milliways_bar | (no subject)

Hel-lo. Hot babe, three o'clock.

"Hey babe. Nice day for a walk?" says the upside-down man.

"Woah, nager flux." Suzi says, big blue eyes crossing a little bit, "Yes, it is. Hi, I'm Suzi." She waves at him, "You're one of the Nobodies, aren't you?"

"Right in one, babe. Who've you met before?" he asks.

"I'm one of the people that Yrael used as a pattern for Axel's heart." Suzi admits cheerfully, "You've got the same, um, idiosyncrasies? In your nager."

"In my what now?"

Mention of Axel and Yrael has him immediately more wary; she's a hot babe, but she's a hot babe friend of VIII, and the last one yelled at him and shot him with a plasma cannon.

Which was pretty hot, but really not cool.

"You don't have the biology for me to explain." Suzi says apologetically, "It's a Sime thing. Everything except the dead people here have a nager. It carries, um. Information."

She has to drop out of English, there, and into a liquid, rolling language that sounds somewhat like Creole would with another several thousand years of evolution. Then back into English without pause, "Like right there? I could feel a spike of wariness when you mentioned Axel and Yrael which I guess I can understand because they're really not the most reliable of people but I'm not them so it's not like you need to be worried of me because, well. Channel."

"...Babe. That made like, no sense. And I'm pretty good at this kinda thing."

"You're not Sime." Suzi says with a shrug. All things considered it's an impressive shrug, "I was born to do this. Literally - I have a biologic imperative to deal with nagers as part of the biologic imperative of a Channel."

"Biological imperative?" He shakes his head. "Yeah, like, totally not my field, babe. ...I'm Xigbar," he adds after a moment.

"Pleased to meet you." Suzi doesn't offer her hand, but does offer a chipper wave. It involves her hand and several tentacles. "I'm a symbiont. My other half is around somewhere - he's a six foot tall blind Gen. Looks like a baseline human. Most of the things I can do involve being a better partner to Gens."

Which... also makes no sense to Xigbar.

"Biological symbiont?" he asks.

"Take Whistler away from me for a month and you have a dead Suzi." Suzi says with a shrug, "I literally can't survive without him. He could live without me, but he'd start getting sick and it would shorten his life by about a decade."

"Harsh babe. Way harsh," Xigbar says. "So, like, are you married or something? Or is it just a symbiosis of survival?"

"Oh, I have no intention of ever having children. He feels the same because his blindness is genetic." Suzi says without batting an eye, "But we've settled into a monogamous relationship with full intention of having sex as often as possible until we die."

"...He's a lucky dude, babe," Xigbar replies. "Oh well, it's not like it'd do me any good if you weren't monogamous right now."

"No, not really." Suzi agrees, shaking her head, "You don't have the biology for it. But, um. If I weren't and if you did I'd certainly be willing?"

Cold comfort, but whatever. He looks like he could use the cheering up.

Yes, she knows that he can't feel it.

Still.

"That's totally awesome of you, babe."

But why are all the hot ones married or monogamous?

Because your life sucks, Xigbar. Because your life sucks. At least she isn't objecting to babe?

"Anyway. Have you been here long?"

"Nah. Couple months, I think, by the calendar inside," he replies.

"During the time I was gone, then." Suzi says firmly, "We had a weird time thing happen. Are you also looking for a heart? If you need someone to help just let me know...I've got a good one."

She knows this. She's a channel. It comes with the territory.

"Thanks, babe," he replies. "I don't need help anymore - got this other hot babe hooking me up - but there are like, some other who could probably still use the help."

"Just let me know." Suzi says, very firmly, "I quite literally need to help people or I go crazy. How many of you are there now?"

"Including me and VIII?" Xigbar asks. "Total of seven. Half of those still don't have a way to a heart."

"I'll see what I can do." Suzi says, in the tone of voice of someone who knows that if she doesn't have the answers, she knows people who do. "Complete biologic overhaul, or just the other bit?"

"Mostly, just the heart and the biology to support it," Xigbar says. "On, like, the physical level. None of that's any good without the metaphysical side though, the bit that makes people, like, people, you know?"