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
And, despite the urging it took to get him going, Yusuke has real talent as a storyteller. Soon Steve is listening intently, nodding and snubing along.
She can understand a lot about a grumpy guy who likes fighting.] I get it! Fighting is fun! Especially if you're strong.
[When he talks about one crappy bullshit day after another, that's funny, too, because for a second he sounds a lot like her trainer. But that quickly leads to things she doesn't want to think about, so she just listens.
She especially likes the part about the fight with the ugly guy (though the idea of teeth having black eyes is disturbing). She pumps her little paw enthusiastically.
It's sad, though, to think that someone's mother wouldn't want them at home.
She perks up to hear about the kid, though she knows that the side of the road isn't a good place to play. You could get hit by somebody on a Ponyta.
And now the giggles are hardly muffled at all, when she sees the faces he makes. You've got a heck of a talent for that, Yusuke.
(It's that odd little noise that makes Blake's head turn. If you are paying close attention, you may notice that the sound of impacts on pads has stopped, and Blake's feet in the background have gone still. Steve is too absorbed in the story for it to register.)
Her paws go to her mouth in alarm.] Oh no!
Did the guy die?
no subject
Yep! Cracked his skull open on the concrete and died right on impact. In fact, it happened so fast the guy didn't even know what the hell was goin' on at first. He saw his body on the ground, saw all the people standing around and gawking at him like it was some kinda screwed up free show, saw the jerks in the ambulance pick him up and stuff him into the back of their ride, but it wasn't until he sat down and tried to focus on remembering everything that'd happened up until then that finally he was like, "holy shit, I'm a frickin' ghost."
That's when things got even weirder.
Out of nowhere, this girl riding an oar showed up, and at first, the guy was freaked out. Thought she was some kind of witch. 'Cause, y'know, that's really what his day needed, was a visit from a fucking witch. But then when he asked her who the hell she was, she told him...
[Yusuke pitches his voice up and puts on a goofy accent. It sounds vaguely British.]
"Oh, no one! Just the Grim Reaper!"
[Yusuke's voice goes back to normal. For the most part, anyway, because he continues to use the "Reaper voice" whenever necessary as he progresses through the story.
You're welcome, Botan.]The guy wasn't buying it. He said, "the hell you are! Since when was the Grim Reaper a cute girl with thunderboobs and not a skeleton in big black robes?" And then she pulled a book out of her kimono and flipped through it and said, "Oh yeah, I thought you'd be kind of a dick! It says here in my stupid stalker book that you are, and also that you're loud and obnoxious and your grades suck! Golly gee, your life was pretty crappy, huh?" Because that's not creepy or bitchy at all. The guy got pissed off and told her off. Said to her, "hey, if you're gonna run your mouth so much, could you at least tell me something useful, like whether or not that kid's okay?" Then the Reaper asked him if he wanted to go see for himself, and they went to the hospital where the kid and his mom were.
The kid was fine. A little scraped up, but hell, compared to the guy, he was in great shape. Satisfied that the kid was okay, the guy told the Reaper he was ready to leave. "Take me to Hell or where ever else I'm supposed to go. I've got no regrets." And y'know what the Reaper did?
She laughed right in his frickin' face.
The guy felt like punching her out, but since she was kinda hot, he asked her what her problem was instead. "Oh, I'm not here to take you away from the living world," she said. "I'm here to give you a shot at getting your life back." See, apparently the people up in Spirit World, the place where people went after they kicked it, hadn't expected him to die that day, especially not by saving a kid 'cause he was such a scumbag. In fact, if the guy hadn't interfered, the kid woulda survived anyway. Basically, his death was a fluke. A fuckin' cosmic accident. So because he'd died unexpectedly after tryin' to do a decent thing for once in his life, Spirit World was offering him the chance to undergo this trial to be brought back to life.
The Reaper made it sound like it'd fix everything, but the guy knew better and didn't wanna do it. He said, "Y'know what? I kinda like being dead. Now my teachers won't have to nag me and my mom can get wasted whenever she wants, and I won't have to listen to any of 'em talk about what a pain in the ass I am. It's a win-win situation. You said it yourself that I was goin' nowhere fast, right?"
"Well, that's depressing as hell," said the Reaper. "How about you go to your wake and make your decision after that?"
The guy wasn't real convinced, but the Reaper buzzed off before he could argue, so he went ahead and went to his wake later that day. There was a bunch of people there. Way more people than he expected, most of 'em from his school. They were all talking and laughing, though, so he was like, "oh, great. These bastards probably all showed up just so they'd get extra credit and have somethin' to pat themselves on the back about later!" That was what he thought at first, but then, uh...
... then he saw there were people there who were actually pretty upset about him dying: the girl he'd known for forever, his mom, the principal of his school. Hell, even the ugly guy he'd beat the crap out of earlier that day was there, yelling about what a giant prick he was for leaving him with nobody to fight.
["Who am I gonna fight now? Who am I gonna fight?
You're supposed to be here... for me."
It's been a year - hell, a couple years, if you count the time he's spent in Johto - since that night, and Yusuke can still hear Kuwabara's words in his head, clear as day. It makes him think, for a second, about a more recent time when he'd had to listen to Kuwabara freak out about him dying. And then he quickly makes himself stop thinking about it, because he knows if he does, it'll put him in a weird mood, and right now, he's got shit to do.]
The little kid he'd saved was there, too. Didn't seem to realize what was goin' on, though, because after he and his mom paid their respects, he, uh -
[Yusuke lets out a rueful laugh.]
He asked his mom when the guy could hang out with him again. Said all the people at the wake musta been crying 'cause the guy was nice and they wanted to play with him too.
... It was right about then that the guy realized something. It wasn't that everybody around him thought he was a worthless pain in the ass and didn't want him around. He was just so busy bein' pissed off about all the people who did think that way that he never noticed the ones who didn't. Or he just didn't realize that some of the people who were always getting on his ass about stuff did it 'cause they gave a damn, like with his mom and his principal and the girl.
[Suddenly, Yusuke seems a touch distant.]
It was, uh...
It was a real eye opener.
[He's quiet for a moment. Then he shakes off whatever sort of melancholy it was that took hold of him and continues, coughing a bit.]
