Miffed by the silence, the driver turned on the radio. An 80's song played halfway through, as Walnut Wharf became visible behind the window. At first, it seemed like it was an unimpressive mass of standard apartment buildings, all painted in flashy colors, but as the car moved on, the decor became more exciting. Magnificently turquoise water shined in the back, with a small dock springing from the town, right next to a modest Ferris wheel. Some high-rise structures stood out as the driver mumbled "Here's Vayner Avenue". With the old run-down buildings out of view, N/A marveled at entire streets equipped with retro-futuristic housing. Tall, orange & white wonders towered the road, right next to abundant greenery and squeaky-clean pavements. "That's where all the taxpayers' money goes..." coughed out the driver, keeping his eyes on the road in resentment.
N/A wondered what he meant by that, not fathoming a government project could build such wonders. He kept his eyes glued to the view, which once the cab turned right, changed into a desolate grey place, with shopping carts running free on the pavement as did empty cans, packages, as well as all sorts of plastic things. These buildings hadn't gotten a paint job in at least a dozen years, scattered traces of blue, red, and yellow remained but were rendered almost invisible by the dominance of dark grey matter. The driver grinned, "And this is where you go. Wallow Street.". N/A timidly chuckled. "Good thing the politicians planted trees high enough on the Avenue to hide all this." the driver spoke further. Then the car stopped. "Wait- this isn't a joke?" distressfully inquired N/A. "No, I don't do jokes." the driver retorted. The cab was stationed in front of a trashed-out 90 feet tall brick. It had multiple stories, all containing two apartments each. The windows on its front were separated evenly by a wall. Cracks were visible even from a large distance, the highest floor, the 12th, had on the right been completely smashed. One couldn't help but notice the small balconies that adorned both sides of the buildings, and especially the one of that particular flat on the 12th floor. In addition to having the windows broken, the balcony was half of what it used to be. A cut had sliced through it, making the bundle of stones that once formed the other end of it crash down to the balcony below. They were still there, filling up the whole space. The fence was still hanging, linked by only one side to the rest of the remaining structure...It was gonna fall any day now, but right then and there, it was just hanging in the air, as a sort of shrine for the moment when the destruction happened. Having left the car, N/A's awe was such that it made him forget how tired he was from the trip. The realization that this post-apocalyptic set prop was going to be his new home injected energy back into his sleep-deprived body. He wanted to complain, ask a million questions, jump all around the street and scream out fire to entirely burn this anathema down to ashes.
Yet he stood still, waiting for the driver to get the luggage out of the trunk. After all, what would be the use of unleashing his bitterness? Especially on a modest taxi driver who for one, wouldn't care, and for two, wouldn't be able to do anything about it. It's often said in Janisbure that evil never comes knocking once. When Fabius barged out the barred door that was the front entrance, this saying gained evidence. N/A had specifically hoped he wouldn't have to see this man again. When briefed by HeroKorp's staff about his life to come, he had incessantly asked so that Fabius doesn't move to the city with him, it being unnecessary as N/A's HeroKorp member status was revoked. They had always nodded, emphasizing they would bend to his wishes and that everything was going to go just as planned.
N/A's suspicion this wouldn't be the case was strong; he still had business to do with HeroKorp, and they'd probably use someone he's acquainted with to squeeze every buck out of him. It turned out his hunch wasn't completely unfounded.
Fabius was a 5ft8 man, always wearing a low-cost suit above his beer-bellied body. He had green-dyed hair, held back by cheap gel. He had "Magnet" tattooed in all caps on the left side of his head, right below his undercut. It was to the right of a shadow-art of a feline, commonly called "pussy". What annoyed N/A the most about him was his piercings near his cut eyebrows, and the gold teeth he had put at the front of his mouth. It's not only that it looked ridiculous, it's also that it looked ridiculous *and* that it was trying very hard to imitate Lil Z, some obscure rapper from a decade back. Unlike Fabius, Lil Z had grown up in a minority neighborhood, having to cope with the trials of such a lifestyle. He was an icon of success to millions of deprived youngsters, whose communities faced hardship simply because of skin color. And there was Fabius, whose full name was Fabius Barnabus Sorkshire. It wouldn't be that bad if his copycatting stopped at green hair, undercuts, and golden teeth, however, he never knew where to stop. He'd sometimes go on to invent himself a rough past, despite being a member of the Sorkshire family, the owners of HeroKorp. He would spend hundreds going to tanning salons, and trying to change his speech mannerism to look "doper". It was just his utter failure at being something he'd never be, that N/A found the extremely unnerving. It just reminded him of himself.
