reefnet | text | morning

Obviously not.

[ Said dryly. With a hint of a shrug, and a faint smile.

Lalo scrubs a hand over his face in disbelief as he begins to realize that this kid will be tailing him for the foreseeable future. Lalo Salamanca is probably the last person who should be left in charge of an underage child's welfare, and even Lalo Salamanca knows that.

At least the kid doesn't seem to have trouble keeping up. Maybe a part of Lalo hoped he would, if only because slowing his pace for the kid would've given him an excuse to nurse his leg a little more without giving himself away. ]

Okay, so! You wanna lead me, then we need some ground rules. If I tell you not to eat something, you don't eat it. If I tell you not to touch something, you don't touch it. If I tell you to turn down your walkie, you turn it down.

¿Comprende?

Edited 2023-05-17 22:58 (UTC)

[He hums thoughtfully as he follows. The smile never slips, but his stare goes a little cooler.]

Huh, that's funny. That makes it sound an awful lot like you're in charge.

[It's obvious enough what the guy is doing. Maybe he should be more annoyed at being treated like a five year old. But he does have a sense of limits, shockingly, and he doesn't wanna push his luck too much with a complete stranger. It's not like he's actually looking to play the leader at this moment. So he let's that statement hang in the air for a moment before adopting a sweet smile.]

Hm.... Fiiiine, I guess. Entiendo, I'm not gonna do anything stupid.

[He shrugs and works on rolling up the sleeves of Kaito's stupid too-big jacket. And if folding up the sleeves helps hide the small hole and bloodstain on the left forearm of the jacket, well, that's just a bonus. He doesn't particularly want to explain it.]

Ha. You caught me.

[ Lalo laughs a little, genuinely, appreciatively, when the kid says he's not gonna do anything stupid. He lets his mind swim with possibilities of what he can get away with now if he's the de facto guardian of a child. No one will ever be able to question him with impunity again!

The blood and the hole, of course, he notices before the sleeves are rolled up. And normally, he wouldn't give a shit, would figure it wasn't his business anyway, but then he remembers he fed some people a crock of shit about being a cop, so he has to try to be at least somewhat convincing.

A cop couldn't see that and say nothing, especially not one with kids... He waits a beat or two, then: ]

Hey, uh, kid? You okay? I mean, uh... [ Meaningful pause. ] Things okay at home? Anybody hurting you?

Nope! No one to do that anyway. I murdered my parents to take over their organization like, forever ago.

[He lies blandly and casually, not even bothering to announce this one because it's so obvious. There's not so much as a glance towards the sleeve, whether because he's just that good at managing his own expressions, or because he assumes the concern is from him being so skinny and pale and generally unhealthy-looking, or because it wasn't even his blood on the sleeve to begin with.

He heads off further questioning by continuing to babble in that same childish, overly-theatrical manner, nonsense that sounds fake and easily dismissed.]

I guess there is that one assassin girl who choked me out a few times, but that's just to expected when you're the supreme leader of an evil organization, y'know? I'm super nice, so I don't hold it against her!

[Lies. He doesn't give that murderer any leeway.]

[ The age. The small frame. The "bored teen" demeanor. The baldfaced lies that roll so easily off his tongue. For a moment, Lalo looks at the teenager next to him and he doesn't see Kokichi at all. He sees Ciro, who was killed so brutally and mercilessly. Never had a chance.

Suddenly, with that image in mind, it becomes easier to pretend he cares when Kokichi starts talking a bunch of shit about his parents' organization and a girl who tried to choke him. ]

Right. [ He doesn't have to pretend to be skeptical of what Kokichi is saying, because he genuinely is. He doesn't think he can even begin to decipher what might be based on some twisted version of the truth, and what is made up wholesale, but it doesn't matter, does it? ]

Listen, kid... uh, this might not make you feel better, since your parents have an "organization" [ a wink! ] but you should know that I'm a cop back home. Truth is, I've got a stepson your age. [ He is not and he does not. ]

So if anyone gives you trouble here-- you tell me, okay? And if there's anything you need to talk about, I'm around. [ Gently, he pats Kokichi's shoulder, if Kokichi doesn't rebuff him. It's mostly just for show; maybe buried deep at the bottom of it, though, is the impulse that wishes he could talk to Ciro one last time.

Then he realizes something. ] --hey, uh, I feel bad just calling you "kid!" What's your name?

[There's no rebuff. Kokichi just looks up at him with those bug, youthful eyes, perfectly innocent.]

Awww, aren't you nice?

[There's something about his bland smile that makes that statement feel a little...pointed. He doesn't blindly trust anyone or believe people are inherently good or anything like that. And something about this guy pings his bullshit meter.

Not that any of that is unusual. Most people are lying about something and few are genuinely as nice as they pretend to be. He can still like most of them. He just prefers to do it without pretense.]

It's okay, I don't hate cops. I actually have lots of respect for the police! It's no fun if there's no one to chase the bad guys!

[He pats the man's arm right back, though he can't as easily reach the shoulder. It just makes the whole thing somehow feel...patronizing? Like many things coming out of Kokichi's mouth, it sounds less true than it actually is.]

Anyway, I'm Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader. Nice to meet you!

[ The wide eyes that peer up at him make him think of Ciro again. He recalls the body slumping hard in his arms, and he feels something a little like a knife twist in his heart.

He had been thinking that caring for a child afforded him endless possibilities in terms of leeway (and he is still thinking about that), but he feels some genuine sentimentality creeping into his emotional landscape, too.

Ah, well. What can he say? Of course he's sentimental! Always has been. You win this round, Precocious Teen.