Anyway, after the wake was over, the Reaper came back and asked the guy if he'd made a decision about whether or not he wanted to do the trial. The guy thought about how sad the people he cared about were about his death, and then said, "Yeah. Sure. I'll do it."
So they went to Spirit World to meet King Enma, the god of the dead.
no subject
[
Shortest, most depressing anime series everBut fortunately, Yusuke keeps going.And it's a good thing he does, because he really does have talent for it. His face is dynamic and animated, and- voices. He does voices.
Yusuke, you have won an ally in this little dog for life.]
I didn't know humans could be Ghost types too!
[She sighs out in relief.] It's good that the kid was okay. It would be awful if the guy couldn't even help.
But what's a Grim Reaper?
My trainer talks about people dying sometimes...it never sounded like something you could come back from, like fainting.
Sometimes he talks about Hell, too. He says it's not real, but it's where bad guys go. But this guy died trying to save a kid. That makes him a good guy.
[She looks concerned when he talks about the guy thinking no one cared that he was gone. Her arms gesture fiercely.]
Of course people would miss him! There's always people who care, even about people who are angry and cause trouble and get into fights a lot! Even if they've done things wrong, that doesn't mean they should go away forever!
[Her snubs have raised in volume by the end. When she stops, she scrubs her paw across her eyes, and takes a deep breath to pull herself together.]
What's the Spirit World?
1/3
[Yusuke looks and sounds surprised. Well. That's kinda strange. Then again, he is talking to a dog right now (albeit a pretty smart one), so maybe he shouldn't expect her to understand everything he's talking about. It probably doesn't help that nobody seems to die around here in the first place.]
Okay, basically, the Grim Reaper's kinda like the personification of death. When you die, the Grim Reaper comes to collect your soul and take you to the afterlife. He's usually depicted as this skeleton in black robes who carries a bigass scythe around, so, y'know, it's pretty understandable that the guy was surprised to find out that the Reaper's actually a girl with an annoying voice and a huge rack.
[Yusuke didn't expect Steve to get so fired up, but he waits until she's gotten it out of her system before he goes on. It would've been nice to have someone tell him something like that, he thinks. Back then, that is, before he ended up on the wrong end of somebody's bumper. Would've saved him a lot of grief.]
Like I said, the Spirit World's where you go after you die. And Enma's the one in charge of running the place, as well as the guy responsible for deciding whether you go to Hell or Heaven. He's kinda like the Grim Reaper in that you see him all the time in paintings and movies and video games and stuff, so when the Reaper took the guy to Spirit World to talk to him about the resurrection trial, he was expecting to meet this big, ugly, corrupt rat bastard with long pointy teeth and huge beady eyes who thinks just because he's got a lot of power that means he can screw over whoever he wants!
[Yusuke's tone of voice becomes progressively louder and more vehement the more he describes King Enma. By the time he's done, he looks irritated as hell. Does he have some, uh... strong feelings about Enma? You better believe he does. That guy has earned himself a permanent slot on Yusuke's shit list, which is a more difficult feat than one might expect.
That said, it does occur to him a second or two later than it really ought to've that he probably shouldn't be letting it get to him right now, and so he forces himself to calm down, proceeding a bit sheepishly afterwards.]
... but uh, that's not how it worked out. Instead, when the Reaper took him into King Enma's palace, he met this little kid. Like, this really, really little kid. Couldn't've been more than two years old, or so the guy thought, which was why he totally laughed his ass off when he found out that that was the person he was supposed to be meeting. I mean, c'mon, how the hell could the Spirit World be run by a toddler? The kid hadn't even stopped teething. 'Course, when he said that, the Reaper slapped the hell out of him, and then the kid said...
[Yusuke pinches his nose and pitches his voice up high again. Looks like the Reaper's not the only one getting a goofy voice. This one's just more nasal and annoying.
You're welcome, Koenma.]"Actually, I'm the son of King Enma, and I'm about a gajillion years old, so WEEEH."
[Yusuke lowers his hand and gives the camera a dry look.]
Now, why in the hell it takes a gajillion years for somebody to graduate to a booster seat, I've got no frickin' clue, and neither did the guy, but before he could ask, the, uh...
[... what does he call Koenma. He can't keep saying "kid", because that was the little boy. "The Prince", maybe? It feels weird as hell to call him that, but for the sake of the story, he'll roll with it. It's not like Koenma's here to find this and give him shit for it.]
The Prince of the Spirit World said, "So you're here to ask about your trial, right? Well, here--"
2/3
3/3
And then the guy was like, "what the hell."
[... okay, that isn't exactly how that conversation went. It's damn well close enough, though, if you ask Yusuke. He goes on.]
Turns out, the trial - or ordeal, or whatever you wanna call it - he was supposed to go through to come back to life involved hatching what's called a Spirit Beast - kinda like a Pokemon, except the form it takes is determined by what sorta energy you've got emitting from your soul. Sorta like a reflection of your inner self. The Prince of the Spirit World told him that it was a test of character - if he did good things and hatched a good beast, he'd pass the trial, and the beast'd guide him back to his body. If he kept bein' a stupid asshole and he hatched somethin' ugly and evil, then he'd fail the trial, and the beast'd eat him, soul and all, and he'd be lost forever.
So, y'know. No pressure, right?
[INSERT ONE DIRECTION LAUGH TRACK HERE... god, that deal was such bullshit. Why is half of everything related to Spirit World bullshit. This is the question that will plague Yusuke until the end of his days.]
Anyway, the guy wasn't exactly buying what the Prince was selling, but before he could think too much about it, he took the egg. Then he and the Reaper went back to the living world, and the Reaper was like, "Oh yeah, by the way, we should probably make sure your body doesn't get cremated. Can't return to your body if it's burnt to a crisp, can you, NYEHEHE."
[... Yusuke, Botan doesn't laugh like that and you know it. Geez.]
no subject
[Steve doesn't quite understand what she was carrying a rack of, but she doesn't want to interrupt the flow of the story.
The Enma concept is new to her. She's heard of "rat bastards," though. Ugly, beady eyes, corrupt, screws people over in trials-] Oh, I've heard of those! You mean a lawyer!
I didn't think they could be children, though...
[And he is doing more voices. Yusuke you have this little dog charmed to, well, hell and back.
Then her ears twitch right up.] An egg? That doesn't sound like a trial. Those are big formal things where you have to go give testimony sometimes and it's a pain in the ass.
