Chapter Text
When the whole Mymo thing began, the evening before today, Jabber was further away from the stadium having a wonderful chat with some of the dealers downtown, who he knew were selling the good stuff around these parts. He could name a few good back alley stalls in most major cities and all in all considered yesterday to be a “successful hunt” for some of them sweet new toxins, and a good restocking.
All was nice and sun was shiny, and the air was as stinky as it gets near the mildly polluted zones, before the whole fucking stadium located a few blocks away exploded. And not in the “exploded in cheers” cause, sure, that was the case when Too Lily was still present, everybody wants a piece of her, but then it all went super dead, and a literal explosion rang around and then all the screaming began. Some in pain, which Jabber considered promising, but mostly in the boring, panic kind of way.
Most of the dudes he was trading with picked their shit right up and either ran away, or towards the mess. Noble of the second group, considering he saw a proud display of wanted posters of about half of them hanging around, and, knowing the scale of the event, one could only assume how many Hell Guard dogs were around. That is why he, in particular, preferred this fest more then others, at least you could get dressed up and get away with having public fun if your head had a price tag attached to it.
This year, however, he was short on the green that got him creative, and was most definitely not in the right mind to make a whole ass costume. So as he was sure he saw some of them bitches run to their sweet arrest, he decided instead to go the other way and join the “Fleeing This Ditch” club. Sure some of them had medicine related day jobs, like that freckled girl near the Red Light Street he bought that nasty Datura mix from, who had promised it was gonna make him trip ballz. He was sure she tested her stuff on herself and wished to exchange experiences some other time, and was just about to exchange blood with her before the whole choker fiasco happened.
He tried calling Cthoni, and when that proved useless, took the damn thing off, attaching it to his belt. They were all too far away to be, as he had later learnt, mind controlled by the reporter guy. But, as it goes, while he was happy to get his claws on some powerful givers to fight, he liked to do that while conscious or drugged to still be able to enjoy the pain that experience promised.
Soon enough, medics were called in from the nearby towns, and worst cases went straight to the Andio City hospital, which quickly became overcrowded. Though it is no secret that the Hell Guard don’t particularly enjoy having to deal with Givers, they were smart enough to not resist when some with healing powers turned up and offered to help. That is why most of the ground in front of the makeshift medical tents, made mostly from repurposed festival stalls and canopies, was covered in extension cords, by the time Jabber made his way to the city square through the wiring routes, keeping him tucked neatly away from prying Hounds.
As he guessed, not a lot of the healers came from the attendees, rather being merchants and stall traders, like the Cook Lady who came here with her massive amount of relatives, all givers of some kind xscept for one! She was the sole healer among them, since her rolling pin could produce healing pastry. Two of her daughter's powers were useful with the rubble cleaning, so they joined the clearing efforts but most others just helped to bring more dough in and to distribute the Arepas she made. Right next to her a little kid was stationed who's Burny Pan, while burnt, as the name suggested, still made perfect Jaja Na Okos, each portion containing a healing effect. As they say, let em cook, though he was sure the headache from using their powers for so long was gonna be nasty, the kid already looked kinda dizzy. They chatted maybe a little less than the next pair - a middle aged guy with glassy eyes in a funny hat who came here with his performer partner yesterday while the other younger dude in a cat costume was here with his brother.
He was eavesdropping, while trying to snatch one of the many herbs the younger guys Stick was summoning from the ground. Before Jabber could get any, he was hit square in the face as the Cat Dude hissed that these were for the injured and that he should go break a leg first and then come ask for some. He was about to unsheath Mankira, when he saw familiar blue tassels gently swaying from Zanka's limp body.
"His naming skills are better than yours Zan Zan, at least he’s honest enough to call his stick a “stick”. Dough, i gotta admit that for a blind guy bro sure knows how to aim." – Jabber rubbed his cheekbone at that, smiling stupid when it stung back at the touch.
" Wait, so he was also blind? Like the other guy?"
This was the first response he has gotten from Zanka in about 10 minutes since Jabber has broken into his “room”. They had about 30 more before the two Hounds stationed in front of the entrance could move again.
"Awww, so you are listening Mr. Bad Attitude! If that's your concern, yes, they were both blind, healers and had a staff like jinki! What a fascinating coincidence. I don’t mingle with healers often, Boss man doesn't have any to attend me." he paused zoning out for a bit, remembering what he was going to ask before rambling off again. "And that Aisha girl of yours, I think I bought some shrooms from her Gran once or twice, fire lady, does her electrocution hurt? How much?"
"I don't remember if it hurt a lot or not, I am almost never conscious if there is need in her service -" he is cut of by the brunette moving.
At about this point Jabber straight up climbed on top of Zanka's lower half, positioning them on the hospital bed in a half seated position. Blond's right hand was cuffed to the railing while the other had an IV in. Now Jabber was effectively straddling the other's hips. He decided to ignore the groan that came from the action, hoping to have reopened the others wounds slightly. When the blonde started to quietly protest their position, fearing people walking in, he leaned in closer to the others face, close enough that he could feel Zanka's feverish breathing on his nose. That shut the blonde right up.
It wasn’t their first time in this position, nor the second. They had met off and on after the trash beast episode to fight and blow off some steam. At some point that turned into hooking up after fights, and while Zanka was repulsed at first they have settled into a sort of routine.
"Why the sad face, my friend? You would have usually started throwing those cute insults o’yours around, or smacking me with the Lovely Lady. Where is She by the way?" Jabber wasn’t one to jump around a topic like that, though the murderous look on Zankas irritated pout was quite telling. He then promptly understood why the guy seemed like somebody shitted in his pants and left sprinkles on top.
"They took Her." A pause. "Not the Cleaners - the Guards, when they were collecting me. And don’t call Her that, you asshole." – the other replied grimly. The insult in the end felt nice to Jabbers ears, but didn’t make the situation any better. Zanka closed his eyes, and furrowed his brows, seemingly focusing on something far away.
He left out a long, heavy sigh, feeling jabbers fingers on the soft of his eyelids.
"You know where they are keeping Her then?" Jabbers voice lowered a bit.
A nod. "Go down the corridor and turn left. From then it's the second –", he paused "No third door."
"Anybody fun waiting for me in there?..." he began to lap at Zanka's neck at this point sinking his teeth into sensitive skin.
"The man who carried me in. If need be, put him down, but try not to kill. Everybody else is fair game." All of the sudden, Zanka had grabbed a fistfull of dreads in his uncuffed hand and yanked the other, away from his neck, earning him a groan. "And don’t ya tease me before taking off your shithead. Get Her back to me and then maybe I'll let you get off tonight."
"Okey –" he draged out, half moaning at the pain in his scalp. With a shiteating grin on his face he lets his eyes roll back a little, activating Mankira and leaning in for a quick kiss before he has to go.
"And this–" he feels Zanka bite his lip with a hiss, when Mankira's left claw stings him in the thigh "– Is so you can run better when we're done with this shithole. See yaaaa"
With a sweet music of cruel retorts slapping at his ankles, he jumps off the bed and out the hospital door. Time to get the Lovely gal back to her lovely owner.