bakerstreet | Covered in blood

Covered in blood

I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff...

1. Another day that ends in Y. When mass murder needs to happen you’re the weapon for the job. Employed? Owned by a secret organization? Untamed embodiment of extreme violence? Either way someone’s going to try to stop you eventually.

2. How did I get here? The last thing you remember everything was fine and hunky dory… Wait, is this b-blood?! Hopefully there's someone who can help you and not hurt you.

3. Justified. This is war and wars are won with weapons, not words! Cut through the masses knowing what you are doing is right. Does that mean the enemy of your enemy is a friend, or is everyone not part of the solution a problem?

4. Humor/Crack option. This really is your blood. Do you have intense nosebleeds every time someone even moderately attractive catches your eye? Are you Deadpool and constantly leaving heaps of blood everywhere? WHO IS GOING TO CLEAN THIS MESS UP?

5. Smut. Bloodplay, nuff said.

6. Gruesome to some, beautiful to you. Vampires, crazed artists, and evil scientists can eat their heart out. Or someone else’s…

7. Wilcard! Have something different in mind when you clicked? Go with it! Or re-roll/mix and match.

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This kinda world unfortunately doesn't often give anyone the space to deal with trauma. Wallowing in such things will make it easier for the wastes to eat a man up.

"A day if we hoof it, two if we rest." The Ghoul, holsters his gun as he looks over at Jaskier. The bard looks better, no worse for wear considering the mess he was when he first found him.

And don't think too much about the fact he came all this way... it was to settle things with this group of raiders. Nothing more.

"And much as I'd enjoy taking the rest of these roaches out," Cooper nudges a dead raider with a boot, "Probably best we leave before the rest of em show up." He'll start walking and if Jaskier follows as they work their way through the ruined subway, he'll see the rest of the carnage Cooper had left in his wake to get to him.

"Wouldn't want ya to get dirty again."

"I'm not 'hoofing it'," Jaskier declares primly after a moment of thought. He might try, but he's fairly certain he doesn't have the energy for it, so better to make it seem like a choice he's decided to make rather than a lack of ability. Since it seems they are very much not talking about Cooper coming in with the heroic rescue.

He still promptly follows after, looking around the abandoned station like its his first time seeing it - he was hooded when they brought him in. He's pretty sure all the corpses are Cooper's doing, though. They certainly look fresh enough, and Jaskier tugs the neck of his shirt up to cover his nose and mouth. He's adapted admirably to the wastelands to the point that it's rare for anyone to guess he isn't from there, but he's never gotten over a squeamishness about corpses.

"Christ child, Cooper, was all this necessary?"

Oh Jaskier is welcome to bring up the fact that Cooper clearly came to save him, but is the energy the back and forth it'll be worth it at this point? Maybe. Who knows. The ghoul huffs, amused by Jaskier's reaction to the carnage.

"What? Y'think if I asked nicely they'd have handed you over?" To him it was 100% necessary. For multiple reasons, but mostly that they tried to hurt him by snatching up someone associated with him. Hopefully now they've learned their damn lesson. The crumbs left of this raider gang that is.

"Please don't work with raiders, birdie."

Jaskier might bring it up. Later. After a nap. And something to eat. And a proper bath. And another nap.

He was aware Cooper was correct - and that Jaskier didn't even have to bring it up, given that was an all but outright admission that Cooper had been there to rescue him, or at least was set on rescue when he found out Jaskier was there even if it was a just-happened-to-be-in-the-area (sure, on the way to what, a blown out former cork factory?)

Jaskier let out a decisive sniff, rolling up the sleeves of the shirt as he walked behind Cooper.

"Well. They've got a dumb name. I was sure I had to hear them wrong at first. Cross. Jesus. With their getup? A bit too on-the-nose. No offense."

Bit too on the nose, haha. No offense taken, in fact he looks mostly amused by it.

"At least we agree on something." It was a stupid name, but raiders weren't known for the most exciting naming conventions. The names of the one running things tended to be the most popular, if not insert noun here of an animal or object.

