lieutenantantichrist | [11] Video/Action for Route 39

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[11] Video/Action for Route 39 - "4 THE MARE"

[Carter doesn't know he's gotten used to it until he wakes up alone.]

[What's supposed to happen is they get up, bitch about the cold, make some coffee and breakfast, bitch about the cold some more, pack up, and hit the road.]

[Today there's just the sound of birds.]

[When Carter sits up, the other sleeping bag is flat. There's a fat, fuzzy teddy bear thing sitting on top of it, and a crab perched on the pillow, where a head full of messy blond hair should be.]

[Both of the animals look at Blake expectantly.]

[He fumbles for his phone and hits the key that dials Dirk. He sits very, very still while it connects.]

[The prerecorded voice tells him what he already knows.]

[He drops the phone and leaves it to chirp out its message to nobody. He pulls on the nearest clothes to hand and crawls out of the tent. The bright light makes him squint. He walks toward the edge of the clearing. They'd found a good place this time. Level ground, no tall grass, surrounded by pine trees. You couldn't even see it from the road. Honestly, Carter doesn't know how Dirk knew it was there.]

[Blake rests his head against a tree and breathes in deep. The bark is cool and rough on his forehead. The air smells like pine needles.]

[Dirk had a good eye for these things.]

[He slams his fist into the trunk as hard as he can.]

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

[Over and over, and when he finally stops his knuckles are stinging and it's all silence except for his panting.]

[He turns and goes back to the tent.]

[Inside, the fuzzy thing is trying to open up his backpack. Its claws are giving it much luck with the ties. Blake unties it and dumps everything out on the floor. Soap, pokeballs, clothespins, socks. Some oranges roll away, and the thing goes right after them and starts gnawing. Doesn't even take the peel off.]

[There's something thin and white in the pile. A piece of paper. Blake picks it up and reads it.]

[He reads it again.]

[He sits there for a while as the teddy bear thing munches, and there's a low thrum and a shadow through the tent's wall as one of those ladybugs passes by.]

[He digs the little sewing kit out of the pile. He turns his backpack inside-out and opens up the seam at the bottom. He tucks the note in and sews it closed again.]

[By the time he's done, it occurs to him he's pretty hungry. Usually they'd be having breakfast by now. The fuzzy thing's gone through a lot of what he has already. Carter doesn't really feel like fighting it. For the crab's part, it's just watching with wide, unblinking eyes. It has a pair of mushrooms stuck to its back.]

[Carter remembers hearing those are edible.]

[VIDEO]

[Blake is sitting on a stump. He looks contemplative, and somewhat withdrawn. His beard hasn't been trimmed yet this morning. His pupils are a little too wide.]

Hey. You out there.

After a while here you figure things come and go. There's no point in bitching. You just gotta keep moving forward and keep your hooves on the ground.

I figure I might as well ask. I kept putting it off, thinking maybe I'd get home. But that's not happening anytime soon, and it has to be past by now. So if anybody here is from 2013 or so, maybe a little later, I got a question for you.

And all of you. Talk to me. [He thinks, then nods, and taps on the phone's screen.] Tell me something you'd want to know about what's going on at home. Wherever you're from. If you could find out one thing that's happened while you've been gone, what'd you ask?

[He looks out at the trees, his eyes a little glassy. He seems to forget the Gear is on. A moment later, he abruptly cuts the feed.]

[ACTION]

[If you venture down Route 39 today, you might come upon Blake staring out at the horizon, contemplatively chewing on some hay.]

((ooc: Blake's in a bit of an odd place right now...He'll be mostly coherent, but anyone who talks to him may get hallucinated into something unique. The Paras has one mushroom left, so you could also come join him on a spirit journey.))

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Punching people solves things a lot.

[That is the sum of Blake's hard-earned wisdom.]

The ghosts I can do without. People...okay, some of them too. But some of 'em are all right. Some of 'em...

[His eyes slip away toward the horizon and he loses his train of thought.]

[The voice from the phone pulls him back.]

You know, the other liquor guy. You guys probably all hang out and play poker at Jim Beam's place.

[...Okay, that's. Erm. What.

Whatever pondering he was doing gives way to worry and alarm and disbelief.]

......What the hell have you been smoking today?

[Blake draws up, offended.]

I haven't been smoking anything! All I've done today is eat vegetables! That's healthy!

Vegetables.

[Ash frowns. Why does that remind him of some old conversation...?]

What kind of vegetables were they?

Ones that the new crab was holding. Tasted weird though. But hell, what can you ask from a crab? They can't cook.

Crab mush-

[Ah. That is enough to trigger Ash's full memory of that conversation.Including the possible technique to convince people not to put those mushrooms in their mouth.]

You ate psychedelic Paras herpes?

Only cause a teddy bear ate all my sandwiches.

[He tilts his head to watch the parrot flying around the screen.]

It's probably fine. Besides, what else are you supposed to do with a mushroom crab? You can't take it for a walk, they go sideways.

...I'm going to assume, for the sake of my sanity, that you're talking about a Teddiursa or a Cubchoo.

