Eros was nearly incoherent the second time he woke. The constant beatings his head had taken from the raiders and the sleeplessness he'd experienced between Megaton and… wherever he was… had left him, temporarily, an idiot. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he cradled his head in his hands, staring into the floor. "Hey, hon – d'you need some more Med-x?" The nurse was sweet, but in his mind, she was just another woman. He shook his head and stood to leave the small hospital.
"Hey doll, where's the beer?"
"If you go to the second level, there's a bar and a restaurant – I think you should lay off anything too strong. Try Carol's," her hoarse voice responded. "Don't you go anywhere near the 9th Circle." He grinned, tipping his head to the ghoul, and pushed through the doors. As soon as he'd started off, he was thrown off his pace by glowing, toxic-bright eyes.
"Well, if it isn't our latest smoothskin visitor. You still a little slow in the head, kid?" Eros snorted in response. " Well don't go near the pipes." He nodded and brushed by the ghoul moving towards the stairs. Hopefully, he'd be able to reach some booze before another wise man interrupted him.
At the top, he realized the sign on the other side of the level read Carol's, and he was probably near the bar Graves had warned him about. He stood, silent, until he decided that whatever was in the bar was nothing he couldn't handle, and if Carol was going to be so far away, he simply wouldn't go there.
Charon was rather uncomfortable when the smoothskin stumbled his way through the door. He was holding his head as he took a seat at the bar, which gave Charon the impression that he didn't need any more booze. "Well now, lookee here. We got a smoothskin that I ain't ever seen before. I'm Ahzrukhal, and this is the Ninth Circle."
"The Ninth Circle… Dear Judecca, my frigid, burning love."
"My dear boy, I would think you've been to Carol's the way you're swaying."
Eros cocked his head angrily; "If I needed any advice about drinking, I would've asked." Ahzrukhal shook his head, smiling awkwardly, giving away his irritation. Eros stared at the radio long enough to let the ghoul leave. He moved his hand to cover over the power button, waiting to see if Ahzrukhal would notice.
"Arooo! Hey kiddies, this is Th-" He pulled his hand back quickly just as Ahzrukhal turned to see why Three Dog had stopped talking.
"Stop touching that radio. If I wanted it off, I'd turn it off." Eros pressed the button again gingerly. He was tired of all the fucking voices mingling with the dust and butane in the air.
"…always hurt the one you love – the one you shouldn't hurt at all. You always take the sweetest rose and crush it till the petals fall." Eros grimaced at the sullen song, glaring at the back of Ahzrukhal's head.
The bartender turned, no longer welcoming. "Now, do you want anything or are you going to-"
"I want some scotch. Can I have some fucking scotch?"
"Do you have caps?" Ahzrukhal replied shortly.
"I have… No. I think… Nurse Graves…" Eros was losing his breath and he clutched his head tighter. "Agh, my… fuckin'" He was too busy trying to push his face into the counter to care about explaining himself. "Fuck…" Charon watched and sighed as the smoothskin went limp and fell hard onto the floor, slamming his chin on the way down.
Ahzrukhal's dramatic sigh followed his; "Damned smoothskins can't even handle ordering the shit." He pointed at Charon, the kid, then the door. "Take him to that doctor's before he turns feral." He turned to a female ghoul nearby. "Ghoul joke – you wouldn't get it."
"Hey Amata, what's the word?" Eros was leaning against the cafeteria's counter, waiting for Amata, his latest girlfriend.
"Hey, Eros… Look, we have to talk." Eros's eyes narrowed as she spoke. "I'm not sure we should be going out."
His demeanor was nearly demonic as he stared the girl down, but it quickly fell away into an angel's. "Aw, Ams, why? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, no – it's not anything you did. My father's just been bothering me a lot about seeing you."
A carefully practiced smirk crawled over his lips and he shifted to cross his arms over his chest. "Yeah, I got that. It's all good, doll. But hey, have you been talking to Susie lately?
"Just like that, Eros? Come on – I know you're not acting right. Look, I know there's something going on with you, and it's why I can't see you anymore. You're always acting so… I don't know! You seem to, like, mirror people or something! What're you trying to do?" Amata was getting excited – Eros was every glazed over eye, every relaxed expression of emptiness.
Eros advanced on her, watching her carefully. "You never know what's happening until it's started, Amata." He shook his head. "There's nothing you can do – once you crawled out of your mother for air, you sealed your own damn fate." He scoffed. "I'll just be going now, dollface."
Amata didn't move until the sound of the door sliding shut reminded her she was alone.