[Her trainer talks about those sometimes. He says a lot tends to be bullshit and there's things called juries that are idiots or who assholes are always trying to intimidate.
She tilts her head, and nods to herself.] Hatching an egg sounds simpler.
But...one whose kind is chosen by how the trainer acts, not what its parents are? I've never heard of anything like that. Though, this guy already saved a little kid, so it's going to be a good beast. That's obvious.
Do you think there are eggs like that around here?
[Whatever the Grim Reaper's laugh may really sound like, Yusuke's impression wins another muffled snorting giggle. She's so involved that she's forgotten all about why she asked for a story in the first place, and all about the man behind her, who has let his fists fall and been listening for a while now. Who is now taking quiet steps closer.]
Then what happened?
1/2
... oh, right. They don't have weapons here, either. Man, this place is weird. At any rate, Yusuke figures "a ghost with a Scyther" is as close to understanding the concept of the Grim Reaper as Steve's gonna get, all things considered, so rather than correct her, he just nods and tells her:]
Yeah, you got it. Sorta...
[Despite himself, Yusuke can't help but snort when she draws a comparison between Enma and a lawyer. He doesn't correct her there, either. Technically, Enma was supposed to be the judge of the dead, even though he relegated that particular duty to his son (because obviously being corrupt's not enough, he's gotta be corrupt and lazy), so that kind of did make him like a lawyer, right? Close enough to one, anyway.
The more she talks, the more Yusuke suspects she's just parroting Blake. Some of that stuff does, after all, sound like things Blake would say. Why the hell has Blake been telling his dog about juries and shit, though? The only thing Yusuke tells his Pokemon is to stop sleeping in his damn laundry.
As for her question about whether this world has anything like Spirit Beast eggs...]
Tch, there better not be. Those things are a pain in the ass. [There's a pause. Then Yusuke's eyes widen a little, and he quickly adds:] Or, uh, I'm guessin' they would be, anyway. Not that I'd know, of course, I mean-- pshhht, why would I? Heh heh...
[SMOOTH.]
2/2
Well, obviously, the guy was like, "Dumbass, why the hell didn't you say anything sooner? My mom coulda already had me roasted and stuffed into an empty wine bottle by now! C'mon, let's go!" Then he realized that he didn't know how they were supposed to keep his body from being cremated. I mean, the living can't even see ghosts, so how were they gonna hear him when he told 'em not to stick his ass near any open flames?
The Reaper said, "Oh, living people are more sensitive to the supernatural when they're asleep, so if you want to communicate with them, all you've gotta do is stand at their bedsides and visit them in their dreams!" Because that's not creepy at all.
[Spirit World, man. Spirit World. What even.]
But anyway, after that, the guy and the Reaper left to find someone he could talk to. It was pretty late at night by then, but his mom was still up, drinking and yelling at his coffin.
[There's a strong note of chagrin in Yusuke's voice.]
It was pretty embarrassing. So since she wasn't gonna be useful anytime soon, the guy decided to visit his friend instead - the girl he'd known since they were kids. And when he got there, she was, uh...
... she was crying. In her sleep, I mean. I guess she was havin' a bad dream about the guy leaving her or something, which was kinda...
... I dunno. It was weird. Not, like, bad weird, just --
[Yusuke falters a little, looking awkward. Then, almost impatiently, he shakes his head, grimaces, and says:]
Look, the point is, she was upset, so when he visited her in her dream, he told her to wipe her face and listen up 'cause he had something important to tell her. He said, "It's hard to explain, but I'm coming back, so I need you to tell my mom not to have me cremated, okay? So pull yourself together and stop crying. I don't wanna see you cry anymore."
The girl said she understood. That she'd do it. The guy figured that'd be the end of it, but the next morning, when the girl visited the guy's mom, she found out that his mom had some stupid dream of her own, and since the dream had apparently brought his mom some comfort or whatever, she didn't wanna wreck it by telling her about her dream.
... The girl was that sort of person, y'see. Cared a lot about other people, even people who were a mess. Hell, for the longest time, she'd been the only person who bothered givin' the guy the time of day, even when everybody told her he wasn't worth it. I mean, yeah, she was a friggin' nag who was always gettin' on him about goin' to school, but at least she didn't just give up on him like everybody else did. She stuck by him, even when he was a jerk to her, and why she never told him to get lost or something...
... I dunno. I guess that just proves she's a way better person than most. [Yusuke huffs out a chuckle.] Too bad the guy was so stupid it took ending up on the wrong end of somebody's bumper for him to see it.
[Yusuke pauses, once again seeming... weirdly subdued for a moment.]
... aaanyway. Obviously, it was great that she was so nice and all, but the fact that she couldn't bring herself to tell the guy's mom what was up kinda meant the guy was screwed, especially 'cause now she was doubting whether or not the dream she'd had was real. So the guy said to the Reaper, "Hey, Reaper, is there any other way for me to talk to her? 'Cause this dream thing ain't cuttin' it." And the Reaper thought about it and said, "Well, you can try taking control of someone else's body! But on two conditions: they have to be someone you know, and they have to have a strong sixth-sense."
The guy was pissed off. He was like, "Great, in that case, I'm boned. Guess I've gotta get used to being a ghost."
But get this.
[Yusuke leans in closer to the screen, almost conspiratorially.]
It turns out that that ugly guy he was always gettin' into fights with - his rival, I guess you could call him, though you and I both know that they were nowhere close to bein' on the same level - could sense spirits. Called it "the tickle feeling", the stupid idiot.
[Yusuke leans away again.]
Crazy, right? When the guy found out, he was like, "Damn, and here I've just been callin' him a freak 'cause he looks like a rotten potato with eyes." Then he was like, "Forget it, I am not possessing that knucklehead's body! With my luck, I'll end up lookin' at my reflection in a window and dying again, or something."
Then the Reaper was like -- [AND HE QUOTES] -- "Here's my impression of you. 'Look at me, I'm burning!'"
[Yusuke gives the camera a withering look. One would be hard-pressed to find a lineface more intense than the one he's wearing right now.]
What a bitch, right? But she'd made her point, so the guy sucked it up and agreed to go ahead and possess his rival's body. The Reaper told him, "I'll give you one hour to find The Girl and tell her to take care of your body. Anything longer than that'll be too much for your rival's body to handle!"
