singillatim | (no subject)

Lalo laughs out loud, and snorts. "You think you're gonna get blood from Methuselah? Yeah. I don't think so, man. He wouldn't even let anybody touch him. He's not gonna let you draw his blood."

Lalo shakes his head condescendingly. The idea is laughable because it makes complete sense in theory, and yet is impractical (from Lalo's perspective) for obvious reasons.

You know. Like how nerds think.

He's intrigued, though. He'd offered his blood to Tim once, and the offer still stands. But...

"Shit, man. But if you want blood, I can give you blood! You haven't been changed, right? Or have you?" Lalo eyes Hilbert, watching closely for how he reacts to that question. "I say we compare mine and yours. What do you say?"

Taking a deal with Lalo always comes at a cost, of course, at least in Lalo's own mind.

There are ways around that whole 'not letting people touch him' problem, Hilbert inwardly muses. But he's smart enough to know that vocalizing his desire to drug that old man is probably a poor idea. Better to focus more on the question and plans at hand.

"I haven't been changed," Hilbert says, with a shake of his head. "Have you? Because am not interested in comparing blood of unchanged and changed at the moment."

Lalo grins, and answers that question by immediately setting one of Hilbert's shoes on fire.

There is an immediate round of loud Russian swearing as Hilbert yanks off the show on fire and then starts stamping the fire out with his other foot.

"Idiot!" he yells, very angry at Lalo. "Do you think I can simply buy new shoe to replace ruined one? Try to think next time!"

They're in a survival situation, buddy, there's no Foot Locker here.

"You could easily make point without potentially hurting me."

"Aaaaaaah ha ha ha ha HA!"

The Russian swearing, the anger -- it's too much. Lalo has been playing too nice for too long, and while he understands why he has to do that -- and maybe part of him even wants to -- the pressure of doing what he has to do to survive (in this case, play nice) has been getting to him after a while. Besides, he feels useless, his home back in Milton isn't safe, and there's that shit with Chloe, emasculating him night after night in his dreams whenever he manages to sleep, which isn't much anymore...

Yeeugh.

It's fun to have a little bit of power over someone, even momentarily.

Lalo laughs, eyes twinkling, in the face of Hilbert's anger. "Hell of a way to talk to somebody who could set the rest of you on fire, too," he says, but he doesn't sound angry. Just entertained. "Maybe the point is that I could hurt you? Ever think of that? I mean -- I volunteered my blood to you! Puts me in a pretty vulnerable situation, eh? Seems like it's my interest for you to know what I can do."

But he just grins, and flops down on one of the bunks. The mattress creaks under his weight and from the force of how hard he dropped down.

He looks up at Hilbert, remorseless, voice cheery. "Just kidding!" He waves a hand. "I wouldn't do anything like that. Anyway, offer stands." The offer had been genuine, although it would certainly be forgivable if Hilbert wasn't interested now.

Edited 2024-05-04 20:16 (UTC)

It would be so easy to just knock him the hell out. The tiny, petty little part of Hilbert that he rarely shows wants to just knock Lalo the hell out, take a sample of his blood while he's unconscious (and why stop at just his blood?), then send him on his merry way. But it would be pointless to give up the game this quickly.

Besides, there are less annoying subjects out there.

"It would be best if you left." It's said with stone cold seriousness and not a hint of joking around. He's not rising to those challenges, those taunts, he just wants Lalo to leave.

And if he doesn't? Hilbert has plenty of experience ignoring annoying men.

Pffft. These fucking gringos think they just own the whole world, don't they? The entitlement is off the charts.

Lalo also thinks he owns the world, but the difference is that Lalo is right. Besides, he can't help but feel some mild indignation. Sure, maybe he wasn't physically there when Hilbert first found the hydrodram, but Hilbert had to have seen the signs that someone was living there -- that parts of the bunk area had been cleaned already, that belongings Lalo had stashed there for safekeeping were scattered around the room. One of the bunks, blankets crumpled, like someone had slept in it relatively recently.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Lalo says dismissively, with a half-grin. "I'm not going anywhere. I was here first." And as far as Lalo is concerned, he has at least as much claim to this area as Hilbert does, if not more! Lalo sits up, eyes twinkling. He doesn't care if Hilbert isn't joking. He's not going anywhere. All this wah wah wah we're in a survival situation. Wah wah wah I could have been killed wah. Lalo could've been killed by his own stupidity a bunch of times over and you don't see him whining about it!!

