lieutenantantichrist | [6] Action for Violet/Everywhere [Fourth Wall Event]

[6] Action for Violet/Everywhere [Fourth Wall Event]

[Blake is in his apartment minding his own business when there's a flash of light.]

When it fades, nothing seems different for a minute. All's normal and as it should be, everything in its place. After a second, it sinks in. There's something that's been out of place for months, and all of a sudden the feeling of nakedness is gone.]

[He pats his side, and there's the good, reassuring weight of his gun, right where it should be. He takes it out to give it a look over, and it's exactly as he remembers it. He puts it back and feels more himself than he has since he got to this damn place.]

[That's when he notices there's a lot of strange noises outside.]

[Blake opens the door and steps out.]

[He takes a good look at around.]

[He thinks it over.]

Nope.

[He turns around to go back inside.]

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[His front door now connects to an out-of-place door in the middle of the Viridian Forest.

A red-head in a green cloak is sitting on the ground with his back to the door, focused on a particularly large tree. Blake might also notice a Solrock floating off to the side, watching him. Just watching him. Motionlessly staring at him. Turning its body to continue to watching Blake if he moves.]

[Right, a forest outside with a guy looking at a tree and a spiky orange beachball staring at him, same as always.]

[Wait.]

[Blake turns back, the skin on the back of his neck crawling.]

What are you doing here?

[Clearly this is his fault.]

[The Solrock continues to watch him without blinking.

Apollo looks over his shoulder at Blake. He's definitely in a good mood.]

I woke up here this morning and I could talk to the trees again. I've been listening to their stories.

[Said as if this is the most normal thing in the world for him to be doing. Because from his point of view it is.

And don't worry, Blake. If you close the door and open it again it will go where it's supposed to and you can pretend that this never happened.]

[Soon it's making Blake's eyes water. He blinks rapidly and looks away.]

[Everything smells like trees, and that kid looks way too pleased with himself.]

[echoes blankly] Tree stories.

[He tries to move on, but this seems to hold him.]

Stories by trees, about trees.

[The Solrock continues to stare at him.]

No, most of the stories are about what animals do around the trees.

[Those must be thrilling tails: "Once upon a time a Pidgey landed on a tree. It pooped. It rested for a while. Then it flew away. The end."

Apollo has different standards on what makes a good story, apparently.]

[Blake takes his jacket off. He turns it around and drapes it over the top half of the rock, covering its eyes.]

[That's better.]

That's great. Real good for you. Why don't you just keep communing with nature while I get the fuck out of here.

[Solrock apparently make good coat racks. Or at least this one does. It doesn't try to dodge Blake or shake off the jacket, simply continuing to float there.]

Do you want to listen to them too? I think that Solrock could let you hear what I'm hearing with its telepathy.

[That's even creepier! Well, no, maybe not. But it's no less creepy.]

[Carter's going to grasp at whatever nice straws of sanity are left around here.]

Go ahead and try. Rocks aren't psychic. They don't think, even.

...don't tell me they tell you rock stories.

Solrock is Rock and Psychic type. Rocks that aren't Pokémon aren't alive so they can't tell stories.

[He glaces over at Solrock, then turns back to the tree. Solrock gives no visible response, but actually does what Apollo wants this time.

The first thing that Carter will feel is a kind of tingling in his mind as Solrock connects to him. A sense of blandness, almost, along with feeling like his sight's being blocked even though he can see perfectly; Solrock have no emotions, and this one has a jacket over its eyes. Next is a sense of happiness on top of an alert and calm base, with an intense spark of passion. Carter will also have the impression of seeing the tree from another viewpoint at the same time as he sees it; Solrock's now acting as a relay between Apollo and Carter. Finally, on top of the other feelings, there's a moment of focus from Apollo as he relays what he's getting to Solrock. The story from the tree is like a memory of a silent movie where the director has an obsession with using jump cuts at every opportunity.

Sunny day. Adequate moisture. Female Emolga in nest with three female young and two male young. Female Emolga and young leave nest and walk along largest branch. Cloud passes over sun. Cloud moves away from sun. Adjusting leaf angles. Female Emolga and young arrive on longest branch and stop. Female Emolga turns to young and makes gestures and opens mouth repeatedly. Root growth reaches previously untapped node of nitrogen. Female Emolga jumps off of branch and glides out of awareness. First female young hesitates, then jumps off branch and glides out of awareness. Second female young hesitates, then jumps off branch and glides out of awareness. Leaf motion due to wind. First male young waits until wind stops then jumps off branch and glides out of awareness. Third female young jumps off branch and glides out of awareness. Second male young jumps off branch and falls. Second male young extends forelimbs and begins spinning in midair, still descending. Root growth encounters underground stone. Second male young stops spinning and glides to ground. Second male young impacts ground and tumbles out of awareness. Leaf motion due to wind.

Now wasn't that a wonderful story, Carter? Now that you've obviously gone insane and started getting impressions shoved into your mind, would you like to hear another tree story? y/n ]

[Carter tries to bush something off his face.]