"Yeah, okay," the guy said. And just like that, he possessed his rival's body, and began running all over the city looking for the girl.
[action/text]
The trainer who spread his hands and said And he didn't even have a fuckin' parakeet! before he burst out laughing is a different person from the stone-faced man who has not spoken in hours.
Yusuke is much better to listen to than his silence.
Steve cocks her head.] Do people get burned up and put in wine bottles a lot?
Oh, talking in people's dreams! I've heard psychic types can do that![She gestures toward the Musharna.] But mostly Mark just eats them.
[Her ears drop down as he continues.] His mom and his friend must have been very sad. Didn't they know he'd be a ghost and he'd be watching? It's not as though he was gone.
[She thinks for a while, looking down at her paws.] The girl sounds nice.
[She's actually not that surprised to hear that his rival has a hidden spiritual talent.] Did he ever even really talk to his rival before? Sometimes people are a lot more sensitive than you think. Even the loud ones.
Wow! He could just hop right in and run around? It would be so strange to be in someone else's body. It would all be shaped wrong.
[She pays no attention at all to the form that looms above her, breathing quietly, listening.]
no subject
Instead, when he finally slows to a stop behind Steve, he just... stands there. Doesn't speak. Doesn't even stoop down to grab the camera or anything, which is what Yusuke was half-expecting him to do when he came close.
Yusuke's a little surprised by how much that unsettles him.
He's half-tempted to pretend like Blake isn't there. Let Steve go on thinking it's still just them and the weird floating thing (the same kind of weird floating thing that both Botan and Shaun have, he realizes belatedly - what's it called, a Musharna? Something like that). He almost goes ahead and does that, too. But there's something off about the old man, he can tell, and Steve looks so small compared to him, and dammit, maybe he's just being paranoid, but he really, really doesn't like how Blake's standing over her right now.
It takes a moment for him to respond to that last bit of pink text that flashes across his screen. When he does, he seems... a little distracted.]
Yeah, it was pretty weird... hey, Steve, can you give me a second?
[Yusuke gives her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. Then he addresses the legs behind her, his expression sobering.]
Hey, Blake.
You wanna sit down or something? You're kinda throwin' me off here.
[His choice of words is as blunt as ever, but for once, there's nothing incendiary about his tone of voice. In fact, he's actually making a concentrated effort not to sound too aggressive here - not for his own sake, because he can handle whatever Blake throws at him, but for Steve's, because as strange as Blake's acting right now...
... well. As much as Yusuke doesn't want to think Blake would take anything out on her, he's not gonna take any chances. If he was physically there with them and therefore in a better position to protect her if something happened, he probably wouldn't be so cautious, but as it is... yeah. He's not taking any risks. Not while Steve's part of the equation.]
no subject
Blake's face is far above the Gear screen. Sweat mats his hair to his brow, and his chest and shoulders move visibly with his breath.
The last line typed remains on the screen: It would all be shaped wrong.
His voice is heavy and cold.]
Finish the story.
no subject
His expression is steady as he waits for Blake's response. He doesn't even blink. Again, he's prepared to be on the receiving end of some choice words, but when all Blake has to say is "finish the story"...
Well, it probably goes without saying that Yusuke is caught a little off-guard.
And you can see it on his face, too, just for a second. Then his expression closes up again, and after a moment, he tells Blake:]
I will.
But first, I need you to sit down, 'cause you look weird as hell from this angle. And call Steve back over here. I'm not finishing the story without her.
[Yusuke's voice is casual, but firm. It's clear he isn't going to budge on this. Once a stubborn asshole, always a stubborn asshole.]
no subject
Something about Blake doesn't look like himself. Doesn't sound like himself, either. Usually he keeps all the ugly right on the surface, but right now, the surface is glassy and calm.
The mats thud as he sits gracelessly. His muscles aren't so good at anything but the repeated motion of strike, strike, strike anymore.
He doesn't miss the second of a strange look on the kid's face. Deliberately, he ignores it.
He grates out] Steve. Come here.
[With small, cautious movements, Steve comes closer, to just within range of the screen.
Blake fixes his eyes on Yusuke.]
Finish. The story.
no subject
The amount of relief he feels when Blake doesn't yell at Steve or otherwise show any kind of aggression towards her pales in comparison to how perturbed he is by the situation in general, but the smile he gives the little dog when she inches back into view is pretty convincing nonetheless. It's okay, he finds himself thinking as he looks at her, as if thinking those words could somehow make her hear them. It's going to be fine, I promise.
His smile fades when he meets Blake's gaze again. He's not usually one to obey commands, but Blake did do as he asked him to. Might as well hold up his end of the deal.]
All right.
[He clears his throat and takes a moment to get back into story-telling mode. Well. Here goes nothing.]
So, uh, where was I... oh yeah.
So the guy ran all over the city looking for the girl. He didn't know how the hell he was supposed to find her in just an hour - I mean, the city they lived in was huge, so she could've been anywhere. Still, he didn't exactly have a lot of time to sit around bein' pissed off about it, so he decided to start with checking her house first. That didn't work out - not only was she not there, but her folks got pissed off at the guy when he told them who he was. Not a big surprise, considering he was wearing some other dude's ugly face, but he still probably coulda lived without having a butcher knife waved under his nose.
[Oh, Mr. Yukimura. What a card.]
Anyway, after the girl's parents kicked him back out onto the sidewalk, the guy went looking for her in other parts of the city. That's how he learned the hard way that he wasn't the only person his rival picked fights with. While he was taking a short-cut through one of the neighborhood areas, some big-nosed jerk with a stupid accent suddenly approached him, talking about how he and his gang owed him a punch in the face. The guy was like, "get off me, ya bleached asshole, I'm not who you think I am", but Big Nose wasn't buyin' it, so the guy had no choice but to get him and his groupies out of his way by kickin' their asses.
Obviously, since the guy was way tougher than just about everybody, he took 'em out pretty easily. But then he got jumped by another gang, and another gang, and another gang after that... he whooped 'em all one after the other, and it was actually kind of a good stress reliever, but by the time he was done, he only had a couple minutes to find the girl. "Dammit," the guy said. "Does this dumb bastard have nothing better to do than start shit with half the gangs in the entire city? If I don't find the girl soon, I'm gonna be dust!"