"I get the hot water running, I help start your cleaning job, and this is the thanks I get? Rude."

He considers incinerating Hilbert right then and there, but they really can't afford to lose another doctor.

Edited 2024-05-06 03:07 (UTC)

"Then let me rephrase. It would be best if you left this conversation. I am not willing to make small-talk with man who set my shoes on fire."

It's just said calm, blunt, with the only hint of emotion being a slight twinge of irritation. Besides, there's a world of difference between sharing a space with someone and having a nice in-depth conversation.

Willing? Willing? This guy is hilarious. It's almost like he thinks he's got a choice in the matter or something. How cute. Lalo considers that he might like having his own personal doctor to boss around, at his beck and call, to force to do his bidding...

He does calm down though, when Hilbert at least clarifies he isn't trying to force Lalo out of the area entirely. The logical, analytical side of his brain urges him to relax, go take a hot shower or something, and usually, that's exactly what he'd do. This isn't the kind of situation that's worth starting a fight over. Not here. Getting your panties in a knot about some nerd is Tuco shit. (Especially when it's Lalo's fault there's tension in the first place, but hey. Not the point right now, in Lalo's mind.)

But then that night with Chloe flashes through his mind and he imagines himself doing anything and everything he was told without question, almost like he was hypnotized and he feels something deep rage fueled by humiliation well up inside of him. Hilbert, of course, can't be blamed; Hilbert doesn't know the psyche of the toddler in a grown man's body he's dealing with.

Lalo snorts dismissively. He stands up off the bed and walks over to Hilbert, a slow strut that's meant to be intimidating, like he wants to push. Bully. See if it's possible to get a rise out of Hilbert, see what that might take. Maybe set the other shoe on fire. That'd be funny.

Lalo opens his mouth when the sight of someone he recognizes suddenly appearing from nowhere in the doorway, like a miniature but corporeal ghost, catches his attention out of the corner of his eye.

Edited 2024-05-06 19:34 (UTC)

As soon as the fog had lifted, Levi took it upon himself to explore the available areas. It's really a coincidence that he's at the hydrodam today; he's trying to map out the lakeside and the building caught his attention. It looks like some people are cleaning up and moving in; he may offer help moving some things and check whether there is running water in the showers (a noteworthy discovery, especially if it's hot.) But he has no intention to stick around for long and so stays out of everyone's hair, instead scoping out the exterior and trying to determine if it's a decent defensible position.

It's the commotion (of someone getting set on fire, probably) that finally draws his attention to the bunk rooms. While it's usually fine to let people duke it out for a little bit, it's definitely counterproductive to their whole supposed struggling to survive situation, especially when one of the people involved seems to be some kind of a... doctor? scientist? whatever all those machines were.

He steps into the doorway -- a surly looking, dark haired figure dressed in black and hunter green -- right as the man he's met on his first day starts an intimidation stroll toward the other one, and fights the urge to rub his face with his hands. Two can play this game, though, and while he knows his stature alone isn't particularly intimidating, his dead-eyed stare is honestly rather unsettling.

"Is there a problem?"

He sounds... tired, almost, but there's something unyieldingly steely under it, as if he's actually an authority in a position to reprimand others. Considering most of his visible clothes that haven't been pilfered from Milton look like some sort of a military uniform, that might be something he's used to from before.

...He's also wearing a stolen blue knitted scarf with pom-pom tassels, though he seems either blissfully unaware of or uncaring about it looking perhaps a tad ridiculous in these circumstances.

There was some noticeable yelling with that set on fire bit, there absolutely was a commotion.

As Lalo struts over towards Hilbert, trying to be intimidating, Hilbert simply rolls his eyes. Oh, somebody wants to look big and tough and not deal with a reasonable request that Hilbert made after again, his shoe got set on fire. He gives Lalo a grumpy frown, ready to listen to whatever nonsense the man was going to say—

—when there's somebody else arriving. Hilbert looks over at Levi, giving him a little nod of acknowledgement. They haven't ever talked before, but Hilbert won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Salamanca was about to leave," Hilbert dryly points out. "Unsurprisingly, conversation tends to end when one party is almost set on fire."

