"A drink?" Xoxi's hands were dispelled as she returned to a normal stance. She walked a bit closer to Lucky as she responded to her with an actual answer. "Where're we getting the drink from...?"
"There's a nifty little retro bar about a block away," Lucky shrugged. "They've got some great liquor there."
"... okay, sure." Xoxi smiled. At least this person had the decency of buying her a drink before grabbing her... if she even would.
Lucky smiled gently, walking past Xoxi and leading the way.
The way the woman moved through the crowd was... Interesting to say the least. Weaving through tight spots like it was nothing, never even once touching anything person.
Once they got closer to the bar she even caught a drunk before he fell into the street without even thinking about it.
"Call a cab, man. You don't need to be walking," she murmured, dropping a twenty into his hands.
"You're right," Xoxi whispered at Lucky before the two stepped inside the bar.
The place wasn't exactly the finest, but it was definitely a bar. A pool table sat in the corner of the room, a group of large men gathering around it playing a game. The counter looked like it had its fair share of bar fights, but it would hold up for at least another ten of them. Neon signs of all shapes lined the walls, illuminating the room with pinks, blues, and yellows. In front of a small stage off to the side, various people sat at tables placed around the stage, passing the time away with booze and brotherhood. A sign above the wall of various bottles read "Epic's Elation - Cheap Beer, Sold Here".
"Woah," Xoxi's eyes widened as she felt the dive bar feel. This was a new experience, drinking somewhere that was actually a bar.
Lucky laughed at the look on Xoxi's face, taking a stool from the bar and balancing it on one leg as she sat.
"So, I'm Lucky," she murmured, waving at the bartender.
"You gonna stack all kinds of shit again tonight?" He chuckled as he moved over to the pair.
"Only if I get drunk enough," she grinned. "Speaking of, the usual if you please."
"Xo-Anomaly," Xoxi corrected herself before she revealed her real name. That might bite her in the ass later, anyway.
Lucky gave the bartender her order, while Xoxi followed up with hers, just assuming that she could... although she didn't exactly know what to order. It was time to either nut up or shut up... even though she didn't have nuts... whatever. "I'll have what she's having, if that's okay..."
Lucky raised an eyebrow again. "Hope you can handle your vodka, Anomaly," she said with a grin. "Because this girl won't drink anything else."
Two shot glasses were set in front of them, and Lucky dropped hers within seconds.
"So..." She left it hanging. She never was great at small talk.
"Vodka? Pshhhh, I can handle that." She totally couldn't. She lifted up the glass before hesitantly downing the entire shot in a single gulp, coughing as she tried to get a hold on herself.
She took a deep breath before attempting to talk again. "S-so... nice bow."
Lucky laughed at the sputtering Xoxi, downing another shot.
"Special bow, though I don't need a special bow. Had it made for me years ago. Don't go anywhere without it," she said with pride. "Draws more attention than these eyes, at least."
"I can relate. People typically notice the 'no arms' thing before they notice... well..." A pink ethereal hand raised up Xoxi's hoodie, revealing the massive scar on her side. "... this."
The same hand lowered the hoodie down before picking up another shot, downing it. This one went down more smoothly, but it still caused Xoxi to cough. "M-motherfuck," she muttered under her breath.
"Mhmm." Lucky shook her head. "Before or after the powers manifested?" She asked quietly.
"Does it really matter?" Xoxi's tone changed slightly, her voice becoming very slightly slurred. The alcohol was getting to her quickly. "Scar was there when the powers manifested. As for the arms... they didn't have a name for the disease."
"So before. And, I mean, it's part of you ain't it? So it matters," Lucky replied softly. "I got these eyes and screwed up vision with the powers. Technically a Freak, even if no one sees me as one. At last you don't get that label."
"I wouldn't care if I was seen like that, to be honest. Some freaks are pretty cool." Pudding immediately came to mind. He was willing to help others, and Xoxi was really fond of him. He was her best friend.
Xoxi grabbed another shot and downed it, managing not to cough that time. "You're pretty cool too."
Lucky shook her head. "Nah, I'm not."
She waved at the bartender, who set a bottle down in front of her. Promptly she took a big swig.
"I'm damned. Damned and dangerous. I kill the evils, but that still makes me evil by technicality," she muttered. "Damned and dangerous..."
"W-well... at least I think you're cool..." Xoxi stuttered as her voice became more slurred. She slumped over onto Lucky's shoulder, resting her head on it ever so slightly. "... whah... what's your story...?" A psychic hand flew up and gently grabbed Lucky's wrist, allowing her to move it, but keeping Xoxi feeling safe. That's something she felt around Lucky.
