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.
[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?
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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!
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... 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.]
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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.
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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.]
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[A quiet noise pulls his eyes away.
Steve, all the energy of her anger spent, has folded onto the floor. She sniffs hard.
Blake's brow furrows.] Are you?
[Eyes fixed on the mat, she nods rapidly.
Blake stands there for a minute, looking at the little dog. Then he sits down heavily on the mats, too. His shoulders sag, aching. God, he's tired.]
Aw, shit.
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His voice is quiet and steady, but severe. If Blake thinks he's gonna get away with talking to Steve like that again, he's got another thing coming.]
Steve got on the network a little while ago asking people to tell her stories. I'm guessin' she just needed the distraction, 'cause when I asked her what was up, she told me you've been acting weird lately.
She's been pretty bent out of shape about it.
Right, Steve?
[He looks to her for confirmation, his expression relaxing a bit. He doesn't want to speak for her only to be completely off-base.]
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His little dog, worried and lonely...fuck, he doesn't need any more goddamn guilt. Easier to be annoyed at her for getting other people involved.
His voice comes out rough-edged.]
I needed to think about shit, all right? Is it that fuckin' strange to want people to leave me alone for five minutes?
[In the pause, there's just the sound of an old electric fan sweeping back and forth.
The rigidity saps from Blake's shoulders.]
I didn't want anybody else to get dragged into this.
[As he speaks, the Musharna breathes mist. He doesn't look up to see the words that appear on the screen.] I didn't want anyone else to know
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It takes a second or two for Yusuke to regain his composure enough to respond. When he finally does, his words are blunt.]
Listen, old man. I'm not gonna try to make you tell me what's up.
[I'm not sure I wanna know, says the part of him that's still shaken by the message relayed by the Musharna. He squashes that thought back down. Like hell he's going to let himself be spooked by some words on a screen.]
But whatever it is, suck it up and sort it out, all right? 'Cause the more time you spend not dealing with it, the more worried Steve's gonna get. Besides, it doesn't look like you're doin' yourself any favors by pussyfootin' around, either. You look like crap.
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...Kid.
[It comes out dull. His eyes can't quite manage to make it all the way over to the screen.]
What's the worst thing you've ever done?
Busted a car window? Stole a pack of smokes?
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Psht, I dunno, old man. I'm so good at screwin' up I've kinda lost track.
[It's an evasive answer, but what else is he supposed to say? He's not about to tell Blake that he made three of the people he cares about most watch him get violently murdered by some psycho in the hopes that they'd be pissed off enough that they'd find the strength to put said psycho ten inches underground where he belonged. The old man probably wouldn't believe him anyway.]
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All the sad dogs in the world don't change the facts.
[His hands flex, knuckles red and sore.]
For normal shit, you go to prison. This is a few thousand miles from normal.
Where do you go for that?
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You're not making any sense.
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[He said he wasn't going to ask for details, and that's good. He doesn't want to tell him. Maybe Steve is right, and he is a pussy. He wants to get through the damn day without another kid despising him.]
I did a bad thing, kid, and I'm out of excuses.
[He's quiet for a while. His shirt is turning chill and clinging to his back.]
You believe in damnation?
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