Lalo's eyes slide over to Levi when the shorter man interrupts, and his lips purse with barely contained rage, pressing into a thin line.

Oh. It's. Him.

The little devil midget who'd broken into his cabin in Milton, despite all the traps. Now he's talking all big, not reinforcing for Lalo that he's not a cop. Who does this little shit get off thinking he is? For that matter, who does Hilbert think he is? Don't they know who they're dealing with?

They don't. Nobody here does. He's so tired of it. He misses being able to do whatever he wants with imunity. He doesn't mind playing nice most of the time, but sometimes it starts to wear on him after a while. Grinds him down.

The rage and humiliation flicker in his eyes when Hilbert says he was just leaving. Lalo glances from Levi to Hilbert, to Levi again. His lips, pressed into a thin line, almost quiver. It's impossible not to notice the tension radiating off of Lalo.

But logic wins out. There's two of them, and while he's confident he could take them individually, he knows that trying to fight both of them is not worth the hassle and unlikely to end well. If nothing else, it'd blow his cover.

So he forces himself to inhale. Exhale. Still staring at Hilbert with humiliation and fury. To think he'd offered to help this man! Ungrateful prick, thinks Lalo, severely out of touch with reality.

Lalo clears his throat, though. Further humiliated by having to explain himself to Levi, he says, "Ah. Yeah. That's right. I was just getting my things." He grabs a few items, the ones most important to him, and gets ready to leave. It's misery to relent and turn away, but Lalo knows he has no choice.

Edited 2024-05-07 14:33 (UTC)

Levi looks over both men, not missing the details, such as Hilbert's singed shoe and the way Lalo seems to be almost shaking with barely contained rage. He wonders if there's more to this story or if someone predictably fell into acting like a brat in hard circumstances. He doesn't particularly like telling people what to do, but infighting seems like an unfavorable option no matter how you slice it.

He returns that nod of acknowledgement with a slightly longer stare. Grumpy recognizes grumpy, it seems, though he doesn't intend to trust either of them for now.

"Let's try to keep setting things on fire to a minimum," Levi grumbles. The place looks valuable, even if he doesn't understand half of what he's looking at, and human lives are even more valuable than that. He doesn't know how it happened, exactly -- Lalo doesn't seem to have anything flammable on him at the moment, and the concept of magical powers doesn't even cross his mind -- but with the tension filling the air it's not hard to imagine this confrontation resolving itself with a few corpses left behind. "Find a better outlet."

"On that point, we can agree," Hilbert grumbles. Keeping things from being set on fire is a great idea, huh Lalo? And you agree that keeping someone's shoes in one piece is smart, don't you?

Hilbert's not budging. Instead, he's looking at both Lalo and Levi, curious as to what the other will do next. If things come to blows...well, there's medical equipment here.

This is so humiliating. It's impossible to miss the seething glare Lalo shoots Hilbert, but he only says, "Yes. We agree."

He's already grabbed as much as he can, at least everything important to him, gathered in a little burlap sack he found to carry it in. "I'll see you around, gentlemen," Lalo says through gritted teeth, forcing himself not to hurry out as fast as he can. But he does leave, only Hilbert and Levi remaining in the room together after he makes his exit.

Humiliation is nowhere on Levi's agenda, though of course he can't speak for Hilbert. He remains still, only his eyes following Lalo as he leaves. There's an odd sort of familiarity to him, somehow. Perhaps he's also seen some shitty things, though of course that's no reason to act like a dickhead. Levi considers extending some sort of an olive branch, but figures it may be best to let him go for now. Maybe he'll linger outside and they can talk later.

He turns his focus back to Hilbert, regarding him. "It's a big building for one person," he states dryly. More people could make it in and cause trouble. Granted, he didn't particularly get the impression that the probably-doctor was claiming it all for himself; the man who just left just happened to be poor company. But there's nothing stopping him from coming back later, either. "Will you be alright?"

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cw: brief mention of nsfw things, nothing graphic

three old men with questionable morals walk into a hydrodam-- lmk if this works

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i'm half asleep so i hope this makes sense fff

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