Come Together

This was either going to be a great idea or an epically bad one, and Styx couldn’t be quite sure which. Abattoir was a lot of things - dangerous, mysterious, likely insane. But she wasn’t a liar. She’d always seemed honest, as near as Styx could tell. When she said anything at all, she meant it.

But just because she wasn’t lying didn’t mean she was telling them everything. Whatever was going on in her head, it would probably spill out sooner or later.

But for now, she was with them. When ‘sooner or later’ happened, it would be handled. She’d brought Abattoir down once. Broke her. Abattoir was better now. Sure. She was a demoness. But so was Styx.

”Good decision.” Styx ran a hand over her chrome dome and returned the nod from Abattoir. ”Now,” She gathered all the cards back up and laid them in the middle, a neat little stack.. ”Me and Jessica have a game to finish. Join in?”

Jessica let a sigh of relief free. She had some backup now and could backup her best friend. A certain measure of wariness was of course called for but Jessica had a tendency to be slightly wary anyways, so she supposed it all worked out for the better. A plan was already starting to coalesce in her head. She had heard some rumors of some big fights coming up recently and Jessica thought it was high time to start getting in on that.

But for right now, it was time for poker. "Yeah, let's play a little. I don't cheat as much as you think I might." Jessica offered. For the most part it was true. She wouldn't dream of cheating against River. Even for a girl with as few morals as Jessica, that seemed a little bit low.

"Did you wind up in the hospital? After our little kerfluffle." As much as Jessica tried to paint it like she was genuinely concerned, the sheer curiosity of the question held sway over her tone.

She had made the decision and it was too late to turn back now, but Abattoir already had something of a sinking feeling. The nak muay tried to push it down; this was for the best. Maybe she'd find what she was looking for this way. Besides, there was safety in numbers. With a wordless nod, she let Styx deal her in. It wasn't exactly fair, her playing in a poker game, but to be truthful the mask was only slightly less expressive than her actual face, and the end effect of her staring blankly and holding eye contact for way, way longer than was socially acceptable was going to happen whether she was wearing it or not.

Jessica's question pulled at her memory. The details were fuzzy still, but a few recollections had crystallized enough to be coherent. "Overnight." Abattoir glanced down at the hand she'd been dealt (it was terrible), ruminating on the fact that she didn't know enough about the game to accurately determine how badly Styx was probably cheating. "Got away from them in the morning."

This, at least, was true. She'd never been comfortable with AFW's medical team; they kept trying to give her an MRI for some reason. Having not been in any condition to resist, though, she'd had to stay overnight until they'd gotten done suturing cuts and putting a couple pints of blood back in her. When lucidity had returned, she'd been out of there before anybody knew. Probably the only time she'd be able to get away with that; next time they'd likely try to strap her to a gurney or something. Go figure.

Styx had to be honest - with herself, at least - and say that, when she asked Abattoir if she wanted to get into their card game, she didn’t expect her to really accept the offer. She couldn’t be sure what the nak muay did in her free time, but somehow, she got the impression that cards were not involved. Most likely it would’ve involved candles, blood, and prayers to some arcane eldritch god. She’d been sort of weird like that lately.

This was fine, though. Chances were, Styx’s night after this would’ve consisted of drinking, starting a fight at some bar, and sleeping, like 90% of her nights went. This was an improvement.

”That was a pretty sweet fight you guys had. Even with the stupid-ass Christmas gimmick.” She started to go through her hand and gave Abattoir a few furtive glances, trying to get a read on her. As usual, she failed miserably in this task. She gave up with a shrug and contemplated her own hand. ”Nice little outfit you had on, by the way. Maybe they’ll make you guys do a rematch in April, make you wear the bunny ears, get some baskets with thumbtacks and glass inside..." Styx had a little dry laugh, as much humor as you could really get out of her. "Jolly Easter Egg Bonanza Match.”

She was joking. Mostly. She wouldn’t mind seeing Jessica and Abattoir going at it again, with or without a stupid holiday theme backing them up.

