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Ever since that batshit crazy Raider with the poisons stopped showing up at inopportune times to make a nuisance of himself, Zanka has been uncharacteristically melancholy. It's gotten to the point that even Enjin is starting to worry, because no matter how much he tries, he can't seem to cheer the kid up for long enough to shake him out of that funk and get him back to his usual self.
"It's good he's gotten his shit together and quit bothering me," Zanka keeps insisting. "He's a damn menace and I'm glad to be rid of him."
Somehow, Enjin doesn't really believe him. Not only does he keep repeating the same thing without any prompting, but he also doesn't really seem happy about it. The kid's a horrible liar on the best of days, even if he likes to think otherwise. Too much of a guilt complex to actually follow through with the deceit, Enjin reckons.
"Y'know, you don't have to be cheerin' and celebratin' that you haven't seen that freak in a month or two," Enjin points out, poking Zanka in the shoulder. "You keep bringin' it up when nobody else is talking about anything even remotely related to it."
"Three months and two weeks," Zanka corrects. "I'm not— I don't keep bringing it up. I'm just glad he's not bothering me. I don't want him to keep harassing me to fight. He's annoying."
"Uh-huh." Enjin raises an eyebrow, trying not to look too judgemental, lest he make the kid uncomfortable. "So… you don't miss him at all."
"What?!" Zanka jolts, giving him an incredulous look. "No! Obviously not! Why would I— don't even say that, of course I don't!"
Enjin continues looking at him with one raised eyebrow, and Zanka very stubbornly turns his entire body in the other direction so that Enjin can no longer see his face. His kids are so damn dramatic. Although he can no longer get a good look at Zanka's expression, he can see the way his hands are starting to go white from gripping Lovely Assistaff too tightly, so maybe Enjin should leave him alone for a little bit before he has an aneurysm. He probably needs some time to process the idea that he might actually miss Jabber Wonger of all people, anyways.
Knowing Zanka, though, he's not going to process anything at all, and he's just going to sit there and stew endlessly unless Enjin does something to fix the problem. God forbid Zanka do it himself, but alas, such is the burden of a single parent.
Regardless, Zanka's clearly done with the conversation for now. Enjin stands, patting him on the shoulder in a manner he hopes is reassuring as he heads for the door. It's a quiet night tonight, so maybe he'll go for a walk or something. He's getting bored of just sitting in the common room and watching Zanka slowly spiral down into madness, anyways.
Enjin waves lazily to Semiu as he leaves HQ, strolling aimlessly down the road as he swings Umbreaker back and forth. No trash beasts, no Raiders waiting to ambush him, no petty thieves looking to empty his pockets. Just Enjin out on the open road, enjoying a bit of fresh air.
He's kinda bored, though.
Well, he's pretty sure there's a few trash heaps out east that he hasn't gone wandering in for a while. Who knows — maybe he'll find some new trinkets for Rudo, or even something weird and interesting enough to get Zanka's attention off of Jabber Wonger and cheer him up. Enjin turns on his heel and walks off the road, trudging through the unpaved dirt and out towards the mounds of garbage in the distance. It's a bit of a hike from the Cleaners' HQ, but hey, Enjin's got nothing better to do and nowhere else to be tonight.
Enjin puts his mask on as he approaches the hoard of trash, figuring that even if it's not part of a No Man's Land, he probably shouldn't risk fucking his lungs up by breathing in whatever's in the air around here. Some of that garbage dust is nasty, and Enjin doesn't want to wake poor Eishia up in the middle of the night to fix him if he inhales something half-deadly.
The dim light outside is slowly fading away as night settles upon the Ground, and by now, Enjin is starting to meander past smaller piles of trash. A few of them, he steps over, eyeing them briefly to see if there's anything shiny or interesting in there. Rudo had been wanting some more unique objects to use with 3R, but none of this really llooks like stuff the kid would be able to work with. It's mostly old clothes, some shredded-up stuffed animals, and lots of little bits of metal and plastic, by the looks of it, although there's a fair amount of larger metal chunks up ahead. Enjin's pretty sure he can see a street sign or two sticking out of that big heap over there.
He rests Umbreaker against his shoulder as he steps up onto a wider garbage pile, only for his ankle to go completely sideways as the ground underneath of it sinks a good few inches lower than he thought it would. Enjin stumbles and curses, swinging Umbreaker out to stabilise himself for the few seconds it takes him to regain his footing.
…What was that sound?
Enjin stills, looking around. It… kind of sounded like a groan, but where did it even come from? He doesn't see any other people around, so…
Ah.
