best served chilled and stirred with a side of Never Walk Alone by BLONDE:ish & Stevie Appleton
"I'm here to recruit you."
"Excuse me?"
[The girl stands up, goes to shakes Ax's hand, he ignores it, she puts her hands in her pockets awkwardly]
"I'm Sal, and I'd like to recruit you into the Rogue Rutabaga band."
"The Rogue Rutabaga — like that old abandoned club downstairs?"
It's been empty since long before Ax moved in, filling up the whole bottom floor of the building.
"Yup! We're launching a grand reopening and need a keyboard player."
[Ax gives her a flat stare]
"I'm sorry. I literally just escaped being torn apart by a bunch of freaky fish-monsters for playing synth tracks on the corner, and now you're trying to make me join a whole band starting a nightclub in my basement? Are you insane? Do you have a goshdarn death wish?"
"Ax?"
[The door cracks open, a medium-height brown newt pokes his head in, a cigarette in his mouth]
"Crest?"
[Ax looks annoyed.]
This is Crest. Ax doesn't like him, for a few reasons. He's the only other resident in the building (aside from whoever's starting crap in the club downstairs), never takes out his trash, never changes clothes, and never leaves the apartment. And maybe on a deeper level, Ax dislikes him because he doesn't want to end up like him: lazy and lonely in his thirties, smoking weed and drinking cheap beer on the fire escape because he has nothing else and wants nothing else to do.
"You've got a visitor." [Crest says, looking at Sal]
"Yeah, you let her in, dumbarse." [Ax]
[Crest shrugs]
"She looked cute."
[Sal looks between the two of them]
"Cute!? She could have been an Angler!" [Ax]
"Is she?" [Crest]
[Both look at Sal]
"No, she's a solicitor, which is worse!" [Ax]
"Oh." [Crest shrugs and exhales a cloud of smoke]
"Remind me why I pay you to keep security anyway?" [Ax grumbles]
[Crest shrugs again, taking a drag]
"Oh screw it all, get out. You know I hate you smoking in here."
[Ax sighs and shoves Crest out the door, shutting it]
[Crest grumbles and shuffles away, Sal waves bye]
[Ax sighs and sets his stuff down, leans against the countertop]
"Give me one good reason I should listen to you."
[Sal grins]
"I can help you find your sister."
---
"My sister?"
"Yup — Ex, right?" [Sal picks up a photo sitting by Ax's bedside. It's a framed photo of two teens standing side by side, Ax and Ex, in graduation gowns, beside a minivan. The photo is signed Ax and Ex, 18 years old, Graduation Day — one last great adventure and family members are in the background, loaded with camping gear]
"How do you know about her?"
"My dude, your whole apartment it covered in photos of her." [Sal waves to the walls and minifridge, which have photos of Ax and Ex in various stages of their life]
"She was my twin sister — How do you know she's missing?"
[Sal shrugs and smirks.]
"I never give up my secrets."
"Seriously?"
"Fineee. The last record of her is from a hospital patient sheet as a car crash survivor, probably from shortly after this photo was taken, your other siblings are all accounted for, and her face went up on missing posters around the time of the Darkening."
[Ax is silent for a long moment. Finally, he sighs]
"Okay. You've done your research, I'll grant you that. And you've definitely been stalking me for a while."
[Sal shrugs and grins] "I like your music."
"What even makes you think you could find her?"
"I've got friends."
[Ax and Sal stare at eachother for a moment, before they shake hands]
"When do we start?" [Ax says]
[Sal smiles]
"Today. Grab your stuff, we're going downstairs."
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