[25] [Video/Action for Goldenrod] - "You Leave Philly and Bad Shit Happens"

[lieutenantantichrist]

[VIDEO]

[The flag behind Blake is scorched and askew from where one of his firehorses brushed too close to it. His eyes are dark-rimmed, and have a hint of a wild sheen. No fancy-ass combed hair this time. His beard is dark and thick.]

I tried playing nice.

[There's a bat-like squeak from somewhere offscreen. Yusuke's going away present. He doesn't seem to hear it.]

More people are vanishing off the face of the earth. The wolfkid disappeared the old-fashioned way. No trace of any of them.

[Suddenly, he slams his fist on his desk.]

That's enough!

[He jabs his finger at the screen.]

As of now, I am declaring martial law. You hear me?! Nobody leaves without my permission!

[A violent gesture knocks over a glass in front of him.]

We're on lockdown!

[The video cuts out.]


[ACTION]

[Blake is in his headquarters, prowling back and forth. He can't seem to stay still, and his Pokemon have caught his restlessness. His arcanine is sniffing the air, Steve is pacing and standing on her toes to peer out the windows, his Kingler is scuttling around the old bowling lanes with its legs clack-clacking on the wood floor. There a squeaking and rustle of wings every once in a while as the last damn Zubat out of reach flaps over to a new corner. The only one that seems at rest is a Beautifly perched on top of a bank of lockers.

Blake's tread is hard and heavy. Every once in a while he hisses under his breath,] Bastards.

[[OOC: THE TIME IS NOW. If anybody's looking to have fun punching an idiot in the head make history by overthrowing Blake's delusion government, now's the opportunity.]]

Comments

[wing_attack]

[... Is he talking about him? Or - no. It must be the person who left. He shakes his head.]

I don't think anyone leaves here on purpose. As much as you might not want to admit it, this place has things that are out of our control. So we have to deal with things here while we can in the best way that we can.

[He knows saying this might get Blake mad... but he's not exactly scared of him, even when he's like this.]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Out of our control. That's the last damn thing he wants to hear, probably because he knows it's true.]

Deal with it? How the hell are you supposed to deal with that?! This is some basic shit here! You can't just lie down and let people waltz right out of goddamn existence on you!

some animorph spoilers for those lurking

[wing_attack]

I don't mean like "lie down and feel bad about it", but like - a lot of the people I've lost wouldn't want me to get mad or upset because they're gone. They're safely back home and they have things to do there. So you get up and move on with your life, the same as with any other kind of loss.

[... Right. She'd want him to keep going. Keep flying. Keep the wind under his wings and move on.]

You've got a bunch of weird animals that can do anything from spit fire to cause earthquakes to lifting things with their minds. Do you really think we have a limit on weirdness? People just blanking out of existence isn't so weird when you try to think of how we even got here in the first place.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake collapses heavily into his chair. He leans his elbows on his desk, and his head falls into his hands. His voice comes out plaintive enough to be ashamed of, if he had anything left to give.]

You can't do that when every time you try, they leave too.

[Blake isn't a man who makes connections easily. There's guys back at the precinct that he's worked with for years who he's barely ever said more than "hello" to.]

There's weird and there's just fucked up.

[wing_attack]

[... He looks at the Pokemon in the old bowling alley, and shakes his head. He's not sure what to even say to them. Any of them, really.]

I know how hard it is to - not even make friends, but to make connections with people. And you get burned and it sucks. But... okay, this is going to sound stupid as heck, but I think you do mean well deep down. You're just terrible at showing it. And I think there's more people than you might expect who care.

[lieutenantantichrist]

I don't need connections with anybody. I'm not a teenage girl.

[His makeshift weapon, aka Felix, has ended up on his lap. Blake's hand is stroking absently over his shell.

He lets out a bitter sound.] Well that's generous of you.

You think I'm blind? I know nobody listens to me. Nobody fuckin' respects me.

[wing_attack]

[The tone makes him step back, but he doesn't let it get to him. Okay. A little more space. He shoves a hand in his pocket to put a hand on a Pokeball. The scratches on it tell him that it's Rachel's. Good. He'll use her if he has to.]

That's because you try to act with authority that you don't actually have. It makes you look crazy, honestly. You weren't really elected, you elected yourself. And I'm happy to try to help clean up this place, but it's not like I'm acting on behalf of everyone here. I'm just doing what I can.

