Waverly was excited!
They’d left campus for the Tram and taken the E13 from Elysium Central to Hellevator D.
The station was pristine and clean like everything else in Elysium, but still, it stood out, Waverly guessed. She was Dregs born and raised, and so to her, that station was in absolutely prime condition, and wouldn’t need fixing for at least another ten years or maybe even more, but maybe she’d been kinda spoiled by the semester in Elysium, because now there was just something about that station, perhaps the little signs of damage that had been patched up instead of properly fixed, or the trash cans that were only emptied once a week instead of daily, which made it seem like it was just a little out of place. Waverly didn’t mind, though. It did its job!
When Victor saw the crowd of imps, orcs, goblins, were-beasts, leprechauns, and other monsters milling around the Hellevator Station, he groaned and suggested they just take his car, and Waverly laughed.
“The Dregs aren’t a place where you, like, want to park a car, Victor!” she’d said, and when he suggested a cab, she’d laughed even harder. Cabs didn’t go to the Dregs! No one could afford them there.
So they both entered the station, showed the annoyed security Cerberus their student ID, and followed the information on a flap display to the next platform to depart.
They pressed into the Hellevator with the rest of the crowd but were even lucky enough to find two free seats next to each other. So they’d sat on the bright orange hard plastic and Waverly had explained what the metal bars at the sides were for just before the rusty gates slammed shut and the Hellevator had begun its screeching descent.
To his credit, Victor hadn’t screamed, unlike most people on their first Hellevator ride. But Waverly could see his knuckles turn super white as he grabbed onto the security bars. She just enjoyed the drop, like always.
The Hellevator came to a bone-rattling stop seven times before the intercom finally announced their destination.
“Next stop: Famine Avenue. Terminus. Please exit the Hellevator here.”
“This is us!” Waverly said, tail wagging as she unclamped the security bars over her lap and got up. She stretched but wondered why she didn’t hear Victor move, so she turned around and just kinda found him staring at her, wide-eyed.
“Come on,” Waverly said, putting her hands on her hips. “It wasn’t that bad!”
Victor just let out a “Mew,” in a tiny voice that was super adorable, but then he shook himself out of it, undid his security buckle, and got to unsteady feet.
“I just lost two lives,” Victor said, still with eyes as wide as saucers, and Waverly laughed and draped his arm over his shoulders and pushed him out of the cabin because you did not want to stay in there while it charged to go back up.
“People do this every day?” Victor asked, grabbing into her for support. But he didn’t even use his claws so Waverly knew he was going to be fine.
“Oh yeah, totally! Most people even commute, because like, rent down here is dirt cheap, you know? Anyway, welcome to the Dregs!” she said, pushing open the doors leading to Famine Avenue. As usual, she wrinkled her nose a little bit. The nice air up in Elysium totally spoiled her every time she went up, it was all grass and pine needles and stuff, but down here, it was all sulfur and chemicals and someone had pissed somewhere again, and Waverly knew that some Werewolf had probably found the fucker and given them a reminder that you don’t mark territory anymore. It was totally illegal, too, but it wasn’t like anyone down here called the cops.
Victor, for his part, just took it all in. Waverly just kinda wondered if this had been a mistake. Victor was used to Azmodel Park and Elysium, and she knew he hadn’t been down here before, and perhaps this was all kinda too much for him, maybe?
But then, his quiet smile returned, because that’s just the kinda guy he was.
“I kinda like it,” he said, flicking his ears.
“You do?” Waverly asked and gave him a bright smile and a few tail wags.
“Yeah. Something about it makes me want to… explore, I guess? Hard to describe. Maybe it’s the hundreds of alleys?”
“Right?!” Waverly said, tailwagging resuming. “Let’s go! If you like this, you’re going to love the CrowBar. It’s an amazing place, and there’s always something going on, but it’s also, like, super chill all the time, because everyone there is super nice once you get to know them. Yah, they can be a little rough at the beginning, especially towards the guys, but you know me, so you’ll be totally fine.”
“They’re going to ask though.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Hmm? Oh yeah, they are totally going to ask.”
“How long, do you think?”
“I don’t like, know, but I guess second sentence, maybe third? Down here they usually are pretty direct, so they just kinda speak their mind. I think it’s super refreshing, but it can also be seen as impolite, I guess?”
“Nah. No one is that direct. Give your people some credit.”
“One Guilder says there will be at least one person in there who is going to ask at like, the third thing you hear him say.”
“Deal,” Victor said with his quiet smile, and Waverly grinned. Fuck yeah, free money!
Victor kept pace with her as she walked, and he gazed up at the phosphor clouds that hung underneath the ceiling, and she kinda wondered what went through his head. She knew he saw a lot of things, because he was always super insightful, but she had learned not to push him to talk too much. He’d say his piece when he thought the time was right, and she was so going to be there for it.
They pushed through the throng of people that funneled out of crooked alleys between red-brick buildings, and Waverly had to growl a few times when someone tried to push her, but otherwise, everything was fine. Victor also didn’t seem to have an issue to keep up with her. Where she had to force her way forward, he just swam through the crowd like a soul through the Styx, almost flowing through people, so they made good time and it was only a few minutes before seven when they arrived at their destination.
