meat, and bone, and blood // oxo // closed // romance rp

Bustop took a second to respond, still a little tired " Supplies?" he asked. He grabbed the tattered skirt he was wearing (the ONLY clothes he was wearing) and shook it a little. A dozen mismatched pill bottles, bandages, shards of glass and a few razors fell from the pockets and patches on it " Like these?" he asked, leaning down and picking up a shard of green glass.

He nodded, his eyes widening when he saw his collection. He noticed his lack of untarnished clothes. Charlie looked at the glass shards eagerly; they would make a good addition to his collection.
“….I could…..we could trade for ‘em, if you want…..”

" I don't want them" Bustop stared blankly " I have no idea where they came from actually" He continued " I just felt something in here" he patted his skirt and put the shard of glass back in a pocket.

Charlie nodded slowly, picking up the supplies.
“…..I have some clothes, if you want them….it’s the least I can do….”

Bustop shrugged "Nah, I'm cool" he picked up and trash bag from the floor, cut open the bottom with the shard of glass, and put it on, like a crop top "No need"

Charlie blinked a couple times, dumbstruck.
This man has no fashion sense. This must be fixed.
He rummaged around in his bag, pulling out a brown jacket with some sort of fur along the collar.
“At least have this…”

Bustop pouted " I don't want it." He looked up at the tall man " Do you offer clothes to every stranger you meet?" He hopped over " Or do you really just think I dress that badly?"

“….just…..isn’t it cold at night?…”
Charlie couldn’t help but notice how adorable he looked when he pouted. He didn’t quite understand the feeling though, so he just ignored it.

Bustop noticed Charlie staring at his lips. He elected to ignore " Yeah, but I have thick skin" he smiled " Plus, I don't usually sleep outside." He looked closer at Charlie's face, getting on his tiptoes " Hmmm… but you seem pretty genuine. I'll take the jacket" He said, sticking out his hand.

Charlie handed him the jacket. “…..I’m Charlie…..”

" Bustop!" he looked Charlie up and down " You're cute, I'm coming with you"

Charlie blushed a little. “…I’m what??…”

"Umm… Cute?" he squinted his eyes, dropping his ears "You okay?" he looked at the slight blush on Charlie's face and smirked.

He nodded. “…mhm….”
No one had ever told him that before.
Charlie scrambled to pick up all of the supplies, putting them into his bag.

"Anyways" Bustop hopped and turned around "Where are we going? What exactly do you do? Is it weird that I'm going with you even though I just met you? Scratch that, don't answer that question. How long have you been in the vast? What are you gonna do with those supplies?" He shot out all these questions all at once, almost like a shotgun, counting each question on his fingers.

Charlie didn’t know what questions to answer first. He had never seen anyone talk this much in his life.
“….I’m a trader, I wander around….I stay in Strohgn for the most part, but I travel….and I’m gonna keep some of ‘em, and trade some. I’ve been running low on first aid supplies for a while now.”

"Cool!" He said excitedly " I CAN go with you right?" He asked, tilting his head and putting a finger on his chin " I mean, life in the Vast is spontaneous and cool and all, but I'd like to see the other places of the world!" He paused "Preferably with anlther person"

He nodded. “….sure….I’ve never traveled with another person before…..”

" I have! Believe you me, I have enough experience for the both of us" He hopped up and down giddily " I've never been outside the Vast though"

"The cities are… interesting. There's a lot of things you can get in the cities that you can't really get out here, like tech, or psychedelic drugs, or prostitutes…. there's a lot going on."
Charlie brushed off his own jacket, which had gotten a bit of dust on it. He took pride in his cleanliness; something that not many people had, or rather, had the willpower to pursue.

" Well, I know what psychedelics are, but what is a 'tech' and what is a 'prostitutes' ???" As he spoke, Bustop shifted his body arlund about seven different times, posing differently throughout. He had a hard time keeping still.

"Tech is pretty much an umbrella term for fancy machine stuff… apparently, if you have the right things to trade, you can get bits of machines implanted in you that do certain things, like make you faster or give you specific knowledge. and……prostitutes are…..um….."
Charlie didn't explain to have to explain prostitution to anyone today. He was not prepared for this.

Thankfully, Bustop's attention span was entirely too small to remember his question " Oh! So 'tech' is like those weird things scattered in the vast… I think they're called 'cars'" He had wide eyes, staring straight at Charlie.

Charlie nodded. "Those are older tech, from before the New End, but same concept."
He pulled out an old, bent book from his bag, flipping through the stained and creased pages. The pages had torn-out newspaper and magazine scraps taped to them, along with some pressed plants. All of Charlie's additions matched the subjects of the book.
"This is an old history textbook. It was printed in…"
He paused to look at the faded back cover.
"2037! It has a lot of really cool stuff in it, like a bunch of stories and culture that humans had!" Charlie was clearly very passionate about this.
"I have a couple other textbooks too…. one about the old animals and plants, one about another language called 'Español', and one about the sky! Apparently, the sky hasn't changed much, since the drawings of the stars are still accurate."
Charlie's current chattiness was a stark contrast to his shy demeanor earlier.

" I'm guessing you like this kinda stuff?" Bustop asked with a smirk. He wasn't lying when he called Charlie cute, and he was even cuter now, when he spoke of his interests. "That's Adorable" he whispered.

Charlie nodded enthusiastically, not hearing Bustop's comment.
"This area used to be a town called Annapolis! It was part of a bigger area called Mary Land, and that was part of a bigger area called the United States! And the big body of water that's nearby was the Chesapeake Bay! And-"

His rant was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder. Charlie jumped, like a scared cat. He lightly hit his arm on a piece of metal debris, and it started to bleed. His blood was a strange greenish-grey color.

"Oh!" Bustop exclaimed, unshaken by the lightning " Are you good? Is the gash deep?" Bustop grabbed Charlie's arm without permission " Hehe, your blood looks kinda cool. I have boring ol' red blood" he wiped the wound with his newly acquired jacket " Anyways, um, you have bandages in your bag right? I could apply those for you"

Charlie nodded, reaching into his bag. He pulled out his first aid equipment.
"It's not deep, i just have thin skin…..this happens often….."

" Oh. Huh." Bustop said, amused " I rarely get gashes like that, only if I fall a long distance or get in a fight" he looked back at the storm clouds forming " Ooh, I love the rain. It's my favorite weather. We should head towards it. Sometimes, I try to jump high enough to reach the clouds. It works when I'm on a mountain or something, but usually, it doesn't" Bustop grinned at Charlie and then frowned in realization " Whoops, sorry, the rain probably is NOT good for that wound"

"Yep….probably not….i don't have much of a problem with rain, it's just loud noises that scare me a little…." Charlie quickly applied a salve that he had made himself a while back and wrapped up the wound. He then put his coat back on over it, to act as a barrier in between the wound and the rain.