Note: Hey internet, I apologise to any American readers for the English spelling, I hope you can overlook it. So this is my first fanfiction and came up with it after thinking of various ways in which I could get Ahzruhkal to live a little longer without Charon blowing his head off because he's an interesting character that sadly doesn't get as much attention as he deserves. Enjoy.
Charon felt his jaw tense. His long fingers curled into tight fists as his glassy eyes swept expectantly to look at the splintering wooden doors of The 9th Circle, the way he always had when he heard footsteps approaching. Before the person had even swung those doors open and stepped into the darkest, most dangerous putrid pit in Underwold, he began, out of the orders of the contract, to analyze what lay behind it, and more importantly what threat it possessed.
The light footsteps whispered the suggestion it was a female. The left footfall was slightly louder. She carried her (heavy) gun on the left side, meaning she was right handed. As the footsteps got louder and closer, his eyelids slid shut and he listened to the bullets and ammo rustle and lap together in her pockets like a sea of metal, making slight, almost inaudible chiming noises.
Beneath his stoic, unchanging facial expressions, a slight spark of interest ignited before he killed it with a trained restraint. She had shotgun shells. That might be useful. Charon swallowed, and straightened himself to his full height as he locked his eyes back to the doors. He almost hoped the woman would start something. He needed the shells. His fingers twitched, longing for the embrace of the trigger.
The left door opened, the tiniest crack allowing an eerie orange glow to cast a blade of light into the poorly lit bar. The small woman slipped through this gap, and gently shut the door behind her, as quietly as she could. Once taking a swift, wary look around for danger, and after feeling none was being presented, she stood a little taller, missing the shadow that glared at her from the corner. A human. Charon hadn't seen one in Underworld in a long time. It didn't matter to him, he still willed her to make a wrong move. God, he needed those shells. After his last little "errand" he ran for Ahzrukhal he was only left with ten, and Shotgun shells were hard to scavenge, and he didn't get bottle caps, not even to feed himself. If he needed to eat, he'd just go out and kill something, simple. Finding a precious rarity as shotgun shells, however, was an entirely different matter.
He watched as her chest deflated with a deep sigh, and she reached up to the back of her head, untangling her nearly white blonde hair from a messy bun, and letting it fall, tumbling down past her shoulders and reaching half way down her rib cage.
Charcoal, a name she had found everyone started calling her after she left the vault, felt the tension from her aching brain go toppling down along with her hair. Having it scraped back all the time was numbingly uncomfortable, but none the less a necessity out in the wastes. She couldn't afford a loose lock blinding her vision when she aimed to snipe a Super Mutant or when she was battling off Raiders. She shrugged her aching shoulder that was beginning to nag for a rest under the weight of her shotgun. She adjusted it, and walked over to the bar. She hesitated as she tried to find one that wasn't stained with bodily fluid that had faded to a nasty colour so that it was almost impossible to tell what it actually was. After failing, she sat heavily down and eyed the man in the dirty pinstriped white suit. He had his back to her as he grumbled under his breath whilst trying to find something in the fridge. She heard something metal moan and then snap with a crack.
"Shit. Fucking place is falling apart, why do I even..." Ahzrukhal snarled, hurling the door shut and spinning on his heels, freezing at the sight of Charcoal who was patiently waiting for him to notice and serve her. She smiled out of politeness, which was met by a dark, eerie smirk that crept open like an old war wound.
"Well, I never. A smoothskin, down in Underworld. Haven't seen your kind in a while," He stepped forward, placing one palm flat against the bar and the other courteously tucked behind his back. Charon felt a grimace beg to be let out onto his face as he watched the Ghoul's eyes wander up and down the tiny woman's little frame. Charon wondered if she even reached 5'3.
"And what is your name...Persephone?" He cocked his head to the side, and smiled as charmingly as he could, which turned out to be actually quite sickening. Charcoal had already a good idea what kind of man Ahzruhkal was. Blind with the delusions of self importance and incredibly arrogant, which meant he was going to be easy to play to get what she wanted. Her polite smile now curled with a hint of playfulness.
