripped Chambers. She was bullshitting him. There was no world where Shotin could break into a house, cheat on both the husband and the wife, and then go this far. This was a drama vic—the kind of shit you would only see in the media. “No. Stop. Come on, Marlowe. It’s not an episode.”
“I’m not bullshitting you! It’s just... it’s so stupid, but it happened. Shit like this happens all the time. The Tiers are a fucking carnival of goofy horseshit, but all the clowns are self-important cunts who keep getting to ruin other people’s lives. It would be funny if it wasn’t so goddamn miserable.”
Marlowe sighed and leaned back against the bar. She looked up at the strobing lights dancing down from the ceiling, the flashing bright splashing against her augmented skin and bathing her in a glossy sheen. There was something pensive about her expression. Amused, disgusted, offended, and nostalgic all at the same time.
“This why you hate Guilders?” Chambers asked. “The other ones, I mean.”
“What?” No. This is just the best part of being a Color. Just... stupid bullshit that belongs in the tabloids. But it's part of your life. Even if it fucks you up. Never a dull day. Not even a dull minute.”
“Then, what did it for you?”
Marlowe wiggled her nose and looked down at her empty cup. “Well. I was around twenty. Even dumber than when I was sixteen. Thought I was going to change the Tiers with my ‘hard-hitting exposes’ and ‘show the other Colors’ the truths that were being hidden. Believe you me, Aedon: I was an arrogant and silly shit. Still am in some ways.”
“You always wanted to be a media?”
“Yeah. Well, not a media. A real investigator. Impartial. Honest. The kind of person in those old “we are one” ads back when Jaus was still around. I even thought about being a diplomat. Submitting an application to be a Voidwatch liaison and ending the war. All that hope. All those dreams.” She flicked her cup, and the emptiness rang. “Anyway. I ended up coming down to the Warrens to report on the exploitation and unlawful coercion of human sacrifices. There was a Syndicate tied to Ori-Thaum at the time. Real fucked up outfit. Targeted Kosgans specifically. They were just operating in open daylight and no one was doing anything about them.”
Chambers shifted uncomfortably as he took another measured sip of his own drink. He’d gone far slower than Marlowe did when it came to the booze. “So, uh. How’d that turn out?”
“Well, I kept trying to get Ori-Thaum to do something. But after they blew me off for the four thousandth time that year I decided to get hands-on and do some ‘accidental leaks’ to generate some outrage. I knew the outfit I was working with at the time wouldn’t take kindly to that, so I decided to go hands-on, you know. Moonlight.”
“Alone?” Chambers blinked. Oh, no. He thought she was being self-hating when she said she was dumb. But she might actually be right. “Into the Warrens?”
“Yeah. And all the way down into the gutters.”
Young Marlowe wasn’t just stupid, she was a practicing suicidal maniac. “I—what—how are you still alive?”
She giggled and her voice sounded like jingling bells. “Beats me. Favor and the decency of others, I guess. I had some graft-work done so I could end up looking like a refugee and just started wandering.”
It kept getting worse. Chambers was enraptured and horrified in equal measure.
“And then I finally got what I wanted,” she said, nodding to herself grimly. “Got grabbed. But, uh, wasn’t like in the mainstream vics. Didn’t expect the enforcers to hit me with a goddamn lightning gun.”
“Oh, yeah, the Popper,” Chambers muttered under his breath.
Marlowe paused. “The what?”
“It’s called a Popper. It’s a Guttergrade tech—shit most cobbled together from downed aeros and other parts left strewn about after a war. It’s a pretty easy thing to make. You just need a battery, some magnetic panels and some other shit you can get out of wrecks. They don’t jump far, but twenty meters is still something. Usually’s used to keep slaves in line. Spark one and save the battery for the others, is the way it went.”
A silence followed. Marlowe was staring blankly at him. Chambers suddenly realized his past life was leaking over without him noticing. Fuck. Uh-oh. “Uh, yeah. Anyway. Shit gets nasty and rough and shit in the Warrens. Shitty. Real fucking nasty.”
“Why’s it called a Popper?” Marlowe asked.
“Oh, shit,” Marlowe flinched. “Sorry—”
“Fuck it. I get it. Hope she had a good life. Is having. I don’t know—I don’t care. Or I do, but I don’t want to know. But the main point is that it didn’t matter. Because I didn’t matter. Not me. Not my half-strand dad. None of us. We were all here alone with each other despite all the fucking going around. But not your ex. No, he was someone because of you.”
“Because he fucked a Color?” Marlowe whispered.