[This might get ugly. He keeps his fingers on the shrunken Pokeball, not grabbing it but just making sure he can if he needs her.]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[His arm flings out beside him in useless frustration.] Somebody has to be in charge, goddammit! If it isn't me it'll be somebody worse. You can't just let people run around doing whatever they want. They'll lose their damn minds.

[He jabs his thumb toward his chest, something wild and almost imploring in his eyes.]

I'm the one who always steps up.

How come nobody ever appreciates that?

[wing_attack]

I think this world is doing just fine without us coming in and taking charge. At least as far as its own internal logic seems to be concerned. I mean... someone's paying for the police and health care here. Aside from Team Rocket, actual day to day crime seems pretty low. I've heard people say the Elite Four is in charge, but they're nowhere to be seen... but things seem to work fine.

In terms of the actual weirdness... you do realize this place is based off of a game, right? I mean... it's real for us because we're inside it, but Pokemon games are pretty popular. So the weird stuff is pretty understandable if you think of it like a glitch in a video game. Or a - a skipped frame in a movie.

[Sorry Blake, but you're Old, so he has to dumb it down for you.]

And that makes a lot of the weird stuff make a lot more sense. Like... yeah, you'd like a lot of background information filled in, you might like it if it made more sense with reality, but it doesn't, because that's not the kind of thing it is.

But... you do try to step up. You do try. But I honestly don't think administration's your thing. You're a cop, right? Why'd you become a cop in the first place?

[lieutenantantichrist]

[He has a point there.] How the hell are they doing it? There's not even any taxes. I know how much work the little crap nobody thinks about takes. Did that kind of thing all the time at home. You have any idea how much it takes to close off a street when there's a sinkhole? There has to be somebody in charge here somewhere just to keep the world going.

[He shakes his head fiercely. People talk about this video game thing now and then, but something visceral in him rejects it.] We're not in a video game. We're real people, and what we do fuckin' matters.

[Tobias' question stops his pacing and makes him look at him.] That's all I ever wanted to be. Cops do shit that matters. World needs them. They do the hard jobs, protect people, and fight like men. They earn respect.

[wing_attack]

Well yea, obviously we're real people, but that doesn't mean the world's based on a place that makes sense.

[Blake do you even fantasy game.]

... Okay. So you're pretty clearly a cop that wants to be on the street, right? Doing good in the streets, not stuck with paperwork. Do you really think yelling at people to do what you say is going to do anything? Maybe it'll get them to back up a bit, but you've got to show by example. Besides, a lot of people here come from situations where they're used to taking care of stuff themselves, I think. They're not going to trust that you know what's best unless you give them a reason to. One that's more than just 'because I say so'.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake fantasy footballed for a while but he kept getting into fights over stats.

He has one thing he can say for himself.] Hey, I disarmed some bombs and tossed that Cobra idiot off his island. That's not nothing.

[He's mattered, damn it. It has to mean something.

He lets out a long sigh.]

But, yeah. I miss having my beat. Back then I had shit to get done.

[His eyes rove off.]

People needed me.

[wing_attack]

[That only counts very very loosely.]

True. I... I get missing having your beat. I kind of had one too... checking entrances and exits to see who we might have to watch...

[He sighs and hunches his shoulders slightly, before relaxing them. He understands missing things. He misses his wings, after all.]

If you didn't become a police officer, what else do you think you would have done? Like... other interests or hobbies or something?

[lieutenantantichrist]

That's right, you got that whole child soldier thing. There's hardly any kids here who haven't been through hell, you ever notice that?

[Felix has scuttled up onto the desk, where he is watching with silent, delicate crustacean sympathy. Blake's hand dangles down past the armrest of his chair. He feels a furry head nudge it. Hooch, his Arcanine. You can always trust a dog, magic or not. That's one thing that holds true. His hand starts absently scratching between his ears.]

I never even thought about being anything else. A cop's what I was born to be. Around here I've had to do part time retail crap like a 17-year-old trying to save up for a car. That's no life.

[wing_attack]

Yeah. Maybe it's this place trying to cut them a break somehow? Comparatively, this place is a lot better than a lot of worlds, I've found. I know a lot of people that are happier here in general.

[He reaches out gently to stroke a finger down Felix's back. Poor guy...]