But then, like something out of a damn movie, he looked across the street and saw the girl's friends standing in front of one of the stores there. "Great," he said to himself. "Maybe they know where she is." He tried to say somethin' to 'em, but his face - that is, his rival's face - looked more messed up than usual because of all the fights he'd been in, so they ended up screaming and running away before he could even get a sentence out.
"Shit," he said. "That's it. I'm done for. This was all just a friggin' waste of time."
Then the door behind him opened, and the girl walked out.
It took a minute to get her to realize who he was. But once he convinced her that it really was him -- [by doing something he knew she would immediately associate with him, which in this case was sneaking up on her and copping a feel - he's just gonna leave that part out] -- he told her, "Look, I know this is weird as hell, but I borrowed somebody's body so I could talk to you and I've only got about a minute left to do that, so listen up. I wasn't lying when I said I was coming back. I need you to tell my mom what's going on. Tell her to stop the funeral and that we're going to be okay. I know I've been a jerk to you in the past, but please wait for me."
And the girl said...
[That she'd wait forever.
Something in Yusuke's expression shifts, just a little. He wonders, for a moment, if that's still true - if Keiko would still wait for him, even now. Then he promptly forces the thought back to the back of his mind where it belongs. Now isn't the time, he thinks. Either way, there's no way in hell he's saying something that mushy in front of the old man, so after a pause, he coughs and says:]
The girl said, "Yeah, okay. Cool. You got it, man."
[#NAILED IT. Yusuke quickly moves on.]
After that, the guy was booted out of his rival's body, and the girl ran all the way to the guy's house to talk to his mom. When she got there, she found out from his mom that when she reached into his coffin to give him one last smack upside the head for leaving her -- [THANKS, MOM] -- his face had some color, and his skin was kinda warm. So he was already on his way back to being alive again. Don't ask me how the hell that happened. It was probably part of the resurrection trial, or something.
Anyway, after that, a couple weeks passed. The guy did some good stuff, like helping his rival outsmart some teachers who were tryin' to screw him and his gang over by messin' with their test scores so they'd have an excuse to kick 'em out of school, but it still felt like he wasn't getting any closer to completing his resurrection trial, and by that point, he was getting pissed off. He said to the Reaper, "Y'know what? Screw this. This stupid Spirit Beast egg's not gettin' any warmer, and I'm still stuck floating around in the sky with nothing better to do than keep an eye on my mom and my friends. I bet the only reason I'm doing this is because the Prince of the Spirit World wants to watch me squirm. He's just like every other asshole in authority. He doesn't want to help anyone, he just wants to use 'em to show off how powerful he is."
Then the Reaper said, "You'd better watch your stupid mouth, jerkface, 'cause the Prince is probably gonna send investigators out to check on your progress!"
And whaddya know, as soon as she said that, some little girl popped out of the sky and introduced herself as a Spirit World investigator. The guy said, "Dammit, doesn't anybody in Spirit World look old enough to drink something other'n juice from a sippy cup? What the hell exactly are you investigating, anyway?" The investigator then asked about the girl, and told the guy that she needed to find out more about her to figure out whether or not a girl as good as her really liked a guy as bad as him enough to want him back. And, well...
[... is Yusuke turning a little pink? He's certainly not looking straight at the camera anymore, that's for sure. SHUT UP, LEAVE HIM ALONE.]
Considering the girl shot down somebody who tried to ask her out by saying there was already someone she liked, and then went to the guy's house and cleaned him up after his mom practically buried him in dirty dishes and laundry and all other kinds of crap she was too drunk to clean up, I guess that meant she did.
[Yusuke's not going to mention the part where she almost kissed his comatose body. NOT EVEN GOING THERE. Instead, he's going to focus on forcing his gaze away from the ceiling and back to the screen. Who was blushing? He wasn't blushing. Shut up.]
Anyway. It was really hot that day - so hot there was a heat advisory in effect. Apparently, the heat was so bad there were fires poppin' up around the neighborhood. That's what everybody thought, at least. The truth was, there was an arsonist going around torching peoples' houses. And guess whose house was next on his hit list?
Yeah. The guy's. The good news was that the girl left before the arsonist showed up and the house caught fire.
The bad news was that the guy's body was still inside.
no subject
For once, Blake just listens, watching Yusuke steadily.
He'd caught part of it before. Something about a ghost, and possessions, and a guy trying to fight his way back to life. Seems overcomplicated to him. You're dead or you're not. Anything else smells like a horror movie or religion.
Next to him, soon Steve is absorbed into the story. She scoots closer to the screen, though she keeps space between herself and Blake.
For his part, Blake is noticing that this is a real in-depth story. Not the kind of thing you hear from a friend of a friend. Maybe it's a movie he's seen a hundred times.
There's something strange about how he talks about that girl.
Even in the strange mood he's in, it gets through to him that this is a story where a lady tried to smack her son's corpse.
Blake doesn't like this story. Ghosts, and other worlds, and trials of the sins of the dead. His face is stony and impassive.
Except at the words He's just like every other asshole in authority. He doesn't want to help anyone, he just wants to use 'em to show off how powerful he is. Then, just for a second, it looks like he's been punched in the gut.
He keeps his mouth shut, jaw tight, until the end. Then he bites out,]
So after all that the body burns and he's dead for good. Great story. What's the moral?
1/2
He does, however, know how to feel about Blake's snarky comment at the end there. He knows he'd resolved not to antagonize Blake too much, but... well, he can't really resist the urge to snap at him this time.]
The moral is "shut up and let me finish, old man". I didn't say I was done yet.
[Asshole, he almost adds. This had been so much better when he was just talking to Steve...]
2/2
Anyway, the guy was obviously pretty freaked out when he noticed the smoke coming up out of the windows, so out of desperation he tried punching his body in the face a couple times and tellin' himself to get the hell up before he got burnt to a crisp. It didn't work, though, so he decided to think of something else. He said to the Reaper, "Hey, Reaper, is there any way I could just possess myself and walk out of here?"
"Stupid, it doesn't work like that," said the Reaper. "You can't revive until your Spirit Beast egg hatches! Why don't you try to contact your rival? He'll sense you!"
"He could be anywhere," said the guy. "I don't have time to hunt him down!"