As they get to the entrance, Cooper's hand rests on his revolver on his belt. Cautious, but he doesn't hear anyone, just them. Raiders also don't tend to be the quiet type either, so he's confident in exiting safely with Jaskier following behind. At least they won't have to deal with anymore raiders, at least for a little bit.

But as Cooper sees the open sky another threat is looming in the distance.

"Shit..." Uttered under his breath. It's not a threat for him, but normal squishy human Jaskier, it's not a good thing per se.

"Hoofing it ain't gonna be a choice." He nods at the storm in the distance, the yellowish hue of it disconcerting. Radiation storm wouldn't hurt a ghoul any, but it would do some damage to Jaskier if he stayed out in it for a prolonged period of time.

"C'mon, move them feet, princess." Cooper doesn't wait for him to complain and starts walking the opposite direction of the storm. They could stay here in the subway, but he had a place not too far from here they could take shelter in from the storm. Less dead folks in it too.

At least they agree on something - and Jaskier is plenty pleased to have gotten Cooper's amusement. When Cooper turns slightly more cautious, Jaskier goes quiet - for all his cavalier attitude, he's lived this long by knowing when to be quiet and follow direction. He blinks owlishly at first as they step out into the daylight, the sudden brightness of it a sharp contrast to the dim of the subway that Jaskier's eyes had long since adjusted to. As he squints against the sky, Cooper's 'shit' draws his attention to the distance.

Shit indeed.

Jaskier lets out a litany of curse words - each more creative than the last as he jogs after Cooper, hoping the man has a plan other than to try to out-walk it. Because it becomes very clear before too long that while the stim pack did a lot to heal Jaskier, he was far more fucked up than originally determined given what's been left over as he starts to slow. Worse, he doesn't even complain about it, just focusing on continuing to move. A sure sign something has to be very wrong.

Being a ghoul long as he has nose jokes are barely a blip on his radar anymore. Hell he'll make them himself.

He hears Jaskier cursing behind him, but he knows he's following. Can hear his footfalls in the dirt and sand as they walk. They're actually in an old city, long toppled over by bombs and mostly buried by sands blown over ruins and crumbled stone and metal. There's a school building and what's left of old homes and what's left isn't much, but in one of the homes is what Cooper is heading towards. The winds of the storm start to whip around them, closer and closer, but it's not yet fully on them and someone is being suspiciously quiet behind him.

The ghoul looks back over his shoulder, looking frustrated, more at how close the storm is than Jaskier himself.

"C'mon, princess, don't make me carry you." The ghoul keeps walking, motioning towards the row of houses. Only few have any walls still standing, one even has part of a roof, cars half buried in sand and rubble, it's a real cheerful sight.

"Just through here, keep moving." He waves with some urgency for Jaskier to continue on.

Under other circumstances Jaskier would have preferred to take his time here, to explore more, always so goddamn curious and wanting to see more - but even if the radiation storm wasn't bearing down on them, he's unsure if he has enough energy to make it to where Cooper is leading as-is.

He can't even manage a quip back, the best he gets out being a grimace and an annoyed huffing breath. One step at a time, he has some pride, damn it, even if he is the first to call himself a damsel in distress more often than not. He's not entirely sure how these blown out houses are going to provide any shelter from the radiation storm, they don't look to be in better repair than any other building they've passed by on the grueling walk.

Which is of course when his foot catches on rubble and he absolutely wipes out on the ground.

Lighting arcs down from the heavens in a startling greenish yellow, lighting the sky up around them. In the moments between more flashes of lightning, Jaskier is in the dirt and Cooper is cursing as he turns to haul him back up onto his feet. Guess he was more fucked up than he thought, not that Jaskier had looked like he hadn't had the shit kicked out of him before the stimpak, but he'll need more than just that.

But first shelter. Cooper keeps him on his feet as he walks them both to one of the houses and the rubble that's left of it. As they walk through what would have been the living room they come out to the backyard, a rusted out grill and some old chairs tipped over beside a broken fence the only thing really marking it.

