"In cento anni o cento mesi, l'acqua torna a' suoi paesi."

[sharktrash]

Who: Squalo and YOU!
What: birthday catch-all! Squalo's turning 23 on the 13th. Yes he is Pisces because his character wasn't fish-related enough yet.
When: 12th-14th
Where: All around Vista city, the mall, the bars, Pride HQ, MANTICORE penthouse, Junkyard Carnival penthouse, etc.
Warnings: Squalo language, violence, substance abuse, (mentions of) banging, will update as necessary


[ prompts in comments! ]

Comments

[scalpedsociety]

It would be the stuff of Rockstar carnal legend if you did.

But never mind. [She sits next to him.]

How did hitting 23 bars for your 23rd birthday go?

[sharktrash]

Definitely should, then. Fight to the death and the winner gets my attention for a night. [ so basically this again He looks thrilled by the idea. Oh wait, right, they don't do the fight to the death thing here. Shucks. ]

[ Maybe they should start. ]

[ Anyway, there's conversation to be had, and he nods eagerly as he shoves more cereal into his mouth and bites off more sandwich again. ]

Great! Well, I mean, I don't really remember the seventeenth one and on, but I got through them all. [ He pats the back of his hand. The prison-wall-like scribbles are mostly smudged off by now, but a bit of it might still be visible. ] Kept count.

[scalpedsociety]

[Meanwhile Aramat is blase as fuck about the fact her 'student' suggested a death tournament.]

Might make things less boring around here.

[She can only entertain herself with flowers, music and dalliances with others for so long.]

I'm amazed. Anything you remember?

[sharktrash]

That's the idea!

[ Omfg they're clearly made for each other. ]

Well, lotsa things. You're interested in anything in particular?

[scalpedsociety]

[She leans forward with a warm, open smile on her face.]

Start with what you remember.

[sharktrash]

[ With a shit-eating grin, he starts all the way from the morning. Because clearly she wanted to hear about cooking and his not-bonding with Kido aka their new bandmate and what everyone who came for dinner got him. ]

[scalpedsociety]

So... can we talk about Kido a little while? Isn't she from another band?

[sharktrash]

[ He pauses, right before he's about to go into bar hopping tales, and scratches his cheek. ]

Uh, yeah. What about it? She's attached at the hip with Genos, I thought it'd be for the best. [ A pause and slight frown. ] And apparently, so did the management. I thought I'd be in deep shit for bringing her over but they said it was their plan all along.

[scalpedsociety]

It's just a bit unusual to me. An artist switching bands.

[sharktrash]

[ He shrugs. ]

I don't call the shots. 'Sides, it's not unheard of. I don't think she'd be able to work with her old manager anymore, Pride probably doesn't want to lose a face. [ A snort. ] She fits with our loli bassist trend and everything.

[ .........yeah. ]

[scalpedsociety]

I guess it's the sort of thing you don't question.

[But you have to admit there is a tad too much of this type of thing.]

[sharktrash]

[ Definitely his type of thing. ]

More or less, yeah. [ Eyeing her for a moment. To be honest, some part of him does want to brag about his night. ] But you wanted to hear about the afterparty?

[scalpedsociety]

Sure.

[They can talk about all the strange goings on in their minds and at their label later.]

[sharktrash]

[ And on he goes. He'll mention Koumei as being great company in however many bars they both had gone to, a lady who actually flashed him her tits when he asked, and nearly choking with laughter he tells how he made Dino take a flaming shot (or several) and what shit tolerance he has. He might've made out with most or all of them at some point, but shh don't judge. Sounds like he ran into the helmet guys again, too. And then... well, then he'll bring up Xanxus showing up. With gifts. And sticking through to the end. ]

[ There'll be a LOT of shenanigans in this part. From them making bets who will be more sober at the end of the night, to terrorizing the staff and guests and trying EVERYTHING the bar offered. It will get more hilarious until he finally gets to them pulling out the coloring book that Xanxus got for Squalo, bullying the bartender into running to buy colored pens for them and then collaborating on several pages until they got thrown out for trying to frame "CUNT" into the frame of the club's Honorary Award that was hanging on the wall. ]

[ ...then he finally traces off. ]

...I'm not sure about afterwards.

[scalpedsociety]

Too much alcohol, huh? But clearly you remember being with someone that night. Who was the lucky person?

[Does she really want to know this?]

[sharktrash]

[ Laughing his ugly hyena laughter because what is 'too much'. ]

Enough alcohol, at least.

[ He cocks an eyebrow at her in amusement, considering it for a moment. Ah, hell. ]

I woke up in the Junkyard Carnival suite. Three guesses.

[scalpedsociety]

[Her first guess was naturally Luci. However... she was nowhere to be found in this story.]

Wait... it was Xanxus?

[Sure, maybe Squalo was drunk. But the last time he spoke of Xanxus he wanted to avoid him. She gave the bassist the benefit of a doubt, but now... this is confusing.

Squalo is acting really... nonchalant about sleeping with a guy he accused of abuse.]

[sharktrash]

[ Wasted, even. Both of them. It's definitely a huge part of why it actually happened. But sometime during -- the evening, the sex, whatever -- some other, forgotten things surfaced. And they're both a bit more themselves now than they were the day before... even if they still interpreted their original partnership completely wrong. ]

Ha! Got it in one. Yeah, him.

[ ...aaand continues slurping his cereal milk like it's the most goddamn natural confession in the world. ]

[scalpedsociety]

But you said-

[This is so confusing to her... and so potentially awkward.]

Why are you so calm about this?

[sharktrash]

[ He looks at her sort of flatly and maybe a tad confused. ]

Why the fuck would I throw a fit? Not like that was my first time or anything.

[scalpedsociety]

You said he beats people, I mean...

[Including yourself, why are you calm about this?]

cw: domestic violence (ish)

[sharktrash]

Well, yeah. [ shrugs. ] It's part of who he is, I guess.

[ And there goes that smug, almost giddy smirk again. ]

'Sides, he wants to start over.

[ Without beatings. ]

[ Or so he promised. That's really the painfully familiar reality to anyone who's ever been stuck in a loop of abuse. "That was the last time. Come back and I'll never do it again!" And so on. He's either not aware of it, or he doesn't care. ]

[scalpedsociety]

[...She's heard this before. From other people and she may have said this herself once or twice. Still, she can believe it for now. Xanxus hasn't been violent with any of his lovers so far...

It's still weird as hell. The Squalo she talked to about Xanxus like he's dealt with the violence for a long time.]

Well... I'm glad for you.

[sharktrash]

As you should be. It was great! [ Careful, mom, you might hear things you'd rather not once he's done chewing that sandwich. Three, too, one -- ] We broke the bed. [ He seems to think it's hilarious. ]

[scalpedsociety]

[Well, it's going to take her a little while to fantasize about that sort of thing with Xanxus without thinking of Squalo again...]

You must be exhausted.