Then the Reaper was like, "I'll look for him anyway", and flew off, leaving the guy and the Spirit World investigator behind. "Okay, that's fine," said the guy. "Guess I'll just stay here and watch my fuckin' house burn to the ground."
A couple minutes passed, and a bunch of people around the neighborhood showed up to try to put the fire out, but by that point, the flames were already too high and too strong for them to handle. Meanwhile, the Reaper was still off tryin' to find the guy's rival. The guy was starting to think it was the end for him, but then all of the sudden, the girl showed up and ran into the house. A couple people tried to stop her, but she didn't listen - she just told 'em to get lost and went right in.
The guy yelled at her. Tried to tell her go back and forget about him, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. The bratty little investigator girl was all, "you know your body's going to burn up if nobody goes after it, right", but the guy told her he didn't give a damn. He said, "What the hell's the point of me coming back if she has to die for it?" And he knew that's what was gonna happen, because there was fire and smoke everywhere and the house was practically falling apart right on top of her. If she didn't choke or burn to death, she'd probably get crushed, and all the guy could think about was that she was about to die because of an asshole like him, and that--
[Yusuke breaks off abruptly. It takes him a second or two to go on. When he finally does, he seems oddly tense.]
That really messed him up.
... finally, the Reaper came back, and the guy asked her, "Is there anything I can do to save her?" But by then, the door was blocked off. The Reaper told him that she was sorry and that she'd done everything she could. That wasn't good enough for the guy, so he was about to chew her head off, but then...
Then the Spirit World investigator spoke up. She said, "If you wanna save the girl, then just throw the egg with your Spirit Beast inside into the fire and it'll unleash its energy and save her. But heads-up: if you sacrifice the egg to save her, it won't hatch, and you'll never have a chance at coming back to life ever again. It's your life for hers."
The guy thought about it for a second, then decided. If throwing the egg meant the girl would live, he didn't care what else happened.
So he did. He threw the egg into the fire and watched as the flames parted and the girl dragged his body out of there. It was trippy as hell to watch, too - not only did the flames move out of her way, but they turned blue, too, like they were full of some kind of energy.
[Spirit Energy, he thinks suddenly, feeling a little surprised despite himself. Funny. He hadn't actually made the connection between the two until now. Then again, he hadn't really ever reflected on any of this since it all first happened, either. Too busy saving humanity.]
The guy wasn't thinking too hard about that, though. He was too busy bein' relieved that she was okay. His rival was standing outside the house when she got out. He about lost his shit when he saw her carrying the guy's body around in a sheet - seriously, the look on his face was fuckin' hilarious - but he still grabbed her and took her someplace where she could lay low until all the firefighters and the cops left, tellin' her she could explain later.
The guy was gonna follow them, but then the Reaper stopped him and told him he had to go back to Spirit World. He couldn't just hang around the living world as a ghost; he had to go back now 'cause he was dead for good.
[Yusuke ducks his head and chuckles a little.]
And y'know, despite the fact that he didn't regret tossing the egg and saving the girl, it still kinda sucked to hear he wasn't coming back. Especially when he saw his mom and his rival and the girl all standing around later that night talking about how happy and shit they were about him coming back. That pissed him off. I mean, it was bad enough he was gonna stay dead after he'd already decided he'd be okay being alive again, but the fact that he had to watch his mom and his friends act like everything was gonna be okay when it wasn't was, uh...
... well, anyway, he was sick of bein' there, so he told the Reaper to just take him away already. Then all of the sudden, he heard this squealy voice talking to him from somewhere up above, and looked up to see the Prince of the Spirit World's stupid face staring down at him.
Turns out, while the guy was busy floating around being pissed off about everything, the investigator had already sent her reports back. And since it looked like there really were people who wanted the guy back and the guy hadn't hesitated before sacrificing himself to save the girl, the Prince told him he was gonna give him another shot at getting his life back. He also said it was a good thing he'd chucked the egg, actually, 'cause if he'd let it hatch, it woulda bitten his head off for being so negative all the time. Tch...
[Yusuke's voice drops to a sullen mutter.]
Maybe if he didn't want negativity, he shoulda thought about not making the trial total bullshit.
[... Yusuke, you might want to stop grumbling to yourself like that. It looks a little suspicious.]
no subject
He doesn't. He keeps quiet, watching, and waiting for him to continue.
Continue he does, and it's a hell of a thing. As he goes on, what seemed like gibberish starts to cohere into something with its own sort of twisted dream logic. Redemption beyond the grave. Crazy shit.
Steve soon has her head resting on her paws and is nodding along. Maybe she makes something of all this.
Quiet as he is, when he hears about the girl running into a burning building, he's not aware that he murmurs aloud] Fuck, that's some balls.
[He starts leaning in closer, his eyes focusing. This he can understand. Some dumb kid playing hero and about to pay the price.
He's just about to snarl at him for telling his dog fucked-up stories about girls burning to death when he's shut up. He doesn't really understand what a magic egg has to do with it, but he gets that it's a sacrifice.]
His sacrifice pays off and it turns out all right.
So this is a fairy tale.
There a moral to this story?
1/2
... you know, it's a good thing Yusuke already knows his experiences with death and the supernatural are weird as hell, because otherwise it would feel really, really strange to hear someone refer to them that way. Hell, it still is, a little bit. That said, it's... also kind of funny in a way, if only because Yusuke's now imagining the sort of look Blake would give him if he told him this wasn't just a story he'd made up.
The thought makes a wry grin spread across Yusuke's face. Now that'd be entertaining.]
Maybe. You're gonna have to let me finish it first.
[That's right - he still isn't done. Hey, he never said this was a short story, did he?]
See, the Prince of the Spirit World couldn't bring the guy back to life just like that. That'd be too easy. So, after the guy's mom had a few days to move into a new place, the Prince came to see the guy again and told him he'd be able to come back to life the next day. Obviously, the guy was all pumped up. He was like, "All right, so after today I'll have real fists and everything, awesome", 'cause seriously, you don't know how much you take being able to kick peoples' asses for granted until you've gone three weeks without it. But y'know, of course, the Prince had to rain on his friggin' parade just as he was really getting excited. He said...
[... oh, right, Koenma had a stupid voice too, didn't he. Crap. Yusuke doesn't know why, but somehow, the idea of doing his "Koenma voice" in front of Blake is more embarrassing than doing the "Botan voice" was.