"Gimmie a second-" The ghoul has Jaskier rest against what's left of a wall as he moves to haul boards and rubble from a specific spot, hiding a double door underneath it all. A door into a basement. The storm is over them now and Cooper can feel the warmth of radiation tingle through his body as more lightning cracks down from the sky, to him it's nothing unpleasant, it helps mend his body due to his ghoulish nature, but for Jaskier, if he's out in it too long it'll give him radiation poisoning.

So after opening one of the doors, Cooper is back over to put an arm around Jaskier as he guides him down into the darkness of the basement, closing the heavy door behind them to douse them in complete darkness. He's sitting Jaskier on one of the steps so he can take a thick heavy metal beam to slot into the doors to keep them closed.

"You're heavier than you look, princess." Is all Cooper comments as the storm rages over them directly now. While being inside won't completely block the radiation it'll make it less harmful to Jaskier's squisher body. The ghoul shifts into the basement a little, pulling out a lighter as he lights a lamp on a table close by.

"Welcome to chateau de underground. Won't find a better place in the city." It looks like the basement was set up to be used as a bunker at some point, but whoever lived here never got the chance to utilize it. It's... clean, clean beyond the obvious use through the years, but compared to everything on the surface it was nice.

There's a part of Jaskier that thinks staying right there on the ground feels perfectly fine actually. It's rather comfortible dirt and gravel, all things considered. The lightning is kind of beautiful. The sharp sting to his cheek only really sinks in when Cooper hauls him to his feet, and that gets a petulant "Fuck," under Jaskier's breath.

Cooper keeps him on his feet, keeps him moving that last little bit. Through a house, into the blown out remains of the ironically named nuclear family lifestyle of America that used to be. Jaskier feels overheated now, too, and longs to pop open the buttons of his shirt even if a lifetime of warnings keeps him from being quite so reckless. His eyebrows raise as Cooper reveals under a pile of rubble a hidden set of doors. He wants to protest that he doesn't need any help, but he very much does, and he sits heavily on the stairs when lowered onto them, feeling like he could take a nap then and there.

"I was under the impression you enjoyed my meatier parts," Jaskier points out somewhat breathlessly, reaching up to rub at his cheek and clear off the bits of rubble that clung to his skin from his fall. Safer no longer in direct line of radiation he gives himself the simple pleasure of opening the shirt part way to ease some of the warmth - though the coolness of being underground assists that too. "Charming place. Love what you've done with the wallpaper."

Jaskier's meatier parts are great, but now is not the time! Though now that they're inside all the excitement dies down and Cooper turns to look at him in the light of the lantern. What a mess, a mess that's his fault, usually something he can push away and not think about, but... sighing, he'll flip open his saddlebag, digging for another stimpak.

"Would've freshened the place up a bit if I knew I'd be having company." The ghoul holds the stimpak out to Jaskier, "You wanna do the honors or should I?" With how bad he'd been lagging back there and his stumble it was more than clear he could use another shot.

Jaskier just blinks owlishly at Cooper when he notices the ghoul's attention on him. He doesn't look as much like death warmed over as when Cooper found him, but he is still rather pale and washed out - moreso than right after that first stimpak, a little redness on his cheek and dust in his hair from falling down on the road. His breathing is starting to even out though, less gasping, less ragged.

He still looks surprised at the offer of a second one, reacting slowly to it - first a brief flash of prideful annoyance like maybe it's a dig before it softens into understanding (that is in it's own way probably so much worse).

"I'll be fine, save it," Jaskier says, tired but sincere. "I just need to rest a bit and not have another unexpected marathon. You don't have another one of those lined up, do you?"

"Oh don't be fucking precious now," Cooper's tone is frustrated, "I got what I need and if I needed this I wouldn't give it to ya." Take the damn stimpak you stubborn little shit. The hypocrisy is off the charts, but shut up.

The storm cracks and thunders above them, as if putting it's own two cents in the conversation.

"You can rest and not feel like brahmin shit warmed over." There's no point in suffering the pain if he's got the means to fix it. What would it even accomplish?