Fuck. Nothing but numbers and mostly off suit. Jessica had a handful of nothing and she frowned a bit before comporting herself and going back to her normal, bored look. At this point, Jessica had very little to prove to both of these women, but she felt the need to prove shit anyways. The Violent Violet tossed a few more chips forward than was reasonable.

"Oh yeah? Good on you." She said as she almost acknowledged Abattoir. Jessica rested her hands behind her head. "I think I am over all of that shit. I'm fucking tired of gimmicky garbage. From here on out it is gonna be nothing but more serious shit for me. I'm not intending to go all hardcore on everyone," she said with a shrug, "But I have come way too fucking far to keep dicking around in the kiddie pool. If they want anything like that ever again, they better send five fucking guys to tell me because one won't stop me when I start my rampage."

"Oh, I was only really checked over by the med staff, if you're curious," Jessica continued, sincerely doubting that Abattoir was curious in the slightest, "But yeah, you got a couple of decent knocks in. Discovered a tack on my hip only last night." A true compliment seemed like it was going a little too far, especially considering that Abattoir hadn't earned as much respect as she thought she had.

While the other girls talked, Abattoir was miles away, her thoughts having returned to potentially eating the dead guy.

Dangerous business. You could get those prion diseases. CJD was one of them, wasn't it? Abattoir wasn't sure. Still, that shit put literal holes in your brain before you died, not exactly something to be risked lightly. On the one hand, there was a solid chance she'd spent the last few months steadily going crazy, and so that probably wouldn't be too much of a loss. Or even a change. On the other, there was a similar chance that everything she'd been experiencing was real. After all, crazy people didn't wonder if they were crazy. Actually, that might have been just a saying, maybe they did. Okay, now nothing was clear anymore. Where had her train of thought even been going?

She broke in, talking right over the end of Jessica's sentence and pushing a couple chips into the pile. "Can you get Creuzfeldt-Jakob from eating people?"

Things got a little banal for a while, or as banal as things could realistically get in a card game with three borderline sociopaths. Styx lost a little, but she was managing to hold steady. It was easy to do well when one of your opponents wasn’t on the same planet.

Then, just as things were in danger of becoming boring, Abattoir spoke, and reminded Styx of one reason why she liked to keep her around: things were never dull with her. Strange, creepy, confusing, but never dull.

Styx stared at her for a moment. A blank, empty stare, as if Abattoir’s head had just opened to reveal a little alien at the controls. Which, if it happened, would explain a few things. When the moment passed, she reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and asked it. She had to get a new one when she went traveling a month ago, might as well get some use out of it. ”Can you get Creutzfeldt-Jakob from eating people?”

Siri thought about it for a few seconds, then came back with a typical answer. ”Searching for ‘eating people Creuzfeldt-Jakob’ on the iTunes store…”

”Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She stuffed it away and looked back at Abattoir with furrowed brows. ”Haven’t exactly gotten my PhD in med school but I’m saying...no? Never heard of anybody getting a brain disease by eating something, and-” The implications of Abattoir’s question finally sunk in all the way, and she slowly craned her head to the side. ”You...have you been eating people? Because that’s kind of...”

Wrong?

Insane?

Completely fucking gross?

There was a significantly longer pause than was normal when responding to that type of question.

".................No," Abattoir said at last, and went back to examining her cards.

Jessica held her tongue. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was being ignored. Abattoir thought it appropriate to completely change the subject, but then again, if she had lost, she would have found that apropos as well. Jessica didn't really have much of a handle on what they were talking about other than the fact that it was related to eating people.

It took a lot to phase Jessica, but this was getting really really close. Lukretia had done very well for herself if she had gotten a disease named in her honor and it seemed about right that the woman would have a disease. But cannibalism seemed a little bit too hardcore for AFW. Then again, Jessica had the feeling that she had only really scratched the surface of what women here in Tokyo were capable of. Hell, if a girl like River was capable of getting a cell phone that wasn't just a burner, then anything was possible.

"You guys are weird," she said, as she raked in some cash. Jessica was officially splitting even now, maybe even a little bit ahead. "What is the alcohol policy in this establishment?" Jessica was thirsty. Terribly, terribly thirsty.