lieutenantantichrist | [17] [Text/Action for Mahogany] - "Whenever You Get Involved, Someone Gets Hurt."

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[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yusuke's smile calms Steve's jump-started heart a little. He's not scared.

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?

[Yusuke doesn't miss the way Blake's expression shifts when he gets to that part about authority figures. He isn't sure how to feel about it, either.

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...]

[At any rate, now that he's duly told Blake off, Yusuke proceeds with the story, still looking and sounding a bit testy.]

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.]

[Naturally the thing for Blake to do is snap at him to quit being a punk pain in the ass and tell the damn story.

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?

["A fairy tale"...

... 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.]

[Anyway. Yusuke's about to ask Steve how she felt about the story, but then, just as he's opening his mouth to do so, he suddenly remembers something. He looks at Blake and says:]

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?

[The kid actually did it. Here and now, he looked right up into Blake's stone-carven expression and did a stupid voice.

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!

[Yusuke hadn't expected Blake to like the "story". Hell, he's a little surprised the old man even stuck around as long as he did. So when he sees Blake reaching down to switch the 'Gear off, he doesn't say anything - just watches the screen, placidly, waiting for it to go black. He's already brainstorming ways he could try to get in contact with Steve later to check up on her - call Blake's 'Gear again, maybe, or hell, maybe even try to figure out where the hell they are somehow and try to send a message to her via magic monster bird mail or something...

... 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.]

Edited 2014-08-30 20:37 (UTC)

[It might be funny to see a grown man stumble back from a little pink animal, if it weren't for the shock on his face and the way she is snapping and snarling like a junkyard dog.]

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.

[Yusuke is silent as he watches Steve lay into Blake. He doesn't make another attempt to get her attention or to soothe her; it's clear to him that she's had it, and sometimes, when things around you are so bad that all you wanna do is get angry, the best thing to do is to just get angry. He sure as hell isn't in any position to discourage her from that.

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.]

[Blake shoots a glare at the phone on the ground and snorts contemptuously. He's stinging over being called a pussy, at how somebody who's supposed to be loyal and have his back has turned on him.] She's not worried-

[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.

[Well. That settles that, then. Yusuke watches Blake sit back down, his body still thrumming with the sudden rush of adrenaline that'd accompanied the surge of anger he'd felt on Steve's behalf. He can tell the old man is exhausted - hell, he is too - but that doesn't stop him from continuing to glare at him with everything he's got, even as he speaks up again a moment later.

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.]

[Blake doesn't look up. He lets his head hang and watches a drop of sweat patter on the mat.

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

[Know what? He wonders, his eyes widening a little. He doesn't know what it is - intuition, or maybe he's just all getting jumpy and weird 'cause he hasn't slept properly in what feels like ages - but something about the words that appear on his screen make him feel profoundly uneasy. What the hell is Blake dealing with that's that bad...?

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.

[The brat has a point. Maybe that's why Blake can't muster up any good protective layer of anger.]

...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?

[Why is he asking him that? Yusuke eyes Blake warily for a long moment, then shrugs and glances away.]

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.]

There's screw-ups you don't come back from.

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?

[Yusuke looks at Blake again. His brow is furrowed. That sense of unease is starting to creep its way back in.]

You're not making any sense.

Then I'll make it simple.

[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?

["I did a bad thing, kid, and I'm out of excuses."

It's a good thing that Yusuke can maintain a good poker face when it really counts. Otherwise, if Blake had been looking at him when he said that, he probably would've been able to see the exact moment when his chest tightened, sudden and sharp.

Yusuke doesn't know what "bad thing" it was that Blake did. He isn't going to ask. But he isn't stupid. He can tell just by the way Blake looks right now that whatever it was, it was something big, and the implications of that are enough to make that uneasy feeling he's had this entire time solidify in his gut.

That said, he doesn't say anything - not until Blake himself speaks up again, and... well. Needless to say, if the circumstances were different, he might've laughed at the irony of Blake asking him that question. As it is, he just kind of... looks at him for a second before he responds, his expression inscrutable.]

You mean do I believe there's some special place where bad people go after they die?

[Yusuke isn't going to lie. He looks Blake right in the face and tells him:]

Yeah. I do.

[Blake's murmuring half to himself] Wasn't me...but it could've been. Pure fucking luck.

[His fingers knit together and clench hard.

Steve sits quietly to the side. Her breathing has steadied, though she sniffs a little. Now and then her ears twitch as she listens.

Yeah. The pit of Blake's stomach goes cold.]

What do you figure it's like?

[Yusuke doesn't catch all of what Blake's muttering, but what little he does hear confuses him. "Wasn't me"? "Pure luck"? What the hell is he talking about? ...

...

Well, whatever. If Blake wants to tell him what's on his mind, Yusuke figures he will. 'Til then, he just lets it go, shrugging at the old man's question.]

I dunno. Full of fire, I guess. I've never been there.

[Never made it that far, he thinks.]

That's what they say. Fire, sulfur. All that shit.

But maybe it's not.

Maybe it's someplace real quiet. Nobody's life on the line. No reasons to do whatever it takes.

Nothing to do but be you.

[He's reciting as if a foreign voice is coming out of his mouth, one he has nothing to do with.]

Where all the monsters go.

[Yusuke doesn't say anything for a while. Then, finally, he asks:]

You think that's where you're going, old man?

Hell?

No.

[His eyes are fixed down on the mat. Away from how Steve is watching him.]

Not going.

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