Roadkill? More like roadchill am I right? (Tomomi / Nadia)

Another day in Endymion, another day of work. For Tomomi, this meant going about the city to wherever he was assigned, picking up the problems and the rubbish of other people. Mostly the rubbish. Officially, only the rubbish. And on todays assignment, the poor boy was sent to pick up the stray rubbish left on the streets and road sides of the Backlight.

Dressed in relatively plain black and white garb, the boy had a pack of black bags at his side, with a hygiene mask covering the lower part of his face, latex gloves covering his hands, and a long ranged litter picker in his left hand. Draped over his shoulder was a light rain coat, in case of rain or cold weather, and to compliment the look, the boy's hair was in its natural state of being windswept and raggedy, looking as if it'd just been dragged through several bushes and had any foliage hastily swept off.

So, dejectedly going about his job, the boy walked along, picking up rubbish as he came across it, and unceremoniously placing it inside of an open black bag.

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Backlight had a few streets that passed through and around the massive building, and these got quite a bit of traffic from people hurrying around the city for the various hustle and bustle of everyday life. And those people rarely gave mind to thing things that got in the way of their bustle. Like this possum, for instance, whose guts were dark ochre clumps on the pavement, in between what remained of its rotting corpse. The bones of its ribs were exposed. As Nadia leaned in and observed it, scarf pulled over her face against the smell, she wondered if this was similar to what archaeologists saw when they uncovered fossilized remains of dinosaurs.

Her presence stirred a couple flies as she withdrew the sketchbook from her bag and set her pastel pallet on the guard rail. She had been carving it's lifeless image into the paper for almost an hour when she noticed a figure plodding along the road, heading her direction. He seemed to be picking up trash as he went.

A car passed under the underpass, mere feet from her. She could hear footprints sometimes from the people walking above. At the moment, her focus was on this trash picker-upper. Her mind was spinning possibilities. It wasn't the first time she'd asked this question, and probably wouldn't be the last, but as she stood up, holding her sketchbook in front of her she asked the aproaching boy. "Excuse me, but are you Cecil's friend?"

In the distance ahead of him, the litter boy looked on to see someone... Drawing something? Was it like, an art student or something? Perhaps a professional artist? What were they drawing? The road as practice for drawing lines and shading? Maybe there was some beauty that only they saw from their angle? Well, he was going in that direction regardless, so he continued to approach while doing his job. And when he got close enough to see what the stranger was drawing, Tomomi was terrified.

A dead animal, clearly hit by a car. It didn't take long for the animal enthusiast to recognise it as a possum, and the way the sketcher looked from it to him made the boy's imagination run wild with fear that this person murdered the animal to draw it. Oh god, was he going to be murdered for the sake of an art project?!

What came next though, as the stranger addressed him, caused all tension in the boy to change from fear into flat out confusion. "... Cecil? Um... Y-you know Cecil? Because, um... Yeah, I'm friends with him... Um... The name's Tomomi... So uh... Who are you and how do you know Cecil, or that I'm Cecil's friend?" The boy asked, eyes glancing to the dead animal every now and again. It was always a sad sight, and why he hated road jobs.

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Nadia, now engaged in conversation with the boy, crouched back down to continue her drawing while he sputtered throuth his response. He certainly sounded like a friend of Cecil's. Smile broadening at the question, she looked up at him from her sketch pad and propped her chin on her palm.

"I am also Cecil's friend." She spoke the words easily, but suddenly looked very lost. It felt weird to say. Sort of...tingly in her chest. Her smile returned. "He told me about a very good friend - his best friend, in point of fact, who he met picking up garbage. So I thought it might be you." She made a point to leave out the fact that he was not the only trash collector she had asked. That...wasn't really important right now, was it?

"Cecil has become important to me. And if you're important to him, then I was hoping I would get to meet you." She added as she switched to a darker red pastel to capture some of the dried blood on the pavement around the creatures grey and sallow form.

At the words, Tomomi's face went bright red beneath his mask. Cecil... Cecil really thought of Tomomi as his best friend? To hear that sent the boy over the moon. Cecil'd always been awkward regarding their relationship, so Tomomi thought that was the case, but to hear it confirmed caused the boy to become really happy. "Ah, yeah, um... Unless he knows another person on the payroll of the governments litter pickers, that's um... That's me.."