But his speech mannerisms still remained the crudest manifestation of that. Certain terms were even ruined simply by him using them, he'd always drop them repetitively, making them lose any meaning or effect. For example his way of saying, wait for it..."WHAT IZZZZ UP MY GUY??" he stressed on the "Z" sound as he walked towards N/A, whose faced reeked of despair. Fabius moved his hands around, spread to show his palm and just when the "Z" stopped, he'd close them into a fist. He did that all time, every time. It was his *thing*, just like wild animals have a mating call, he had a greeting call. And it was awful. "Hey, Fabius." N/A sighed, barely looking into his eyes. Fabius bent his thin arm and put his fist up, the young man didn't react. Staying in position, Fabius uttered "Mando..erhm, Borislav, I'm trying to do a fistbump." Borislav stopped paying attention to him, despite noticing the fist. He was instead grabbing his luggage. That didn't prevent Fabius from going on, "You and I go way back my friendo, and you've never given me a fistbump once!". "Well maybe there's..." a reason for that. That's what Borislav wanted to say, but well. Fabius just went on "You know I wasn't even obliged to come here with you, you know? They didn't even want me to come, I had to insist to get here! I could have been partying on a far off island, enjoying my hard-earned money to celebrate that you wouldn't be under my watch anymore..." He moved his fist to his heart, and resumed: "But I care about you my guy and I'm the only one who does now! I'm here because you still need a familiar face living near you. You'd be too scared speaking to your neighbor even if your crib caught fire or something, you'd be standing there burning to death, and then everyone else in the building would be burning to death, just because your 'mutist' ass is too much of a dork to man up."
Such an (almost) from the heart speech was meant to make Borislav tear up and jump into his hero's arms, ending in him bumping his fist against his. However, it just made him more irritated, to the point where he had forgotten the cab driver hadn't left yet. He mumbled, "I don't burn Fabius, that's my thing. So I wouldn't need your help with that anyways. And what do you mean by 'near me' ? Aren't you supposed to go back to work?". Fabius smiled, "Well that's the good news. I'm gonna be working, by your side. They moved me to the office here!". That was the exact opposite of good news, it was bad. In fact, it stank.
A thought came rushing through Borislav's mind, was Fabius saying he was going to move in with him? Having to live in this dumpster dump was already going to be a challenge, but with Fabius as a roommate...he'd never survive through it. "Are you saying you're going to be living here with me?" he asked, as Fabius turned slightly towards the building, gazing at it. He smiled, "Nope! My guy, you're like, 23 now. You can live without big brother watching you. Time for the duckling to fly out the nest, you know." Borislav sighed out of relief, before Fabius elaborated, "So nope. What I mean is, I'm gonna be living in one of those beauties right there" he pointed towards Vayner Avenue. Borislav's relief ended at once, going back to making his face stern as a statue. The driver, who had been listening, chuckled, making the two aware of his presence again.
"Oh, Tony. I forgot to greet you, my guy! Thanks for the lift, he needed it. Did you say thank you to Tony, Borislav?" Fabius exclaimed, presumably set on annoying Borislav. Borislav turned to the driver, saying "Thanks, Tony" in a quiet voice. The driver held a mocking smirk, "You're welcome. My name's not Tony though." said Not Tony. Fabius looked embarrassed and didn't say anything more. "Well, I'll leave you two, see you around sometime." the driver continued, receiving weak waving gestures as approval. Soon enough, he was back in the driving seat and roaming the streets of Janisbure.
Holding his luggage, Borislav followed HeroKorp's finest employee through the entrance. Barely any light made it through the planked-up windows of the first floor, and the only light source was a chandelier laying on the checkered floor. Thanks to an impressively long cable descending from the ceiling ( where it once was ), it still lit up when Fabius pressed the switch place on the wall. But half of its fake candles were well broken, making the light rather dim. This image reminded Borislav of one of the travel leaflets he had gotten his hands on, spelling 'Welcome to Janisbure! The City Of Lights!". The irony of it almost made up for the nihilism this place had caused him to feel.
An elevator spot sat at the end of the room, although empty of any elevator. Yellow tapes stared into it, with "Beware, Danger. Can cause death." written on there, warning anyone from taking a stroll towards it. Fabius headed towards a staircase found right to the right of it, but was interrupted by Borislav asking, "Fabius, what the hell happened there?". Fabius looked back, scratching his neck, thinking how to cook up a sensical sentence. "The elevator's just not there, I think it's gone for maintenance. At least that's what they told me," he answered, leaving his interlocutor unconvinced. Yet Borislav didn't push further, simply following the guide upstairs. They walked up 10 stories, Borislav overtook Fabius pretty early on despite carrying heavy luggage, as Lil Z's copycat was clearly forcing himself not to fall onto the steps from being out of breath. As Fabius was pushing through the 8th floor, the tall boy was observing a wooden door in front of him. It seemed unlike in the previous stories, this was a single apartment.
When Fabius arrived, walking uneasily, he pulled out a set of three keys from the pocket of his suit. He showed one of them, an old rusty one, to Borislav, signaling this was the one he'd need to use to open this door. He slid it into the lock, turned it, and pushed on the knob. A doorway was revealed, with a stylish red carpet extending all the way to another door 10 feet away. Two other doors were respectively leading to the right side and to the left side. As Fabius walked forward, Borislav couldn't help but notice the marks laying on the walls. Some nails were pushed into them, while the lack of paint near those nails indicated the past presence of pictures frames, paintings, and a coat hanger. At the intersection, Fabius leaned over to the door on the right, which was half-opened. His eyebrows formed a slide as he took on an investigating expression. Pushing the door, Fabius and Borislav became aware of the presence of a gigantic being crouched behind a small fridge door. A watery substance leaked from the person, spilling out all over the floor.
