bootyhunter | CALL ME OUT

[But the mirth settles in as his mouth closes and his grin widens, smug as ever, a shitty band-aid slapped across the festering, infected wound that is Rex's everlasting misery. He was born with it, and while his life will be short and not very sweet, Rex will at least have the opportunity to cast it all away before he becomes nothing but dust.]

Awh! You must've missed the extra pair of eyes on the back of my head! I know, they're probably hidden by manbun and all? But they can shoot laser beams, pew-pew!

[He mimes a gun, Rex's tone a dead-giveaway for his obvious sarcasm.]

What, I don't look human in that thing? Good! Uuuuuuh-maze-ing.

I always knew I was larger than life, anyway.

[What's close to the truth is not that Rex is larger than life, but moreso that he has nine of them. That his bones will heal themselves and his injuries will disappear faster than those of normal people, and that he can walk through fires created by his own explosions unharmed, whereas others would have their skin completely burnt through at such high temperatures.]

Yeah, the collar, goggles, and uh, dome-top tend to make my chin look even bigger. I look like I'm gonna clean up nuclear waste or some shit! But, but, also?

My ass? Looks fan-fuckin'-tastic in it.

[She watches his expression change, and there’s a tiny, fucked up part of her that’s relieved by it.

Parker doesn’t look at guys with smiles like that the same way anymore. She can’t. Still—- there’s another part of her that is grateful she caught a glimpse of it. She can’t explain why. Parker Rochford’s mine is conflicted, and full of contradictions. But at least she sounds pretty sure of herself when she nods, and says—-]

Yeah. It does.

[He can't help but to let out a laugh. Without the spiteful rasp or demeaningly boisterous volume to it, it is a wholly different sound.]

You're actually agreein' with me?

[Rex has had to defend himself from the day he took his first step. In the good ol' US of A, some are born with the kind of privilege that allow them to act in ways they in no way deserve, giving them the option to take things that aren't theirs. He, in some ways, has mimicked this behavior, although in Rex's case there is some poetic irony to it. While he is indeed a man, his parents were from the bottom rung of society and so was he, and his skin is not the color that would allow him to con his way into a sea of suits and white collars.

Whatever. In Rex's own mind, he deserves some of that sweet, sweet validation too. Or, well, maybe he doesn't actually deserve it.

But he wants it all just the same.]

Okay! That's on you, y'know.

Has it been a while? Since ya messed around with anybody other than your dead boyfriend.

[She didn’t expect for him to laugh at her. Not like that, at least, not so naturally. Parker’s not used to being the butt of jokes— and she lets out an irritated huff of air, but finally sits by him.]

I couldn’t. [Thats… the truth of it. There had been unfinished business. She still wasn’t over George—- and she doubts she’ll ever be completely over him. But it had been harder, before the truth was out.]

Not while—- not before the truth came out. He deserved that. For everyone to know the truth. If I was with someone else before that, everyone would think—- [She presses her lips together tightly. People talk. Especially high schoolers. And Parker had been the only person, for a very long time, to stand against all of that talk. The only person to protect George and Anna’s reputations.

The realization, now? That that’s all over? It’s immensely relieving.

She just wishes she wasn’t having it while kidnapped in space.]

Well... Yeah?

[Rex scoots over, not so much that there's too much space between them, but just enough so that room to sit comfortably.]

He was murdered. And that's, like, terrible? What other truth could there be! Ohhh, no! Did some kids think he fake-offed himself to commit, I dunno, tax evasion? People are super messed up, I swear.

[He may scoff a little, but it's clear that he feels bad for her. He's had himself discussed on Reddit forums by loser incels with sticky, Mountain-Dew stained fingers. The kind of spineless bastards who wouldn't ever have the gall to do what he does, even if they had been equipped with Rex's abilities.]

So... I take it you were in love with the guy?

Mostly they just blamed his sister. But they always thought he… had it coming. Or did something to deserve it.

[She knows that part was fucked. Teenagers don’t know how to deal with shit like death yet, and it came out in the foulest ways. It was exhausting, holding herself together through all that, being George’s constant defender…

The next question gets her caught off guard. Normally, that question wasnt asked of her sincerely. She takes a little bit of time—- then nods.]

Yeah. George and I were… we’d been together since middle school. We were going to go to the same college. Get married. Have kids. Get really old together.

You still can, in a way?

[His voice grows quiet. There is a silent intensity that accompanies the softness.]

I know it's not the same, but if you keep his memory alive, he'll be there.

I don't know healthy it is for you right now, though. It kinda looks like it's tearing you apart.

It sounds like you've gotta let him go so he can still stay close.