[This conversation keeps getting worse and worse. Now with a second flying parrot for Blake to stare at, too.]

No, the sideway ones are Krabbys. Paras can go forward or backwards if they want.

One of those little fat ones that eats everything. Crunchbear. Nabsnack. Some shit like that. Hey, you remember Crunchberries? I miss those. They don't have any standards for shitty cereal here.

[Wow, look at all those birds. Squawk squawk. Heh.] Polly wanna cracker?

[Blake feels in his pockets and his face falls.] I'm all outta crackers.

[He forgets it as amazement comes over his face.] They can?!

[He turns around and calls to the crab.] Hey! You! Walk forwards!

I don't know, once you get used to them the Stunfiskies aren't that ba-

No cracker for Haro! No cracker for Haro!

Shut up, Haro.

No cracker for-

[And that's all the bird can say before Ash swats him away.]

Maybe you should ask it nicely? It won't walk if it's scared of you.

Those sound pretty good right now. The little funky flat ones.

Heh heh heh. Hi, bird. [He waves.]

[A dawning realization comes over his face.]

Yeah. Ask nicely. God, I never thought of that. I figured they didn't give a shit.

Hi hi hi! No cracker, no Stunfiskies!

[Ash just signs and shoots a glare at the bird.]

They like treats and days off and cheap television, so I bet they like politeness too.

Talky lil' bastard.

Heh, yeah, my dog loves whatever weird soap operas they got around here. Always watches those while packing my bags. She won't let me do it myself anymore. From the way she growled and waved her arms at me, I think she was saying I do it wrong.

Yeah. Packs my bags for me at night, pre-fight.

I guess that makes it zero hour.

[His eyes go up to the drifting clouds.]

Nine a.m.

...Maybe she should start packing your bags right about now. You look like you need to spend some time in a nice city with plenty of people around, and food that isn't mushrooms. Like meat and crackers and Stunfiskies.

[He's trying very hard not to make it sound like You sound too high to function.]

[He keeps staring up at the sky.]

And I'm gonna be

                   hiiiiiiiiigh

                                     as a kite

                                               by then.

[He flops down on the grass on his back, holding his phone above him.]

I guess I could head to Olive Loaf. I like it here, though. The trees are crunchy-looking.

High as a colony, more like.

[His voice has a slight touch of panic now.]

Crunchy-looking is not a quality I'd usually associate with trees, but I'd bet all that sea air down at Olivine makes them even better. Crunchier.

There aren't any colonies anymore. That's what the Revolutionary War was about. Right? I didn't pay attention in history class. Something about British pricks, something something George Washington.

[Grass is nice. How come he never lies down on it? Smells all green.]

Probably does. That makes sense. I'm sick of walking, though. Walk, walk, walk. Pain in the ass. Easier to forget about how damn long everything takes if you got company.

[The Paras picks its way over and pokes Blake gently in the forehead with its claw.]

Colonies are like poofy sleeves and bell bottoms; they always come back in style sooner or later.

[Except they're definitely not talking about the same colonies, but he gets the feeling that history lessons would be wasted right now.]

You've got the crab and the bear, right? I'm sure they can be good company, even if the conversation will be poor at best.

Heh. [Blake laughs.] You're a funny guy, you know that?

[Blake reaches up, takes the little crab's pincers in his hooves, and makes it dance. It seems concerned.]

I was getting kinda used to humans.

[Don't worry, little Paras, he feels the same way you do.]

...Getting used to humans. Did you really spend that much time travelling with only your Pokémon?

Nah, I mean...having one around all the time. Sorta officially on the team. Mostly I've been doing these camping trips on my own. There's cities and crap, but that's not the same.

[He scratches the crab's back. It doesn't seem to do much.]

Now the other guy, I didn't see much of him, but he was from the real world. That's a big thing. Like...if you're stuck on the moon, and some of the guys from Venus and Pluto and shit are alright, but then there's this guy you know from high school. It's different.

...Of course it would be. There's a thousand things that each of us takes for granted that only someone with the same background would understand.

[Or not understand, but still accept. Outside the frame, he clenches his fists.]

Must have been nice, still. Travelling as a group, I mean.

[Sympathy comes over Blake's face.]

Yeah, like how nobody'd understand about being on an island and getting booty like another rum pirate.

[He sighs deeply.]

It wasn't so bad. He could be a pain in the ass but he was-

--he was good company.

Rum doesn't even taste that great. I'd take beer or sake over it any day.

[Not that he's the rum-and-booty kind of pirate, but Blake looks so out of it that he won't mention that part.]

I'd say the good company part outweighs the rest of it, especially on the road.

[Blake is alarmed] Shit, you're gonna lose your job talking like that! Then what'll you pose on? They might even take the big red hat. You can't be a pirate without the hat. That'd be...that'd be worse than having two eyes.

[If you're not getting rum and booty, why even be a pirate?]

[Carter's face gets melancholy.]

Yeah. Cold's not so bad when there's somebody to bitch about it to.

[And he always had good ideas for how to deal with it.]

[11] Video/Action for Route 39 - "4 THE MARE"

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