Jaskier jumps at the sudden crack of thunder, but once it passes he just scoots a few more steps down to be further away from the door. He still looks like he's considering arguing with Cooper - sometimes the arguing with Cooper is the fun part, after all - but he's too tired.

"Fine - you do the honors, if you are so insistent on taking care of me," Jaskier says. Take that, asshole. He WILL go into full Princess mode out of spite.

Lies and slander he's not taking care of Jaskier. He's just a liability if he's hurt.

"Maybe if you learned to take care of yourself-" It's snippy, he's not even mad at Jaskier, he's mad at himself, but he's being a petulant 200+ year old child about it. Roughly rolling up the sleeve of Jaskier's shirt to get at the meat of his upper arm so he can inject the stimpak.

"Pretty face ain't gonna protect you walking the wastes." Hell had Jaskier even had a weapon on him before he was nabbed? He'd always seemed resistant to the idea of carrying one or even learning how to use a gun.

"Just gonna get a collar round your neck and not in the fun way." Slavers would get their caps and more out of someone like Jaskier.

Jaskier let out a petulant huff as Cooper did indeed take care of administering the stimpak. For all he protested, Jaskier was pretty sure he'd just throw it at him if he didn't actually care. They were friends.

The closest thing Jaskier ever had to a weapon on him was the occasional utility knife that was more a tool than anything else, and often wasn't even that sharp either. Along with his pretty face, he relied on being so deeply nonthreatening that even the most paranoid usually wrote him off. Sure that didn't help against someone determined to do violence, but often times in those cases, having a weapon of his own would just be one more thing to take from him and be used against him, too.

... he had admittedly probably gotten lucky about never running into slavers except in large enough settlements where Jaskier knew enough of the people that trying to take him was more trouble than it was worth. Making friends wherever he went was also something he relied on.

"It's already done it the fun way a few times," Jaskier said rather flippantly, leaning a bit against Cooper. It was nice and cool in the underground room, and the storm above them was almost relaxing if one ignored the way it made the skin itch in that particular way...

Using strong words there! Friends... sure hell, they were friends, but if Cooper would actually say it without making a joke in the same sentence is another thing. Getting close to people was dangerous for a multitude of reasons, this whole fiasco a stark reminder of that.

And yet Jaskier was able to use the same thing to his advantage more often than not. He probably didn't even see it that way. An advantage.

Sitting beside him now he won't even push him away as Jaskier leans against him, even with the stimpak's he's had quite the couple days no doubt and the radiation, even if dulled by the thick walls of concrete, is still there. Hell, he's tired too.

"Oh I bet." If Jaskier is anything similar to their tumbles in the sack with others, something around his neck is the tamest thing he's probably done. The lighting strikes loud over them still and Cooper feels the warmth of radiation closing up those bullet holes he'd taken to the chest earlier, perk of being a ghoul and all.

"... guessing them junkies didn't bother feeding ya in between beatings." He knows they wouldn't, starve him and make him more susceptible to blurting out what they wanted. Bastards weren't always the brightest, but they knew how to hurt people.

"Still some canned beans if you can stomach em room temp."

Oh, Jaskier knows Cooper had to be worried if he's letting Jaskier get away with the casual affection of leaning on him. Jaskier loves casual physical contact though, and only feels mildly guilty about taking advantage of Cooper this way. He flinches only at the sudden crash of lightning - not much, too tired for a big reaction this time - and god that was probably right above them, wasn't it? And those fuckers took his stash of RadAway.

Cooper had guessed right, though. They'd given Jaskier water - they didn't want to kill him at first, just use him as bait - but his stomach was close to the emptiest it had ever been. Even so, it still felt a little uneasy at the thought of putting anything in it.

"I should give it a try, much as I'd rather just sleep - which they also didn't let me do in any significant amount. Zero stars, terrible service, will not be returning. If my stomach disagrees with the attempt, would you be a dear and hold my hair back for me?"

Shhh, stop perceiving him.