[He’s right, and she knows it. Even so, she shakes her head softly.]

The truths out now. I did my part. The Boleyn name is safe now.

[Its still so fresh. She’d just been celebrating with the other survivors of Henry’s warpath through high school—- and then she woke up here.]

I did it. And it’s like… I don’t know. I have to learn how to live and do shit for myself again.

Boelyn... Boelyn...

[Why... WHY is that name ringing a certain kind of bell that sounds... Ringy-]

Where have I heard that name before? Well, you're a rich person. Who knows other rich people!

Is his family... Are theeeeeey...?

[Don't say it-]

Bowling Rink magnates?

[NO!!!!]

Uh, no! [Well. She no longer looks gloomy, just incredulous.]

Bowling? Seriously? No, his dad did investments and stuff—- not bowling!

Then why does the name sound so funny?

[Ah, like it's on the tip of his-]

Not, like, "haha" funny but familiar funny.

[no not that tip

And then he asks, with an all too earnestly inquisitive voice-]

Why? Is bowling industry not doing well?

Is it not safe to invest?

Edited 2022-02-21 06:49 (UTC)

Uh, probably because, like you said, they’re loaded—- I don’t know! Why would I know about bowling?

[Parker moves, to give him a playful push—- but ends up freezing halfway through the motion. Her brain’s just caught up with what she’s doing an instant too late—- that instant being the moment her fingers brush his skin. So instead of shoving at him, she’s just touching him.]

[Oh. The touch to the arm activates one of his many instinctual fear responses, which is to tense his muscles all at once and stay still. Rex barely makes a sound for a brief moment in time, and god! What a rare sight to see. Or hear? Maybe unhear...]

Uh, Earth to Parker?

[He does nothing to dislodge the hand on the shoulder her fingers are lying against, although he does raise the index of his opposite hand in faux-protest.]

ET phone cheerleading ho?

[u kno like... ET phone home???? god are these jokes even jokey i lost my grasp on humor during the pandemic]

I would just like to specify that... I mean ho not like a hooker, but, like... A slut for, aah...

[He swallows nervously, that Adam's apple of his bobbing up and down.]

Cheer? Cheerleading. The jumping! The pretty jumpy bendy stuff. Yeah...

[She can feel him tensing, which just makes her hold even more still herself. She’s cautious, and gentle, like she’s trying not to frighten a baby deer.

It’s this bit of caution and slowness that keeps her from decking him when he utters the word ho. She scowls at him—- but doesn’t pull away just yet.]

Do you hear yourself?

[That’s the only response she can justify right now. Her hand stays out for the most part, but her thumb twitches slightly, tempted to rub comforting circles against his arm.]

You’re—- warm. Even though we were just in the pool.

[lmao yea that’s what’s going on here, parker, it’s totally just surprise. She’s unconvincing.]

Oh.

[The next line is delivered all too flatly, he is probably distracted by boobs-]

That's probably 'cause I've got an elevated body temperature.

I sort of rest at somewhere between 101.1-103.4 degrees Faren-gesundt-heit, so, to you I... Probably will always feel like I've got some kinda fever.

[Before her hands acclimate, at least.]

[Parker doesn’t mind. In fact, when she catches him looking, she shifts a little, fixing her posture to give a better view. She’s used to people looking—- and she looks nice, so she doesn’t blame him.]

Does it bother you?

[She finally moves her hands- but it’s only so she can scoot closer to him, and if he lets her- gently lean against him.

It’s an intimate action—- but not one fueled by desire, but rather a hesitant trust. He’s warm. And it’s been a long time since she had physical contact with someone like this.]

You mean the temp?

[Rex has had his fair share of dense scenarios, but in this case, he is playing dumb. It's likely she means the physical contact, which doesn't bother him so much as make him nervous. If you asked him, he'd say he wasn't the affectionate sort, but upon spending time with him it'd become more and more obvious as time goes on-].

Well, no, 'cause I'm pretty much always in a constant state of roastin' and toastin', so... The fleshy little thermostat thing in my head or my body or whatever maintains, like, some default baseline I think?

[That he is.]

Do you do this with all of your friends, or...

I know teenage girls are always holding hands and shit. But if a guy does that, or two guys, it's gay? What the fuck is up with that?

Toxic Masculinity. [She rattles off the answer a bit too quickly— there’s no playing off that she isn’t educated on this kind of thing. That’s Miss Indiana’s Outstanding You Can’t Be Racist Against Horses Teen for you. Anyway. Back to his question.]

Before shit went bad, yeah. Anna and I were basically sisters. And with cheer, personal space isn’t really a top value.

[Her nails are digging into her flesh again, the fury rising in her again.]

