Lt. Carter Blake (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lieutenantantichrist) wrote2014-06-23 05:22 am
lieutenantantichrist) wrote2014-06-23 05:22 am
[17] [Text/Action for Mahogany] - "Whenever You Get Involved, Someone Gets Hurt."
[ACTION]
[In a low-rent corner of Mahogany, there's a real gym. No mazes, no boss trying to fight you in exchange for something they call a badge, no lackeys, just weight machines and a floor covered with rubber mats, the way it should be. Open twenty-four hours, and this late there's no human in this room but Blake. He's in a sweatsuit, gray in contrast to the brown of the Hitmonlee holding pads for him in its upraised paws. The only sound is his harsh breaths and the thump of his fists on the canvas. His shoulders are hunched like a boxer's. His eyes look straight ahead. Judging from the sweat darkening the back of his shirt, he's been here a while.
On the other side of the room, a Snubbull is sitting on the floor, looking at a Gear that's resting on the mats. A Musharna floats beside her. Fifteen minutes of frustration proved that claws are no good for texting with, but she wants to talk to someone. She really wants to.
She snubs softly, so as not to make her trainer angry. The Musharna's eyes show no reaction, but the buttons on the Gear depress. The text that Steve watches appear seems to be accurate, more or less. The transcription might come strange through the dreaming creature. It's close enough for what she needs.]
[TEXT]
Hello lo low hello
Please talk to me.
I want to talk.
I will tell you my favorite story.
He told it to me when I couldn't sleep. His eyes were closed for some of it but I shook his knee and got to hear the end. Without the end it isn't a story.
Once
upon a time there was a girl. She was poor and alone because her parents were dead, and child services didn't exist then, so she had to go to live with her wicked stepmother and do work for her. Hard work, the kind that nearly killed her, but in time she got used to it.
Then one day she heard the prince was giving a big ball. She asked to go, but her stepmother wouldn't let her. So she tried to run off and get a ride to the castle from a knight, but her wicked stepmother had tailled her, and she found her and dragged her off the horse. While she was going, the wicked stepmother threw the knight a gold coin. He held onto it, and he kept looking at it all the time. He kept thinking about the girl.
He wanted to help her, but he couldn't.
The knight went to the ball, and he was going to kill the prince, but there were too many guards around watching him, so he ran away.
Then the knight went to find the girl and save her. The wicked stepmother grazed him in the neck with an evil spell, but he killed her and all the other guys too, even though he got hurt bad. At first the girl was scared, but then she was free and she was okay. She got to go back home to her real parents. The knight was a hero. All the papers said so.
And everyone lived happily ever after.
..........
..........
..........
Tell me your favorite story.
Voice or video if you can.
The words alone are lonely.
Tell me please.
[In a low-rent corner of Mahogany, there's a real gym. No mazes, no boss trying to fight you in exchange for something they call a badge, no lackeys, just weight machines and a floor covered with rubber mats, the way it should be. Open twenty-four hours, and this late there's no human in this room but Blake. He's in a sweatsuit, gray in contrast to the brown of the Hitmonlee holding pads for him in its upraised paws. The only sound is his harsh breaths and the thump of his fists on the canvas. His shoulders are hunched like a boxer's. His eyes look straight ahead. Judging from the sweat darkening the back of his shirt, he's been here a while.
On the other side of the room, a Snubbull is sitting on the floor, looking at a Gear that's resting on the mats. A Musharna floats beside her. Fifteen minutes of frustration proved that claws are no good for texting with, but she wants to talk to someone. She really wants to.
She snubs softly, so as not to make her trainer angry. The Musharna's eyes show no reaction, but the buttons on the Gear depress. The text that Steve watches appear seems to be accurate, more or less. The transcription might come strange through the dreaming creature. It's close enough for what she needs.]
[TEXT]
Hello lo low hello
Please talk to me.
I want to talk.
I will tell you my favorite story.
He told it to me when I couldn't sleep. His eyes were closed for some of it but I shook his knee and got to hear the end. Without the end it isn't a story.
Once
upon a time there was a girl. She was poor and alone because her parents were dead, and child services didn't exist then, so she had to go to live with her wicked stepmother and do work for her. Hard work, the kind that nearly killed her, but in time she got used to it.
Then one day she heard the prince was giving a big ball. She asked to go, but her stepmother wouldn't let her. So she tried to run off and get a ride to the castle from a knight, but her wicked stepmother had tailled her, and she found her and dragged her off the horse. While she was going, the wicked stepmother threw the knight a gold coin. He held onto it, and he kept looking at it all the time. He kept thinking about the girl.
He wanted to help her, but he couldn't.
The knight went to the ball, and he was going to kill the prince, but there were too many guards around watching him, so he ran away.