Once Jaskier gets some rest, he's got half a mind to take a trip back to the subway hideout and grab up all the chems there. Take out anymore raiders that may have shown up. He has no doubts that they'll power through the storm with Rad X and Radaway flowing through their veins. Bastards. The only reason he wasn't keen on sticking around there to let Jaskier rest. He could stay up and keep watch, but believe it or not he'd like to sleep too.

Getting woken up by raiders showing back up to the mess he made was not the kind of rude awakening he wanted to deal with.

"You want me to spoon feed you the beans too, princess?" Cooper teases him, of course he does, "If you ain't sure about two hundred year old beans, got some jerky in my bag. Lot fresher." Probably easier on the stomach. Though Jaskier does seem to like his meat old ~~ba dum tsh~~.

Finely aged if you ask him, thanks.

"Jerky would probably be a safer bet- as long as there's no people mixed in," Jaskier added with a suspicious look to Cooper. He didn't actually think Cooper would give him any of that kind if he had any on him at the moment, but if Cooper was going to tease so was Jaskier.

"People is a sometimes meal." It's not like he'd eat it if he had any other choice, but sometimes things got dire out there.

"It's radroaches and molerats on the menu tonight." Some of the most abundant and easy to get meat out there, not that he was particularly picky. Removing his saddlebag he'll set it down between his feet on the floor, digging inside pull out a wrapped bundle of jerky, opening it to offer the selection of dried meats to Jaskier.

"Could dip em into the bean sauce, little extra flavor."

"I think extra flavor is not a bonus for me right now. Just give me one and don't tell me what it used to be," he said with a perhaps over-dramatic sigh. By the time they were jerky at least they no longer looked like radroaches or molerats. Though by that logic, human jerky would be the same. He didn't want to find out if stimpacks could also take care of prion diseases.

"And please tell me you have something that passes for a bed here. Did I already ask that?"

He won't feed you people meat, Jaskier. It was rare he even ate people, usually the people were other ghouls let's be honest. When he was low on his fancy little yellow anti feral meds, sometimes the best "medicine" was eating another ghoul. Something about it staved off the inevitable for just a little longer, sometimes that's all he needed.

Cooper takes a piece of jerky in a gloved hand and holds it at him.

"It was alive, now it's dead. Bon apatite." Once Jaskier takes the offered dinner, the ghoul will pluck another piece up for himself. Taking a decent bite of it he'll chew for a moment, then motions into the dimly lit basement.

"There's a little room in the back, got a bed, mostly clean." He' slept in it a few times himself over the years, mattress is basically brand new, no broken springs and there's only a little dirt on it. That's what he's dragged in.

"Shelves of food and water, medicine-" Another bite, he talks around it, "Lotta good that did whoever lived here. Were dead before they could fathom coming down here."

For all his complaining and comments about questionable meat sources, Jaskier doesn't hesitate to take the offered jerky and only takes small bites because he's wary of overloading a stomach already unhappy about the current state of events. While he's never been quite this bad off, Jaskier has run into situations where he's had to learn the hard way that eating too much after eating too little will fuck you up just as badly.

"Well, my hero, thanks for inviting me," Jaskier says, like this is a garden party and not a sudden change of plans because of a radiation storm after a rescue. He ignores the gurgling sounds his stomach makes as he eats. For all he's still clearly tired and the radiation storm isn't helping him, two stimpacks and food and he does look remarkably better than when Cooper found him. He'll survive to be annoying another day.

"I think I'm going to get myself down to that bed before I pass out and you do need to actually carry me," he says once he gets the jerky half-finished, still slowly working at it. Small bites, lots of chewing, pause after to make sure he can in fact do another bite.

"You're lucky, I only allow royalty down here." Cause he's a princess, get it. Jaskier is looking a lot better, but that's mostly to having washed the blood off himself. Being covered in blood does have a way of making someone look pretty grim.

"They must've done a number on ya if you're not asking me to cart your ass to bed anyway." Jaskier was not above being shameless, so he must be feeling like shit. Stimpaks be damned.

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