Rubbing at the back of his neck, Tomomi listened while looking away, being very careful to not let any of the dead animal get into his eye sight - it was just a sad sight for him, more than anything. "So, um... How do you know Cecil, and um, also, so that it's not well, um, rude... Uh... What's your name? I guess I should have started with that, so um... Sorry about that..."

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

honestly, they could be brothers, the way their mien matched one another. It made Nadia a little jealous. She hadn't met anyone who saw the world the way she did. Not even Cecil, who seemed to have so much in common with her.

Cecil's friend introduced himself as Tomomi. Was that Japanese? Korean? She thought about it briefly as he asked her name. "Nadia Marquee." She replied, standing again and offering him the hand that wasnt smudged with pastel chalk. "We had a chance meeting, and have spent some time together..." She explained, sounding Whistful, maybe even longing. Was that intentional?

Introductions made, she slipped back down into her crouch and made a few more careful strokes. "Sorry about the smell. He isn't long for this world, and I wanted to capture his last moments before he vanishes from it entirely." she explained, matter-of-factly, as she covered her face with her scarf again.

Taking off a glove at the offered hand, Tomomi shook Nadia's hand, grip loose and gentle, before slipping the glove back on with a delicacy that suggested a history and experience of taking the gloves on and off. Hearing that Cecil had another friend was very pleasing for Tomomi to hear. However, what Nadia would say next as she continued sketching caused Tomomi to freak out a bit. "I-it's still alive? O-oh gosh, um, sorry, one moment!"

With a sudden exclamation, Tomomi carefully moved over to the side of the dying possum, dropping his equipment on the side of the road out of the way as he knelt beside the dying creature, frowning deeply beneath his mask. Then, slowly, Tomomi moved his hand to the back of the head of the animal, gently stroking its fur while humming softly, each motion and action the boy took being slow and almost motherly. "I'm so sorry... It'll be okay little guy... It'll be okay,,, Shhh... Shh..."

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Nadia watched with curious eyes as the boy knelt and stroked the corpse. So this was the type of person Cecil was friends with? Nadia had an unhealthy fascination with death, she realized. It wasn't hard to gauge that from others' reactions to her. Still, it was who she was. But she would never touch a corpse like that...Maybe she should try it?

It took her a moment to realize that the words she had used to describe her actions had led him to believe it was still dying. He's not long for this world. She'd said. Well, that's not what she'd meant... "He's passed on already, I believe." She said with a curious lilt to her voice. "I meant he's decomposing." She added, to clarify her own previous statement as she continued to sketch.

"I'm sure his spirit appreciates the sentiment. Though, you may want to sanitize your hands."

Turning to face the artist while still knelt down and by the corpse, Tomomi stayed still and simply blinked a couple of times, processing what he'd heard. In an almost comical and confused manner, Tomomi looked from Nadia, to the corpse, to Nadia, to the corpse. Then, at that, the boy slowly and silently got up to his feet, looking back to his set aside gear then walking over there. "Right... Yeah... Uh... Got it... Roger... Yeah..."

Picking his stuff back up, Tomomi frowned beneath the mask, shaking his head. "Guess I'll uh... Just burn these gloves at some point... Shame they aren't washable... Uh... Thank you for uh... Clarifying? Um... I hope it had a quick death? I guess? So um... Why are you drawing a body?"

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Nadia watched as the boy processed what she told him. The way he stuttered about was actually worse than Cecil, and made her want to laugh. But she didn't, because...well, that would be rude, wouldn't it? Nadia thought so, at least.

"So um... Why are you drawing a body?"

Nadia looked up from her pastels again, and moved her scarf a little, smudging a bit of red on her cheek by accident. "As I said before, There'll soon be nothing left of his life, or the way it ended, and I wanted to capture what was left of it." She looked from her sketch pad to the boy, blinking. "You think I'm strange, don't you? Most people do." She added as she turned the pad to add a few finer details from another angle. "...Cecil probably thinks I'm strange as well..." She spoke again after a moment, sounding wistful again. There was something...almost hurt in the way that she said it.