[Soon he's distracted by an unfamiliar feeling, and a sense that his vision's doubling in a way that makes his head swim.]

[It's nothing he could've been prepared for. It's peaceful, quiet, and he can feel time flow past as something that barely matters and only makes him slowly stronger. There's no restlessness or any kind of urge to do anything besides stretch slowly towards the sun and feel the Emolgas' claws pattering on the bark. No impatience or anger, nothing about the past. Just being there.]

[It fades away and Carter's himself. He has to remember that he needs to breathe now.]

[He hears the trees rustling around him. He swallows and tries to sum it up.]

Mother of fuck.

No, she's a mother of five.

[Carter didn't hear that; Apollo never spoke out loud, he just let Solrock relay his thoughts to Carter through the psychic link that's been created. His "voice" is calm and neutral, as if he truly doesn't understand what Carter meant, but the link brings with it enough faint amusement that it's obvious he's trying to make a joke.

He looks over his shoulder at Carter with a faint smile, his pleasure being projected through the link along with his words, for which he once again doesn't open his mouth to speak.]

It's interesting, isn't it? They aren't anything like animals other than being alive, but they can still tell stories.

[There's something in his head that Blake didn't think. There's a texture to it that definitely isn't his, too. Somebody's calm and happy about this, and it sure isn't Blake.]

[If it works the other way around, Apollo might be feeling some shock and disorientation.]

[His mouth works numbly.]

Trees don't talk. They don't feel things. They're wood.

[He says it while staring at the moss on the ground. Could that feel things too? No. Not happening.]

[In this case, it's only one-way; Apollo only needed to let Blake hear something that he otherwise couldn't, and assumed that Blake wouldn't have anything to say that couldn't be spoken out loud, so he didn't ask Solrock for two-way communication.

There's definitely some mild confusion coming from Apollo though.]

You just heard what it had to say. It's not the same kind of talking and feeling as humans do, but it's still talking and feeling.

[And the answer to that question is "yes". The moss can indeed feel things, just less than the tree.]

[Don't really need any fancy telepathy, anyway. It's all right there on Blake's face.]

[What's in his head is long stretches of blankness with occasional profanity.]

[The kid looks (feels, but he can't actually be feeling that) puzzled, and that takes some fucking gall.] You're confused?! How the fuck do you think I feel?

[He grabs his coat from on top of the rock and sits down heavily on another rock, one without a face.]

Where I come from, trees don't think.

[Once Solrock is no longer being used as a coat rack it slowly rotates until it's floating upside-down. Fortunately it breaks the link before Blake has to experience the sensation of his viewpoint rotating for more than a second.]

I'm confused because you just heard the tree's story and you're still saying that they can't feel anything.

[He pauses for a moment and frowns slightly.]

All of the people who I've talked to here have said that they've never heard of anyone being able to talk to trees before. The trees in your world can probably think too, there just aren't any humans who can talk to them.

[He's dizzy enough to begin with.]

Maybe...maybe not can't.

[Even after seeing it for himself, it takes effort to make that admission]

[He's just gonna hold on to this rock for a while. It can't think, right? Right?]

Shouldn't.

[No, no the rock can't think.]

Why shouldn't they?

[And Apollo's confused again.]

[Anybody else Blake would think was fucking with him, but he knows this kid is genuinely asking.]

Because they're things. You cut them down and use them to make tables. They're not supposed to have opinions.

[He can still feel the ancient alienness of the thing. Sap and sunlight. Fuck.]

[Wait, wait, hold up.]

Humans cut trees down to make things!? They don't just use the dead wood that falls!?

[He's only ever had to deal with poachers. Loggers have never shown up.]

[distantly, half paying attention to Apollo, distracted by the unnerving sensation that the things around him aren't really what he's always thought of as things]

Yeah, that's how they make houses and shit. Can't just wait around on luck, you'd never get enough.

[Grumbling.]

They probably waste parts of the trees too, just like they do with animals.

[Well there goes his good mood.]

Yeah, not everybody uses every part of the damn buffalo, it's a tragedy.

[It doesn't come out quite as sharply sarcastic as it should. Blake can still feel leaves.]

Nobody else knows about all this. There's no such thing as tree psychics back in my world. They're just things. Shouldn't be able to think. No brains in wood.

If you're going to waste the life that you take you shouldn't take it to begin with.

Just because they don't know it doesn't make it okay.

I guess that you don't need a brain to think.

Good luck enforcing that. We can't even get people to stop killing each other.

Fuck. I didn't need to know that every bookshelf had a life story.

[He's not gonna go and feel bad about it, but it's weird.]

[In quiet, bemused amazement] The looniest of the hippies were right all along.

...I'm not really surprised that humans would kill each other. Is it from fighting over mates and territory?

[Humans = Animals in his mind. And yet he's drawn a reasonably accurate conclusion from that premise.]

[6] Action for Violet/Everywhere [Fourth Wall Event]

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