After that, I didn’t want Henry to have any reasons to be jealous— or suspicious. Since all my friends have garbage taste in men, they ended up dating him. I never wanted him to get the wrong idea and hurt someone.

Plus, all my friends are like? Tiny. Not all good to cuddle up to. [Except Lina. But she’d never tolerate something like this. She was far too Catholic.]

[That sounds cute, actually- The friends to family things. He notices her hands digging into her flesh, and if she allows him, he will attempt to pry them apart. For someone who is constantly using his hands to destroy things, Rex's hands aren't all that rough, in part due to his regenerative healing factor.]

Do you just prefer tall, or do you like 'em broad too? Everybody around here's just so tiny. Well! 'Cept for Cal, Big Green Meanie-Boy, and the [hot] priest.

[the only reason majima isn't being mentioned is bc he is like the one char rex didn't speak to... rex felt threatened by his sexiness]

[Parker doesn’t fight him when he pulls her hand away— leaving behind tiny, angry crescent moons on her leg in the wake of her fingernails.

His hand is soft, and she lets her hand linger against his.]

And Majima. [Those tattoos? Woof. She won’t let him get left out.]

Mmmm. That part matters less—- you don’t have to be built like a —— [She almost used a football analogy. That feels foul in her mouth, so she lets it end abruptly there.] The important part is strength, right? Strong enough to throw a girl around——-

[she remembers who she’s talking to a second too late.]

Like in cheer! Like, for stunts and stuff, not—-

[Rex would like to forget that everyone thirsted after Majima and mostly chastised him for letting his body get incredibly banged up in the same breath, it is a humiliating event he greatly hopes to wipe from his recent memory, please and thank you-]

Oh. So is that all you're after?

[The thing is, he knows he shouldn't do what he's about to.

Any relationships in this place are a recipe for tragedy, whether it be the heartbreak of losing someone to a grisly murder, or perhaps being betrayed by someone you thought was close to you. Even in the instance that they are to make it out alive, if they return home they will inevitably part ways, and if they are forced to stake out their last days on this stupid space station in feeble hopes of finding another place to stay...

It's all bad.

But Rex wants, so badly, to feel alive again before he dies, which he's certain is going to happen sooner rather than later. So, he stands.]

Strength? I betcha I'm stronger than your dead boyfriend.

[What an awful thing to say... If she attacks him, so be it. Holding her off will at least give Rex an excuse to touch her.]

Even without my powers.

[Instead of making her mad, it stirs something in her, and makes her laugh instead. She peers up at him as he gets up, but doesn’t move.]

Than George? Yeah, you’d win that bet easily. [Poor George. It’s true, though. He wasn’t unathletic, but he was in the Newspaper Club. That should have said it all.]

He wasn’t setting any records. Still hot. Just. Not strong.

So then, wh-

[Why?

He halts himself mid-sentence. Rex is sure that she's said it and he didn't catch the specifics, something about how Parker and her now-dead ex were a perfect set, raised in privilege and together long enough so that they knew each other best.

But what Rex really feels the need, the incessant urge to inquire, is why a woman would like him. Sure, he's got superpowers, and thus he's snagged a cool and seemingly glamorous job, and he's handsome, but that is all Rex Splode, everything you'd see in the papers. Truth be told, his powers were a gift so that he could become a tool, and before that, he had nothing. Not riches nor smarts i the conventional sense, but what Rex fails to acknowledge in himself is that through sheer willpower and a considerable amount of dumb luck, he survived. In a way, he earned the gift, and then some.

Most kids his age wouldn't have stood a chance. Most adults, in all honesty.

What of Rex Sloan? What about him could be attractive to anyone but Samantha Eve Wilkins, who shared a similar uncanny origin and troubled childhood, other than the all that glitters on the outside? There's a reason the colors on his suit and even his voice are so damn loud- He needs to distract from what lies beneath.

If his mother and father couldn't even love him, a child they themselves created from their very DNA, how could anybody else?

Parker probably doesn't have an answer.]

You wanna get outta here?

[Rex isn't sure to where. His room's probably too crowded, as three's far too much company. Especially when he always feels so left out.]

[In Parker’s defense, there was a point when George had seemed strong—- but that was like. Middle school. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. She watches the question fall from his lips before she finishes—- and for once, she doesn’t push it. Instead, she holds her hand up for him to help her up off the ground.]

Ugh. Yes, please.

Are you going to be able to handle yourself while I wash the chlorine out of my hair, or am I going to have to lock you in the hall?

CALL ME OUT

2/2 SPOILERS FOR INVINCIBLE PAST S1

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[1/2]

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