After a second or two of stalling, though, Yusuke steels his resolve and decides to go through with it anyway. Steve might be disappointed if he doesn't. Besides, there's no way he's gonna let Blake cow him out of doing anything.]
He said, "Not so fast, stupid! There's just one problem."
[... okay, that wasn't as humiliating as he thought it'd be. Yusuke still looks a little sheepish afterwards, though. Dammit, if he'd known Blake was going to show up halfway through this thing...!
Sigh. Well, whatever. No use getting pissed off about it now, right? He's got a story to wrap up, after all.]
The Prince told him that the wavelengths between the energy of the guy's body and the energy of the guy's soul were lower than most peoples' were, which I guess was a problem 'cause if the two weren't aligned perfectly, the guy wouldn't be able to come back to life. Or, uh...
... something like that, I dunno.
[Yusuke shrugs. Koenma had never fully explained how the hell that was supposed to work; conversely, Yusuke had never bothered to ask. There are just some things he doesn't wanna waste time trying to understand. Algebra is one of them. Spirit World is another.]
The point is, the guy would have to do something about that if he wanted to come back to life the next day like the Prince said he would. So the guy was like, "Okay, tell me what I have to do, then."
The Prince said, "You've gotta get someone who gives a shit about you to let you borrow their life energy! And they've gotta transfer it through the lips!" So, like, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
[Or, you know, a "kiss of life", like in those old, girly western stories Keiko likes. Geez, no wonder this sounds like a fairy tale. It isn't usually guys who get revived that way, though...
It occurs to Yusuke a bit belatedly that Blake might be thinking the same thing - or worse, that he might be thinking that this is the sort of stuff Yusuke is into, dumb stories about people getting kissed back to life. That makes Yusuke's hackles raise. With a scowl, he snarls:]
Look, don't give me any crap, all right? I'm just tellin' you what happened. I didn't write this stuff.
[... WELL, HE ISN'T LYING...
At any rate, once Yusuke has duly attempted to save face, he (irritably) goes on.]
Anyway, the guy was pissed off. He was like, "What the hell, do I look like Sleeping Beauty? Screw you, preemie, I'm not doing shit!" And the Prince was like, "If you don't do it, it'll be fifty years before you get another chance to come back to life! You wanna be a ghost for that long, asshole, go right ahead!"
The guy didn't really want anybody putting their face on his, but he also didn't wanna stay dead for that long, either, especially not after everything that had happened. So he sucked it up and said he'd go through with it. The Prince told him he had to visit the dreams of the three people who wanted him back the most, but since those people were his mom, his rival, and the girl, he decided to just stick to visiting the girl's dream. His mom was too busy partying, and as for his rival...
[Yusuke folds his arms. His expression is firm.]
There was no way in hell he was gonna ask him to do mouth-to-mouth on him. He woulda rather stayed dead.
[... SAYS YUSUKE, AS IF HE TOTALLY DIDN'T VISIT KUWABARA'S DREAM AND SIMULATE A KISS WITH HIM. Look, if you think he's gonna admit to having done that, in any capacity, you're out of your mind. He doesn't care if this means the story isn't 100% accurate. Preserving his pride is his number one priority.]
So he visited the girl's dream, showed her what she was supposed to do, then went back home and waited to see if she'd come by. And she did. Thing is, though, she didn't actually, y'know...
[Yusuke waves a hand.]
... do the thing she was supposed to do.
[... well, that was vague. Look, he doesn't want to say she had to kiss him, all right? And he's not gonna, either. So there.
Seeming a little embarrassed, Yusuke quickly goes on.]
See, before the Prince fucked off the night before, he opened up the path between the guy's body and the Spirit World so that whoever showed up to give him some of their life energy could go ahead and do that. He told the guy that by the time morning came around, his body would be glowing. What he didn't tell him was that the glow'd start from his feet and gradually go up from there. So, thanks to the Prince being a dumbass, the guy assumed that he'd be glowing all over right away and told the girl to expect to see him like that when she came by, and since, y'know, that wasn't what she ended up seeing...
... I dunno, I guess she assumed that maybe it was just a weird dream and left without doing anything. So the guy was like, "Shit, all right. Guess I'll just wait for her to get out of school and hope she comes back later."
That was what he was gonna do, but while the girl was at school, the principal showed up in the middle of class and told her that her mom had passed out from the heat during work. So the girl went to the hospital to see her and told her dad that she wasn't gonna go anywhere 'til her mom was feeling better. Of course, that was right around the time when the Prince showed up to tell the guy that his body was finally all lit up and ready to receive the life energy.
The guy knew the girl wasn't gonna leave her mom, especially not over some stupid dream, so he got real desperate. He tried to contact his mom, but since she wasn't spiritually aware or anything, and was so wasted she wouldn't have paid attention even if she could sense spirits, it didn't work. Then he tried to bark up his rival's ass about it, 'cause, y'know... like I said, he was desperate...
[#NO HOMO]
... but his rival assumed he was some other kinda ghost, and ran away screaming, like this -
[Yusuke sucks in a breath, waves his arms around, and goes:]
"AAAHHH."
[... was that Yusuke's attempt at imitating Kuwabara's voice? You bet your ass it was. He sounds like a freaked out chain smoker.
Naturally, Yusuke looks very pleased with himself after that particular performance.]
What a wimp, right? The guy was like, "Dammit, how the hell can one person be this useless? I'll bet if we wanted to figure out his IQ, we'd have to go digging for it."
But anyway, by the time the guy got done trying to talk to his rival, it was already around 11:45 at night, and he only had until around midnight to receive the life energy. He'd run out of ideas on what to do, but the Reaper hadn't. She said, "Wait here", and went to the hospital, where she took over the girl's mom's sleeping body and told her to come save the guy.
[... or at least, that's what Botan said she'd done, anyway. Yusuke hadn't actually been there to see it. He's kind of glad for it, too. That would've been weird.]
It took a while for the girl to show up, but eventually, the guy saw her running towards his apartment building. The Reaper came back, too, and all three of 'em - the guy, the Reaper, and the Prince - hung back and watched her head inside.
It was two minutes before midnight when she finally made it to his place. The elevator there was a piece of junk, so she'd had to run up a whole bunch of stairs to get there. She carried too much crap in her bag, so she had to dig around for her keys.