"If I am Persephone, who are you?" She asked, leaning onto the bar top with both elbows.
"You'll just have to find out, won't you?" Ahzruhkal chuckled. "So...what's your poison?" Charcoal straightened, and bit her plump bottom lip, that almost looked blood red against the stark whiteness of her skin.
Charon watched from afar, eyes narrowed as he continued studying his opponent. He had to admire her choice in weapon, though it was badly looked after and he wondered if her long, skinny arms could even take the recoil of it. However the thing that had captured his attention was her skin. She wasn't just pale, she was nearly iridescent, like her skin had never shown itself to the sun before, turning instead to bathing in the moonlight and after growing used to it's presence had began to mimic it's surface.
He watched Ahzruhkal hand her a beer, and as she reached out to get it, he caught a glimpse of her bare wrist, the veins underneath bold blue and purple, each perfectly defined and encased in the strange skin. It looked like a hollowed out diamond filled with milk. Then it struck him. Was this the new creature that had crawled it's way out of the vault? It would make sense then that her skin had simply given up on producing any sort of pigment.
Charcoal felt Ahzruhkal's rough fingers brush against her own as she took the bottle, and had to restrain her whole body from shuddering in revulsion. Ghouls didn't bother her, but creepy evil bastards did. She'd heard too much about what Ahzruhkal does from the muted words of the citizens of Underworld, always whispered in hushed tones incase the walls themselves were his faithful allies, ready and waiting to report. Before he could start talking again, Charcoal decided to get to the point.
"I never got your name, what is it?" She smiled politely, taking a deep swig that stung the back of her throat and felt warm all the way down her wind pipe. What was in this beer?
"My name is Ahzruhkal, bar owner, respected citizen," He grinned the same wound like smile again, the one that made her own smile twitch.
"Ahzruhkal..." She breathed out his name, giving it a slightly exotic foreign ring to it, which made his grin grow even wider than it already was. Charcoal wondered if it was going to split his face in two. But it was a good move, it appealed his ego which probably dwarfed the Washington monument.
"Ahzruhkal, who's the guy in the corner?" She watched his eyebrow raise up, and heard the cringing silence that followed her questions, before the others around her quickly began muttering to each other again, however this time, much quieter.
"Now why would you want to know?" He said, his smile turning a little twisted at the ends.
"Indulge me...please?" She pouted sulkily, twirling a strand of her albino hair absent mindedly. She would get this Ghoul to free Charon. There was nothing more she hated than slavery, even Supermuntants were one down on the list, though only just. After hearing the stories she'd came to the 9th Circle to try and win his freedom. She was a silver tongued devil, and could talk even the most cunning into selling the clothes off their own backs to simply satisfy her whim, and she knew if she played her cards right with Ahzruhkal, she could free the "Charon" she kept hearing about.
"Oh don't pull that face," He chuckled under his breath and swept a flaking hand through what remained of his hair. "His name is Charon. I am his employer, he does...jobs for me, usually I send him out into the wastes and he comes back with ammo, caps, and a whole lot of blood drenched over him," He let out a barking laugh that ended in a long, drawn out wheeze.
"So...he's an employee?" She asked skeptically, using her hand to prop up her head.
"That's what I said,"
"It's what you said but it's not what you actually mean, is it?" She said it softly, in a light tone so her point didn't sting to harshly. His face drooped a little despite this, and he put his hands on the sides of his waist. Business face. This wasn't what she was aiming for.
"You want to talk about his contract do you?"
"I want to talk about you doing me favour," She sighed deeply, pulling the most endearing, helpless look she could muster.
"Then Prithee tell, what can old Uncle Ahzruhkal do for you?" He leaned in close, far too close for her liking, until he was only a few inches away from her face. Despite the unpleasant breeze of his hot breath on her, she still maintained her expression.
"Well, you must know being out here for so long, that it get's a little lonely out in the wastes and-"
"How do you suggest I help?" He purred, resting his forearms flat against the bar, a new smile and a new glint in his myopic eyes she had hoped to never see shone at her, only a few centimeters away.