You never wanted to be a baseball player or anything? Or football, or... something. Or an astronaut? Or run away and join the circus, like I did here?

[He can't help but laugh a little bit at that. It's not something he expected from himself, but here he was in front of crowds.]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Yeah...[His eyes drift away.] I figure that's what happened with the kid from back home. Where he came from was screwed up. Something happened that wasn't supposed to. So he got put here for a while, and now he went back where he should be.

[Back where his dad is alive.

He snorts as something occurs to him.] Could be I got taken out of the real world for a reason, too.

[Maybe it's better off without him.

Felix's antennae twitch. He appreciates the attention. His trainer has been in a Byronic mood, he thinks, but he has refrained from pushing Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull toward him. He doubted it would help.

Blake shrugs heavily.] Yeah, wanted to be a football player for a while there like every dumb kid. Pretty soon busting bad guys sounded better, and that was something I could do for real.

[His brow furrows.] Wait. The circus?

Kid, for the love of god, tell me you're not a clown.

[wing_attack]

Maybe it's telling you that you need a break.

[... He can see Blake as a football player. Or a boxer. Something with a lot of aggression, at least.]

I wanted to be a pilot for a while, but I didn't think that I would have been able to sit through all of those classes or be responsible for that many people...

[Though now with the amount of people he'd saved... but he can't exactly do that now anyway.]

No, I'm not a clown. I do an air show with my Pokemon. I've even been having work done on a wingsuit so that I can glide along. It's a way better airshow than Falkner's. He doesn't get birds like I do.

[There's the faintest hint of a challenge in his voice. He is and will be the better Flying type trainer.]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Hah. Like the universe making me take a vacation? Or a forced retirement.

People back home used to suggest I could take some time off. They never suggested it twice.

[Blake's job was his life, and he did not like people trying to tell him what to do with it.]

You dodged a bullet. Pilots just sit around most of the time. Gotta be boring as hell.

[There's an unexpected bit of interest in his eye.]

That's actually not a bad idea, as far as circuses go.

[wing_attack]

Something like that. You have a chance to make some new hobbies. Make friends. Play with creature that you never thought could exist and find out they're actually pretty cool.

[He shrugs a little bit at the career assessment. He probably did, but he had time then to decide. Not so much now.]

Probably. I don't really have career choices left for me now, though. At home I'll... probably end up living my life out in some national park, far away from people. Hawks don't live as long as people, but... I'd like to have some space to let go of being human. It'll be easier like that.

[He won't have to think about anything but hunting and defending his territory. Not finding a mate, not anymore, but... everything else he can do.]

Ah... yeah. I mean there's clowns and acrobats but birds are what I know and what I'm good with. My team really likes it, so I run them through routines at least every other day unless we're on the road. I try to make time for the non-birds to train too, though. You should come watch sometime. I can get you tickets.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Dicking around's nice, but it doesn't make you important. Doesn't get anything useful done.

[Making friends would be learning a new skill, all right.]

Right. Back home you're a bird. [Makes your problems look a lot less significant, doesn't it, Carter.] But you can still think, right? That makes you still human. Just one with feathers. Hell, you could get famous with that trick.

[His fingers drum on the table thoughtfully. Sounds like Tobias at least has found something to do with what he's good at. Felix and Steve both look to Blake hopefully.]

...Yeah. I'd like to see that.

Aaand Animorphs spoilers again if someone is lurking.

[wing_attack]

No, but you can't be 'on' all of the time. You need something to help yourself relax, too.

[He's not going to judge severity of problems, Blake. Before everything happened his biggest problem was avoiding swirlies.]

I could, but there's probably some Yeerks we haven't tracked down yet. There's also the fact of... mm. I"m sort of... tired of people. I mean... people here have been pretty good, but... I don't think I can face some of my friends. I can't... I know Jake was right to give the order to Rachel, but it was still a suicide mission and she's still dead. Cassie's going to agonize over it, I know, but she'll rationalize it. Ax is probably going to have to go back to his home planet. And Marco's good to hang around and all but I know he's going to crack a joke about it and I don't know if I can take that. So at least for the near future... no. I'm not going to do something like that.

[His grip tightens on the Pokeball with Rachel inside. He hasn't used her much since he came back, but he can't bring himself to go without her.]

Then it's done. I'll let you know the next show date and you can tell me if you're free or not.