Static Crush {M/M} ✔

Chapter #23

They try as many finger-foods and samples as they can manage. Though tasting and eating are completely unproductive tasks for Hale, it proves to be one of the most genuinely enjoyable experiences of his existence. They eat candy fabled to be the sourest out there, and he delights in seeing Rayner and Theo's expressions pucker with disgust. He likes the spicy and tart foods most, while Rayner leans towards sweets, and Theo towards savoury.

Though Hale's rudimentary digestive system is for appearances only, allowing him to eat but not processing the food in any meaningful way, it still has very limited space. He'll have to manage the waste disposal when they get back. His sensors read that he's full long before his human companions are ready to put down their cocktail sticks. With dusk casting the city in an eerie, polluted, purple sunset, the market shuts down and bots unfold to help disassemble the stalls with the whirr and click of so many mechanical spiders.

The three of them leave in search of a cafe in which to recover from their respective food comas. Though eating doesn't leave Hale feeling sluggish per se, he finds the pleasantness of the day fills him with a soothing tranquillity.

Theo enumerates the clubs she's been to around this district, listing their various merits and detriments. Rayner lacks preference. They eventually settle on Sketchy's, a club that does themed nights, and once their tea's been drunk, they head into the night with Theo in the lead.

NeoTonto is a different city after dark. During the day, it bustles with loud people and smothering businesses each snatching for your undivided attention. With the sun below the horizon, a different sort of pandemonium reigns. Instead of the corporate slogans of car companies and tourist traps, it's the buzz of neon lights, the throb of music below ground like a macabre heartbeat. Snaking lines of people wend through the street waiting to get into the more popular establishments. Theo bypasses them all, instead leading them down into the subway system and through a network of underground tunnels until they come to a door graffitied with the name 'Sketchy's' in fluorescent green paint, framed with flashing LEDs.

A large person in a paint-spattered tank top waves Theo through at the door, saying, "Been a long time since we've seen your ass around here."

"I bet you missed my ass, Vee," says Theo in a tone that's very nearly affectionate.

"Come and see me later, and I'll show you just how much," xe replies.

Rayner rolls his eyes. Theo leads them inside, through a dark hallway lit only by the spatters of ultraviolet paint, the hum of synth getting louder as they go. Hale is surprised he recognizes the song. It's one of the many 1980's songs Rayner played for him on the journey to Theo's. The tune feels like an electric wire curving around his spine, pulling him further in and encouraging him to move.

The music reaches pinnacle volume as they emerge into the hollow cavern of the club. Its concrete walls are carved to look like the stalactite-spired interior of a cave, only spattered with more ultraviolet paint and pierced through by iron support rods in places. A throbbing mass of people dance near a stage where a holographic projection of a band, now long dead, sing and perform in time with their music. A shelf of the cave is nearly covered in paint to mark it out as the bar, backlit and glowing in the dark.

Theo leads them toward it and asks the bartender to make them three glow sticks, whatever those are, then says, "I'm gonna burst if I don't pee right now. Be right back."

Rayner says, "Yeah, actually, where the hell are the bathrooms? Will you be all right a second, Hale?"

Hale nods, and they vanish into the crowd. The bartender sets down three pipes that look like laboratory vials, filled to the brim with yellow fluid that makes it look like a glow stick. Hale has Rayner's bank details on hand so he pays for the drinks with the tap of an index finger. As he does, a woman with French-plaited pigtails and a jacket six sizes too big for her steps up to the bar next to him.