Knock, Knock [TAG THEO]

BANG......BANG.....BANG....BANG.

"Theo-"

BANG.

"-open-"

BANG.

"-door-"

BANG.

"-Mean-"

BANG.

"-Italian-"

BANG.

"-hurt-"

BANG.

"-prescious."

BANG. BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG.....BANG.

Okay, Corday's head had sustained enough damage. Now he would try knocking with his fist, unless Theo were to show up then and there. He was happy that he cut Adessi, and possibly took his pride down a peg. No, that was impossible. The jackass had a god-complex. Nothing could lower his opinion of himself, Corday was guessing at least. BANG. He had to think of something. He had to see him dead one day. But right now, he wanted to use the money he'd accumulated to go out drinking.

Ah, evening; Theo's favourite time of day. It was peaceful at this time, or at the very least moreso than other times. The sun was going down; people went inside and the streets started to go to sleep. It was that rare few-hour span during which he could just sit and write or sit and draw until he lost inspiration. That's exactly what he was doing; writing. He had four dozen scraps of paper with passing thoughts or concept ideas scribbled on them and was systematically pinning them to the wall. Theo just thought it was easier to see what he was thinking if he layed them out this way. Similarly here and there were sketches of people or buildings, few of which actually exsisted beyond the boundaries of Theo's brain.

The sky was a nice orange colour and shone light into Theo's room, he looked at it and sighed - a rare time where he felt peaceful and -BANG.

Theo jumped. What the hell was that?

BANG.... BANG.... BANG. Jesus H. Christ, who the holy hell was that and WHY were they banging on his door?! He headed towards the door to tell off whatever little fuck was disrupting his quiet time.

Quote :

"Theo-"

BANG.

"-open-"

BANG.

"-door-"

BANG.

"-Mean-"

BANG.

"-Italian-"

BANG.

"-hurt-"

BANG.

"-prescious."

Oooooh... Theo shook his head, knowing who it was now and having a faint idea as to what the hell their problem was. He'd warned the guy, but does anyone ever listen to Theo Fletcher? Nooo.

Theo opened the door swiftly to prevent further damage, "Stop that."

Corday groaned and closed his eyes, his head ached now. Suppress...suppress.....Okay. It was done. He ran a hand through his hair and smirked a little as Theo opened the door. "Fine, be that way. " he respomded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Kay, I managed to cut Adessi, which was awesome. He scratched my wheels. That equals booze cruise. You in?" He looked at Theo, his smirk widening slightly, leaning in the door frame.

Theo made a snerking noise in the back of his throat, "I think I will, this door seperates me from the wierdos." He put a hand on the top of the door and leaned on that arm. A few moments, miniscule in the real world but longer in Theo's head, passed before it really sunk in what Corday had told him.

"Wait, whoa hang on. Full fricken stop. You WHAT Adessi? You cut the dude?" His mouth sort of dropped open, closed, opened again, and closed once more without being able to make noise. He knew that he should probably say something about Corday's van being damaged - though it was probably nothing at all, but knowing Davide he'd make a huge deal out of it.

"You know what - don't tell me about it. It's beyond my want-to-know realm and...well just don't tell me." He sighed and scrubbed his face with a free hand, "Boozing sounds like a novel idea...let me just finish up in here. You can come in, just crack a window and don't touch my stuff."

"I cut him. I cut that god-complexing Italian bitch who probably can't get it up anymore. It was fun. But he cut my baby. And now I have to go steal sheet metal, but first I am in serious need of some alcomohol, now get your ass ready." he said, stepping inside, shoving his hands in his pockets. He smirked as he leaned against the window, eyeing some of Theo's stuff all around the room. Certainly liked books. "And I'll not crack a window, the stank is half my personality."

"Aagh, don't fucking talk about - about - " Theo shuddered, "I don't want to visualise how disappointing he is in the sack, alright? Fuck me... And I"m opening that window, I can't breathe. Screw your personality."

Theo pinned up the last of his notes and cracked the one window he had about an inch, having to prop it open with an old book. He then walked to the basin containing relatively clean water and rinsed his face, having noticed that he was getting grubby. Then again, he'd look pristene compared to Corday. Still he had personal standards so Theo dug through his clothes to find a decent shirt. Once locating a more-clean one, Theo changed his shirt and turned towards the door once more.

"Right, Sir Stank, let us be off to the nearest Pub... you're paying, right?"

