lieutenantantichrist | [11] Video/Action for Route 39

Entry tags:

[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.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... Yeah, you kinda were.

S'okay though. You hadn't been here very long, y'know. When that happened.

[he shakes his mane out ruefully] I can be a hell of a mule sometimes.

Back then I thought it was something people did themselves. Decided to up and leave. Now...

If there was any choice about it, he wouldn't be gone.

Yeah.

I don't think any of the people who I've lost would've left if they'd had the choice. ... Or at least not without saying goodbye first.

_{[Kaito had wanted to go home, she knew. She remembers it well because of the childish butthurt she'd felt over it, despite knowing that it was only fair. Some people actually had friends and promising careers and pressing causes to go back to, unlike her.]}

You wanna talk about him, or would that be too touchy-feely kum-ba-yah for you?

He woulda said goodbye if he could. He was all about making flashy exits and entrances. Is. It's not like he's dead. This one girl, she vanished, and I was sure she was dead, but a while back I found out she's all right. Couldn't tell you how I know, but she is.

[He runs his fingers over the wood of the stump. The grain is real clearly defined. He can feel every line.]

[The corner of Blake's mouth twitches up.] He's a huge, cocky pain in the ass is what he is. One of those guys who never learned when to keep their mouths shut, and act like it's something to be proud of.

But he helped me when he didn't have to.

I remember that.

_{[He'd ended up in JAIL over that, hadn't he. But, well, again, this isn't the time for told-you-sos.]}

Sounds like he was a good friend.

_{[Huge, cocky pains in the ass sometimes made the best friends, weirdly enough.]}

She's doing okay. She's a tough girl. Like you. Hey, she's a princess, too.

[Yep, jail for assault and battery. Compared to that, this time he's handling it admirably.]

[Blake looks down at the grass. It bends and waves in complex figures in the breeze.]

Yeah. A real good friend. Would never've guessed he's the kind of guy you can trust.

Sometimes people will surprise you like that.

_{[.... Wait a second. Princess?]}

... Wait, what?

Yeah. You never know, huh. Books an' covers and shit.

[He shrugs at her shock.] What's it supposed to be, 'Your Highness'? I don't know this crap, I'm not British. I'm just goin' by all the little birds on you.

_{[Okay, now she's just staring.]}

... Birds?

Dude, are you high?

_{[She doesn't even mean that seriously. LITTLE DOES SHE KNOW...]}

You know. The little blue ones on your shoulders. [Blake flaps his arms.] Tweet tweet tweet.

[He leans back and looks up at the sky.]

Nah, I'm pretty low down right now.

_[....]

... Uh... Blake?

You're not making any sense, dude.

I'm making plenty of sense. I make that all day long. It's a full time job. It's that or pull a wagon, and I don't know if my withers have that in them anymore. I'd need a better breakfast first, to start with. One mushroom doesn't take you that far.

Princesses've gotta have birds around. And squirrels and stuff. Just perching on their shoulders and being all googly-eyed. You'd think you'd hear about them getting rabies more.

... Mushroom?

Oh my god.

You are high.

What's everybody got against mushrooms all of a sudden? They're good for you! Probably just as good as hay.

Being from Disney's no excuse to give people crap.

_{[She's just got her face in her hand now.]}

I'm not from Disney, dingus.

You're hallucinating.

[Blake's face turns sympathetic.] C'mon, don't be down on yourself, Princess. You're not one of those rip-off direct-to-video things.

Hallucinating? [His voice is full of surprise.] Where would you get a crazy idea like that? Here, lemme ask. [He looks off to his right.] Hey, am I hallucinating?

[He listens, nods, then looks back toward the Princess.] Tommy Lasorda says no.

_{[... That's surprisingly sweet, but you're still totally fuckin' high. :I]}

Tommy Lasorda is lying to you.

Hey, watch who you're talking shit on. Are you in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame?

You can't go around calling people hallucinating just because they're surrounded by little swirly things.

Yeah, actually, I can.

Because there aren't any little swirly things around you. So apparently only you can see them.

Maybe I'm special. Ever thought about that?

Norman could see all kinds of crap with those fancy glasses of his, and everybody thought he was hot shit for it.

[Tommy Lasorda nods along before sprouting crow's wings and spiraling into the sun.]

Oh, you're special all right.

Just not in the way you think, apparently.

[An honest smile spreads over his face.]

That's real nice of you to say, Princess.

_{[... BLAKE.]

[AUGH SHE CAN'T BE ANGRY.]}

... You're welcome, Blake.

Look, where are you?

Are you in the woods somewhere?

I'm just a little down the road from Oliver Stone.

Vin Diesel just called. He said he's gonna go there with me. Sounded worried, or as close to it as a guy like that can get.

... Okay well let Vin Diesel know that maybe he should bring along some of those 'what to do when you've consumed part of a Poison-type' pamphlets from the Center.

_{[She's just hoping to dear god that Vin Diesel is an actual other person and not a vision.]}

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]