Then the knight went to find the girl and save her. The wicked stepmother grazed him in the neck with an evil spell, but he killed her and all the other guys too, even though he got hurt bad. At first the girl was scared, but then she was free and she was okay. She got to go back home to her real parents. The knight was a hero. All the papers said so.
And everyone lived happily ever after.
..........
..........
..........
Tell me your favorite story.
Voice or video if you can.
The words alone are lonely.
Tell me please.
no subject
Ned Kelly's a bushranger; that's what people used to call those on-the-run who choose to hide out in the wild. Anyway he was accused of a couple of things; stealin' horses, a few fights, an' fer...well he wasn't polite t'someone important.
[That's a rather mild way of saying Ned Kelly had passed a lady a box of calves' testicles.]
Mind you he didn't start most of the trouble; trouble just had a funny way of findin' him. Probably didn't help that he got on the bad side of the cops around his place. Point is he was accused of crimes he hadn't committed; the last straw that drove him to the life of a bushranger was when they threw his mum into jail on trumped up charges.
He was famous for two robberies; didn't fire a shot in either and made off with bags of cash. He had a thing for the police though; he didn't even raise a hand at any of his hostages, but he had a fierce hatred for policemen. They were the only ones he wanted t'actually kill, an' he an' his gang took down as many of the cops as they could when the police had them cornered at Glenrowan. It was a shoot-out; an entire troop of cops versus the Kelly gang wearin' their own home-made armour. I call it an armour, but it was jus' some pieces of metal cobbled together. So it wasn't any surprise when the gang started droppin' like flies. Joe Bryne went down first; he was Kelly's right hand man. Then Dan Kelly, his younger brother, an' another of his mates, Steve Hart. The two of'em were next t'go. So the last man standin' was Ned Kelly himself. An' this crazy bastard, he makes one last charge against the police, goes out guns ablazin'. One of the cops has the good sense to notice that he's not wearin' any armour around his legs and takes him down, gets him in the legs and finally arrests him.
Now by this time the Kelly boys had gotten themselves quite a fair number of supporters. For one, most people believed him from the start, that he'd never done any stealin' in his life till he became a bushranger. In fact, most people thought him a kind off hero fer standin' up to injustice an' unfair treatment by the police. A huge crowd tried to save'im; over thousands of people signed a letter beggin' for a pardon from the governor, or the judge, I can't remember which. They still hanged him in the end though; there's a famous line where the judge tells him as he sentences him to die: "May God have mercy on your soul", says the judge. Kelly, he just goes, "I'll see you there soon." An' what do y'know? The judge bites it jus' two weeks later.
An' that's the story of Ned Kelly. S'not funny at all, but s'got action an' guns. Hope y'like it.
no subject
That's amazing! Was he living as a bushranger out in the tall grass on the routes?
He must have been very brave.
[Steve rocks back on her heels.] Thank you for telling me. That was a good story. It was a really good story.
But...
[The corners of her lugubrious eyes draw down. She casts a troubled glance over her shoulder, toward the sound of blows that has continued steadily beneath the man's narrative.
Her snubs become small.]
Cops are the good guys.
no subject
Yeah, he was. They even nicknamed the place where he came from "Kelly Country", that's how much of an impression he left. It's tough land out there, and not many's fit t'survive in it.
[He nods.] I didn't have anythin' else t'do, but I'm glad y'like it.
[That furtive look directed at someone out of range from the Pokegear has Sniper suspect that perhaps telling the story of Ned Kelly to this particular Snubbull was not such a good idea.]
He a cop?
[And by he, Sniper's referring to the source of those punches.]
no subject
Steve nods fiercely at the screen.] Yeah! A real cop's the best thing a person can be. They're strong and they beat up the bad guys.
They keep people safe, no matter what.
[Her ears drop, and her snubs become less steady.]
Even if people don't understand what it takes.
no subject
Yeah I'm from down under, but I'm from a different state than Ned Kelly. Where I'm from is dryer, not so much trees and bushes.
[Well he'd beg to differ, but again he's cognizant that the little pink dog seems to think the world of law enforcement types, and he doesn't exactly want to pop any bubbles today so...best to play it as kid-friendly as possible.]
That's what a real cop does, yeah. They've got a memorial up at a few towns actually, for the policemen Ned Kelly killed. Can't fault'em fer bein' brave an' stickin' to their duty.
[Even if Sniper was on Ned Kelly's side and privately thought those few men were idiots to die for a system that did little to reward them.]
Not every cop's a good one though, an' Ned unfortunately ran afoul of one.
no subject
[Her arms wrap around herself.]
Here the cops are all the same.
Hey. What's the difference between a good cop and a bad one?