At the assumption that Tomomi was judging her, the boy hurriedly shook his head and hands emphatically. "Oh, no, no, that's not what I meant! I more meant like, why that in particular, or if this was the usual thing you went into topic for! My uh, English isn't very good... So, well, I am sorry if it was worded wrongly! But, um, I don't see anything wrong with it. We all have um... What's the word... Quarks? I mean, even Cecil does! And um, well, I wouldn't worry about Cecil being, well, judgemental. He's... Well, very far from being a judgy judge person, trust me! He's probably the single nicest person I've met, so, trust me, he wouldn't even think about thinking you're strange!"

While hard to tell, beneath his hygiene mask the boy was smiling, the only sign being that his cheeks were moved in a shape that gave the intonation of a smile, the boy giving a slightly bloody gloved thumbs up, before realising the glove was in fact slightly bloody and freaking out a tad.

Regaining his composure though, somewhat, he coughed and resumed where he was. "But yeah. I don't think you are strange. I'm just a very... Um... Curious person? I like to know things, so, sorry for asking!"

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Nadia giggled a little bit. Leaning back, she flipped her sketchbook closed, and started sliding pastels back into the pallet. Her focus had shifted enough that she felt like she could stop this project. She had captured enough of this creature's form. She loaded the book and the pastels into her bag as she stood, and addressed Tomomi. "You're right...It's just that Cecil and I...well, I think I may have made him uncomfortable, and I'm afraid he doesn't want to see me again." She stated plainly, taking a few steps away from the corpse.

All this talking had proven a bit much, and she was starting to feel a little nauseous. "If you don't mind, let's leave this little guy to his decomposing. The smell is getting a bit strong for me." She confided, gesturing him further down the way he had already been walking before hand.

Almost about to rub at the back of his neck in instinct, Tomomi caught himself and stopped before he made the mistake, before nodding. "Yeah... He has been the same with me, well, uh... Quite a bit. I think that's just who he is. He'll open up in time. Then he'll uh... Freak out about opening up. And then he'll open up more... And freak out more... It's like a cycle, but, you'll get used to it. Trust me."

At the insistence that they proceed away from the cadaver, Tomomi nodded, moving on to continue his job as they walked away from the body. "Yeah, I uh... I agree... Rest in peace little friend... So, um... Did you come out here looking for a corpse to draw, or, just something in general to draw? And do you draw professionally? Are you like, an artist person? That's uh... That's cool!"

Posts : 1468 Join date : 2018-09-15 Age : 34

Nadia stepped a alongside and a little ahead of Tomomi, so that he could do his job. He was better equipped for it than she was, so she didn't offer much aide. Instead, she indulged his question with a nod. "I draw what strikes my interest. I'm not a professional, no. it's just a way to capture the things around me. My sketches will probably outlive me, and they'll be the only proof of the things I saw. Like secondhand memories." She explained, gesturing with her hands before stuffing them in her pockets.

"I bet you see interesting things, walking all over Endymion like this. Have you ever been very close to the outskirts? I've heard it's dangerous." She asked, turning to face him and walking backwards, glancing back every couple of steps to make sure there was nothing to trip over.

Continuing to move forward and stopping only to pick up litter and shove it in the bag in a rhythmic pattern that suggested an experience in the art of litter picking. Still, he nodded along as an affirmative that he was indeed listening. When she posed her question, it didn't take long for Tomomi to shake his head.

"I've thankfully not been sent that far out... I'm pretty sure I'd die if the rumours are true of how dangerous it is... Definitely seen some uh... Interesting things, but, nothing particularly spectacular. Just... Well, just generally stuff is there, like, the remnants of festivals in Little Tokyo, or the drinks that lie in the bushes... I never understood why people throw litter in the bushes..."

Thoughts of some of his more memorable nights of work crossed his mind, before he continued. "I actually met Cecil while working... Um... He helped me out a bit... How did you meet him by the way?"

» Roadkill? Nah, This Time It's Sushi! (Tomomi/ Nadia)
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