Corday chuckled to himself. One of the perks to being friends with someone with an imagination. They were all the riper for the gross our. He smirked and drummed his fingers on his thighs boredly, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He had half a mind to start whining to Theo about taking long, but he really didn't give two craps. All that mattered was that they were going to get booze eventually.

He sighed in relief as Theo finally settled on something, which seemed to take the entire length of time that the earth was going to come into existence ( 4 billion years), Corday was one of the few people who knew that anymore. "Alright. Booze cruise, and duh I'm a wealthy hobo."

Theo checked over his humble abode once more; you can never be too careful in this day and age. As everything appeared to be in order, he ushered Corday out with a shooing motion. "Out-out-out..." note, however that he did not touch Corday, having just cleaned up. Despite how much Theo made Corday's hygiene out to be a big deal, it was only a big deal on a particular level - not an important level, just one he could exploit when it came down to friendly ribbing. Theo still found it odd that he'd come into so many friends recently and had to admit, if not only to himself, that it was annoying and would be problematic in the future. He didn't want too many friends, see? They just up and die at some point anyway - why the fuck bother getting attached. Well there's the thing, Theo made it a policy not to get too close for that exact reason. Always maintain a safe buffer. Compartmentalise.

"Where to? Joe's Bar or the Silo?" Theo waited until Corday got the hell out of his way and locked up the door firmly and about six different times. Always a cautious one, Fletcher was.

Corday smirked to himself as he was rushed out of the the apartment by the irritated occupant. He smirked to himself and skipped out of the door, grinning to himself. Corday was a shit disturber, he was at peace with it, and rarely thought about it unless forced to contemplate or consider in amusement. He chuckled and looked back at the door, and Theo's rather bemused face. "I'm thinking the Silo, I've already been in Joe's bar today, and I'm fairly sure that they'll kick me out if I show up again." he mused as he leaned against a wall, and gazed out the window.

Theo made a face, wondering why Corday would be kicked out of Joes Bar, then remembered that it's best not to know and didn't ask. In fact, he stated "Don't tell me why," to be sure that he wouldn't find out. The Silo was a decent place, sort of farmy in nature but Theo didn't mind; as long as he was getting booze that he didn't have to pay for. "Silo's okay by me."

Corday smirked at Theo as they left and shook his head with a sigh. "You are one difficult man to communicate with, my friend, or should I not say the friend part out loud?" he teased as he stepped out of the building with Theo. He understood why Theo liked to keep anything and everything on the down low. Corday couldn't understand why of all things, an author would behave as such. Safety first, he supposed. He also assumed that it wasn't wise to say you were friends with a homeless guy who just fucked up one of the leading medical authorities in the city.

Maybe his wiggyness was increasing as another year etched another chasm of a wrinkle in his face, or maybe Theo was just naturally wiggy. "Ha fucking ha, pal. Either you've been inhaling powders under a rock or you forget that him and Gardner almost had a thing - I remember seeing him talking and looking -" Theo shuddered, "happy. It was fucking scary... So put one and one together," He held up his index fingers and put them together as visual demonstration, "And you get me choking on my own nuts because you cut the guy and Kate thinks I have something to do with it. All because I fraternise with the Italian-hating rainbow-hobo who did it." He put a sunconcious hand to his throat and rubbed it idly.

"I'll get the first two rounds; I've got enough for it - after that it's on you to pave the road to drunken shenanigans." Theo felt only slightly badly for being somewhat sharp just then responding to Corday, so he bit the bullet and did one of those awkward one-arm-about-the-shoulders-for-ten-seconds thing and promptly pulled away to dust himself off. He looked at his side and saw coloured dust, and curiously asked "What the hell is that?"

Corday's rather annoying, smug smirk vanished the moment he mentioned Adessi looking happy. His face contorted into a sort of expression of disgusted surprise. Yuck. Adessi with anything but a face with an underlying tone of utter disgust was just unacceptable. And....yucky. Corday also sort of felt bad about getting Theo caught up in all of this, but then he found himself cocking his head to the side and biting his lip. Damn, he'd made a liability out of them hanging out, hadn't he. Well that sucked, Theo was one of the few decent people he'd met in that God-forsaken city. Ugh. He felt like such a dickweed now. "Sorry, Theo, really. I guess I didn't consider that." he murmured sort of glumly as he walked. The change in his stance sort of showed it as well. Usually Corday was of good posture, but he'd sort of hunched over a little while listening to what Theo had to say.

