Jesse blinked up at them, frozen. "Oh- no- I'm sorry," they said, in a very small voice. "I didn't mean to- I should've been watching where I was going, I'm sorry."
The person blinked.
Then their face broke out into a huge grin. It was wide enough to show crooked, somewhat yellowed teeth, despite the fact that they looked maybe 30 years old maximum, at least in human years.
"Awww, no problem, squishy."
And they ruffled Jesse's hair so hard they almost ripped some of it out of their scalp, which made them squeak and stiffen at the abrupt touch. "You're lookin' a little squishy to be in here! Whatcha in here for? This place doesn't seem like the right place for a squishy."
"Nothing," Hadrian replied, casually tugging Jesse away from them and putting a hand on their shoulder, "they're my assistant. On official business with me."
That was technically true.
"Hey, Porkchop, who's the tiny thing?" someone else piped up, walking over with an armful of chestnuts(?).
They had a monster Jesse had never seen before on their head, something that looked like a green, mottled head with hollow eyes and a gaping mouth, hollowed out so that they could wear it on their head.
It was probably supposed to be intimidating, or scary, but since Jesse didn't know what the heck it was, it just seemed like an interesting hat.
"Don't see many of their kind in here."
"My kind?" Jesse asked the green-monster-head person- perhaps against their better judgement.
"Midgets," the green-monster-head person replied, grinning at them.
Jesse didn't really know how to react to that remark.
Porkchop, apparently, grinned at Jesse. "N'awwww, just a little one. Looks squishy, don't they?"
Jesse hid behind Hadrian a little, their cheeks going pink.
Was squishy an... insult, or a compliment?
On one hand, Porkchop seemed pretty amused by their 'squishiness', but on the other it didn't exactly sound like the most polite remark. "Um..."
Hadrian relaxed at the name suddenly, as if abruptly recognizing them. "Oh. Hello, Porkchop."
Porkchop turned a slightly cool look onto Hadrian- but there was some distinct respect in there. "Oh. Hello, Purple One. I see you've found a... new occupation."
They glanced at Jesse with an interested gaze. "Didn't know ya babysat."
Porkchop and the one with the green head promptly snickered at the jibe.
Hadrian's eyes went steely at that; ice cold. He wasn't angry- not exactly- but they'd noticed his shoulders had gone extremely tense again.
For a moment, Jesse thought it was at the 'babysitting' comment, but what he said next dispelled that theory. "I don't go by that anymore," he replied in a clipped voice, staring at Porkchop with icy eyes. "My name is Hadrian."
"Naw, that's harder to remember. So what brings you here, Purple One?"
Hadrian sighed, but said nothing in response to the nickname. His shoulders relaxed, though Jesse couldn't figure out why for the life of them. "Some work business. It's confidential, though, so I'm afraid telling you would be detrimental to keeping my job."
They shrugged, not seeming at all put off. "A'ight. You need anything from the black market? I know most of the sellers won't sell you that kinda shit, what with the fancy clothes and all."
And they gestured at the purple suit he was wearing. "They think you're too fancy for their tastes and all."
Hadrian shook his head at that. "I don't need anything illicit at the moment, Porkchop. What are you here for?"
Porkchop shrugged. "Some proper ID cards. Ya know you can only get 'em if you're a citizen of a city, but we don't have any interest in tying ourselves down to one place or another."
"We?" Jesse asked, meekly, before they could help themselves; all three sets of eyes turned to them.
Porkchop didn't take any offense or anything; they just grinned. "Uhhh, duh. Yeah."
Hadrian took pity on Jesse and explained. "They're referring to the Scavengers. Typically, demons in Cosmos stay within the cities, but Porkchop's group- the Scavengers- are more like... nomads, I believe. They tend to wander around Cosmos. But because they became nomads before the ID rule was enforced, it means that now there's an odd legal empty space where they can't get ID cards, since the ID cards come from your district's lord."
"Oh... can they get them here?" Jesse asked meekly. "Since they're not from this district..."
"Slugger, you can get anything here if you have what someone else wants, though whether or not it's legal is a completely different matter," Hadrian said with a shrug, before glancing at Porkchop. "Did you get the IDs?"
"Yeah. You still work for that lord?"
Hadrian paused at that, before inclining his head. "Yes, I still work for Ivor."
"Bring up the ID issue with him, will ya?" Porkchop crossed their arms and pouted a little. "Ain't fair that we gotta get our cards through illegal methods just 'cause we moved out before the law was put in place."
Hadrian inclined his head again, politely. "I'll ask him about it when we get a chance," he replied, surprising Jesse with how respectful he sounded. "I hope you didn't put Porkchop on your ID, you'll probably get banned from every city for life."
"I didn't. Ain't that dumb to do somethin' that stupid," and Porkchop laughed, snorting slightly as they did so. It was both startling and a little amusing. Less intimidating, almost.
Of course, Jesse would not tell them that.
"Is, um, is Porkchop your real name, then?" Jesse asked, meekly.
"Nope."
Jesse waited for any further explanation.
It took a minute to realize that none was forthcoming.
"Oh. Um... I wish you luck with your IDs, then," Jesse said politely. Even though they were... pretty weird, Porkchop still seemed fairly nice.