The CrowBar stood at the intersection of Pazuzu Street and Spawn Boulevard, just where the rough cobblestones made way to unpaved dirt. It occupied the entirety of a time-worn, three-story wooden building with a slight forward slant, which made it look as if it were silently judging all passersby. The lights were already on, glowing a comforting dim orange through the crooked windows, but the door was still shut, with a sign that said “We’re fucking closed, Piss Off!” in beautiful calligraphy hanging prominently on a hook in its center.
Victor frowned. “Did you draw that?”
Waverly nodded enthusiastically. “I made it as kind of like a thank you gift because The Host let me hold my 12th level up party in there, and he like, bought everyone TWELVE rounds, and the party was super amazing and everything!”
“Huh,” Victor said appreciatively because that’s the kinda guy he was.
“So I guess we wait until it opens?” he asked.
Waverly chuckled. “Oh no, don’t be silly. Come with me.”
She led him into the tiny alley at the side of the bar, and as the darkness embraced them and her vision shifted to the blue and yellow of her werewolf eyes, Waverly growled the giant rats away when they came for scraps, because the little fuckers knew they shouldn’t beg, but they still tried every time. Then they rounded a corner, and Waverly waved at the Giant Crab who had set up his stall in the alley behind the bar.
“Hi Bal!”
The crab waved his giant pincer. “Hi Waverly. Long time no see!”
“Oh yeah, like, I was busy with college, and family stuff kinda filled the rest you know?”
“Understandable,” then his eyestalks narrowed. “But more importantly, did you bring pie?”
Waverly laughed and shook her head. “No, but like, I brought something way better: A friend! Bal, meet Victor.”
Victor stepped up with a friendly little wave. “Yo.”
“Nice to meet you, Victor,” Bal said, but there was a slant to his eyestalks that told her he was about to try and sell something to Victor and that would be super awkward, so she blurted “Anyways, so we kinda have to go, because I haven’t registered for Fight Night yet, but like, I assume The Host is already in, right?”
Bal looked at Victor for a moment longer, then he shrugged his carapace. “I guess. The guy comes and goes, but sometimes I swear he just makes it look that way. Actually, I bet he’s always in there. Watching. Waiting… You know how birds are.”
“Thanks Bal!” Waverly said, ignoring his comments and going for the back door of the Crow Bar. Bal was a nice crab, but he had super weird views on Birds for reasons she didn’t know, but Waverly also thought he kinda overplayed them because he actually seemed to be good friends with The Host. Why else would he let the Giant Crab operate a shop behind his bar?
In a practiced motion, she slammed her shoulder into the door to get it unstuck, then pulled it open. That brought her face to face with a one-coffin-five-nails-tall Minotaur holding a bloody meat cleaver.
“Hi Jim,” Waverly said with a giant grin, swishing her tail wildly.
“Waverly!” Jim boomed, letting go of his knife and it flew straight up and stuck in the ceiling and kinda vibrated there, but Waverly didn’t care, she just made sure he ripped off his dirty apron before she hugged the silly Minotaur.
“How do you do?!” Jim said, super loudly because this man was completely incapable of keeping his voice down, but that was okay with Waverly, because she figured his big voice went with his big heart.
“Doing great! I totally missed you guys, but like now that college is over for a while I totally wanted to drop down as soon as I could and bring a friend, because he’s like super cool and I thought you should totally meet him!”
She gestured over his shoulder, where Victor waited, perhaps a bit more shy than usual, but still with the quiet smile, because that was the kind of guy he was.
“Jim, this is Victor! Victor, meet Jim the Butcher. He’s super cool, and I think you’re going to like each other super much.”
Victor, for his part, said “Yo,” and smiled quietly.
Jim just kind of stared down at the Catboy for a while, as if seeing how he would react.
Then the minotaur asked: “You two dating?”
Waverly opened her palm and Victor sighed, digging into his pocket, then slammed a shiny golden coin into her palm.
“Everyone asks,” Victor replied with a shrug when Jim raised an eyebrow at the exchange.
“At first, it was like, super hilarious, then it got a bit boring, but then we made a game out of it, and it’s like, actually pretty fun. One time, Victor and I went to this party and like, it was all super posh and everything, and like, no one asked the entire time, but you could see they were all like, super confused.”
“To answer your question though, no, we are not,” Victor said, smiling as always.
“Waverly’s awesome. But it would be like, I dunno. Dating my Sister?”
“Right?!” Waverly said. “It would be like, super weird, plus then I’d have to find a new best friend and stuff like that and urrghhhh, annoying-uh!”
“Yep,” Victor said. “Major hairball, that.”
Jim had just looked at them as they spoke, his giant head moving slowly from side to side.
“You’re right. Doesn’t sound like you’re dating.”
“Right!?” Waverly said, her tail wagging. “That’s what I have been saying—
“Sounds like you’re married.”