"Prep bitch. Hell of a Marksman. Was gonna win a big tournament. Things went wrong, was gonna place second. Powers hit me, and I ended up shooting the kid through the heart. Fucking arrows go where I most want them to, no matter what's in my way. Might even go through time, I don't know. If my heart wanted you dead, you'd die the next time I fired my bow," Lucky muttered darkly. "It's not easy, having so little control over my own power. At least I get good reflexes and weird eyes that both hinder and help me see."
"... damn... well... I can't compete with that," Xoxi said as she sat back up, spinning her stool to face Lucky.
"I was born to a shit mom and a sweet pop. Mom divorced dad when I was around a year and pop got custody over me. We got by, but life got hard when my arms started to bruise entirely, rotting away on my body. Amputation, dropout, helped dad with whatever I could because I loved him. Fire broke out, dad died in it, and I got the scar. Something told me I could use 'the hands that guided me', found out I had psychic fists, and got out of the complex. Got to the hospital here, was held in the burn ward as my scars healed. Left, found a guy called Pudding, rest is history." A small tear formed under Xoxi's right eye as she told her story, despite her voice remaining completely calm.
She leaned back onto Lucky, downing another shot as she did so. "... I like yew." She was definitely drunk.
Lucky finished the bottle, her stool landing on the floor with a loud CLACK .
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't..." She said, barely audible. She took Xoxi's glass, her other glass, and started balancing them on the upside down bottle.
"Well, you at least turned out fine, I think," she said over a hiccup. "I, uh, I'm a mess. And drunk. Kinda. Can I - I'mma tell you a secret. I kill people. Bad people. I killed a professor at that University in the Wilds. Guy had powers and beat people and raped and shit. I want people to know I killed them. Because...I don't know. They should know what horror hunted them. Or something."
"I understans... justice and shits... I gotchu..." Xoxi watched as Lucky balanced the glassware on the bottle like it was nothing, her jaw agape. "Whah... why are yew tellin me thess... I mean... I can keep secress, but why...?"
Lucky shrugged. "Drunk."
"... fairs..." Xoxi slurred as she kept leaning against Lucky.
"I wan hug you but I don't got arms."
Lucky ruffled Xoxi's hair a little. "Should go home. Before I stack the entire bar on top of itself."
Xoxi made an odd, but cute noise as her hair was ruffled, before actually speaking again. "I'd kills to see that."
Lucky laughed. "The bartender wouldn't."
"... speaking of bartenders..." Xoxi raised her psychic hand, waving the bartender over. "Scotch pliss." That was more of her style, and now she was drunk. She wanted a bit more now that she was adjusting to the feeling again.
Lucky shook her head. "Aight, then, another bottle since we're continuing."
"I thought yew only drank Russian alcohol?" The bottle was calmly placed on the bar, along with two glasses as Xoxi cracked off the top and poured herself a glass, chugging it down rapidly. Yep, that was more her style. Not as harsh going down as the Vodka.
"... hey... why did yew follow meee?" Yep. She was hammered.
"He knows what bottle I mean..." Lucky shook her head. "And, I don't know, cause I wasn't sure what you'd do after that thing."
"... I think I would hab carried on." Xoxi let off of Lucky as she poured another glass of scotch, gulping it down before speaking again. "What do yer eyeses do?"
"See?" Lucky replied in confusion. "Or... Oh! You mean how do I see, don't you?"
She tapped the counter idly, drinking hey vodka. "It's... Different. More look - err - more like spiritual? Ghostly? Mhmm. Something else. Ethereal? Yeah, ethereal. And when I'm really thinking - I mean - focused it's like I can see where my arrows will go."
"Like this?" Xoxi's psychic hand floated in front of Lucky, simply being a model. The wispy form of it was a bit... disorienting to any other bar patrons, but Xoxi was so used to it at this point that she didn't really... care. She was interested, however, in a very certain thing about Lucky, maybe pertaining to her favorite pastime.
One of the men playing pool walked over to the duo, sitting down beside Xoxi. "Hello ladies... might I ask why you dames are here on this fine day?"
Lucky glanced at the man before replying to Anomaly. "Looks normal to me."
Turning back to the man, she gave him a deadpan stare. "Not interested."
"Yew heard th'eye candy, man, we're not interested." Xoxi returned to Lucky before commenting on how Lucky 'saw' the hands. "Woah, really?"