"B-Man, what are you doing here, my guy?!", Fabius blurted out. Standing up, holding a cup of coffee with a...salami stick dipped into it, was an easily 6ft6 creature with a bloated body shape and a rather unusual face. Its head wasn't human, it was a mass of slimy translucent pink matter with two entirely black dots poked into it to form his eyes. Like a snow pile, it was wider at the bottom and less at the top, giving the impression that he had massive flappy cheeks. His mouth was wide and dropped at each end to form a semi-circle. As for his nose, it also formed a semi-circle, except it was in the inverse sense, dropping on his mouth like a giant sack.
Expressing himself as he looked down to his cup, he replied in a monotonous voice: "You told me I could use this place when nobody was here." Fabius brushed his hand against his face, before uttering; "I know I did. But who told you you could steal stuff from the fridge?!". Silence ensued, then he continued, "Anyways, Mand-Borislav! This is B-Man. He's living in the apartment behind." Borislav simply amazed and somewhat intimidated by this atrocity of a man, kept quiet. The fact that this blobfish-headed person had a normal human body, with human skin, with perfectly human hands...was what troubled him the most.
"So he'll be on his way now." Fabius added, though still not getting any reaction from B-Man. "Blobby, can you please go back to your place?" he asked. B-Man woke up from his frozen state and, not letting go on of the salami and the cup, brought them with him to the exit. "Scuzie." he mumbled as he passed in front of the crammed entry, making Fabius and Borislav take steps to free up space.
When Blobby had dissapeared back passing through the other door, Fabius wandered inside, avoiding the trails of liquid below him. He turned around and opened his arms as he shouted "WELLLLLLCOMEEEEEEE to your new HOOOOME, HOMES!" in an ecstatic tone. But Borislav was unimpressed, to say the least. He took no notice of Fabius, dropped his bags, and looked around at the place he was gonna spend his new life in. He could see the kitchen right in front of him. It was near the window, where the sink and kitchen counter stood. It was probably designed this way to offer a view into the city, but right there and then this view was that of the balcony. The one jammed with rocks and with a fence hanging right above it in plain sight.
Taking note of where Borislav was looking, Fabius commented "Oh yeah, something happened there. You won't be able to use the balcony here, but that's not too bad since you never go outside anyway!", shaking his head...he chuckled at his own 'joke'. Unamused, Borislav stepped in and looked at the two other rooms in the place, the living room that was to his right had an old couch facing a cube television, with two shelves next to it, a drawer near the window and a door that led directly to the third room; the bedroom.
Venturing into it, he could see a large bed placed beside a night table. A chair was just there in the middle of the room and two tables were put on top of one another next to the door that led back to the kitchen. "Nice little place right?" smiled Fabius. Borislav didn't find anything to complain about those rooms, except that all wallpapers had been mysteriously scratched off, but something else was on his mind. "Fabius, where is the bathroom?" he inquired. "About that!" Fabius exclaimed, trying to keep an optimistic tone. "It's in the doorway, you know that door between yours and B-Man's?". Borislav frowned, while Fabius expanded, "There used to be this old lady living here and this was only one apartment so, that's why you don't have your own bathroom or whatever. It's not the end of the world. Besides if it was, it's not like you can't deal with that, Mando. "
Borislav expected there would be a catch to HeroKorp's offer. Letting him go with a paid-for flat in a city with rents higher than the sky, just seemed too good to be true. Still, he didn't expect it to be this bad, but what could he do? Until he paid back this debt, he wouldn't be able to afford any other place. Beaten down, Borislav grabbed a glass from the kitchen counter, while Fabius tried selling him some relief. "I know it's not the best place but at least it's free. You don't know how expensive this city is. Yet you see, HeroKorp's paying for all of this! We pay for your shelter, we pay for the water and electricity...". Just as Fabius made his speech, Borislav slid his hands over the tap to fill his recipient.
"By the way, there's no water from 4 am to 10 pm except on Sundays." Fabius continued. The lucky Tenant was tempted to throw his glass right to his face but, perhaps unfortunately, refrained from it. Borislav kept silent until he glanced back at the fridge and desperately asked, "Who's gonna take care of this...stuff on the floor?". "That's not my concern, you can take it up to B-man if you want" cowardly expressed Fabius. Borislav wheezed.
Eager to get out of there, Fabius inquired, "So, Mando. Did you have time to complete the housing form?". Borislav had forgotten about it, leaving the quest for his ethnic identity at the bottom of his priorities. "No, I didn't," he mumbled. Fabius expressed his disappointment with a sigh, then said, "Well. When you're done with it go find the building consultant. She's living on the third floor." With this, Fabius was about to take off, but surprisingly was delayed by none other than his quiet friendo. "Hey Fabius, what race am I?", Borislav asked. Fabius chuckled, puzzled by the randomness of this question. "I don't know. A dragon maybe." Soon after, the door was shut. Borislav gazed pensively out of the window...trying to admire the city beyond the fence.