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[That information provokes a full-on, gut-busting round of delighted laughter from Krieg. The day was already looking to be a good one because Jimmy is in it, but this new knowledge has pushed it right over the top.

...Not that it's difficult to push Krieg over the top. But still!]

MnahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

You're gonna be King Badass!

[That comment is directed at Murder Chicken, who takes this news as gracefully as he handles all of his trainer's enthusiastic outbursts, by fluffing up and squawking excitedly.

...They're really two of a kind.

It takes Krieg a moment or so to reign it in, but once the last of the giggles die away he tilts his head to one side and returns his gaze to Jimmy, plainly curious.]

Brats?

He's gonna be crazy awesome! Annie here...shit, I'm lucky she likes me. She's the top level, and I didn't raise her. A lot of times...you end up with a Pokemon that's around level hundred and if you don't have many badges, they won't listen. But Annie and I knew each other, her last Trainer lived with me. Well....I lived with her.

[Jimmy starts walking as he talks, his Pokemon following. He misses Ib a lot, still. He owes her so much. She hadn't care what he was, the things he'd done...she'd taken him in and loved him like family.]

She was just a little kid, she lost the friend she shared a house with. I was kinda like her big brother. Annie knew that. And doesn't mind I call her 'Annie', 'cause I can't pronounce her full name. It's got...so many vowels.

Oh, brats are sausages! Way easier to carry around than burger meat.

[Krieg follows when Jimmy starts walking, stretching his stride for a pace or two until they're walking comfortably side-by-side, with Jimmy to hish left. It seems like Jimmy knows a good place for lots of fire, which is just fine with Krieg.

He listens closely as the other talks. That...sounds familiar - people inheriting other people's pokemon. He thinks he's heard about it before. It sounds like a good deal for the monsters, but the idea makes him uneasy, because...]

People disappear?

[Since he already knows that apparently people here don't die. Which would be easier for Krieg to reconcile, anyway...You know what's happened to someone, when they've died. When someone disappears, though? Who knows?

On a far less serious note, the promise of sausages is an exciting one, and he says as much:]

Sausages! It's been ages!

Well, they go home. Or back to...wherever.

[Since he knows 'home' doesn't cover everybody.]

But it's unpredictable. I been here years. I known some people who were just here a month. If I'm lucky, I ain't never going back where I came from. I don't think I could, shit. How's a guy go back to being treated like an animal, when he's been living like a man?

[And by now, the cruelty of the American deep south seems so, so far away. He's come so far, left it behind. The thought of going back to it.... No. He can't.]

But I ain't gone anywhere yet, so I figure I ain't gonna!

[He ambles out of town, perfectly comfortable to be walking with Krieg. More than, really. This? This feels right. It's the same kind of feeling he gets with Tobias. He's with his people.]

[He still has a difficult time comprehending why anyone would be a dick to Jimmy just because his hands don't look like most people's hands, but he also has a hard time comprehending why people do the things they do in general most of the time, so it's really just one more mystery for the pile.]

Mnn. It's better here.

[He wasn't sure about that at first, but once Angel showed up, his uncertainty vanished, and he knew it was. Listening to Jimmy talk only reinforces that more - better for Angel, better for Jimmy...heck, it's better for Krieg, too. He hasn't snapped a single neck, or set fire to a single person, or otherwise maimed or harmed anyone since arriving, and it's been...nice.]

I'm glad it's better for Jim Dear.

[Walking with Jimmy is a little surreal, but overwhelmingly nice. The other man is totally relaxed in Krieg's company, which is something he's strongly aware of due to the way almost anyone else would be tense and on-guard. He could take off his mask and (probably) be coaxed into a shirt, and present a somewhat more civilized facade to the world, but he feels like that would be dishonest on some level. Something could still snap, and he could blink back to awareness covered in someone else's blood. He doesn't think that's going to happen, but if there's one thing he can be sure of regarding the state of his own broken psyche, it's that nothing is certain. So he keeps his mask on, partially as a warning, and partially as a reminder.]

It's better for the Psycho, too.

I didn't think a place could be this good. Not really. Even when I first got here, I kept thinking 'okay, where's the catch?'. But there ain't one. We're lucky guys.

[Look at them. A couple of freaks, walking through town like it's no big deal, with their fire birds. Heading out to have a barbecue and hang out like anybody does on a weekend afternoon.]

[It feels good.]

There's a field, out a little ways from the city. Figure that'll do us just fine. And hey, we might see some wild Pokemon!

[He knows the field Jimmy is talking about - it is a good place for a barbeque. He uses it mostly to spar with Murder Chicken, which doesn't typically involve too much fire because he's been asked (and warned) not to start a brush fire. Still, both he and the Pokémon do have their moments, and the field has tolerated their enthusiasm well.

The field's Pokémon denizens, on the other hand, are not as tolerant. These days, the wild Pokémon there run and hide when they see Krieg coming.]

I know it! It's a good place.

...Not very many monsters, though.