He slowly looks down at the trash heap under his feet, eyes narrowed behind his mask, and nudges a few chunks of rotting fabric aside to reveal a bony hand sticking out of the garbage — a hand decorated with five very distinctive rings.
"Well, there's a find," Enjin muses. He crouches down, shifting the other torn-up, decaying clothes aside to reveal exactly what he expected the second he saw that hand — the face of a rather recognisable Raider, the one Zanka hasn't shut the fuck up about for at least three months now. "Jabber Wonger. Who'd've thought?"
The Raider's clearly unconscious, not to mentoin beat to hell and back. His nose is bloody and swollen, all of him is covered in countless oozing scrapes and yellowing bruises, and his breath is shallow, though that could just be from the pollution in the air. Enjin thinks for a moment, studying the slack face as he taps the tip of Umbreaker against the ground.
"I could leave you here," he considers. "Probably should. You're a Raider, you tried to kill Gris, and you ain't my problem. But…"
Enjin thinks he has a better idea.
He hauls himself to his feet, grabbing the back of Jabber's coat and yanking him out of the trash pile. The Raider lets out a small huff of breath at the harsh, sudden movement, but doesn't stir otherwise, leaving Enjin free to drag him across the dusty ground and back in the direction of the Cleaners' HQ.
Zanka's been moping about and complaining because he hasn't seen Jabber recently, hasn't he? Well, now Enjin has the perfect solution.
Besides, judging by the wounds and the fact that he looks like he's been in that heap for a while now, Enjin thinks it's pretty safe to say that Jabber was abandoned by the rest of the Raiders. He had never really seemed that interested in their goals anyway, more focused on either harassing Zanka or fighting whoever would give him a run for his money. It shouldn't be too hard for Enjin to bring him into the fold, given the preexisting relationship between him and Zanka (whatever kind of relationship it is, anyway).
It isn't long before he reaches HQ, pushing the door open with his foot as he hauls Jabber's limp body off the ground and throws him over his shoulder. Semiu will complain if he drags somebody grimy across the floor, so he'll just deal with the dust on his jacket and complain to Gris about it later.
Semiu is, of course, still at the desk when he steps inside. She glances up, face dropping into a look of utter exasperation at the sight of Enjin with his spoils. "Enjin, you had better have a damn good explanation for this."
"Eh… probably," Enjin shrugs.
Predictably, Semiu is not amused. "Exactly where did you find him, and more importantly, why did you bring him here?"
"Oh, that's easy! Found him in the trash, and I'm bringin' him here to cheer Zanka up and make him stop moping!"
Semiu pinches the bridge of her nose, glasses flaring gold for a moment before she waves him off, refusing to look in his direction any longer. "Get outta here, I ain't dealin' with your dumbass for a second longer than I have to. Have fun explainin' yourself to the boss, because I sure won't be doin' it for you."
Well, that's to be expected. Enjin grins and waves goodbye to Semiu, trudging down the hall towards Zanka's room until he reaches the correct door. There, he knocks a few times, waiting to see if there's any reply before stating his presence.
"Zanka, open up! I brought you a present!"
There's a bit of shifting from behind the door — given the hour, it's entirely possible that Zanka was asleep and Enjin just woke him up. Whoops. Jabber's starting to get heavy, though, so Enjin leans left and lets the guy slide off his shoulder and onto the floor, where he lands with a loud thud like a sack of wet flour.
"Enjin, what the fuck was that?!" Zanka's voice comes from inside of his room, the door swinging open a moment later to reveal— yep, Zanka in pajamas. Enjin absolutely woke him up.
It takes him a moment to notice his gift, sprawled on the floor in a sort of ungainly pile. Once he does, Enjin watches the blood drain from his face and then very quickly return in full force as Zanka seems to go through about seven different emotions in the span of less than a minute. Enjin waits patiently for Zanka to remember how words work, wanting to hear what he thinks of his present.
"Enjin," Zanka says very, very quietly, "what the fuck."
"You kept moping about how he wasn't showing up anymore, and I found him in the garbage while I was taking a walk," Enjin informs him, rather pleased with himself. "The Raiders probably don't want him anymore, considering they left him in, well, the garbage, and I figured this might cheer you up! So, here you go!"
Zanka opens and closes his mouth a few times before putting both hands over his face, clearly overwhelmed with gratitude. Enjin should get himself a gold star sticker or something for doing such a good job at parenting.
"Anyways, you two have fun, 'kay?" Enjin chirps. He gives Zanka a cheeky wave. "G'night!"
And with that, he heads back down the hall. He doesn't really want to be here when Jabber wakes up and tries to fight Zanka again, after all, and he had just started to stir a bit. Enjin's work here is done.