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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Just got back here from 'home'. [Sho makes finger-quotes around the word] Found out that it's not home any more. This place is zetta strange, but it's not bad. Better than where I came from.

[By a measure of magnitudes.]

...how my partner's doing. And the rest of the team.

_{[It's a little while before she figures out whether she wants to respond to this or NOT. Blake looks... weird. And it's an unusually sentimental request of him, too.]}

... I guess I'd wanna know if they ever brought back the McRib. Serious life questions.

_{[Open with a joke, THEN ask what's wrong. That's the strategy. Her tone softens when she speaks again.]}

So... lose someone today?

Edited 2013-12-08 07:38 (UTC)

_{[Slooooow brow lift. This isn't the usual scrnuchy crabby face he's used to seeing.]}

H-heeeey, you okay in there?

What happened, somebody drop a nuke?

For all I know, the same thing's happened to the real world.

[The guy on the screen has long hair, pale skin, and a lot of black clothes. It takes Blake a second to place him.]

Yeah. S'gotta all be real zedda for a Dracula.

Yeah. That wouldn't be bad to know. Some of them are assholes, though, at least where I come from. Team, what team? Hah. Everybody was just out to cover their own ass. Couldn't even see what was happening right in front of us. The only one who figured out anything was my partner, and now he's gone too.

[Blake thinks about that voice. He knows it, and the big, tough bald guy it belongs to.]

Fast and Furious was fuckin' terrible.

[Blake shrugs at the big, blocky yellow smiley face that comes up on the screen.]

Fine. Just great. I'm in my forties and my fetlocks haven't given out on me yet. What else can you ask for?

_{[Ralph does not understand all these horse references. He just glances around as if the answers might be floating around the dingy alleyway he's currently hanging out and 'gear surfing in.]}

Nothing, I guess...? I just noticed you were lookin' a little spacey there and thought I'd check in.

[Well. Pale for a Japanese guy, except where it's black enough it looks like he's got tattoos.]

...No. Reaper. Ex-Reaper. Sort-of.

[The black hand (as opposed to what looks like tattooed whiskers) waves around a bit] Less killing people here. ...So far no killing people here. As time increases without killing, differences between here and home →∞.

[This is a man who speaks in mathematical symbols. Still, the concept of "approaches infinity" makes itself as clear as anything Sho talks about.]

That's a good one, too. God, those things were horrible. Every time they came in town, I always tried one again, just to see if I'd remembered wrong.

[She sounds pretty understanding and sympathetic, but he figures that's par for the course for one of those Disney girls.]

[He lets out a long sigh.]

Yeah. Somebody I was just starting to get to know. One minute he's here, the next there's just a crab.

Wrong people, wrong team. Sounds like you had at least one guy who knew what he was doing though.

[And as for Fast and Furious, there's a slight pause before Rude answers.]

...don't know it.

[Yep, that's a Dracula all right, unless Blake's eyes deceive him ~~as they totally do~~. Got black fancy gloves and everything.]

No killing anybody, asshole. [Blake jabs his hoof at him unsteadily.] I don't care how many bats you got. The law's the law.

[He settles back on his haunches and thinks a little.]

But you got a point about one thing. I haven't heard about a single person dying since I been here. Back home, hardly a day went by without a new case. It's...weird.

[ruefully] Yeah, and I fuckin' hated him for it. Always getting in my way. Acting like he knew better.

Our own goddamn captain wouldn't even let me finish getting a confession out of a guy before going and bragging about it to the press.

Hey, don't feel too bad about it. Pitch Black, now, that was great.

I'm not spacey. I never been more here and now. Since when are you bein' nice, anyway?

[Blake tilts his head to look behind the big face.]

You're in the wrong place. You're supposed to hang around somewhere more neon. With more robots.

[...ha, ha ha. This is sounding suspiciously familiar.]

How long were you two working together?

[Glove. Singular. He pushes his hat back on his head a bit, looking at Carter with yellow eyes that have rather more coherency than is usual.]

If I need to kill to survive, I will. I prefer not, but I will not let myself be Erased without a fight. I do not have bats. Mostly cat-type Pokemon.

EEVEE! EEEEE! Eevee vee eeeevee!
VEE! Vee eeee EEVEE! EEVEE EEVEE EEVEE!

[The two objecting Pokemon start simultaneously bitching Sho out for calling them cat-type, making him wince and cover his ears.]

Mostly! I said mostly!

[The Eevees subside, grumpily, one of them bracing his feet on Sho's leg so he can look into the Pokegear. The ex-Reaper pets Nor between his ears and muses.]

People do age, though. I wonder if people just forget about people who have died?

[... damn, Blake, you look like shit. After having lost several hours of sleep to the stress caused by Keiko being in a coma for the last four weeks, Yusuke is looking a little tired and puffy-eyed himself, but the sight of Blake's scruffy mug on his screen reminds him that he could probably look a lot crappier than he does. Anyway, taking into consideration the sort of relationship he and the old man has, he almost doesn't respond to the broadcast, but considering the kind of crap that's been churning around in his head lately, the question Blake asks manages to pique his interest enough to make him reconsider. Besides, he can't help but wonder what the old bastard's deal is. He hasn't seen him look this out of it since those dumb secrets were broadcasted.]

... whether my friends are okay or not. I kinda left home in the middle of a demon apocalypse, so, y'know, if it turns out people here were bullshittin' me about time standing still while we're here...

