THE THIRD STANDARDISED OCCURRENCE OF VIOLENCE PREREQUISITE TO ROMAN ANTZ (Jacky+Invisimort)

T.Mor:

Bells... she said all the stuff that I could never get my mouth to say. even though most day I didn't feel like I really deserved to say them anyway... but...still.

And I mean... technically I can't ever...actually...quit my job... unless I want to die.

But... No use telling anyone that right now...

"I still don't see why you can't just leave or something. I mean...Really."

I didn't understand how she didn't understand. I mean... "She... isn't... leaving." I said again.

I kind of just wanted to tell her me and Bells were moving and that if she could be nice she could come along... but... ... that would be really mean... and.... she's my sister...and I mean... my parents wouldn't be too happy about that... if... if they were...here...

Bells

I was starting to think that living in the same small space with this girl would result in someone dead. Honestly. How could anyone be this stupid? "...per'aps you don't even 'ave t' come along. Just a suggestion. If you don't like me, stay away. I don't want t' see your face. That is, unless you d'cide t' say, listen once in a while, and know your place and keep there. In that case, you can choose not t' be 'omeless and tag along. No matter what, it's decided that we're moving." I looked to T.Mor to see if what I just offered was alright with him.

T.Mor:

...didn't I... I just thought that...whoah. " That... that... ok..." I agreed with her.

And again... she was able to say it better than I ever would be able to.

I stared at Ana for her decision on that. She looked between me and Bells a few more times.

"I...I hate you both!" She said angerily and then kind of deflated. "I'll go pack..."

Bells

I smiled . . . not a forced, smug one; it just kinda happened. Bubbled up from inside me like I'd just won something. She'd given in, and now T.Mor and I could still be together, and we could eat . . . somewhat. And that smile stayed there when I turned back to Ana. "Good! Go on, now." I almost thanked her, but thought better of it.

T.Mor:

Ana slid off her chair and disappeared upstairs, and I heard all kinds of stuff being slammed around... I sighed.

At least we could move.

Finally.

I looked at Bells after Ana had left. " ...I less than three you..." I muttered. Not really sure why, but... it kind of wanted to be said so... I did. Say it... I mean.

If that wasn't... clear... or...whatever...Uhm.

We should probably be going to look at places... I mean... today was our day off...so... No reason to prolong this thing...

Bells

My smile faded a bit to an frustrated frown when I heard the banging around, and then it grew a little when he spoke. "You too." I shook my head. How did he deal with her?

T.Mor:

I almost just repeated myself. ... ...uhm.

I'm really bad at that whole talking thing.

Like... really bad.

Then I remembered that oh yeah... we had house hunting to do and a limited window in which to do it. "We should probably...er....go uhm... like... look at places..." I said. It would get us out of the house while Ana packed. ...which would be... nice...as long as nothing was too on fire out there...

Bells

"Oh, aye, aye." I winced--I mean, nodded, and slid off the table. I wasn't sure what to expect. Ah well. Moving was a good thing. Who needs a nice house?

T.Mor:

I held the door open for her as I walked outside and looked up and down my street for any outstanding fires.

Nothing too bad... and...actually the one nice thing about the burn outs was that... they tended to be less on fire. Because... the Anon...weren't as concerned about them, and there weren't any rioters trying to burn the place down. "It's... kind of...erm...a long walk..." I said as I left the house.

Bells

"A'right?" I followed after him. We probably were a funny sight to see. A taller-than-apparently-average, scarred-up blonde from a place no one's heard of trailing after a little skeleton Outlander who-- oh, wait. People didn't see people like him as Outlanders here. Anyhow . . . I followed.

T.Mor:

So... honestly... I didn't know a whole lot more about the burnout district... because I mean... my life is pretty... erm...well.. I go to work, I come home...lather rinse repeat. So... going out away from the government building... was really...weird. So...we continued down my street for... some time. and... eventually the buildings got more crumbly and looked more patched together with...whatever...

I'd actually never looked into how to buy a house... uhm. ...well. So. This... this would... take some...work or something probably... uhm.

Some random guy sitting on the front step of his house looked at us... I mean...ok... we looked kind of like guards. ...but... there was no need to stare... really... uhm.

I glanced at Bells, wondering exactly what how house hunt.

Bells

Oh bother. That look said that he didn't know what he was doing. "...I'm just following you," I said, glancing around. See, we didn't really sell and buy houses in Luna. We waved around enough guns to convince other people to get the hell out of their homes so we could take them.

T.Mor:

... ...Crap... We were both kind of lost.

And then...and then I saw a big sign taped over someone's door. It wasn't on any other doors on this street. Maybe a sale sign? I didn't know... It would make sense kind of... but... yeah.

"Uhm... ...Maybe...we should...erm... go... there?" I asked her uncertainly. Best case scenario: we were right. Worst case scenario: We would scare the crap out of whoever was inside because we kind of look like we're actually on duty. Uhm.

Bells

"Worth a try..." I followed his gaze to the sign. Damnit, I wished I could read . . . well, I could read a little, but not . . . really.

T.Mor:

"Ok...erm..." I kind of hesitated when I started up to the porch... I mean... if I was wrong, I would look... kind of stupid or something at the very least...

I almost knocked on the door.

But then I'd have to talk...to...whoever was on the other side... Which...was hard.

"Uhm...can...can you knock?" I asked Bells kind of awkwardly... I mean... I know that I'm technically suppoused to be like... running this whole 'getting a house' thing... but... uhm... yeah.

