Work Text:
The kid is unplanned, but then so is everything in the zones. She's conceived in the aftermath of the apocalypse, when the acid rains have just started fading to acid drizzles and no one ever goes outside if they can help it. Party Poison has too much pent-up energy and too little common sense that day, and the supply room in the underground bunker where they're hiding out has too little entertainment and no condoms at all.
The woman goes by Trip. Even so soon after the world has been pulled out from under their feet, no one uses their real names. The names were the second to go, after the pill bottles. They'd have to be fucking morons to trust any drug after what they've seen BL/ind do with them, and nobody who's made it this far is a moron.
He tells her his name is Party Poison. She snorts and says, "Stupid. When you die, I'll tell everyone I tried to warn you they were coming but they got you three syllables before I could."
Of the two of them, he's not the one who dies first, but that doesn't mean she's wrong. Party Poison never changes his name, though. If he didn't value style over practicality, he wouldn't be out here in the desert starving to keep the graffiti alive.
***
Trip won't name the baby. She says the rest of them got to build their own identities, and she's not taking that away from her kid. Party Poison tries pointing out that they all had names before they picked their own, and Trip says he can call the baby whatever he wants, but she's not going along with it. Party Poison shrugs and calls the baby the same things everyone else does--the kid, the baby, kiddo, tiny, munchkin. That works fine for the first year.
Then Trip gets caught in a raid and ghosted, which is what the cool kids are calling death these days. Kobra Kid, who passes the news on to Party Poison, is one of the cool kids. Party Poison wants to punch him for thinking it's okay to use casual slang to tell him that his child's mother is gone. He almost does, actually, but he has the baby in one arm and Kobra Kid does some weird street form of karate, so it wouldn't go anywhere good.
Trip's brother, Jet Star, stays with them in the bunker after that. Party Poison can handle taking care of the kid on his own--it's not like he never took his turn with her before Trip died, he's no deadbeat dad--but he's grateful for the help. Jet Star is good company, and doesn't mind going on raids so Party Poison doesn't have to.
He stops calling her "the baby" and starts using pet names more--honey, sweetie, cupcake, like letting her know she's loved will somehow protect her. She's almost old enough to be able to understand.
Jet Star calls her Junior. Nobody needs to ask why.
***
Fun Ghoul is another one of the cool kids. Party Poison meets him when he tries to blow up their bunker, ostensibly under the misapprehension that it was empty. That's what he seems to be trying to claim, anyway, but Party Poison won't stop screaming at him long enough to let him finish the thought. There is a fucking child in the building, goddammit, there is not enough screaming in the world to convey the wrongness of that fucking pipe bomb.
"Jesus," says Fun Ghoul. "A kid? Where the hell did you get a kid out here?"
"I made her," says Party Poison. He takes the bomb away and hurls it as far as he can, which is pretty far, since picking up a three-year-old all the time makes for some killer arm strength.
"I'm really sorry," says Fun Ghoul, and he looks like he means it. Party Poison still doesn't let him anywhere near his child, not then, but a few days later he comes back with canned food and bagged water for them. It's a peace offering and a gesture of goodwill, and Party Poison accepts it and lets him inside.
Fun Ghoul gets along with the kid like a city on fire, and Party Poison knows what that looks like firsthand. She trusts him right away like she's never done with anyone before. Fun Ghoul doesn't blink twice when he hears about the name situation, just starts trying out different nicknames for her. He settles on Moonshine before he leaves that day, and after another month of visits, she won't answer to anything else. Party Poison probably shouldn't let anyone name his kid after illegal booze, but it doesn't really matter what he thinks. The decision is hers to make.
***
Fun Ghoul starts bringing Kobra Kid along when he drops by with supplies. Kobra Kid is kind of a dick, but he teaches Moonshine how to execute a solid roundhouse kick, and that makes him part of the family whether Party Poison likes it or not.
Moonshine is four when Dr. Death Defying starts up the radio station. Party Poison doubts it will stick. There's no room in the desert for anything so organized. It turns out, though, that Dr. Death Defying knows how to keep shit awesome without trying to organize it too much, and the station grows roots in the culture of the zones.
Moonshine's favorite DJ is Hot Chimp. The sound of a female voice is new and strange to her, and she likes things that are new and strange.
***
They call themselves the Killjoys. Kobra Kid thinks it's ironic. Party Poison still feels that urge to punch him in the face sometimes.
They don't have any kind of itemized agenda, they don't have goals, they're not trying to overthrow BL/ind and take over Battery City. They exist for one purpose and one purpose only: shaking shit up. It doesn't matter what they're doing, it just matters that they're doing fucking something.
Moonshine gets it. She gets it more than any of them, maybe, because she's the only one who's truly a child of the zones.