He stumbles a little bit, like he's caught off-guard by the sudden pointedness of the question. ]

I-- ah-- well, I try to be-- [ To the question of whether he's nice. His eyes get wide and bug out of his skull when the kid says there'd be "no one to chase the bad guys away" if there weren't any police. He figures a goody two-shoes cop who wanted to help a teenager in need wouldn't know quite what to do with a statement like that, so he acts like he doesn't. Whether Kokichi believes him or not, he's not giving up the bit that easily!

He does give the kid a smile in response to Kokichi giving his name. ]

Nice to meet you, Kokichi. You may call me "Ben." [ More "Supreme Leader" talk. Lalo grins. ] That's very lucky for me! Because, you see --

[ Playfully, he keeps grinning, and then, heavily exaggerating his limp, he gently rams into Kokichi, letting himself wobble and even fall into the kid slightly. ] -- I need a lot of extra help.

[ Even stranded on a desert island, what's life if you can't have fun? ]

Edited 2023-05-19 06:30 (UTC)

[Somehow far more successful than he actually expected to be. But hey, he won't complain, even if he's being treated like a little kid. Well, a littler kid.

So he doesn't protest. He does swat the man away before too much weight can be leaned on him, because frankly he's scrawny and tiny and that'll end badly for both of them, but he does so with a snicker.]

I said I like cops, not that I'm a Boy Scout. I can't be ruining my reputation, even here. If anything, I should be making you carry me!

[Dismissive as the statement is, it's at least good-humored.]

[ Forgive him, Kokichi! He is still calibrating how a cheesy stepdad cop would talk to a kid Kokichi's age. He'll get there!

He appreciates your good humor, though, standing up straight when he's swatted! He beams. It's nice to drop the goody-goody act for a second and just be himself.

"Himself," as it turns out, actually does love goofing off! So he's beyond pleased when Kokichi is at least willing to indulge him. He is starting to think he may have found a little partner in crime. ]

Right, right! Your reputation. How could I forget! You're the "Supreme Leader." How silly of me!

[ He seems to take Kokichi's comment about carrying him as a personal challenge. ]

Okay! I can do that.

[ One moment, he's checking the compass on the phone app to make sure of the direction they're heading. The next, in one fell swoop, he'll be aiming to scoop Kokichi up and hoist him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. ]

Edited 2023-05-21 01:32 (UTC)

[It's all too easy given this kid weighs a whopping 97 lbs. There's a surprised yelp as he's suddenly scooped off his feet, but it quickly transitions into laughter, legs flailing as he steadies himself against "Ben's" back. It's not his preferred method of being carried, but fuck it. He's small and walking in sand is tiring and he was pretty sure he'd died like, an hour ago. This is fine.]

Points off for style, buuut I guess I'll take it.

[He makes himself comfy, the leg flailing evening out to contented idle air kicking.]

[ Well, isn't this a sweet scene? Lalo hums and sings to himself as he carries the kid with him for a while longer, letting Kokichi get comfortable on his shoulder as they walk. Or, as Lalo walks anyway, since Kokichi has elected not to do a whole lot of that. That's fine, though; in a sense, Lalo did offer after all, even if Kokichi's reaction to being flipped upside down suddenly isn't what he expected.

The more they travel like this, the more Lalo can't help thinking that he would be such a great father. He could show his kids how to cook, and how to change the oil in your car, and how to skin somebody alive in a way that keep them alive the longest so they die the slowest. Everything they might need to know.

Then he spots it. Glistening in the sand. With a gentleness that's typically uncharacteristic for him, Lalo gently slides Kokichi down into the warm sand. Lalo's eyes light up as he races to pick up a conch shell in the sand. After quickly verifying there's nothing alive inside of it, he holds it up to his ear.

He can hear the ocean! He can hear the ocean without it, too, but. You know. Details. ]

Heyyyy! Check it out! Hold it up to your ear! You can hear the ocean. I'm not shitting you!

[ Grinning happily, like an overgrown child, he hurries back to Kokichi, thrusting the conch shell at him, so he can put it to his ear.

This isn't even part of an act, for the record. He really is this delighted by a conch shell! It's the little things, you know?

Besides, it can be used to store water!!! Probably. He'll have to test that in a little bit... ]

[ dad you would be so proud of his knife skills

He's no stranger to getting carted around. Still getting frequent piggyback rides at sixteen is a solid benefit of being so small and babyfaced. And he's certainly enjoying it, until he's suddenly being put down again. Kokichi makes a whining sound of protest, but Lalo is already off, grabbing something out of the sand and–

Ah.]

Ew.

[It's a fairly comical role reversal, Kokichi looking at this giddy adult man with a grimace as this shell is thrust in his face. His nose wrinkles at the sand and god knows what else stuck to it and he leans back. Like hell does he was that shit near his ear. What if something's living in it??]

Uh, I can hear the ocean just fine already.

[He gestures grandly and exasperatedly to the whole fucking ocean like, just a stretch of sand away.]

[ he really would be ]

Nah, nah, nah! This is way better than that, man. You hear it way clearer this way! You gotta trust me.

[ Said by the person who should never be trusted on anything, ever.

He'll hold out on the conch a second time for Kokichi to take. If Kokichi still doesn't, Lalo will stand up and examine the conch. Hmmm... looks watertight... that'd be great news! But there's only way to be sure.

Lalo puts the conch shell up to his lips and blows. Hard. But no sound comes out. No loud sound, anyway. Just a pathetic little squeak! Lalo is at once elated and disappointed. Elated to have found something that can hold water. Disappointed because he did think it seemed fun to blow into...

He tries the other side just to be safe. Same thing! ]

text | morning | 001

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cw: BRIEF torture mention, not graphic

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