Bells

"A'right." I stared at the door for a moment, wondering how this would all work out. If we were wrong . . . I sighed and just knocked already.

T.Mor:

Some... little girl answered the door. She stared up at us for a minute. "I'm fourteen I swear. I have papers and everything." She told us somewhat panickedly. "And parents I have those too here see I can show you them!" She continued hurriedly. "MOMMMM DADDDD! PEOPLE ARE HERE COME SEE THEM!!!"

...Well. See... this was one of the few reasons I ever thought that having more than just guard clothes would be useful sometimes. Because... I mean... she clearly wasn't fourteen... Not like I would actually say anything, but...

At least we'd be getting someone else to talk to shortly I suppoused...

Bells

"Wait, wait, lassie, see 'ere, see 'ere," I cooed like I was trying to calm down an animal, which I'd discovered worked on little kids as well. "We're just 'ere about th' 'ouse. You selling it?"

T.Mor:

She turned back to us when she heard that. " ...oh. Uhm... erm... Yeah. Yeah... we are..." And then her parents, I assumed, appeared in the door frame behind her.

"What's going on out here? ...She's not underage you know." The guy who was probably her dad told us.

"Dad... nevermind that they're here about the house!" The girl said excitedly.

"Oh. Oh really...? Sorry. I didn't realise that. Uhm... come on inside then, and we can talk about it if you'd like." He said, and I had to wonder why exactly they had to sell it. Not that I would ever ask of course... but...

Bells

I looked to T.Mor, wondering if I was the one that would have to go in first. Not that I was opposed to going in, but I felt like if I made any sudden moves I would scare the little family off somehow, the way those stray cats will scatter if you get too close. Everywhere I went I was scared of people, and when I wasn't scared of people, people were scared of me.

"A'right . . . thank you," I said cautiously. I looked to T.Mor again, and then carefully stepped in.

T.Mor:

Bells walked in first, and I followed her. The first thing I noticed was how... how... everything...was all... not like at home...Like... where I thought we were bad with our tins for leaks... there was just an entire bathtub in their living room....or something... it was... kind of... weird. And their kitchen and their living room were all...one...room... It was... so...weird.

"So... It's a pretty standard set up here, one useable bedroom upstairs...there's a bathroom... Technically you could say there's a downstairs bedroom... Just through there... but you have to keep it built up yourself..." ...by which he meant 'cardboard and tape' probably. "And... what are you looking for... I mean, what where are you guys coming in from?" He asked us.

I kind of glanced at Bells...erm... She she knew words... uhm... yeah.

Bells

I . . . wasn't exactly sure what we were looking for. What was reasonable? I looked to T.Mor, then back to the guy. "Well, we came from somewhere . . . that way . . ." I pointed to the direction we'd come from, and then looked to T.Mor to verify that.

T.Mor:

And now I kind of had to talk a bit I think..." yeah...erm... I mean... yeah... uhm... we have a uhm... brownstone... down on erm... that way..." I nodded towards the direction that Bells had been pointing. Auda was bad about streetnames, so... erm.

"If... If you erm...wanted it... I mean... I could erm... we could...split the difference or...something..." Depending on the price he was after, I could probably easily fit the cost of his house into what he would pay for my house, so he'd pay less for his house, and we'd technically get ours for "free"... even though it would technically work out to about that anyway. ...though... taxes were still... an issue...

Though... I was probably getting ahead of myself... we hadn't even really...seen the place...

"We're...we're actually downsizing ourselves..." He replied.

...right...Auda was generally poor and getting poorer. Suddenly the idea of getting my house sold at all was looking like it could be an issue... though... when we did sell it... We'd have... technically... a lot of money lying around for...like... upgrades and things... for...for a little bit.

"Oh...right...erm... ok..." And there went my ability to say things. I kind of glanced at Bells awkwardly again.

He kind of awkwarded too, and I wondered if my awkward caused his awkward. "Erm... would you guys like to see the rest of the place?" He asked after a long silence.

Bells

I nodded, awkwarding through the awkward.

. . . since when have I used that as a verb? Awkward. It was like it radiated through T.Mor's entire being, and I was slowly and awkwardly getting radiation poisoning. Awkwardly.

T.Mor:

The guy led us further into the house, pointing out the stove, which would come with the house, and the shrinebox wall plug in location, for if we had our own. The room was kind of...well... I mean, you could see the floorboards from the upper level on the ceiling of the downstairs... and most of the walls were kind of plastered with tin and things, which meant they kept it in the best order that they could... I think.

We were lead upstairs, and there wasn't actually a ceiling to the top floor for the most part... it had all been burned away. "There's only one room here that's actually safe to use--" he opened the door to the only room that seemed to have all four walls intact, revealing a room slightly smaller than my own...and with more water damage. ...It also had a ceiling pretty much... which was good, considering the rain. ...It rained a lot here. "And like I said, we have an add-on off the living room... the door is kind of small, but... it works."

It struck me that all these doors had hinges... which... was kind of... nice.

We went back downstairs and saw the add-on, which was constructed mostly out of corrugated tin, plywood, duct tape and cardboard, but seemed to be structurally sound... and had an actual floor instead of just dirt.

I glanced at Bells. It wasn't... ...terrible, I didn't think.

The guy watched us. "...Well?" he asked, sounding kind of hopeful.

It was kind of weird having his whole family sitting on the worn out sofa right behind him listening in on this whole thing.

"Uhm...er... Bells... what do...you...er...? I mean...? " I asked.