“Because you cared to give his story an end! You think I would’ve gotten an end if Avo didn’t just bounce into my lap? If I wasn’t just lucky. Fuck, I’m typical. I’m basic. I’m a deltaware arm transplant on the warehouse shelf. Every fucking kid in the Warrens got some of me in them, and the other way around too. But before I got taken by the ghoul, this was it. I was going to feel good. I was going to love plenty. Love my Dannis vics. Love my drugs. Love making imps. Love, love, love. And then, I was going to die. And there would be nothing after that. I would actually get to be alone in the dark forever. And that was it. No story. Just a loose assortment of shit.”
He held out a hand, and it alternated between a fist and palm. He didn’t know what he was going to say next, but there was a fire in his gut, and it had to come out. “I would have loved to be unloved by someone like you. And that’s why... that’s why Avo he...” A laugh escaped Chambers. Just slipped out. “He treated me like shit, at the start. Worse than a mutt. I was just supposed to a puppet he was going to hack through. And that was fine. I mean, it wasn’t, but fuck, that’s the way of things, right? Use, get used. But then... then I did get used. And he didn’t just throw me away. He kept me alive. He didn’t love me. He barely tolerated me. But he cared. For whatever fucked up ghoul reason he cared.”
And the words found Chambers in the end. “And... that’s what made me a person. When who I was affected someone else that they decided I was worth keeping from death.”
The beats continued hammering above, and Chambers’ heart beat in rhythm to the noise. Only then did he catch himself at the end of his outburst, and a faint blush crept over his face. Fuck, was he drunk? Why did he say so much? How did he let himself get into that rant? Rubbing his face, Chambers shook his head. “I’m... sorry, I don’t know where that came from. Just... guess I’ve got that post-jack-off brain fog.”
Slowly, something almost like a smirk pulled at the corners of Marlowe’s lips. “I think that happens before, not after.”
“Really. Fuck. Not for me, I guess. I might just be special.”
“Yeah. You might just be—”
“Chambers.” Cas voice boomed from behind.
“Jaus! Fuck!” Chambers flinched forward.
Marlowe threw her head back and snickered. “Same response.”
He almost glared at her, but chose to face Cas instead. “Cas. Hey. Consang. How’s the... how’s the scouting...”
“Kinda shit,” Cas grunted. He waved at the bartender. “Skuldswill. Undiluted.” A series of mutters sounded around them. Some of the Scaarthians started taking bets on how soon it would take Cas’ to die. “I managed to pull some intel through the soundwaves: got a limited window. They have a cadre coming in soon. Dowager with them. There is a team of Agnosi on-site observing the outbreak, and they’re talking about extraction and storage.”
“Shit,” Chambers said. “How soon?”
“Don’t know. But if we’re going to do something, we might want to do it soon or kill this run. This thing’s done in a hurry. I don’t like it, but if we lose this fragment—”
“Fuck that. It’s ours. Avo needs it. We’re taking it. I got a way in.”
Cas’s drink arrived, sliding on the table. It went right past him as he arched his brows at Chambers. “You do?”
“What? Why do you look surprised?” Chambers said, offended.
Someone else down along the bartop snatched Cas’ drink, sniffed it, gagged, threw up between their legs, and then drank it anyway. This was where New Vultun was at, apparently.
“Chambers, listen, consang,” the faither said, looking awkward. He eyed Marlowe and took a step closer. “You’ve been... improving a lot, and I know that you’re willing to do some twisted shit no one else is for the cause but... you weren’t exactly the professional type before, you know.”
“I...” Chambers grunted. “Yeah, but... people change and shit.”
“Yeah. I know, and that’s great. I just kind of figured you’d use the time to...” He switched to a thoughtcast. +Try and “get to know” Marlowe.+
As the ghosts snaked the thought through Chambers’ Meta, he went still and—well, yeah, that kinda happened, but he was actually being super professional before that. “Well. I—listen, we have a way in through the bioforms. They rotate, and I think I can meld us into one of the little ones so we can smuggle ourselves using the bigger ones.”
“Sounds disgusting and miserable. I’m in. Tell me more.”
But before Chambers did, he sent a thoughtcast. +Wait, you expected I’d just be flirting with Marlowe and you just... accepted it?+
Cas paused. +Yeah.+
+But... why?+
+Chambers... the fucking world is ending. And you two seemed like you needed a moment. Thought it might be good for your heart.+
Then nothing. Nothing but a weight in Chambers’ chest and a strange set of emotions, rushing across his face.
“Boys?” Marlowe said, leaning in next to them. “What are you whispering about?”
Chambers coughed. “Just... some mem-data about the run. Trading what we know.” He stared on at Cas. +Hey, Cas.+
+What?+
+Thanks for caring.+
+Don’t mention it. Now, fucking ruin my day by telling me how we’re going to get our flesh fused with some Sang-made freak of nature.+