video; iPhone

[earnedmystripes]

[It's been a couple of weeks since his little freakout over the network. To those who might have seen him in the immediate aftermath, he looks a lot better by now. Still a little tired and stressed, maybe, but who isn't these days, with everything going on?

He's settled at a desk today, with some handwritten notes and post-its scattered around, though they're not legible from this angle.]

So, uh, can I ask you guys a kinda weird favor?

I've been thinking a lot about what to do in case I up and forget everything again and I'm still in town. I don't think I can convince myself of any of this crazy stuff without actually remembering, or that I can't trust my coworkers, [well, except Nick. But he's not about to out him as a cop if the other doesn't actually say it himself.] so I've been leaving myself notes around the house to either call in sick or insist on desk duty if I can't remember a password of some sort.

Think it'd work better if it wasn't one I came up with, just in case.

[He's thought about the numbers, but he doesn't know if it's risky to just...leave a connection open somewhere. Some word or phrase that would be meaningless out of the context of the numbers club would work better, he thinks. And most of the people on the network don't know him well, so it wouldn't likely be something he could connect to his own life and ignore if it came up.]

Comments

\o/

[earnedmystripes]

What're the chances of any of this?

[Dude, they're cops in a conspiracy about an actual legit no-joke alien invasion slowly rediscovering what are apparently past lives. Kotetsu thinks they've transcended any manner of talk about odds of weird shit happening.

As for that question...Kotetsu chuckles, weakly.]

It was the day after I got my number. You, um... [A beat to swallow the sick feeling in his throat whenever he thinks of it.]

You saw the video, right? I couldn't... I wanted to resign right there and then.

[But he couldn't bring himself to do that, either, and now he knows it was a good decision just speaking in terms of practicality. If he'd quit and then lost his memories of the network...? He doesn't really want to think about it.]

[detectivetroll]

Yeah, yeah. Good point.

[And then Kotetsu has to bring up that video. For a while, Nick doesn't reply. He doesn't want to talk about that - he doesn't even really want to think about it.

He's been doing his best not to, since he saw it. But he doesn't want to leave at that, so eventually he replies.]

We don't know how much of that video is real, and we don't know who's really behind it. I'm not saying a few guys aren't dirty, there's always some, but it can't go that deep. It can't. We'd know.

[Yeah, Nick's hardcore in denial, here.]

[earnedmystripes]

[He wonders for a moment if it says something about them that Kotetsu never really doubted that video was real, even with all his years on the Force. He's never figured himself a cynic, but optimism is hard to dredge up these days, particularly with regards to their situation.

Kotetsu almost wants to let the matter drop there, make some vague expression of assent and find an excuse to leave the conversation, feels terribly guilty for what's no less than trampling on his coworker's faith, but...at the same time, Nick needs to know some of these things.]

...Nick.

[His voice is quiet, deadly solemn and grave. It's a tone that is is rarely heard with him.]

Remember when there were those rumors floating around about people getting chased out of the Dead District by werewolves?

[A beat. A swallow.]

Well...we went looking for them. It wasn't exactly the smartest plan in the world, but we did.

And we found them. They were wearing bulletproof vests, Nick. Just like ours. They could talk.

[YEAH that is some really fucking long silence, after that.]

Right after that night, there was a report on the news about police officers killed in the Dead District, the exact same number as had attacked us.

[detectivetroll]

[It might have been a matter of optimism once, but at this point, it's turned into blind loyalty. Nick's always been a black and white kind of guy, and the law enforcement is very firmly in the white. It'll take a lot to even shake that, and something pretty terrible to reverse it completely.

Or an echo.

Nick doesn't say anything while Kotetsu talks, even through the long silences, and when he's finished, Nick still keeps quiet for a while. He just... he can't believe that the entire force, or even the majority of it, could be that far involved in something like this.]

It's easy to get bulletproof vests, even ones that are practically police issue.

[earnedmystripes]

[Kotetsu thinks there’s no way it could really be a coincidence, how the exact morning after they went looking for those things there was a story on the news about dead police officers in the exact place they’d all been.]

...Maybe. But there’s more to it than that. You know how we’ve all been getting weird memories and abilities and crap? There’s a guy whose...sense of smell got suped-up, or something like that. He said some of the officers at the station smelled off, more like animals than people. I think he followed a scent like that to the DD, where those things attacked us.

There was this statue there, too, and if you got close you could sorta feel it pushing you to leave. Regular people can't feel that, either, just us. Another one just like it was in the station. Some others said it was pushing them to trust the chief. I don’t know if it’s still there. I’ve been avoiding it since I heard they could do that kinda thing.