[8')]

Oh yeah? Well, probably best, I don't need anymore! I got so many Pokemon, I don't even know what to with'em all.

[But he loves all of them. And he does have a hell of a team, no matter who he's got out.]

[It doesn't take too long to reach their destination. When they do, Jimmy unshoulders hid bag and sets in on the ground. He's well prepared for this little outing.]

[Annie simply waits, watching her trainer with a bland but fond expression, the little ice bear sitting by her feet.]

So...I've never really done this before, other than once or twice when I was drunk, so I don't really remember that. But I seen it done a million times, and I know what to do and everything.

[It feels good to listen to Jimmy talk. He likes being talked to, has liked it ever since he met Maya, and the other vault hunters, and then Lilith's resistance fighters. It's such a normal thing, such a human thing, to be talked to. His memories - what there is of them - of the time before he met Maya are vague, but he definitely knows he hadn't been talked to. Yelled at, screamed at, bled at, yes. But not talked to.

What a world of difference it makes, being treated like a regular person. If this keeps up, Krieg may even start to believe that's what he is, too.

He stays quiet while Jimmy chatters away, enjoying the opportunity to listen, and stops when the other does and watches curiously as he begins to unpack his supplies.]

What'cha got?

So, we've got fuel...we've got torches... these are for fire breathing!

[Jimmy sets those to one side. He's even got the right kind of fuel, the paraffin kind! Safety first and everything.]

And then we got barbecue supplies!

[The grill and accompanying tools and small cooler go on the other side.]

So, it's a pretty simple idea. We've got our torches, we light'em. we take a mouthful of the paraffin oil, and we spit it over the torch.

[There's absolutely no way this can go wrong, with two amateurs going off of half-remembered instructions in the middle of a field.]

[And Krieg is over here practically vibrating with excitement.]

Mngahahaha! Sounds like fun!

[Although if he's gotta put something in his mouth to do this, that means his mask has to come off. No big deal. Since Jimmy seems to be more or less ready, he reaches reach up and behind his head to un-fasten the clip holding it on. It slips a bit at first, then he brings a hand up to ease it off the rest of the way...and hand it over to Murder Chicken for safe keeping. The Combusken takes it with evident care and holds it close to its breast with both clawed arms.

The face under his mask is - maybe surprisingly, maybe not - fairly ordinary. There's no visible injury to his right eye which might explain why he keeps it covered up; it moves in perfect sync with his left eye, and for all appearances seems perfectly healthy. There's a thin scar across the bridge of his otherwise unremarkable nose, and an excited grin on his full-lipped but otherwise unremarkable mouth.]

I'm ready! Let's do it!!

[There is absolutely no way this could go wrong, indeed.]

Edited 2016-10-24 00:32 (UTC)

It should be!

[Jimmy dusts off his hands and grabs a torch. How hard can this be?]

[He's a little surprised when Krieg takes off his mask. Not that he does it, but what's underneath. Which is just a pretty normal face. He'd almost expected something...well, something a guy would wear a mask for. He hadn't worn his gloves all the time just for the hell of it.]

[But apparently it's a fashion choice.]

Okay, let's get our torches fueled! Hey Icee, c'mere, gotta be ready to put us out if anybody catches on fire!

[Pandora does have some pretty weird fashions, it's true. Krieg's choice to wear his mask is less about fashion and more about safety, though, honestly. Other people's safety. And he'd tell Jimmy exactly that without much hesitation if Jimmy were to ask. Self-control is not his strong suit, although to be fair he has been getting better at it since coming here. He's still not great but he's better than he was. The significant absence of people whose faces he'd be happy to chew off helps, too.

He reaches out to grab a torch when Jimmy does, and moves closer to see what this fueling thing is all about. This is definitely a little more complicated than his usual method of breathing fire (which is just to do it), but he'd kind of got the impression that it would be. The set-up's interesting, at least, although no doubt hugely impractical for implementing in the middle of a Pandoran-style firefight.]

Mngh...put him out, first.

[That remark is directed at the little ice bear, with a flick of his eyes and a jerk of his head in Jimmy's direction.]

I haven't burned in ages.

[Months are not ages, but time is a weird concept sometimes, and another one of those things Krieg doesn't have the greatest grasp on. If it sounds like Krieg is actually excited by the prospect of catching on fire...well. It's because he is.]

Careful, you don't wanna wake up in the Pokecenter!

[Which is the only concern Jimmy shows over Krieg's passion for fire. Including on himself. The guy obviously really likes fire, who's he to bring him down?]

[He gets his torch good and fueled, and nods to himself. Yeah, that should do it.]

Okay, now we light'em. Who wants to do the honors?

[They've got two fire breathers between them.]

[Oh, Jimmy, if only you knew.]

Combusken!

[Murder Chicken would like to volunteer! Th-that is, if Annie doesn't mind! O-or they can both help? His plumage is all fluffed out with his eagerness, even as he clutches his trainer's mask close and safe. This is really exciting! He wants to help his trainer make a flamethrower, too!]

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