The five second half-hug was enough to get the bit back into the usually hardened drug-dealer's mouth. He smirked a little at Theo at his reaction to the dust. He gave a half chuckle and shook his head with a sigh. "It's just left over residue Theo, nothing to get hung about." he said with a little laugh. "And it wipes right off." He brushed at Theo's side quickly and then watched the dust dissipate. Then he kept his hand to himself, smirking at Theo again. Then his face got a little serious. "And I don't hate Italians, just that one."

It was actually deeply amusing watching Corday's face contort as if suddenly subjected to a smell more foul than he had ever encountered. If Theo weren't similarly disgusted at the memory he would have laughed. Still, it felt good to know that something actually got a reaction out of the hobo beyond a smirk and a hand through the hair. It also felt good to know that the dust on his side was completely harmless. Strange. Theo hadn't felt this close to uproarious laughter in a long time. The face, combined with the dusting off of the powder - which was funny only because Theo was ticklish on the sides - but the Italian comment was the last straw. Theo let loose a laugh that sounded dusty and gravelly; a lack of use would do that, combined with smoking. Between laughs Theo managed a "You're a jackass, you know that?" as he started down the hallway. He knew that the serious face his friend had made was, well, serious - but it looked absurd coming from a guy was purple in his hair. "Ever considered bathing that crap outta your head?"

Knock Knock Knock.

Rook pause a moment or two.

Knock.

It was his trademark knock. Some folks preferred the three curt knocks, some liked to do the 'shave and a haircut- two bits!' or whatever. To his knowledge, even those who had heard him do it before didn't knock like he did when they had the chance. It was just a strange knock, but Rook enjoyed it. It began politely enough, a standard knock. It was the last bit, after a delay that he felt was adequate for the situation, that threw people off. Was it something urgent, perhaps, permitting one more knock? Bad news, perhaps, adding in one last reluctant knock. There was no telling until you opened the door.

Rook had potentially bad news, and shouted through the wood, unaware that Corday had done so just moments ago. Had he known, he would have felt very unoriginal. "Fletcher, it's ya boy! Lemme in, I've got something you need to know about."

And old song started running through his head, some deep baritone singing about a pale horse and a man coming to town. It was hard to remember the words, but he certainly remembered the brooding tone of portent that loomed over the country guitar singing about that man coming around. The though alone gave him the shivers.

His laughter was dying down. It had actually felt good to laugh again, if not slightly awkward. Theo sighed, looked at Corday and was about to say something when a sound perked up his ears. A strange knock, faint, and a familiar voice saying something involving Theo. What was Rook doing here? Why the hell was Theo so popular all of a sudden?! "Hang on a minute, Corday. Apparently someone else seeks my company," he oozed sarcasm. Theo jogged back down the hallway and found Rook standing before his locked door.

"What's the news? I was just on my way out." He had barely caught what had been said to the empty room, but did catch the 'something you need to know' bit.

Corday was confused. There was someone else around at the moment? Well damn, he didn't like being away from his van when there was a number of people up and about in the area. He blinked and then moved down the hall with Theo, an eyebrow raised. A black dude, knocking a most unique knock on his door. Theo approached him in what Corday assumed was a friendly manner. He looked at him curiously. Had they met before? Corday couldn't recall. He was fairly good at remembering faces as well.

Theo looked behind him and saw Corday sort of ambling cautiously down the hallway and sighed. A touch of exasperation could be detected, but mostly just eagerness to get to the drinking that had now been delayed. He remembered that, to his knowledge, Corday and Rook had never met. That and the oddly confused face plastered on Corday's visage was a dead giveaway. Though perhaps memories weren't as good as they used to be... Ah who the hell gives a flying rat's ass? "Rook, meet Corday. Corday, Rook - hooray we all know one another. Now what's the news?" It all came out as a rushed blur of words, understandable but... just very quick.

Corday nodded to Rook as Theo introduced them. It wasn't really a stretch to say that this guy was a Diffie too. Corday severely doubted that Rook and Theo would be associating if it was more than likely that he'd get his teeth kicked in if he said the wrong thing. But maybe Corday was just biased. Okay, Corday knew he was biased, but whatever. He was overthinking. So he just shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned up against the wall boredly. He wanted beeeeeeeeeeer.

Rook nearly jumped out of his skin- it was that same startled feeling you get when you're walking down the stairs in the dark and your foot lands on solid ground when you're expecting one more step. Feeling like someone had pressed fast forward on his life for a moment, Rook turned to the man he had been looking for in exactly the place he hadn't been looking for him as Theo introduced him to Davide.