[Then they and the rest of the world're pretty much screwed, and it's all gonna be my fault for not being there to protect them. Yusuke doesn't say that aloud, but the sheer amount of tension and anxiety this thought causes him can be seen in his expression, though he's clearly trying his very damn best not to show it. It might have been a whole month since they got plunged into that crazy alternate dream dimension, but all those nightmares he'd had about being too weak to defeat Sensui and the world ending because of it were still weighing heavily on his mind. It's not like he's had anything to do but sit around and stew over it: with Keiko unconscious and bedridden, it hadn't felt right for him to try and go out and have fun, and even when he'd try to de-stress by working out and dragging his Pokemon out to the forest to train, he'd find he didn't feel any more relaxed than he did before. Fortunately for him, Keiko was awake now, so that, at least, was a relief, but... man. What he would give to just be able to goof off and not give a damn about anything like he usually does. And people wonder why he'd avoided responsibilities like the plague before he became a Spirit Detective. :|

At any rate, Yusuke here has rather abruptly realized that he'd sort of trailed off after answering Blake's question, so he's just gonna go ahead and shoot Blake a question back before they both end up just sitting around looking contemplative and melancholy as hell. Don't want it to get weird, after all.]

Anyway, uh - [Yusuke lifts his chin and forces a steely-eyed Tough Guy look.] You're not lookin' so great, old man. What'd you do, pull an all-nighter?

Me and that asshole? Less than a week. It was long enough. You ever met somebody you just know is the worst kind of prick?

Funny thing is, you know what? I could say the same about the other guy who just vanished. Hate at first sight.

...actually yeah.

[Just gonna slide a lock in here.]

My partner and I...we didn't get along the first time we were partnered up. Probably because he couldn't keep his mouth shut for thirty seconds

[There's a certain kind of fondness that seeps into Rude's tone when he thinks back to the old days.]

By the end of my first week, I wanted to punch his lights out. Good thing I didn't.

...so you lost two guys you hated this week?

[Hey, a 50s greaser. Blake's never talked to one of them before.]

Demons, huh. Sounds rough. There was a guy who thought I was a demon once, no matter how many times I tried to tell him I walked on four legs like anybody else. Weird guy.

As long as they've got enough crucifixes, your friends are fine. I know where they can find some cheap, too.

[The kid goes quiet for a while after that. Blake lets him think. Probably has problems with his motorcycle and the molls down at the soda fountain. Besides the demons.]

[When he asks straight out, it's easier to put into words. Maybe not the right words, but they sound about the right area.]

A friend of mine went home.

[He cocks his head.] You don't look so great either. You just hear about the Big Bopper's plane crash?

[Sure, next you'll be telling him he doesn't have fangs or a cape.]

Self-defense, that's something else, even for blood-suckers.

[Blake winces too.] Christ, those are some loud-ass rodents you got.

[Blake waves his hoof at the one who looks in the screen.]

[His expression turns chilled. That is a cold thought.]

Jesus. What if that's it? Just forgotten so everybody can go on and never realize you were ever there. God, that's a hell of a lot worse.

[Cape, no. That would be tacky. Fangs? We-ell. They're very small fangs. Not big enough to get hit by this place's humanizing-effect. Also fixed rather than retractable, which book Dracula did not have.]

I don't suck blood. I used to eat souls, [more or less. He's breaking it down for simplicity's sake because sometimes he simplifies the wrong things.] but I don't have to do that here.

[Nor waves back, cheerfully, despite having been called a rodent. For all he knows, Blake has been dealing with Eevees like Taboo, and even Nor wants to call Taboo a rodent.]

Might be optimum for dealing with a world like this, though. Would allow the natives to continue on their remarkably innocent lives. Of course, that also has the potential to keep the populace in a sedated state if it was an artificial state of affairs; possibly by way of the incessant noise. [mathematical genius really hates the so-called music. It hasn't any artistry.]

Many possible reasons for that being a viable hypothesis; steady source of organs for transplant, test subjects, or food spring to mind. [Vampire, no. Sociopath, yes.] There are not nearly as many people as there should be, especially taking into account the number of aliens that appear to be here. Where are all the elders? Why are there so many children? Why are children sent out with virtually nothing besides a lunch and a Pokemon? Where are all the fathers? Even acknowledging the transport of severely wounded people to PokeCentres, wouldn't you expect there to be some deaths-by-accident out in the wild? Why are the only people ever reported missing those from other worlds?

[You didn't plan on sleeping, did you Blake? Like - ever again?]

The maths just don't add up.

[Though the guy on the other end can't see it, Blake cracks a faint smile.] Sounds familiar.

Did that buddy cop movie thing where he turned out to be useful in the end, huh?

I guess you could say Norman was kind of like that. Asshole through and through, but he got shit done. Life would be a lot simpler if he was the worthless bureaucrat I had him pegged for.

And a little kid would be dead.

[Blake is quiet for a while as he watches the sun in the sky. It makes colored pulses.]

This other guy, yeah, I hated him at first. Bastard really got under my skin. Then it turned out...

[Something in his voice changes.]

...he wasn't so bad.

I was good at something he wasn't. And he was good at something I wasn't.

I thought he was a reckless, lazy, irresponsible and loud idiot. And he still drives me crazy, but...you can count on him.

I'm glad our chief kept us paired together.

[He lets the seconds tick by in silence after Blake ends with that slightly morbid note about the kid, but his curiosity is piqued when there's that change in Blake's tone. Rude maintains his silence, allowing Blake to take the reigns of this conversation.]

I'd want to know if...

[He hesitates for a moment, stops himself, changes his mind. No, that's not something to share.]

...if that little truce we had going for a few minutes is going to last, or if I should expect to get shot at again. So, who left?

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

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