There was one minute left when she finally found 'em. As she ripped the door open and ran over to the guy's body, the guy's ghost followed her, and then...
[Yusuke pauses for dramatic effect.]
... the clock hit midnight. Next thing the guy knew, he was opening his eyes and lookin' up at his ceiling.
Everything felt weird. Like... heavy. Kinda like he was underwater, or like he had weights attached to him, or somethin'. But he wasn't. And he didn't. He was fine.
He was alive.
[Another pause. Then Yusuke lets out a long breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding, and says, in a light, nonchalant voice:]
... so, uh, yeah! That's it. The guy was alive, and from that point on, things didn't suck as much. The end.
[It feels a little abrupt, ending it there. Yusuke doesn't know if it's because it actually is an abrupt ending, or if it's because he knows the story doesn't actually end there. Either way, there's no way he's going to take the time to tell them everything that happened after that. Yusuke does kind of want to get to sleep eventually, after all.]
2/2
Oh yeah. You wanted a moral, right, old man?
[Or at least, he kept asking about one, anyway. If he didn't actually want one, then... well, too bad, 'cause he's getting one anyway. Be careful what you wish for, Blake.]
I guess the moral is...
[Yusuke thinks it over. Then, finally, he shrugs and says:]
I dunno, "don't let what other people think of you fuck you up"? "Just because you're an asshole or you've screwed up a lot doesn't mean you can't start over"? Take away whatever kinda moral you want from this, old man. It's up to you.
Personally, I think "stay the hell out of traffic"'d be a pretty good one.
[Heh. Yusuke grins and turns his attention back to Steve.]
So hey, Steve. What'd you think of the story? Did you like it?
no subject
You could almost respect that.
It was a long story, but he never faltered or had any trouble remembering. Kind of impressive there, too. Must be an old favorite.
Too much complicated metaphysical shit for Blake. There's a lot he doesn't follow. But somehow, he found himself anxious as time was running out for the dead guy.
Of course there was a midnight happy ending.
What he finally says is,] Sleeping Beauty and the Exorcist don't mix.
[Steve, however, has heard every word. She was nibbling her claws with nerves as it came down to the line, and sighs in audible relief when it turns out all right. After all the work the guy did trying to earn a way back to life, it couldn't all be for nothing. It would just be wrong.
From then on, things didn't suck so much is a wonderful ending, she thinks. She pads over nearer the phone and nods enthusiastically into the screen.
Blake stands above her. His voice is heavy.]
Lousy moral.
People don't come back from the dead, kid. They don't start over and they don't get forgiven.
[He leans down, aiming to shut the phone off.
That's when Steve snaps at him.
He stumbles back in shock as her teeth click together where his hand was a second ago.
She snarls, fangs bared, ears laid back, and the translation that appears in wide block letters on the phone screen isn't technically necessary.]
Shut up!
[She barks out three times, rapidly, her fangs clashing together. For once she sounds like a scared, angry animal.]
It was a good story! You don't listen! You shut up!
no subject
... but none of that ends up being necessary, because just as Blake's hand starts getting close to the screen, Steve damn near bites the old man's fingers off. And well...
Needless to say, Blake isn't the only one who's shocked.
Yusuke isn't often at a loss for words - shit, even in times when he's stared death right in its ugly face, he's managed to find something to say about it, even if he was only talking just to calm his own nerves. (After all, it's easier not to be afraid of something when you're taking the piss out of it.) That said, something about the scene unfolding before him on the little screen manages to render him wide-eyed and speechless, at least momentarily. Maybe it's because he's never seen Steve so upset before, or maybe it's because this is all happening so far away from him and he isn't quite sure what to do about it...
... but either way, what ends up prompting him to at least do something to mitigate the situation is how hurt and angry Steve looks - and sounds, even without the translation provided by the floating pink thing. Yusuke doesn't know how much help he can be to Steve when he isn't physically there with her, but he can't just sit back and leave her to cope with this on her own. He's got to at least try to help her. After all, he'd already decided he was going to have her back. And he doesn't go back on stuff like that.]
Hey. Hey, hey...
[Yusuke's voice is low, soothing - undoubtedly a lot different than what Blake is used to hearing out of him.]
C'mon, Steve. Look at me. It's gonna be all right.
[He doesn't say anything to Blake. Doesn't even spare him a second glance. He'll get back to him in a minute; for now, he's more concerned about Steve.]
no subject
Steve, what the hell-
[She cuts him off with a sharp bark.]
No! You listen!
[She'd been so scared and alone and then Yusuke told her a story about a brave boy, he talked to her and made her laugh and it was better, it was okay, and then he had to come and try to ruin it and lock himself up again and she isn't going to let him.
It's a surreal scene, a little Pokemon with a Musharna bobbing gently in midair behind her, snapping staccato barks at a man sheened with sweat and exhaustion who keeps whipping his head around to look down at the Gear on the floor where human words appear over a young man's face.]
We're partners and you won't even talk to me! You won't let anybody help you and you think it makes you strong but it doesn't! It makes you scared!
[She barely hears Yusuke, but knowing he's there gives her courage.]
You don't believe in anything! You'd rather scare other people because you're a coward! You'd rather run away from everybody than face when you're wrong!
[Her little paws are fists at her sides. Her barks bounce off the empty exercise equipment in the quiet room.]
Quit being such a pussy!
[Beneath the redness of exertion, Blake's face has gone white. His eyes narrow, and his voice is low.]
Shut up, dog.
no subject
That said, he isn't prepared for how weird reading what she has to say makes him feel. "You won't let anybody help you and you think it makes you strong but it doesn't! It makes you scared!"...
... isn't that what he does, when shit sucks and the thought of talking to his friends about what's going on with him is somehow more unbearable than the thought of putting himself in a position where he might seem vulnerable to them? Just pulls away and doesn't talk to them and refuses to let them help him? He'd always thought of it as not burdening them with his problems and trying to seem strong for them, but...
...
He doesn't know. He doesn't have time to think about it, either, because all of the sudden, Blake's glaring down at Steve and telling her to shut up, and that pisses him off. Big time. Curling his lip, Yusuke leans forward and snarls back at him.]
HEY. Don't tell her to shut up, old man! She's only getting pissed off at you 'cause she's worried about you!
[And so is he, just a little bit. He isn't gonna say that out loud.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)