Returning the curt nod that David had used to greet him, Rook felt a bit of anxious energy. Minutely shuffling in place, he spilled. "The Coalition is passing through here on the way to Centre City. That fuckin' Harvey cat. Saw him driving around in his bloody looking wagon earlier. I gotta get far out of town, if not tonight then tomorrow night at the latest. Thinking about going to Smog for a while, as far away as I can get. I just figured... well, you said that bit about keeping friends and it stuck. Thought I would see if you wanted to come with me since I was in the neighborhood," Rook said, the hurry and urgency in his voice toned down by the earnest good intentions. It was the kind of thing that put the rubber stamp on a friendship and made it real.

"You're welcome to come too, mah man. Friend of the devil is a friend of mine and all that," he said to Davide with a sheepish grin. It was hard not to be awkward about it, especially considering how awkward Rook could be to begin with. He knew the grungy man was down with the Different- he obviously didn't remember Rook, but Rook remembered him. Bought some Grace off of the dude about a year ago and swore off of the shit shortly after having the greatest day and a half of his life.

"I apologize if I... if I put a damper on your evening out, fellas, he nearly stuttered.

Well, this Rook fellow seemed pretty shook up, which was bothering Corday. Some kind of shit was going down, and he wanted to know what. It turned out that he didn't have to ask, which was good. But Rook was right, he had put a bit of a damper on the situation. Harvey. Harvy, Harvey, Harvey. Ugh. That man was just as mobile as Corday with a throng of followers who swept across the world disturbing shit far more than he could ever hope for. And this was not in the favour of the 'inferior creatures' of the world. No. This was the sort of thing that could leave them all dead. Fan fuckin tastic. He frowned, looking from Theo to Rook and folded his arms. "I can drive you two to smog if that's true." he replied, folding his arms.

Theo nearly swallowed his tongue. James. Fucking. Harvey. "Shit." it sort of burst forth from Theo's mouth; a quiet, urgent, nearly spat cuss that spoke volumes. It said everything from 'dear god in heaven help me' to a prolonged scream. Theo looked from Rook to Davide and suddenly very much and very badly wanted to drink until the world blurred into pretty colours that weren't threatening. Then again, he also suddenly very much and very badly wanted to run until his shoes filled with blood. Something caught his eye, something posted to his bulletin board that he hadn't seen before. Theo jumped, "Fuck! When the hell..." it was one of the Coalition's promo posters, one of those scary ass posters with Harvey's face plastered on it as if he were a hero. He wanted to accept the offer and get the hell out of there immediately but he remembered that he had something he needed to do the next day and couldn't just not do it.

"If that psychopath is back in town then I want to get out - but I can't until tomorrow, man. I'll go with you though, if you can wait it out. If you can't... well, I'm still going to get the hell out of sight, we can meet up somewhere in Smog."

Theo eyed the poster again and fought the urge to graffiti all over it. If he were to do that it would pretty much be like putting a bullseye on his head, running through the streets naked while screaming 'you dirty normies come and get me, I'm a diffie, please please lynch me," and drooling.

"Yeah, Dave - I'm going to have to bum a lift off you. I can't outrun Harvey's deathmobile."

Corday's mood had gone intensely downhill. He bit his lip and shoved his hands in his pockets as he ground his teeth. This was bad, this was very very bad. This was take your own cyanide pill and pray bad. But no, no, he'd dealt with Harvey before. Well, not really. It wasn't so much dealing as running away from and shouting a slew of angry profanities. That name just made him want to hack up the two dollars worth of nickels that he swallowed when he was six.

James Harvey...ughughugh....If that man didn't have a constant entourage of terrifying hooligans who could cut a man to peices in under thirty seconds, not to mention no qualms with fighting like a total guerilla psychopath, Corday would cut that bastard's throat. Or perhaps make him chronically incontinent first. Fun. The moment was tense. He wanted to drive away as quickly as possible. But if Theo had something to do he could batten down the hatches, for a little while at least.

"Alright, Theo. As soon as you're done tomorrow, we're getting the hell out of here. " he said ernestly.

It was shaping up to be one of the nastier weeks in Theo's memory. Harvey was the icing on the cake, really; just that last tidbit that topped it all off - the thing nothing could trump. Theo scrubbed his face in his hands and exhaled sharply; they deserved to know why the hell Theo would't get out of town right away. They wouldn't approve most likely, but they'd at least know. That way nothing would surprise them.

"If you're going to wait up for me, you'll have to wait near the..." he paused, grimacing faintly," well, near the Arena. Remember what I told you, Rook? About what I got myself into? Ye-eah..."