Lucky shrugged, stacking her now empty bottle on top of the tower she'd started.
"Life is hard. Being a hero is harder."
"... it could become easier, righty?" Xoxi inquired as she poured the last of a scotch glass, pushing the bottle to Lucky and downing the glass. She was done drinking for the night. She didn't drink often, but when she did, she got slammed.
As Lucky was adding the latest bottle to get ever growing pyramid tower, the man came back and caused it all to fall by slapping the table.
Barely managing to catch the bottles, Lucky winced as a glass shattered on the floor.
"The fuck man," she grunted, flipping the bottles around to set back onto the table. "Didn't I really say not interested?"
"Yeah, well, I think you might have changed your mind," the man said, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"Remove it."
"Don't be like that baby, I'm just - "
Lucky cut him off by twisting his wrist, a loud crack being heard before she kicked the stool out from under him. Before he could regain his breath a drawn arrow was pointing at his face.
"Fucking dirty bastards can't take no for an answer. Fucking dirty sorry assbasket..."
"We said no!" Xoxi semi-shouted as a psychic fist slammed into the head of the man, knocking him out cold and onto the floor. He landed in the glass, but only slightly, shown by a small pool of blood leaking from it. One of the other pool men came over and hoisted up his friend, carrying him back to his buddies. "I have a stream fer' that shit."
Lucky flared after the men for a moment before tugging Anomaly out the door.
"Stream?" She asked quietly.
"Y-yeah... a livestream." Xoxi had an awkward smile on her face as she responded, obviously a bit nervous about how Lucky would respond.
"Like...a gaming steam?" Lucky asked, thoroughly confused. "Like that... What's it called. Snitch? Glitch? No... Twitch. Yeah. Twitch."
"I has a Twitch and a... well... let's say it violates Twitch's terms of serviceses, so iss a different stream." She had both, and they were semi-connected. She was just surprised Twitch didn't take any action against her for it.
"So... Like, what. You flash your toys? I don't get it," Lucky said with a shake of her head. "Where are we walking?" She asked, suddenly aware they had been walking aimlessly.
Lucky looked around, completely lost.
"Uhhh....I was hoping you knew..." she muttered.
"O-oh! A sign!" Xoxi skipped over to the sign and looked up at it. "I knows where we are! Follow meeee!" Xoxi's psychic hand raised up and pointed off down the street, walking towards nowhere in particular.
Lucky followed after Anomaly, keeping a hand on her bow.
One of the perks of her powers, she supposed. She didn't have to worry about not being able to aim properly when the arrow would do the work for her.
A few minutes passed before the two wound up at... the hospital. That was the only place Xoxi could remember on hand. "... oh hey, the thingy... I hate that place..."
Xoxi looked around a bit, trying to get her bearings back. "... um... I don't know wheres to go..."
"Mhmm..."
Lucky looked around. "My place... Isn't horribly far...I think. Assuming this is the hospital I'm thinking it is."
"... d'you mind if I sleep overs...? I don't remember how to get homes..." That was true for the time being. Xoxi didn't remember her home easily when she got drunk, among other things. One time she forgot how to walk, and that didn't end so well.
"Eh? Sure. It's not very big, and I'm not home often. So I hope you'll excuse the mess..." Lucky murmured, leading the way North. It'd take about thirty minutes walking, if she had to estimate.
"I lives with a guy called 'Pudding'. I'm used to messes." Xoxi mentioned.
The two girls walked to an apartment complex on one side of Epic City, around thirty-five minutes later, traffic included.
Lucky's place was small, but fitting for someone like her. There weren't a lot of rooms, barely stretching over the number five. The kitchen was the only clean room, it would seem, as the bathroom door was closed. Aside from that, the living room and bedroom were both covered in stray papers, books, magazines, and the dining room had an assortment of random items on it. Off in the corner sat a small desk with a computer at it, and in front of an old, but sturdy sofa, rested a coffee table, a TV hanging from the wall even further beyond that. A stack of clean clothes sat on Lucky's bed, neatly folded and displayed to the eyes of Xoxi.
Immediately as the door closed, Xoxi stepped over to the couch and stripped down to her undergarments, unzipping her hoodie afterwards. "Goodnights," she slurred as she sprawled out onto the couch, covering her body with the hoodie.
"... night," Lucky stepped into her room, closing the door behind her.
(OOC NOTE : Almost 15,000 characters. Holy shit.)