Charon had the stomach of a battle hardened soldier. He saw limbs rip off like crimson rose petals, gaping wounds that vomited blood and puss and felt only a complete sense of perfect apathy, and yet the sight before him made his stomach start to churn. He suppressed a shudder and blinked the thought away. It was an image he could live without. Charcoal let out a light hearted, breathy laugh.
"Well, I've also had plenty of close scrapes, and I simply don't think I can get lucky more times than I already have, and so I was looking for a companion, and I hear you might be able to help me, if you'll be so very kind," She worded her request as carefully as she could, no demands, all polite, and steering clear of using serious tones as well as keeping him buttered up. She hated resorting to this method when she spoke to men, but she simply had no choice.
"You want me to give you Charon, free of charge? Persephone, you do insult me so..."
"Oh, I would give you compensation for your loss, I assure you. But you would make me the happiest girl in the wastes if you helped me out here," She shone a smile at him, wide and toothy. Good natured, and not to flirtacious. She didn't want to put ideas into his head after she started talking about "compensation."
"I don't know...he is immeasurably invaluable...2000 caps...and we'll call it quits,"
"2000 caps!" She spluttered, recoiling in shock. She cursed herself. Bad move. Breaking character.
"Or nothing at all...unless you decide to run me an errand. You see I have a problem. Greta. You know her don't you? I know you do. Well, she needs taking care of," He smirked.
Charcoal felt a pang in her chest. She couldn't bring herself to kill Greta, even if she wasn't exactly her favourite person in the world, but he didn't have the caps for it either. After having to stock herself up to the teeth with ammo from running around acting as Three Dog's errand girl and charging head first at pissed off Supermutants, she'd only 524 left. She should have known Ahzruhkal would have asked for caps and that she couldn't have gotten him for free. He was a business man after all, and apparently not as dumb as she anticipated. Shit.
"1000 might be a bit closer to my buying bracket," She said, folding her arms across her chest and deciding not to acknowledge Ahzruhkal's second option. He let out a genuine laugh.
"2000, darling. 2000 or nothing if you're talking caps. But then again, you may have some other qualities that lend themselves to mind. Maybe you could work off a debt?" He pulled what he thought was a charming smile, but it was polluted with malicious intention. Charcoal dropped the act.
"I'd sooner fucking die," She snarled, snatching her bottle off the table and turning her back on him. She began to march forward taking a deep chug of her beer, as she heard Ahzruhkal laughing behind her.
"She barks, but does she bite?"
As she pulled the beer down from her face, she spotted Charon, hidden in the corner like a toy flung to the side until it had another use. She stopped in her tracks. Keep walking, Viola, keep fucking walking. Despite the rational voice in her head screaming at her to get out of there, she done what she did nearly 90% of the time. Ignore it. She paced over to Charon, and slammed the beer down onto the table. She didn't even reach his shoulder blades.
"Charon, I need to ask you something,"
"Talk to Ahzruhkal." He demanded, his voice with a slight growl.
"Do you want to go on an adventure?" She felt the side of her lips tug up into a half smile. Charon kept his surprise veiled under his face. What was this woman talking about?
"Talk. To. Ahzruhkal."
Her blonde brows knitted together. Do it. The irrational voice urged. She stared at his face, void of emotion, empty as a bird cage whose occupant had flown. Do it. She stared harder, searching for anything that might help her make a decision. Charon glared down at the tiny scrap of a woman. She had hearse bonnet black stripes across her cheeks and lining her eyes, making the gun metal blue as sharp and piercing as a sharpened steel nail. On closer inspection, he could see flecks of the remnants of burnt wood. Charcoal.
Do it. Do it. Do it. The irrational voice in Charcoal's head demanded louder and louder with more insistence after each time, and there was only one way to shut it up. Indulge it.
"Ahzruhkal," She announced, turning once again and sauntering up to the bar, a cocky smile slapped across her face. Ahzruhkal straightened his tie and raised an eyebrow.
"I think we need to talk business."
Thanks for getting this far chaps, hope you like it and if you do a review is massively appreciated. The next couple of chapters are already written up so expect another chapter soon. Thanks again.