If possibly a little crazy.
Porkchop tilted their head to one side at that. They were regarding Jesse carefully- as if looking them up and down for... something.
Then they broke out into a grin, the smile showing that a few of their back teeth were rotting in their mouth.
Did they have dentists in Cosmos? They had to, right? Demons had teeth just like humans. Though maybe 'dentist' was the wrong term.
"I like you, squishy," Porkchop said without any preamble and startling Jesse out of their wondering about how demon dentists worked. "Here!"
And then they were abruptly tossing something at Jesse; they reached up and caught it.
It was a rather large gold coin on a leather string- much like a doubloon, except when Jesse peered closely at it, there was a distinct mark scraped into the coin.
Jesse couldn't make it out very well, but Hadrian seemed to understand what it meant, because his eyebrow went right up. It was probably some kind of a big deal, then.
"If you're ever in a pinch and ya bump into us again, show us that! Means you're trustworthy and we can help ya- and you'll pay back the debt when you can."
Jesse didn't really know what to say to carrying something around that would put them in debt (they certainly didn't have any Cosmos money), but they nodded and carefully tied the string around Reuben's neck like a collar- they were worried carrying around gold on their body would get them robbed.
Though, truthfully, they were more likely to get attacked because they were human and a delicacy, but the less they brought attention to themselves anyway, the probably-better it was for them.
"Aight, we'd better get going. Good luck, squishy!" And Porkchop walked off with their friend, cackling and already devolving into a different conversation- something about "awwww don't go on 'bout that legend about the giant Enderman, I'm gettin' sick of hearing about it".
Hadrian gave a relieved sort of huff- though to be truthful he was probably relieved because their leaving meant he wouldn't get his butt kicked to Jupiter by Ivor if Jesse got hurt.
"Hm. It's good that they liked you. It's rare the Scavengers give you something like that." He paused, then gave them a very stern look. "Don't lose it."
Jesse nodded, not intending to lose it in the first place, before pausing and frowning at his first remark.
"Why is it good they liked me? What do they do to people they don't like?"
Hadrian purposefully looked at the main building. "Oh, look, there's the others, waiting for us. Let's go, slugger," and he was already walking towards them as quickly as possible, making them scurry after him in a haste.
They got the feeling he didn't really want to answer that.
"... hey, Hadrian?"
"What is it?" he asked distantly.
"Why did Porkchop call you 'Purple One'?" Jesse asked, curiously but very meekly.
Hadrian came to a full stop at that; Jesse very nearly ran full-force into him. He seemed to be thinking about how to respond to that- whether to snap at them, or just not answer, or be terse.
Finally, he spoke up, voice having hardened to pure steel. "Slugger?"
"Y... yes?" Jesse asked meekly, ready for him to hit them, hurt them, yell at them for bringing something like that up because it was sensitive and why would he want to talk about it with them, stupid them, they shouldn't have asked-
"Don't ask me about that," he said that, in a low voice. "Ever again."
Jesse nodded immediately. "I- okay. Okay, I won't."
He glanced at them, at their trembling, at their suddenly stiff posture.
If he noticed, he said nothing.
"Come on. Let's go meet up with the others." He began to walk ahead, Jesse trailing after him.
After a moment, he stopped at a stall and bought something, before shoving it into their hands. Jesse blinked at it. It appeared to be candy.
"... candy's illegal here?"
"No, this is a legal stall. They have a few interspersed in the black market, since this is a general market... but also a black market."
"That's extremely confusing," Jesse said, already examining the candy. The characters appeared English to them, but for all they knew it was in a different language and they just perceived language differently. It felt like hard candy, so it was probably safe... unless it was full of drugs...
"Are you sure the candy's safe?" they asked meekly.
Hadrian took one of the candies- the purple one- unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth without even pausing, tasting it for a moment. "Mm. Yeah, seems fine."
Jesse stared at him. "Uh..."
"Kid, if the candy was drugged, you'd be able to tell immediately. Cosmos drugs hit like a sack of bricks- fast and hard."
"Oh." They didn't really know how else to respond to that, except for a meek "thank you" afterwards.
Hadrian rolled the candy around his mouth for a moment, shrugged, and began to continue leading them to the main building. Jesse looked down at the colorful wrappers in their hands, then up at Hadrian. He didn't look back at them.
They quietly unrolled the crinkly wrapper, stuck the wrapper in their pocket- maybe they could fold something with it- and popped one into their mouth.
It tasted nice. They couldn't place the taste- something like a mix between grape and apple, maybe- but they shrugged it off and hurried after Hadrian before he left them alone in the black market. "Can I ask something?"
"Go ahead."
"Do you have dentists in Cosmos?"
Hadrian paused for only a moment, before continuing his walk towards the main building.
"Kid, where the fuck did that question come from?"
A/N: Toni and I have officially split our deal because I have a backlog of chapters so here we go, two chapters in one sitting and review replies:
TheAmberShadow: I am a Fool and don't know which comic universe Hellboy is from.
DubstepDragon14: Wasn't the butcher; t'was Carmine haha / ty!
Chapter 76 done, onto 77!
x.X. A. L. X.x
